When Life Gives You Tangerines: A Story of Life, Love, and the Four Seasons of Jeju Island

The movie When Life Gives You Tangerines has just been released on Netflix and has attracted the attention of TV series fans because of its excellent cast and the combination of a famous screenwriter and director with heartwarming stories.

Singer-actress IU and heartthrob Park Bo-gum have teamed up with director Kim Won-suk, who is known for the 2018 drama "My Mister" and the 2014 series "Misaeng: Incomplete Life," and writer Lim Sang-choon, who penned the 2017 show "Fight for My Way," to explore 65 years of love and life set against the picturesque four seasons of Jeju Island in When Life Gives You Tangerines .

IU takes on the role of the "rebellious and smart" Ae-soon with big dreams, while Park Bo-gum plays the "foolish and strong" Gwan-sik, who expresses himself through actions rather than words in When Life Gives You Tangerines, which cost 60 billion won to produce. The Korean title of the film "Pokssak Sogatsuda" is a local Jeju phrase that means "You worked hard."

Kim describes the film as "a tribute to the generation of parents and grandparents and an anthem of encouragement for the younger generation ." " The script made me laugh through tears. It warmed my heart, but also brought me to tears. I created it with the hope that the walls between generations and gender discrimination would collapse, " he shared.

A very real love and life story in When Life Gives You Oranges

Thirty-four million, one hundred and eighty-six thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight minutes is another way of saying sixty-five years. During that time, Ae-sun and Gwan-sik found more than a million ways to express their love, but they rarely said it. Instead, little by little, through acts of care, loyalty, and a strong determination to protect, they overcame all four seasons of life together.

In the old days, tangerines were a symbol of good luck. Receiving a tangerine was a symbol of good luck, but in the new Netflix drama, tangerines are synonymous with making lemonade. Specifically, it means using the sourest tangerines life throws at you to make a delicious cup of warm tea. Her character, Ae-sun, is no pushover. She is a smart girl stranded on Jeju Island in 1960s Korea. Her mother brought the audience to tears when she said, " It's better to be born a cow than a haenyeo or a Jeju woman ." That is, women are nothing more than beasts of burden, like a cow or a water buffalo, always having to carry the heaviest burdens.

This is about the haenyeo - the symbol of Jeju, the female divers who harvest abalone and seaweed from the ocean floor. They are the breadwinners, but never have equality. Every action in the first 4 episodes of “When Life Gives You Tangerines” illustrates this truth. Ironically, IU’s Ae-sun is more like a fox — bright and easily agitated — but Park Bo-gum’s Gwan-sik is more like a buffalo — steadfast and strong. While Ae-sun grumbles, struggles, and cries over the injustices of life, Gwan-sik is the silent nurturer. He puts on her shoes, sells her cabbages at the market, and always takes care of her.

When Life Gives You Tangerines doesn't care about genre. It's not a tragedy or a comedy, a slice of life or a character study, a romance or a mystery. It's a culmination of all of those things. It shows that life is full of humor, even as it is filled with inevitable heartache. The audience will feel the romance of their never-ending love, and the mystery because we're never sure what's going to happen to them.

One of the joys of watching a series like When Life Gives You Tangerines is the way it unfolds like a book; each episode is a chapter, revealing deeper meanings to scenes that you previously thought were simple. The resilient and daring couple of When Life Gives You Tangerines have a long way to go. The jobs Ae-sun and Gwan-sik endure are bittersweet. That’s the real spice of life.