The show that holds the title of the most popular K-drama of the year (so far) is Netflix’s When Life Gives You Tangerines. Centered around a family through the generations, the slice-of-life drama explores their hardships, their drive, and their happy moments, mostly through two timelines: one set in the 1960s and the other in the 1990s. It is through the women of the family that we get to understand their lives and how determination can change everything. In this article, I’ll try and break down everything we’ve seen so far in a linear timeline. From Ae-Sun’s childhood to Guem-Myeong’s love affair, I’ll try and cover everything so you’ll be ready for the tears as soon as Vol. 3 is out. The show begins when Ae-Sun is 70 and then flashes back to the beginning with one word: “eomma,” or mom. This one word will ring in your head throughout the show. It is the glue that binds this beautiful story together. But, with that said, let’s dive straight into When Life Gives You Tangerines.
Spoiler Alert
Ae-Sun’s Childhood
Ae-Sun is brought up in a small town on Jeju Island. Her mom remarried after her dad died, and she has been sent off to live with her uncle because her stepdad cannot afford to feed another mouth. However, Ae-Sun is always eager to be with her mom. She gets treated like a servant at her uncle’s house, and her grandmother doesn’t give her any love (well, it’s tough love). Whenever Ae-Sun ends up doing well in school, she rushes to her mum’s house, far away on top of the hill, just to show her how she’s done. Even when she has a problem, she always rushes to her mom for help first. Ae-Sun’s mom even tries to get her to rightfully become the class president, despite her being up against a general’s son.
Eventually, Ae-Sun’s mom realizes how awful her brother’s family is treating Ae-Sun, so she takes her back. Despite having two kids of his own with Ae-Sun’s mom, Byeong-Cheol takes Ae-Sun in. Well, more like he’s just quite nonchalant about it all. But things take a drastic turn when Ae-Sun’s mum learns she’s dying from a lung condition because she’s a traditional diver. Ae-Sun’s mum dies at the young age of 29, leaving behind 3 children and a husband who doesn’t really know how to do anything by himself. Before she passes, Ae-Sun’s mom makes her promise never to take up diving because she didn’t want her to suffer the same fate.
Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik
Growing up, Ae-Sun is friends with a boy a little older than her named Gwan-Sik. Well, technically, he’s just a neighborhood kid who sticks to her like glue. Gwan-Sik has only one dream: to grow up and become Ae-Sun’s husband. But Ae-Sun dreams of being a poet and living on the mainland. When Ae-Sun’s mom dies, her stepfather doesn’t really know what to do with himself anymore, so she basically becomes a parent for her much younger step-siblings. She tends to the cabbage farm, but it is Gwan-Sik who sells the cabbage for her, because she’s a bookworm and only cares about words, not numbers. On the other hand, Ae-Sun’s stepfather falls in love with another woman and brings her home. This is when Ae-Sun has nowhere to go. By now she and Gwan-Sik are kind of dating. Since the situation is pretty bad, Ae-Sun decides to agree to get married to a random person just to get to the mainland.
Ae-Sun is meant to marry a divorced man in his 30s. However, this man turns out to be quite the scumbag, so she rejects him and runs after Gwan-Sik, who was devastated by the news of her agreeing to marry another man. Gwan-Sik jumps off a ship that was taking him to the mainland so he could compete in an athletic competition. Ironically though, the only reason he wanted to go was because Ae-Sun wanted to go to the mainland. Gwan-Sik swims back to Ae-Sun, and they decide to run off to Busan because his mum doesn’t want him to marry an orphan girl. In Busan, the couple gets scammed, but they help out a woman who might end up in a similar situation as them. Gwan-Sik’s mum then shows up to save them and takes them back home. Ae-Sun gives up on her big dream and decides to live a quiet life with Gwan-Sik on the island.
Geum-Myeong And The Two Boys
Geum-Myeong is born eerily early after Gwan-Sik and Ae-Sun’s marriage. Ae-Sun has to live in a small house with her in-laws, who don’t like her, and Gwan-Sik works for the guy she was meant to marry. So, he treats him horribly out of spite, and Gwan-Sik is permanently exhausted, but he will do anything to keep his family going. When Geum-Myeong is around 4 or 5, Gwan-Sik’s mum and grandmother do all sorts of rituals to get Ae-Sun to have a baby boy. Gwan-Sik doesn’t know about this because they know it would make him mad. It is when they try to force Geum-Myeong into becoming a haenyeo (a diver) that Ae-Sun really loses her mind, because it was the one thing she’d never let her daughter do. Gwan-Sik happens to come by at the same time and tells his family that he will never let Ae-Sun live with them again.
As soon as they move out of the old house, Ae-Sun becomes pregnant a second time. This time it happens to be a boy. The place they’re renting is owned by an old couple who will do anything in their power to help the young couple. When Ae-Sun is out of rice, the old woman secretly puts rice in her container because Ae-Sun won’t accept any herself. She’s got an inflated ego, you see. Soon, the family has 3 kids, one girl and two boys: Geum-Myeong, Eun-Myeong, and Dong-Myeong. They are three precious metals.
For some time everything is great for the family. They also move into Ae-Sun’s mom’s old house that Gwan-Sik buys with his own money. Ae-Sun then learns that her grandmother has money saved up for her because she promised her mum she’d help the girl. Ae-Sun buys her husband a boat of his own so he won’t have to work for that prick any longer. However, tragedy strikes when Ae-Sun has to leave her two sons to go get Geum-Myeong, who decided to go out cycling in a storm. Ae-Sun entrusts a neighbor to look after her boys, but the woman falls asleep watching TV and never goes.
Eun-Myeong leaves the house to go after his mother, and Dong-Myeong follows suit. See, the young boy wanted a hug from his mom because she yelled at him for trying to steal candy, but she never gave him the hug. Next thing you know, his lifeless body is found near the seawall. Gwan-Sik and Ae-Sun get to grieve only for 3 days, though, because their kids blame themselves for what happened to their little brother. The parents console their young children, and eventually they have to live for the living.
Ae-Sun Becomes Village Chief
Many years later, Ae-Sun stands to become the first female deputy chief of the city. Everybody loves her, so she manages it pretty easily, but the chief is the guy she was meant to marry all those years ago, Sang-Gil. For many decades this man remains chief. Geum-Myeong goes on to go to Seoul National University, but Eun-Myeong’s quite the dud in comparison. I guess it’s like mother, like daughter, eh? After Geum-Myeong goes off to college, Ae-Sun finally stands to become the village chief. Sang-Gil thinks a woman can never defeat him, especially since she’d be the first in the whole country, but Ae-Sun does it.
Geum-Myeong’s Future
In episode 8, we move forward to Geum-Myeong’s life. We know that she’s got an on-and-off boyfriend, but unlike her mum, she won’t settle for anything (though Gwan-Sik was one of the best decisions she ever made, but you know what I mean). Geum-Myeong gets the opportunity to fly to Japan to study; however, she rejects it because she knows her family can’t afford it. Ae-Sun learns about this when Geum-Myeong tells her that her teacher offered to take a loan so Geum-Myeong could go. Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik sell off her mom’s house, the last memory Ae-Sun has of her, well, in physical form. Finally, a new chapter begins for the family.
Will Geum-Myeong make a sacrifice and marry Yeong-Beom (probably not)? Will Ae-Sun and Gwan-Sik thrive in the big city? Will Ae-Sun finally become the poet she always dreamt she would be? We’ll learn it all in When Life Gives You Tangerines volumes 3 and 4.
