When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025) 폭싹 속았수다
Directed by Kim Won-seok, starring IU/Lee Ji-eun, Park Bo-gum, Moon So-ri, Park Hae-joon, Choi Dae-hoon, Lee Jun-young and Kim Seon-ho.
Watched 10 - 13 April 2025 — 16 episodes (NETFLIX)
*This slice-of-life series has great ratings online. At the time of writing this post, the drama scores a 9.3 on IMDB and 9.4 on My Drama List, thereby occupying the number 1 spot on MDL's list Top 100 Best K-Dramas of 2025. Ever since this drama was announced, I had been eager to watch it. Being aired completely in March, I could binge it and watched it in a couple of days.
*I was immediately hooked and a lot has to do with the great OTP, IU/Lee Ji-eun as Oh Ae-sun and Park Bo-gum as Yang Gwan-sik, and their very natural chemistry (reportedly the actors share a 13-year long friendship in real life). They portray their characters well and infuse them with so much depth and emotion that they make you believe in their characters and their journey. I love the way Yang Gwan-sik looks at his wife Oh Ae-sun and his kids, there's so much love and affection in his eyes. When he buys Oh Ae-sun a house and a boat, she's beaming with happiness and I love how happy this makes him. His character is silent and diligent, and at the same time very devoted to his family. I love how protective and supportive he is of his wife, best illustrated in the scene in ep. 4 where Gwan-sik stands up for wife against his horrible controlling grandmother and mother and takes his family away. In ep. 11 Geum-myeong says about her father: "He never left Mum stranded alone on the battlefield."
*Basically everything is good here: the casting, the performances, the well-developed and believable characters, a very relatable story spanning decades about family with a lot of heartfelt moments, the outstanding cinematography, the gorgeous island setting, the music and high production values (Netflix series clearly have bigger budgets).
*It's very much a story of mothers and daughters and I cried a lot. Also the scenes with Oh Ae-sun and her dad at the bus station with her waving goodbye made me cry. I love the character of Oh Ae-sun, both as daughter and later mother.
*I like the non-linear storytelling which never gets confusing, fortunately.
*Child actors are always acting so well in K-dramas. I especially like the first episode with Oh Ae-sun as a child, and I really like the child actress who portrays her.
*There's humour and sadness, but also attention to little happy moments. I love how Ae-sun sends her husband off to work with a huge smile.
*There was a moment in ep. 7 where my attention briefly slackened as there was too much screen time dedicated to Choi Dae-hoon (from One Dollar Lawyer) as Bu Sang-gil, a rich fishing captain. He's not a likeable character but I love how in the end he comes around a bit and elicits sympathy. The physical transformation the actor undergoes while ageing (thinning hair etc.) is well done.
*I don't mind the leap into the future because I like the middle-aged versions of the main couple (Moon So-ri as Oh Ae-sun and Park Hae-joon as Yang Gwan-sik) and IU still has a role as Ae-sun's daughter Yang Geum-myeong, but it meant Park Bo-gum mostly disappeared from the screen and he was one of my favourites. I guess that if they would have cast another actress as the daughter instead of IU playing a dual role, IU and Park Bo-gum could have continued as their middle-aged versions and there was no need to choose other actors for these roles. I might have preferred it so I could see more of Park Bo-gum but I like IU in the role of the daughter, so I guess it was a good casting decision.
*Love the aunties, the three diver friends of Ae-sun's mother.
*I wasn't particularly fond of Geum-myeong's boyfriend, Lee Jun-young (from Melo Movie) as Park Yeong-bum, but I instantly liked the painter, Kim Seon-ho (from Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha) as Park Chung-seop, and I also like his story with Geum-myeong. Not to speak of Chung-seop's sweet mum in comparison with Yeong-bum's overbearing mother. So glad Geum-myeong ended up with the painter.
*Love how in ep. 12 Geum-myeong comes home after her break-up, and mum has cooked so many dishes and is happy with her daughter's visit. This was so relatable. I also love the scene where Geum-myeong watches the sunset with her dad on the boat.
*Absolutely love the poetry in Geum-myeong's narrative. Ep. 16: "The sea gives endlessly, even if we harvest from it all our life. (...) To us, Dad was the sea. We all relied on him to live." I was heartbroken when dad died.
*This is now one of my new favourite K-dramas. Will definitely watch this again some day!
