When Life Gives You Tangerines

The story begins on Jeju Island in the 1960s. Oh Ae-sun is a bold, quick-witted girl who wants to be a poet, and Yang Gwan-sik is a fisherman's son who has loved her since childhood. The series follows them through about 50 years on Jeju and in Seoul and Busan, told through their daughter Geum-myeong.

IU plays both young Ae-sun and grown-up Geum-myeong. It was written by Lim Sang-choon and directed by Kim Won-seok.

It won four prizes at the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards: Best Drama, Best Screenplay (Lim Sang-choon), Best Supporting Actor (Choi Dae-hoon) and Best Supporting Actress (Yeom Hye-ran). On Netflix it reached No. 1 on the global non-English TV chart in March 2025.

Viewers say the whole family can watch it together, and many admit it made them cry more than once.

It's a Netflix original, on Netflix in many countries; check your region. The 16 episodes came out four at a time each Friday from March 7 to 28, 2025, so each block of four works like one act of a story.

The Korean title is Jeju dialect, roughly 'thank you for all your hard work'. The English title plays on 'when life gives you lemons', swapped for Jeju's famous tangerines.