When Life Gives You Tangerines tells Korean modern history through the lens of one family’s creativity and persistence | By Carl Ackerman (Fall 2025)
When Life Gives You Tangerines is a touching series that follows a family through South Korea’s modern history. It begins on Jeju Island in the post-war era, and follows the family for more than two generations as South Korea emerges from war devastation, experiences cultural and economic growing pains, and becomes a strong and independent modern nation.
The series follows a young couple, Ae-sun Oh and Gwan-sik Yang, for perhaps 50 years. After growing up together on Jeju – a place known for its tangerines – and falling in love, they elope to the mainland, marry, and suffer through many life problems. Through the arc of the story, they remain loyal to one another, raise their children, and succeed in their business after many years of struggle.
In this series, the parents (who are eventually the grandparents), strive for their children’s development. That generation in turn raise their families and watch them flourish in the modern and thriving South Korean economy.
Ae-sun Oh is played by Ji-eun Lee (a well-known singer in Korea who goes by the stage name IU). Ae-sun is the daughter of a haenyeo (a traditional woman ocean diver) on Jeju island. Her lover and eventual husband is Gwan-sik Yang, played by Bo-gum Park. Park plays the part thoughtfully – Gwan-sik is obviously devoted to Ae-sun, who is edgy, independent and very expressive of her desire to become a famous poet.
The story describes a rocky start for the vulnerable young couple in Seoul when they are cheated out the small amount of money they brought with them. That incident at least ends with the police arresting the culprits.
The parents of both main characters initially oppose the marriage, but grudgingly accept it as a fait accompli. There is some comic relief, and a bit of tragedy in Ae-sun’s parents’ attempt to arrange a marriage with a more established prospective husband. The candidate, Sang-Gil Bu (Dae-hoon Choi), is a well-off sea captain, but he is also a womanizer and carouser. In one scene, Ae-sun comically kicks Sang-Gil in the shins in a public spot, close to where the boats dock and where all the workers know and comment about it.
In a fateful development (typical of K-dramas), the next generation are also interrelated. Ae-sun’s son Eun-myeong Yang (You-seok Kang),who has failed at nearly every venture he attempts, marries Sang-Gil’s daughter, Hyeon-suk Bu (Soo-kyung Lee). The antagonist Sang-Gil remains an ever-present character, who goes through divorce, misfortune, and at the end, a changed fate.
Ae-sun’s other son dies young when a typhoon takes his life, an event that haunts the couple, and effectively draws the audience into this tragedy in many flashbacks that also serve to remind the audience of the recent turbulent half-century of Korean history. This historical review is skillfully done and notes the events that affect the key characters and links them to the histories of all Korean families.
Ji-eun Lee plays a different character later in the series – she is Geum-myeong Yang, the daughter of Ae-sun and Gwan-sik. Geum-myeong’s parents support her as a university student, and she becomes an accomplished business woman. As the story unfolds, we learn that the (now) middle-aged parents (played by So-ri Moon and Hae-joon Park) have sold their house and moved to the city to support their oldest and give the family the best chance at financial success.
The fate of the family begins to change with the story of Geum-myeong. She is a successful student during the era of Korea’s student pro-democracy movement. With Geum-myeong’s entrepreneurial talent, the parents open a restaurant in a sparsely-settled region; it succeeds with the help of their friends from Jeju who have many ties to the seafood industry. The story of the business and the economic development of their region mirrors the emergence of the greater South Korean economy.
The theme of mother-daughter is strong in this drama, specifically the outsize role the women play in securing family success. As the story develops, we see how this pattern repeats over two generations. Ae-sun’s mother, Gwang-rye Jon (He-ran Yeom) deals with many financial hardships and a fatal illness, but continues to make sure her daughter is getting a good education and encourages her love of poetry.
The cinematic portrayal of mother and daughter walking along the coast after Gwang-rye’s long days of work as a haenyeo are some of the most moving shots in the entire drama. This portrayal of maternal love of the highest form is displayed once again when the middle-aged Ae-sun throws her economic and emotional support behind her daughter’s university education, encouraging her by talking to her as often as possible on the phone.
The struggles of these two mothers are reminiscent of a traditional Korean puppet theater play called Kkokdugashi which began as early as the first century and were still performed until the early 20th century. Such theater plays were inventions of roving troupes of entertainers (known as namsadang) who would perform folk drumming, music, acrobatics, and dramatic plays that would tell stories from the lives of the common people, while ridiculing the aristocracy (yangban). Whether in the first century or 2025, a common theme of Korean dramatic works is that of women suffering through life together, and succeeding by supporting one another.
There are also glimpses of supportive husbands in the drama, but their roles are peripheral to the story. The one important and recurring theme concerning male roles is the stark contrast between the good husband Gwang-sik and bad husband Sang-gil.
In contrast to the ancient Kkokdugashi story, the women in this drama eventually triumph – they achieve economic success in the end and have partners who support them.
When Life Gives You Tangerines is a title equivalent to the expression “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It is an appropriate comparison, since the family experiences much trauma, death and other adverse life events as it rises over more than two generations from grinding poverty to business success. Instead of despairing over sour tangerines, the family works with the resources they are given, and eventually achieve some sweetness to enjoy. By the end of this poignant Kdrama, we see how all the characters have made their own tangerine-ade.
