When Life Gives You Tangerines ranked No. 1 on Netflix’s global Top 10 for non-English series from its release on March 7 until its fourth volume on March 28. (It has 16 episodes marked as volumes 1 to 4 with four episodes shown each weekend). It also landed in the Top 10 rankings in 42 countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
It has also overtaken all the best Korean dramas in Netflix, and to date has the highest score—9.4d—in review platform iMDb.
Set in the southern island of Jeju with its clear blue waters and azure skies, the period drama tells the story of Oh Ae Sun (IU) and Yang Gwan Sik (Park Bo Gum) across four seasons of their lives, from their youth in the 1950s on Jeju Island. Moon So Ri and Park Hae Joon portray the older Ae Sun and Gwan Sik.
There is tragedy aplenty in this sweeping tale but its take on love, loss, humor, and hardship is told amid a stunning backdrop of the sea and the village with its assortment of characters.
Then there are the events that impact Ae Sun and Gwan Sik’s lives and the larger themes of the times. Their hard scrabble life is depicted alongside the political and gendered realities of the era. There are slides of newspaper headlines and radio broadcasts about spies and some sectors denouncing the mini skirt. Then, the camera pans to the moonlit sea as soulful music plays, reminding viewers that people still find beauty in the most desolate of places.
Park Bogum is such a great actor !
WDYM he shot that heartwenching scene in the graveyard next to a water drum 🥲
no trees, no grave, no aesun, nothing 🙃 pic.twitter.com/OF28eKXGKd
— Strawberry Moon (@3viesls) April 2, 2025
The first of the four seasons (episodes 1-4) flows fast with politics, history, culture, and the struggles of the main characters. Ae Sun and Gwan Sik’s love story is woven seamlessly into these narratives. IU and Park Bo Gum play the young lovers so naturally, their chemistry so palpable that you forget they are acting out their roles.
As beautiful as Jeju Island is, it is also the setting of some of the bleakest stories. The sea is a good provider—the older Gwan Sik played now by Park Hae Joon, his gnarled fingers straining to pull in the catch at sundown, with the haenyeo (famous deep-sea divers of Jeju) who, to earn a living still go out in the harsh weather to comb the bottom of the sea for abalone—but the sea also takes the ones who are not so lucky to survive its rough waters. At a young age, Ae Sun loses her father at sea; her mother Gwang Rye (played by the brilliant Yeom Hye Ran) a haenyo, succumbs to lung disease before she turns 30, Ae Sun is left to care for her younger siblings.
Her family, like that of Gwan Sik, is dirt poor. Gwan Sik’s father, a fisherman, also died at sea, leaving him with his mother, and a grandmother who was very harsh to her daughter-in-law, and vociferous in her objection to the orphan Ae Sun.
The drama’s English title, When Life Gives You Tangerines, references the expression “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” In the Jeju dialect the title translates to “You have worked hard.”
Originally Netflix marketed the drama using that title. But the change gives it more meaning. It is also a nod to the most famous product of Jeju island—tangerines.
Writer Lim Sang Choon (When the Camellia Blooms and Fight for My Way) use the four seasons as metaphor for Ae Sun’s and Gwan Sik’s love and as staging ground for the saga of their extended family.
The four seasons, also when the characters go through the ebb and flow of life and their changing fortunes, allow its director, Kim Won Seok (Misaeng, My Mister), to mine the stunning vistas of Jeju. He weaves this saga into a heartrending but gratifying story of love (Gwan Sik’s) unwavering even in the harshest of times. This, even in the winter of their young lives when the sea takes their loved ones, on to their middle age when one tragedy after another comes.
But, throughout the four volumes (with four episodes per weekend), the blossoming of hope, upon the coming of spring, tempers the sadness of the tragedies. Netflix wisely streamed four episodes every weekend, neatly packaged as volumes 1-4. This way viewers were not left hanging waiting for the next episodes to drop with the usual streaming of two parts a week. Would that it would adopt this schedule for its forthcoming dramas.
Early on, you need to draw a diagram of who is who to avoid confusion in following the narrative
Early on, however, you need to draw a diagram of who is who to avoid some confusion in following the narrative. When Life Gives You Tangerines is told in a non-linear manner. This effectively tugs at the heartstrings, but the constant time skips could also be a bit unnerving. The decision to cast a young actor to play the teenaged Gwan Sik is also quite unnecessary. Park Bo Gum could have played the part as well. IU effectively plays the role of Geum Myeong after all.
The love story of Ae Sun and Gwan Sik, told through the passing of the seasons, also gives viewers lessons as they see them through the most difficult of times. Reason why the drama drew in audiences who stayed till the end.
>>>Lessons Tangerines imparts
*** The hope that for every Ae Sun there is a Gwan Sik who will see us through every season of our lives, the one who will stay no matter what. That we must recognize this and value that person.
*** It is a cruel world but we musn’t let hardships defeat us. That we must have a dream, and hold on to it. Ae Sun, from a young age dreams of being a poet. She fulfills that dream in the winter of her life.
*** No matter the stumbling blocks, the lack of money or a home, being fooled and mugged, we must fight back, not let the world push us down.
*** Always listen to your heart. Gwan Sik’a grandmother tries all to manipulate Ae Sun into leaving him. For a beat, she almost wavers, almost letting go of Gwan Sik’s hand, but she stays the course. In the same manner, he stays even to the point of leaving his own family to live with Ae Sun and their children.
Such steadfast love and support all of us need in our lives. Gwan Sik never looks at anyone else. It is only Ae Sun, from their teen years when he sold fish in the market alongside her, her nose buried in a book, seemingly unmindful of the cabbages she has to sell. Gwan Sik does this for her.
Then for sheer drama and a testament to his tenacity, most memorable is that scene with Gwan Sik jumping off the ship that is to take him to Seoul for a competition (he has dreams of being an athlete) and swimming through the rushing tide back to Ae Sun on the shore; Ae Sun grabbing him, their tearful embrace with the dark waves of the sea in the background.
When Life Gives You Tangerines is a romance, but it is also a story about women
When Life Gives You Tangerines is a romance, but it is also a story about women — generations of them and the roles they have been consigned to play in the family, the discrimination they face because of their gender. The strong bonds that tie them are also so affectingly portrayed in the relationship among the haenyeos.
Ae Sun, spirited and precocious has a dream—to be a poet one day. Her mother is adamant about Ae Sun not ending up a haenyeo like her. She breaks her back to make sure her daughter does not get treated unfairly. She tells Ae Sun not to settle for anything less than she deserves.
In the second volume, Gwan Sik and Ae Sun are parents to a baby girl who grows up to be Geum Myeong. Life is extremely hard, Gwan Sik works in a fishing boat whose captain is abusive. Ae Sun’s paternal grandmother gives her the money, so Gwan Sik can buy a boat. It is the summer of their lives, but grinding poverty is still their lot.
As they inaugurate the boat, Ae Sun gives birth to their second child, the boy Eun Myeong. A third child, another boy Dong Myeong, follows in a year. He later dies in a storm. By 1974, Gwan Sik has made enough money to buy back Ae Sun’s mother’s house for them. Four years later, Ae Sun becomes the first female deputy chief of their town.
The third volume follows Geum Myeong to Seoul where she has been admitted to Seoul National University. There she meets Park Yeong Beom (Lee Jun Young), her first love. They date for seven years, get engaged, but Ae Sun calls off the wedding when his rich mother looks down on her parents.
Another aspect of love is depicted in the story of Geum Meong and Park Yeong Bum, the young man she met at SNU. After dating for seven years, they plan a life together. But in the meeting between her parents and his mother, everything breaks down. The mother looks with derision at Gwan Sik and Ae Sun. Geum Myeong calls off the wedding, eventually goes back home heartbroken. Geum Myeong, like a child back in her parents’ embrace, slowly recovers.
This resonates deeply with Filipino audiences because this is the way our own parents sacrifice all for us
Here we also see Gwan Sik’s total devotion to his daughter. The sacrifices parents make for their children is poignantly shown as well. Her parents accompany Geum Myeong the day she takes the exams at SNU, waiting in the cold outside. She gets a scholarship, followed in a few years by a chance to study further in Japan. Again, they exhaust all their means to let her go. This resonates deeply with Filipino audiences because this is the way our own parents sacrifice all for us.
Their son, Eun Myeong, with many false starts, gets scammed and ends up in jail. Gwan Sik sells his boat to bail him out. Eun Myeong rails against this, but in the end as Gwan Sik fights for his life, Eun Myeong realizes that he is also loved.
Success, won after years of toil and trials that would make the bravest of souls give up, comes to Ae Sun and Gwan Sik. They sell the cabbage field of Ae Sun’s family, the only piece of property left, to make a gamble in the autumn of their lives. They establish a squid restaurant. They face trials in this new venture as well. But, they don’t buckle under. Support comes by the way of a famous actress who visits the restaurant, eats there, giving it a boost in the internet. A flashback shows a younger Gwan Sik, keeping the woman from committing suicide. Another lesson here: Kindness shown to a stranger is returned a hundredfold.
>>> A love that endures
Geum Myeong’s first love fades in the face of societal pressures, but from the past comes a love that grows steadfastly through the years. Park Chung Seob (sweetly portrayed by Kim Seon Ho) first falls in love with Geum Myeong when she works at the box office of a movie house. As a projectionist and part-time artist doing posters for the theater, he draws a loving portrait of Geum Myeong.
Volume 3 ends with him running after the bus with Geum Myeong on board. A quiet but steady relationship blooms. City-bred and raised, she brings him home to meet her parents. He goes on the boat with Gwan Sik but becomes seasick. Hardly able to walk straight, he follows Geum Myeong up on deck. To Gwan Sik’s question of why he is doing that, he says: “I worry she might fall off the boat. She might be cold.” Gwan Sik nods, a smile on his face — this guy can take care of his beloved daughter, the way he did Ae Sun. The young couple marry, but a difficult childbirth seals it— there will be no more children after their only daughter.
Volume 4 ties up the stories of three generations. As life winds down for Gwan Sik, diagnosed with cancer and fading, his family gathers around him. Geum Myeong spends a night with her father, and they relive happy moments of her childhood. The camera then pans to Ae Sun alone in her apartment in the city. There is nothing left on the top shelves of the kitchen cabinet. Gwan Sik has put everything within her reach. In a voice-over Gwan Sik tells her, “When the children ask you to stay with them, go. I don’t want you to be lonely.” Until the end, it is her comfort that is most important to him.
A week before the last volume streamed, viewers worried about how When Life Gives You Tangerines will end. Trailers didn’t help either.
Readers are warned: Major SPOILER ahead.
But, as frame after frame of Volume 4 runs, we get not only a catharsis, but also a most fitting coda to a story so brilliantly told. Gone are the dark waters of the sea, in its place, the bright lights and the interiors of the now thriving squid restaurant. Ae Sun is in a home for the elderly teaching the residents what else—how to write verses. Before his death, Gwan Sik has gathered all the poems she wrote as a young girl. It has been turned into a slim volume of poetry.
In the next scene, the smartly dressed editor of the publishing company is reviewing a book. It is a middle-aged woman (played again by Hyeom Hye Ran) with an editor’s pen. The implication, Ae Sun’s mother is reincarnated not as a haenhyo this time, but someone who brings her youthful dreams to fruition.
And the young lovers Ae Sun and Gwan Sik? Park Bo Gum and IU have promised their fans that they will make an appearance in the last episode. And they do—in one of the most endearing finales directors of K-drama have used. Ae Sun and Gwan Sik in the spring of their lives walk hand in hand across a canola field. The yellow blooms as far as the eyes can see ends this bitter-sweet drama on such a lovely note.
It is not the first time this ending has been used. In Love in the Moonlight PBG walks across a pink and lavender field of flowers with Kim Yoo Jung, but in Tangerines, that last frame still achieves it goal—a bright, joyous end for one of the most loved dramas to stream this year.
SOME NOTES for K-drama lovers:
*** First, on the main cast and the ensemble of supporting actors that brought Tangerines to life. Aside from IU and Park Bo Gum, the rest of the cast, even the second lead and character actors played their roles so lovingly and so well. Credit for this goes to writer Lim Sang Choon who wrote their parts well, and director Kim Won Seok who let them shine.
*** As a fan of period dramas and having followed almost all the dramas of this talented cast, I have one wish: A drama where Kim Seon Ho will be in a role that will jumpstart his career again. He was on the brink of this after Hometown Cha Cha Cha, but a “scandal”—thankfully neutralized in time—stopped him in his tracks.
***Park Bo Gum is leading another ensemble in the soon-to-be-released Good Boy.
**** IU has confirmed talks about a new drama that will be streamed before the year ends.
