A liquid nitrogen cyclic freeze-thaw permeability-improvement gas drainage method based on horizontal directional boreholes comprises: first constructing a main borehole at an intake roadway or a return roadway, a low-level roadway and a high-level roadway, after a drill bit reaches a pre-set target position of a coal bed, uniformly and directionally constructing a plurality of branch boreholes along a horizontal direction of the coal bed, injecting water to the coal bed, opening a valve, filling the main boreholes with liquid nitrogen, rapidly freezing the water injected into the branch boreholes and the periphery of the coal bed, and stopping injecting the nitrogen when an average temperature of a pre-permeability-improvement area monitored by a temperature measuring hole is lowered to −2° C. or lower.