Beautifully shot and with equally beautiful acting, IU and Park Bo Gum's new romance/slice of life drama When Life Gives You Tangerines premiered this weekend! While waiting for the next batch of episodes, we give you our favorite moments from the first episodes and why it should be at the top of your watchlist!
Premiering on March 7, 2025, only on Netflix, When Life Gives You Tangerines gives you both the happy and sad hardships of life growing up on Jeju Island during the 1950s. South Korea was under constant political turmoil during that time, therefore many political events coincide with the story. From the Jeju dialect, to the breathtaking scenery and costumes, this drama is a masterpiece in the making and should be at the top of your K-drama watchlist!
Dropping in batches of four episodes per week, every Friday, and with a total of 16 episodes, the series will release its final four episodes on March 28, 2025. Here are our favorite moments from the first four episodes!
Ae Sun's mom visits Ae Sun's teacher with a box of rice cakes, heated socks, and cash
What makes When Life Gives You Tangerines such an instant masterpiece is the mother/daughter relationship. What brought tears to our eyes is the tough love that Ae Sun's mother (Yum Hye Ran Mask Girl 2023) gives her during her primary school years. You can see a mother's sacrifice, although poor, will do anything to help her daughter succeed — the small battles matter!
Gwan Sik and Ae Sun share their first kiss!
Like most K-drama slice of life genres Gwan Sik (Park Bo Gum) and Ae Sun (IU) share their first kiss most innocently and romantically, in a field of canola flowers! Unaware of each other's feelings for each other, they both confess simultaneously and it turns out that they have liked each other for years! We can see that this childhood first love can turn into something more as they grow older. By the way, who professes their love like these two?
Ae Sun finds out that she's the one actually standing in Gwan Sik's way
In an emotional third episode, Ae Sun meets with Gwan Sik's mother after their Busan fiasco only to be set up for a marriage to a man in his 30s with two children. She asks Gwan Sik's mother if Gwan Sik was really good at sports and his mother pleads with Ae Sun to let Gwan Sik go so that "he can live his life to the fullest". Ae Sun decides to "let" Gwan Sik go, but we find out that Ae Sun is why Gwan Sik is a great athlete! Gwan Sik proves us that love is greater than anything at the end of episode 3 when he decides to jump off the boat and swim back to Ae Sun!
Gwan Sik decides to take his family away from the in-laws
In a bold move, Gwan Sik decides to take his new wife and daughter away from his overbearing parents and grandmother. Without a dime under their name, the young family decides to strike out on their own, against Gwan Sik's family's requests. This decision made us admire his courage and made us feel that although the journey will be difficult, he did it out of love for Ae Sun.
Our thoughts
With great storytelling and amazing characters, we can't help but put When Life Gives You Tangerines at the top of our Spring watchlist! Comment below if we helped you fall in love with this drama and let us know your favorite moment so far!
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