5 Reasons Why ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ Is Making You Cry

Once in a while, a K-Drama doesn’t just sweep you off your feet; it nestles quietly into your soul. When Life Gives You Tangerines, Netflix’s newest slice-of-life offering, is one such rare gem. What begins as a deceptively simple story of a young girl growing up on the picturesque yet punishing island of Jeju slowly blooms into a rich, intergenerational saga of love, loss, sacrifice, and the quiet dignity of everyday life.

This is not a show that leans on cliffhangers or big reveals. Instead, it relies on the raw truth of emotion, of dreams crushed by circumstance, of women finding strength through hardship, and of families learning to survive without losing their softness. It’s fiction, yes, but the kind that feels real enough to hurt. The kind that doesn’t just entertain, it understands. And that understanding is what makes you cry. Not just once. But many, many times. The show’s ability to understand and empathise with the audience’s own experiences is what makes it so emotionally resonant.

At first glance, it’s a simple story, but soon, When Life Gives You Tangerines quietly unravels into an emotional whirlwind. We will break down how the show taps into deep nostalgia through shifting timelines, mirroring traits between generations, and turning everyday moments into poetry. With characters that grow on you, even the ones you disliked at first, it weaves empathy into every scene.

Here are five reasons why ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ taps into your deepest emotions and refuses to let go.

1. It Hits You With That Mother-Daughter Magic

At the core of the series is the bond between Ae-sun and her mother, both fierce women in a world that’s set up to quiet their fire. Ae-sun is the daughter of a Haenyeo, a female deep-sea diver who risks her life daily, hoping her daughter will have a future beyond poverty. Ae-sun’s own daughter, Geum-myeong, later carries that same hope on her shoulders. This echoing of dreams and sacrifices across generations is powerful. Every argument, every quiet hug, every knowing glance between these women aches with truth.

2. The Smallest Moments Carry the Heaviest Emotions

You don’t need a tragedy to cry in this show; the emotions get the best of you. It’s the way Ae-sun dances after buying a fishing boat, or how she and Gwan-sik silently fuss over their daughter when she comes home heartbroken. These are the kinds of moments that turn When Life Gives You Tangerines into poetry. The writing transforms the everyday into a canvas for profound emotion. It’s these quiet, domestic scenes that sneak up on you and break your heart most gently.

3. It Shows the Pain of Dreams Deferred and the Strength to Keep Going

Ae-sun dreams of college and poetry. Gwan-sik dreams of athletics. Both dreams get shelved because life has other plans. The show doesn’t dramatise their sacrifice, but it doesn’t minimise it either. You feel the weight of what they could have been. And yet, they keep moving. They build a life, raise children, and smile through grief. It’s heartbreak layered with resilience, the kind that makes you cry not just out of sadness, but out of sheer admiration.

4. The Generational Echoes Are Too Real

The dual timeline, with IU playing both the young Ae-sun and her daughter Geum-myeong, allows the show to hold up a mirror to how little things have changed for women over the decades. Ae-sun once says she doesn’t want her daughter to set a table, and she wants her to flip it. But later, when she watches Geum-myeong quietly serve her boyfriend’s mother, she steps in. These moments are subtle but seismic. They’re about how microaggressions survive across generations and how, finally, someone dares to say no more.

5. The Characters Become Family, Flaws and All

You’ll cry for Ae-sun and Gwan-sik, not just because of what they go through, but because they start to feel like people you know. Maybe even like your own parents. There are no villains here, just life doing what it does, throwing curveballs, sometimes in the form of a lost child, sometimes in the form of an unspoken “what if.” Yet the characters keep loving each other, clumsily, fiercely, entirely. That messy, warm humanity is what makes When Life Gives You Tangerines so unforgettable.

In the End

When Life Gives You Tangerines is a tearjerker not because it tries too hard, but because it doesn’t. It trusts you to feel. To remember your own family, your own lost dreams, your own moments of quiet joy. It’s not just one of the best K-Dramas in recent memory, it’s one of the most honest. Watch it with your heart wide open and yes, bring the tissues.

Remember your mother’s hands, rough but warm. Remember your father’s silence that said more than words. Remember how dreams can change form from poetry to parenting, from ambition to care, and still be beautiful.

And most of all, it reminds you that life, with all its heartbreak and sweetness, is worth holding close. Like the memory of a childhood fruit, or a story told by your grandmother on a rainy day.

“I thought that once you grew up, your hands and heart would naturally become calloused. But everything’s still too hot for me. I get burned every day, but it hurts every time. Am I the only fool in the world? Is there anyone else adulting just fine?”- Ae Sun

Phrases, the poetry and the way they are expressed stay with you long after they have been said. The impact lasts longer as you relate to every word and feel it deep within your own soul, relating to every small word being said. Understanding the context and how broken the reality of the characters actually is is heartbreaking, making you break down into a puddle of tears all over again. 

So yes, bring tissues. Bring your whole heart. Because When Life Gives You Tangerines will ask for it and give it back to you, full.

Written by – Aashna Vidyarthi