This review may contain spoilers
A masterpiece in every sense of the word (spoilers ahead)
I never posted a review but I felt that this drama deserved every bit of praise. This is the first time that I gave a K-drama a perfect 10. When Life Gives You Tangerines is truly a masterpiece. The attention to detail was so beautifully done and the music, while it wasn't to my taste, enhanced the watching experience. I cried watching every episode as I could see bits of myself in Geum-myeong and her family. Some moments were extremely hard to watch because the actors did a phenomenal job at conveying the job, especially IU. I wept during Dong-Myeong's death as I could feel Ae-sun's pain through the screen. Her potrayal as Oh Ae-Sun and Yang Guem-Myeong is so beautifully raw and realistic. I also love how the characters and their dynamics feel real to the point where it sometimes feels like I'm intruding a family moment. Yang Gwan Sik is literally one of the best male leads ever written because of the way he protects his wife, loves his son, and sets the standard for his daughter. Eun-Myeong's storyline also broke my heart a little bit because he was just a child who wanted to feel special on his birthdays like his sister (which made sense why he was always so salty) but instead, he walked around the topic of his birthday like it was a sensitive issue. I broke down when Oh Aesun's mother saw her poems because she still came to see her daughter. This K-drama not only feels like a love letter to all mothers and daughters who broke the generational cycle but husbands and fathers who fight against the patriachial norms to let their wives and daughters "flip the table".In the end, When Life Gives You Tangerines not only feels like a poem written by Oh Ae-Sun through her support system but a poem written by life to give us hope to go on and hug the people around us.
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