When Life Gives You Tangerines Volume IV review: Get your tissue boxes ready for the last dance!

After making us weep for the first three volumes, the last one isn’t any different either. Here’s how!

When Life Gives You Tangerines Volume IV review: After awaiting this show for four weekends in a row and binging on 16 episodes, it’s safe to say that there simply isn’t another K-drama where I have cried so much. And it wasn’t just the crying, it was the heaviness I felt for 30 minutes after the cry session. It’s how certain dialogues, certain scenes left me vulnerable while I thought about feelings I did not want to deal with so soon. I know it sounds like I am complaining, but the truth of the hour is that watching this K-drama was one of the best experiences I have ever had. While it made me cry like a baby, it also made me look forward to weekends so I could binge on every volume in a go. It showed me what I should expect from a partner, and it reflected so much of my own life on-screen. It taught me to be more grateful to my parents, how the beauty of father-daughter relationships exist in every part of the world and just how life has different ways of surprising us. 

Volume IV picks up exactly where Volume III left us. We see Park Cheong-Seob (Kim Seon-Ho) going above and beyond to pursue Geum-Myeong. Just when she thought she would never find love again, someone even better comes along her way. He was just right enough for her to be able to be herself everyday. As Park Cheong Seob adorably pursues Geum-Myeong, he says, “Life gives you three chances to meet your soulmate, and if you pass that, you’ll only meet them in your next life.” This is something that’s going to stay with me for a really long time. That is the beauty of this show; it describes the most monotonous things in life so poetically. Volume IV also touches upon what it’s like to be the father of the bride, how we’ll all be babies for our parents no matter how old we get. The scene where Gwan-Sik tells Geum-Myeong, she can always come back to him whenever she wants - it''s bound to make any daughter cry. 

Also Read:6 pivotal takeaways from When Life Gives You Tangerines Volume III

But as we move on from Geum-Myeong and Gwan-Sik’s father-daughter chronicles, the show throws another curveball towards the main leads. Gwan-Sik and Ae-Sun give it their last shot at making enough money to support their family. No one in their family believes in taking risks but from Gwan-Sik’s new restaurant to Geum-Myeong’s new business idea, the family gives it their all to live the ultimate dream. Seeing the Yang family give it their all to bring income into the family, was relatable AF on so many levels! Isn’t this what every family strives to accomplish at the end of the day? The Yang's, just like any other family, had their good days and bad days but lived a full life regardless of the ups and downs! And finally, the part that I feared the most in the show unfolded in front me. Not only did we watch Gwan-Sik and Ae-Sun grow old, we saw Gwan-Sik slowly falling sick and becoming more and more restless by the day. It was a haunting reminder of how my parents will grow old some day as well and how death also comes as a part and parcel of life. It was heartbreaking to see Gwan-Sik die and as I cried my eyes out, I thought about everything he left behind. 

He was not only the true definition of a green flag but also defined what being ‘rich’ truly means. Him and Ae-Sun were both born poor but were wealthier than anyone else around them because they had each other. He treated her like a queen, he loved her till his very last breath, and he took care of her even after he was long gone. He filled her drawers with hair pins he always gifted her, he taped the windows so they don’t break open on a rainy day, and he emptied all their high cabinets because Ae-Sun wouldn’t be able to reach them without his help anymore. Life clearly isn't about who buys you a big house or who has the bigger car but it’s measured by who loves you the most and there’s no amount of wealth that could match up to it. He truly showed us all what being ‘rich’ actually feels like.

And as we see the curtain close on this poignant story, we see a young Gwan-Sik and Ae-Sun promising to live a life full of different experiences. It made me think how I’ll look back to mine when I’m all old and grey. But as Geum-Myeong says while closing the show, “I thank my parents for showing me what to do when life gives you tangerines” and I have to say, I agree with her. 

When Life Gives You Tangerines is currently streaming on Netflix!

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