growing-cosmos

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WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU TANGERINES (2025) dir. KIM WON-SEOK episode thirteen: SUCH AN UNEVEN LOVE Every time I had to walk a tightrope, my dad was always holding a net close by. "I'll catch you if you fall," he would say. I should've told him when I had the chance just how comforting his words were to me. At least once.

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"What trouble? I'm glad to do it. Having you was never hard, not even once." — 폭싹 속았수다 (2025)

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WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU TANGERINES (2025) dir. KIM WON-SEOK There was a girl in the boy's life. All his life, the boy kept the girl's world safe. - Thank you, honey. You've lived a good life. A truly great life. - Was it all right? Was our time together good? - It was more than perfect. I was so wonderful that I couldn't have asked for more.

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WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU TANGERINES (2025) dir. KIM WON-SEOK episode ten: THE STORM SWEEPS MY HEART, THE LOVE ROCKS MY HEART Mom has suffered so many great losses. Maybe that's why she worried more. She believed that always being vigilant could stop misfortunes from happening.

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WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU TANGERINES (2025) dir. KIM WON-SEOK episode nine: THE WIND GOES WHOOSH, MY HEART GOES BOO-HOO The road ahead could be a million miles long, but the greatest joy you will every have is the one in front of you.

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WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU TANGERINES (2025) dir. KIM WON-SEOK episode eight: THE MOON VANES, YET THE YOUNG HEART REMAINS Parents never have any idea of the instant when their child's heart gets wounded. If they do notice, they will try to protect their child. So God prevents them from finding out. No child can grow up without heartbreak. But God knows a father's heart will break if he finds out his child is wounded, so God makes the child keep quiet about her wounds.

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I just said it because it’s today.

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"I get burned every day, but it hurts every time."

"I just want to grow old fast. Maybe it's because it's my first time being a mom, a wife, and an adult. I don't know why everything is so though and overwhelming."

When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025) | Ep 5

Dir. Kim Won-seok

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When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025) 1.01

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WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU TANGERINES (2025) dir. KIM WON-SEOK episode four: THE BLAZING SUMMER SUNSHINE I found happiness in my own way. There was sunshine in my life, too. I've had so many picture-perfect moments.

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'Darn Abalone' by Oh Aesun from Class 3-8

[translated by me]

Day after day, abalone, abalone. Even as typhoons rage, it's abalone, abalone. More cherished than her own daughter, still abalone, abalone.

When she dives below, shouldn't she surface soon? Why then does silence stretch, leaving no news? Is it because the abalone hides, refusing to come forth, or because her breath falter, holding her under the sea?

Her dear child’s heart burns with worry as that darn abalone scorches Mother from within.

A hundred hwan earned by selling abalone. I would pay them to buy a single day’s rest for my mother.

My mother, with her aching back, my mother, coughing and weary. If only, for a hundred hwan each day I could let my mother take a rest.

"Then grow up fast. Grow up fast, and give me a hundred hwan every day."

ㅡ

OH AE SUN, When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025) EP01

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I am all caught up and I really love this drama. Multi-generational family epics never seem to be super popular on here, but I gobble them up every single time, especially when they're this well made.

I love the generations of mothers and daughters in this story. Each mother-daughter pair has a complex relationship, love and respect and resentment all tangled up. The way they hurt each other but also give each other a reason to strive feels so real. Each mother wants her daughter to live a better life than her own, and every daughter wants to realize that dream while also struggling with the pressure. I appreciate the time the drama spends on these relationships, and how the memory of Ae-sun's mother in particular propels so much of her choices that reverberate through her own daughter's life.

I love the romance, especially because it's not all shiny and happy. This is a love story between two impoverished kids doing their best to survive and build the life they want for themselves with very little means to actually do so. Their loyalty to each other and their bond forged in the hardships of their early years gives them a strong foundation to weather life's various storms. It's not a story about a passionate affair or destined soulmates; it's two regular people who chose each other to be teammates for whatever life throws at them. I find that kind of love just as moving as the swoony variety, if not more. The steadfast nature of their commitment, and the way they choose to protect each other every time, is touching.

I love the sense of community in this story, as well, and especially the group of haenyeos that look after Ae-sun after her mother's death. They don't have much power as impoverished women themselves, but they try to do what they can to protect and help her and honor her mother's wishes. And the drama doesn't shy away from the ugly parts of this kind of small and small-minded community, either, and all the shame and social stigma heaped on a woman of Ae-sun's (lack of) status. In her youth, Gwan-sik is truly the only thing standing between her and ruin, and people are cruel to her for no reason other than they can be. Even so, most of them are not painted as evil, but rather as flawed humans who are also struggling and misplacing their rage and anxiety. It's an empathetic portrayal of a lot of complex class and social dynamics, and it's really well done.

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When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025) | Ep. 1

Dir. Kim Won-seok

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First look at <이 사랑 통역 되나요?>/<Can This Love Be Translated?> a Netflix original series helmed by dir. Yoo Young-eun and written by Hong Sisters, starring Kim Seon-ho and Go Youn-jung. The series is slated for release in 4th quarter of 2025!

A heartwarming romantic comedy about the unexpected romance that blossoms between multilingual interpreter Joo Ho-jin and world-famous actress Cha Moo-hee, who are in a professional relationship.

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#hometown cha cha cha

Hometown Cha Cha Cha (2021) Starring: Shin Min Ah & Kim Seon Ho

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Behind the scenes of Kim Seon-Ho x S.T. Dupont for Arena Homme+ January 2025 issue.

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Kim Seon-Ho for S.T. Dupont

Arena Homme+ Korea, January 2025