When Life Gives You Tangerines / kdrama review.
This is a review of the kdrama When Life Gives You Tangerines with little to no spoilers.
This drama is not a romance, although it certainly is a love story. It may start with the melodramatic, youthful romance of the main characters, the foolishness and innocence that youth carries with it and that hope that life has not yet beaten out of you. But it’s the motherly love that set the framework of the story. The love a mother bears for her daughter and how she wants to give her the world that she didn’t get to experience. We see it in Gwang Rye and we see it in Ae Sun later on. This is a touching generational saga of women and their perseverance in a society that doesn’t appreciate them.
These complex relationships that both mother and daughter pairs within the story have are intricate, touching, full of resentment and longing all mixed together. Because deep down they know that they can really only rely on each other. How great the loss will once life pulls them apart. Every mother wants a better life for her daughter and the struggle that comes with it is the daughter learning that the dream of a better future is an endless battle of will and hope that life wants to beat out of you. This is an incredibly realistic depiction of reality with a melancholic stillness and a Kdrama flare.
The drama takes its time with each and every relationship and character, making the story richer and more real. And even though this isn’t an epic high stakes tale or dizzying romance the story is certainly impactful in its raw tranquility. It doesn’t just show the bright sides of life but all the ups and downs. Life is messy and the drama doesn’t scrape anything off of that fact.
As I’ve mentioned before, this is not romance in the traditional sense or what people are used to find within Korean dramas, because this love alone does not guarantee a happy ending. It’s their teamwork and the constant work that Ae Sun and Gwan Sik put in that makes their happy ending work. They are each other the rock in the stormy sea for each other lives.
One might think that as the show moves to the latter half and the youth of Ae Sun and Gwan Sik fades, the younger generation gradually takes over and gets a bigger role within the story, that the story would weaken a bit or lose a little steam as we have become too attached to the other characters. But the latter half is just as heartfelt and endeading as before. The story of the daughter Geum Myeong is in many ways just as interesting as her mothers. And it’s all thanks to good character development and good consistency within the narrative.
The drama manages to capture a certain feeling or nostalgia within itself. You don’t need to have grown up on Jeju or even at the time the story takes place. It manages to fill you with this familiar feeling like a simple homemade meal or a warm embrace, and the lost innocence of youth and the struggle you could see in one’s parents that the drama manages to express to it’s viewers. We can see ourselves and the generations that came before us in these people and their struggles. Hopes, desires and sorrows are so universal, as well as this cruel tug of war we all have with fate.
This quiet story about a family who could do nothing without the mother who is the foundation that keeps the house up. Each episode moves us forward, but also takes us back in time, to highlight a certain moment or theme of the different aspects of life. The non-linear narrative style of the drama shows really well how the past echoes the present and how things never leave us, even though the scars or memories may have faded. Everything is somewhat connected.
Each actor is putting their all into these characters, the environment and cinematography work so well together to capture the story and these fleeting moments of joy, resilience and sorrow that the characters find themselves in. The story hooks you right from the start, pulls at your heartstrings and never lets go of you. Such a beautifully crafted, deep emotional story that takes you through the entire emotional spectrum and just really makes you want to call your mom and dad while you still can.
