I must’ve cried at least 4 times while watching Volume 3 of When Life Gives You Tangerines. What’s interesting is that every volume has a breather episode, where things go a little bit awry and you have some breathing space between all the sad moments. The K-drama will remind you every day never to forget the sacrifices your parents made for you. If you’re watching it, I recommend giving your dad that hug or making your mom that cup of tea because I think it’ll just help you feel a little bit better after all this turmoil. Episodes 9 and 10 take us through the time when Gwan-Sik and Ae-Sun move to a small apartment and Ae-Sun moves away to Japan to study. In these episodes, we also see a little bit more of Eun-Myeong, who is now almost an adult and a rebel kid. I guess you can’t be lucky with every one of them, eh? But, with that said, let’s dive straight into the recap of episodes 9 and 10.
Spoiler Alert
How Does Geum-Myeong Meet Chung-Seop?
Episode 9 of When Life Gives You Tangerines begins on moving day. Gwan-Sik feels terrible for not being a good enough husband to get them a better place, but Ae-Sun tells him that she loves the place, even mocking his old-fashioned choice of wallpaper. On the other hand, she’s back at the store selling fish while Eun-Myeong troubles her because he’s bad at school and keeps changing his hair all the time like he’s an idol. But while on the outside he always looks mad at his parents, who obviously care for his sister more than him, he brings his mom a space heater to put next to her chair outside the store. The shop is named after all the “haenyeo” women who raised Ae-Sun after her mum died. They’re not just the inspiration, but they also help Ae-Sun at the store. Geum-Myeong receives a picture from the store opening and feels upset that her mum has to start working again because of her. She promises never to force her into work again.
A little bit later, Geum-Myeong returns to Seoul and moves into a small room in a family apartment where the door lock doesn’t even work. It’s not the best location, but it’s a family with a little boy, and the dad keeps reminding her that he has a daughter her age, so she shouldn’t bring home any boyfriends. One day, Ae-Sun covers up the room door with a fabric wardrobe to keep people from coming in; however, somebody tries to push through it. It happens to be Chung-Seop, the landlord’s daughter’s boyfriend. The daughter begs Geum-Myeong to help hide Chung-Seop for the time being, but her dad can sense there’s something fishy. He immediately catches them, but this is the first embarrassing moment of many Chung-Seop and Geum-Myeong will share.
On the other hand, the girl that Eun-Myeong was dating? Well, it’s Sang-Gil’s daughter, Hyeon-Suk. They get caught when she decides to run away from home one day and hide in Eun-Myeong’s room. Obviously, that’s not going to work out for them, but this is only the beginning of their crazy story.
Back in Seoul, Geum-Myeong is desperate for a job, and she sees a man putting up posters by her Japanese class poster. This happens to be Chung-Seop again, and he tells her that he is an artist who paints film posters for the local cinema. It’s the year “Ghost” is coming out, and he asks her if she needs a job. The next thing we know, Geum-Myeong is handling ticketing at the cinema thanks to Chung-Seop. One day, Yeon-Beom comes to see her at the theater, and Chung-Seop watches them together. She looks overjoyed to see her boyfriend, but anyone can see that Chung-Seop might be interested in her. Still, he’s technically with somebody else, so he doesn’t do anything about it, except start playing a movie to bother them. But, while walking her home, Yeong-Beom gets mad that Geum-Myeong lives in such a shady spot. Yes, it’s dimly lit and all that, but we see a house with baby clothes hanging and a tricycle outside. Sound familiar? I know. It’s because that’s what Geum-Myeong’s childhood was, spent in poverty but never lacking love. Yeong-Beom doesn’t understand any of this because he’s a rich man, and he’s just come down from America, so Geum-Myeong tells him to go back if he’s going to nag her this way. Chung-Seop happens to overhear this whole conversation.
A bit later, she visits his room at the theater just when he’s in the middle of breaking up with his girlfriend because she’s been on 6 blind dates while being with him. Geum-Myeong tries to hide, but the girl ends up seeing her and thinks they’re together. Chung-Seop doesn’t correct her because he doesn’t want to deal with the mess of it all anymore. This is the beginning of their friendship.
Why Does Eun-Myeong Try To Break Up With Hyeon-Seok?
In episode 10, we get a glimpse of Sang-Gil’s household. His wife still lives with him, but she minds her own business while he watches TV all day. Despite his son giving him the reality check he needs, Sang-Gil doesn’t seem to grow up at all. His son tells him that he will always side with his mum and leave with her if she chooses to, but she’s determined to stay. I suppose this is because he’s stopped bothering her now and she just wants to keep living the same old life. The boy then tells his sister to break up with Eun-Myeong, because she doesn’t know the history their parents share. Of course, Hyeon-Seok doesn’t listen, and Eun-Myeong gets beaten up by her brother and his friends, escalating to the point of not being able to go anywhere without someone recognizing him and giving him a beating. So he decides to break up with her. But Hyeon-Seok tells him she can’t live without him, and she’ll take the beatings for him instead, but she wants to continue dating.
Who Saves Geum-Myeong?
In Seoul, Yang-Beom’s mother treats Geum-Myeong like she’s beneath them by miles. She keeps nagging her, insulting her upbringing, all because she’s a bit poorer than them. Yang-Beom doesn’t really defend Geum-Myeong, which makes her upset. He asks her who in their right mind would choose between mum and girlfriend, and she tells him that her dad did and he will always put his family first. It’s true; there’s no man like Gwan-Sik. At the cinema, Geum-Myeong realizes that the woman whom the boss thinks is reselling his tickets is actually Chung-Seop’s mom. She brings her inside and gives her a ticket because it’s an employee benefit. The woman tells Geum-Myeong not to tell Chung-Seop about how she visits every day to see his paintings, though. We see a sharp parallel between the two doting mums: Chung-Seop’s and Yang-Beom’s. Thanks to Geum-Myeong, Chung-Seop’s mum got to watch a movie for the first time; in return, she gave her some English literature books for her to study from.
Who Saves Geum-Myeong?
From here on, the episode keeps shifting between different scenes in the past when Geum-Myeong instinctively knew that she needed to help her daughter. But first, we see a similar situation with Ae-Sun’s mom. One time, Ae-Sun followed a black dragonfly into an unknown town. When her mom found out about it, she immediately ran to search for her. Her gut simply said she needed to be worried. See, Ae-Sun had met a woman who would’ve kidnapped her and made her a beggar. Fortunately, her mom found her just in time to save her. She told her then that moms have eyes in the back of their heads. Ae-Sun is reminded of this many moons into the future when she dreams of Dong-Myeong’s death.
In one dream, we finally get to see Ae-Sun go back to tell her son that she will go get his sister and be right back. She tells him she’ll give him candies every day after that. A heartbreaking moment that is impossible to watch knowing what happened. Ae-Sun starts to dream about that day a lot, and Gwan-Sik worries. But it seems this is her version of “eyes on the back of her head,” because Ae-Sun calls Geum-Myeong every day out of nervousness. She worries something bad is going to happen to her daughter at a time when crime is rampant in Seoul.
One fine day, Ae-Sun decides to visit Geum-Myeong herself to put her mind to rest. When she gets there, she finds the girl frail, almost lifeless. When she looks around the room, she realizes it’s carbon monoxide poisoning. While Chung-Seop is the one who picks Geum-Myeong up and takes her down to the ambulance on his back in the snow, it is Ae-Sun who really saves her. If she hadn’t shown up that day, it’s likely nobody would’ve found her in time.
Final Words
The final part of episode 10 of When Life Gives You Tangerines will pull at your heartstrings so hard they might break. IU is such an incredible actress, and every scene of her playing a mom is absolutely incredible. Of course, I can’t go without talking about Moon So-Ri, who plays middle-aged Ae-Sun. Have these women taken a crash course in how to make people cry because, boy, I’ve lost track of how much I’ve wept. The episodes are short, specifically for how K-dramas have been lately, and they are precise despite it feeling like there’s extra noise sometimes. There isn’t; it’s all well thought out, and everything is important. Finally, the scene where Ae-Sun holds onto a grown-up Geum-Myeong the way she did little Dong-Myeong really hit hard. Honestly, I think this just might be one of the best K-dramas I’ve ever seen.
