From chaos to comfort: How When Life Gives You Tangerines presents a raw and real look at motherhood

Netflix’s When Life Gives You Tangerines has become one of the superhit K-dramas. The series follows the story of Ae-sun, who lives in Jeju Island but dreams of becoming a poet someday. It's a poignant tale of the hardships she faced and her resilience, which helped her overcome them all.

Ae-sun and Gwan-sik’s love story might be the core of the Korean series, but aside from that, When Life Gives You Tangerines also portrays an honest and raw version of motherhood. Whether adhering to traditions or attempting to break away from them, Ae-sun, Gwang-rye, and Geum-myeong present different yet authentic perspectives on motherhood.

More on this in our story.

The unrefined look at motherhood in When Life Gives You Tangerines

The K drama is divided into four parts, which show Ae-sun (IU) and Gwan-sik’s (Park Bo-gum) life through four seasons and the trials and tribulations they had to face while raising their family. However, it is not just Ae-sun and Gwan-sik’s love story that made the series popular, but also the depiction of mothers and their struggles through three generations.

At first, we meet Ae-sun's mother, Gwang-rye (Yeom Hye-ran), a haenyeo, who lived her life bound in traditions and working hard for her kids. In the 1950s, not many would have felt like breaking the traditional living in a small Island and hence, Gwang-rye portrayed a motherhood that wasn’t free of restrictions. However, Ae-sun’s ambitions and love for her mother had changed her heart before she died. Her death was another flaw of tradition, as she was a haenyeo and spent most of her life harvesting sea life from the ocean.

While Gwang-rye struggled with traditions, her daughter Ae-sun tried to break free from them. Ae-sun was a rebellious child, and it did not change even when she became a mother. From fighting with her in-laws to not letting her daughter become a Haenyeo to trying her best to keep Geum-myeong from spending her whole life in the kitchen like her, she ensured, through sheer determination, that her daughter would achieve what she couldn’t.

From letting a child ride a bicycle to doing everything they could to send her to college and later abroad, When Life Gives You Tangerines depicted the sacrifices it might take for a mother to make sure their daughters live a better life than them. That’s what Ae-sun and Gwang-rye tried to do. They wanted their daughters to live a better life and not become like them.

Apart from that, with Geum-Myeong becoming a mother, we also encountered motherhood in modern times. Geum-myeong wanted to achieve her dreams before becoming a mother. She, like her mother and grandmother, was not going to sacrifice her dreams, depicting the modern take on family planning.

Beyond the sacrifices and hardships, When Life Gives You Tangerines also depicts the complex relationship between a mother and daughter. From Gwang-rye’s hesitation in accepting her daughter’s love for her to Ae-sun trying to be more involved in her daughter’s life, the K drama presents a unique and unfiltered look at motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship.

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Don't forget to watch When Life Gives You Tangerines, now streaming on Netflix.

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