Screen Test: 'When Life Gives You Tangerines' is an Ode to Powerful Women

Did a new show pop up on your Netflix watchlist? Or maybe there's a new Asian drama making its rounds on social media? Stop scrolling before you fall into the spoilers black hole and let us help you decide if it's worth watching.

From Hollywood sitcoms that tickle your funny bones and thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seats to romantic K-Dramas that make your heart skip a beat, The Beat Asia is taking a first look at the latest series releases for your viewing pleasure.

So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the review!

When Life Gives You Tangerines: Netflix K-Drama Series

Slice-of-Life, Romance

16 Episodes

Since the release of its first four episodes in early March, “When Life Gives You Tangerines” has received resounding praise from viewers around the world. As of April 2025, the series has been at the top of the Global Top 10 Non-English Shows list on Netflix for six weeks, racking in around 5,400,000 views. 

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the K-Drama received a 100% rating, with an average of a 9.40 out of 10 rating. On IMDb, it received a 9.3 out of 10-star rating, with each episode averaging an above 8.5 rating. In the Philippines, “When Life Gives You Tangerines” sat at the No. 1 spot in the Top 10 Shows in the Philippines list on Netflix for four weeks, remaining in the top spots soon after. 

The K-Drama also led the nominations at the upcoming 2025 Baeksang Arts Awards with seven nominations. 

“When Life Gives You Tangerines” stars IU (“Hotel del Luna,” “My Mister”), Park Bo-gum (“Reply 1988,” “Love In The Moonlight”), Moon So-ri (“Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born,” “Legend of the Blue Sea”) and Park Hae-joon (“The World of the Married,” “My Mister”). 

Written by Lim Sang-choon (“Fight for My Way,” “When the Camellia Blooms”) and directed by Kim Won-seok (“Sungkyunkwan Scandal,” “My Mister”), the K-Drama follows the life and trials of Oh Ae-sun, a spirited young woman born in Jeju Island in 1951, and Yang Gwan-shik, a steadfast young man who loves and cherishes her. 

The drama has its heartwarming and heart-wrenching moments, with its first episode perfectly hooking viewers with the build-up for Oh Ae-sun and Yang Gwan-shik’s love story. With powerful actors IU and Park Bo-gum leading the way, the drama undoubtedly touched our hearts with its rollercoaster of emotions and compelling storyline.

“When Life Gives You Tangerines” is a perfect example of what the slice-of-life genre has to offer, as well as how no one can truly stop what life has to offer; we must simply make do with what we have and live on. Read on to know why. 

Recap: Episode One, Spring in a Heartbeat

Run Time: 57 minutes

Subtitle Availability: English, Filipino, Spanish (Latin America), Korean, Chinese (Simplified, Traditional), and more.

Audio Availability: Korean, English, Filipino, Japanese, Spanish (Latin America), and more. 

SPOILER ALERT! This section contains details from the pilot episode of “When Life Gives You Tangerines.” 

The episode opens with a much-older Oh Ae-sun (Moon So-ri), who appears to be reflecting on her life through poetry and a drawing of the sea, with her emotions seemingly heightened by the word “mom.” We are then carried back to Jeju Island in the 1960s, where a younger Ae-sun (Kim Tae-yeon) is first seen calling out to her mother, Jeon Gwang-rye (Yeom Hye-ran). 

At the same time, we are introduced to a group of haenyeo, a tight-knit group of spirited women who dive in the sea for survival, and a young boy named Yang Gwan-shik (Lee Chun-moo), who quietly becomes a part of Ae-sun’s world. As she comes ashore, the group of haenyeo berate Gwang-rye for “being greedy” and say that they (the haenyeo) live and die together. 

At home, Ae-sun struggles with being treated as an outsider among her extended family and yearns to live with her mother. When tensions boil over, Gwang-rye fiercely takes Ae-sun under her care. 

Through school struggles, hard lessons about survival, and moments of wanting to break free from tradition, Ae-sun’s story unfolds with rawness and resilience. She and her mother dream together of a better future, with more of their relationship unraveling while the tides begin to shift around them. 

As seasons pass, we see Ae-sun grow and flourish through hard work, heartbreak, and silent rebellion with Gwan-shik by her side. Together they worked on a cabbage field and are later seen selling their wares on the street. 

The episode ends with hope for freedom, with Ae-sun and Gwan-shik running towards an unknown future in full spirits.

REVIEW: The journey to becoming powerful is one with pain.

Slice-of-life K-Dramas typically revolve around typical tropes — ordinary characters living ordinary lives, with the exception of some extraordinary conflict, comedic scenes, and a budding love story.

However, in “When Life Gives You Tangerines,” the “extraordinary conflict” doesn’t stem from any outside factor; it’s simply life. 

“When Life Gives You Tangerines” began with a barrage of introductions, as is customary for the first episode. However, experiencing such a wide range of emotions right off the bat was unexpected. The drama’s trailers led viewers to believe that it was a romantic comedy starring two of the best actors in the Korean drama industry, but the first episode proved otherwise. 

Echoing another review in our Screen Test series, the first episodes can be a bit tricky to navigate since they do tend to drown us in lengthy backstories. However, for “When Life Gives You Tangerines,” it was definitely the right choice. 

Rather than beginning with the love story between Oh Ae-sun and Yang Gwan-shik, which would be the focus of the following episodes, the episode focused on Ae-sun’s origins and what shaped her to be the way she is today. Starting off the episode with an elderly Ae-sun calling out to sea was an emotional introduction to her lifelong connection to the sea, a recurring theme in her eventful, spirited life. 

Every scene was important to watch, and everything was even more meaningful when you consider every little cultural aspect that the production incorporated into the drama. The culture of the haenyeo, the shaman, the balsam paste dye, the jeongnang, and more. 

Being introduced to the culture of Jeju Island this way was particularly beautiful, and when you take a closer look at the meaning of “When Life Gives You Tangerines,” the drama takes on an even deeper meaning. In English, the title is a play on the adage “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” In Jeju language, “Possak sogatsuda” literally means, “Thank you for your hard work.” 

The title itself is a poetic ode to the drama’s subject, the women. We are introduced to a multitude of women from the beginning of the episode — Ae-sun, Gwang-rye, the haenyeo, Ae-sun’s grandmother, Gwan-shik’s grandmother, and more — who mirror the matriarchal familial structure in Jeju. 

The haenyeo, with the word meaning “sea women” in English, are female divers known for their independent spirit and determination. These women serve as breadwinners for their families, and their struggles are highlighted throughout the K-Drama. 

Beyond their toils in everyday life, the haenyeo represent something more profound– a quiet rebellion against time, tide, and tradition. These women are living witnesses to the resilience in learning to breathe beneath the surface — literally and metaphorically. The drama doesn’t romanticize hardships but honors them with reverence. Ae-sun draws her strength and grit from these women, and then we start to understand that this story isn’t one of individual survival. 

It's about a collective memory that is passed down through grief, grit, and grace. Through the lens of Jeju’s haenyeo and Ae-sun, this drama becomes more than a slice-of-life — it’s an ode to the women who endure not because they must, but because they choose to — for a better life and future. 

Final Verdict

In a world that often wishes to point fingers at people and things for all the hardships in life, this drama firmly presses a foot down and says, “Take a closer look.” It reminds us that quiet resilience lives without fail in our everyday lives, that love can be subtle and transformative, and that grief doesn’t linger; it gives strength to carry on. 

Episode 1 of “When Life Gives You Tangerines” left an impression that’s hard to shake off. The storyline whispers and lingers, with its gentle pacing, rich cultural layers, world-building, and emotional storytelling. It doesn’t just tell a story; it invites us to sit with it, breathe with it, and find ourselves within it. 

For its sincerity, soul, and unwavering embrace of the mundane and of life, we’re giving this episode 5 BEATS. 

Netflix released the K-Drama’s final volume (episodes 13 to 16) on Mar. 28, 2025. If you haven’t started it, start it now! Watch it here.