olvanne

[olvanne]

If you want to watch something where it doesn’t end when the two love interests get together, and you wanna see them in their married life and have kids and grow old together, go through obstacles and hardships throughout life side by side, may I recommend the k-drama ‘when life gives you tangerines’.

[olvanne]

I finished watching 'when life gives you tangerines' today. And I love reading through tumblr posts about it, seeing what others love and appreciate about it, what they've noticed, quotes that resonate and scenes that touch the heart. I loved this k-drama.

[olvanne]

I began watching 'when life gives you tangerines' just because I saw IU was in it (knew nothing else about the k-drama) and I'm so glad that I did. It's beautiful, bittersweet and heartwarming.

[olvanne]

I’ve nearly finished ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ — it’s a slice-of-life k-drama that is set on Jeju Island, and follows three generations as they navigate their struggles, carrying resilience and hope in every scene. No grand plot, no larger-than-life characters—just ordinary people facing hardships and misfortune, holding onto dreams and hope, and finding moments of happiness and better days along the way.

It isn’t a tragic tale of poverty, nor a story where every wish comes true. Some dreams flourish, others fade—no matter how hard you fight for them. The path you long for may not be the one you walk, but even the unexpected road holds moments of joy, love, and a life worth living - just as these characters find, despite their hardships. Better days do come, but with them arrive new struggles, and new obstacles to overcome. I love how this K-drama embraces these quiet, bittersweet truths, capturing life as it is—imperfect, unpredictable, yet deeply human.

[olvanne]

when i say i want a cowboy-

i really mean i want a love that's wild and queer and fucks up my hair. i mean that in summer, i want to spend our time laying in the blazing star hills and blowing like a smokestack through cards, guitar strings, and canabis blossoms. i want to kiss them and it to taste like hemp and lemonade, warm like a horse's flank against my lips. but i'd settle for a cowboy buckle and a lasso pulled tight against my wrists, being unable to get through brokeback mountain because they were too busy shoving their tongue in my mouth. loving them slow like a drip of saliva from soft lips thick with drawl. take me where the cars can't go. where the midwest fades to sunbleached billboards and singing crickets. unstable tents with even more unstable fires and stolen corn from the farm behind my house. out there in the wild bluestem prairies, newspaper is just kindling, not an omen. i woke up this morning in a cold sweat thinking about drones and microplastics; i used their flannel as a pillowcase and went back to bed. if they don't smell like sweat and hope i don't want them. if the government says that guinness, butter, sugar, all the little things that make life livable will kill me, i at least want to die by a lover. i'd love them like i'm lawless because soon i'll be illegal.

[olvanne]

She clings to Ivan out of a desperate need for love and connection rather than genuine compatibility. You know the dating, a starving person will accept anything. Working as a stripper she’s objectified daily. She’s starving. And so she fell for Ivan’s false promises.

[olvanne]

She doesn't have sex with him to repay him for the ring. It’s because she feels something for him in that moment, she can tell he sees and accepts her (Anora, not Ani), and it freaks her out. So she tries to assume control by having sex, keeping him at a distance and making him into just another guy who only wants her for her body. But he disproves that by not actually participating in the sex and then trying to kiss her. That shattering of her worldview, combined with the stress she just went through, finally makes her defenses crumble. Note that she jumps him after the line about his grandma's car, not after he gives her the ring

- one reddit user’s interpretation

[olvanne]

What had seemed like a somewhat light-hearted search for Vanya was much deeper for Anora - it was an almost desperate longing to prove that she was more than simply a sex object, by proving Vanya truly loved her and would choose to stay with her.

- one reddit user’s interpretation

[olvanne]

Here you have a young girl just trying to survive and also being tough, but in the end, she breaks down and showcases how exhausting it all is.

- one reddit user’s thoughts

[olvanne]

The beauty of Sean Baker’s ending is that it’s open to interpretation and there’s no one absolute answer.

[olvanne]

When Igor tells her the car was his grandmother’s, she sees someone who is, and has been, kind to her - unlike most of the men in her life: the men at the club, the ones who use and take. Ivan, with his deception and abandonment. Toros, speaking of her like she was nothing. The henchmen, treating her like property. Galina, though she’s not a man, and her demeaning dismissals.

She feels some sort of sadness in that moment, but also, and more strongly, gratitude. She doesn’t transactionally repay him for the ring, but wants to genuinely thank him. She uses the only thing she’s been made to believe she has to offer - her beauty, her body, her sexuality - to thank him.

(This turning point occurs when he mentions that the car was his grandmother’s. Earlier, we see interactions that highlight how the men she’s met disregard their family. The client in the beginning that hopes his family doesn’t find out he’s with her, and her friend talks about a client who compares her to his 18-year-old daughter; Ivan marrying a “hooker” just to piss his family off. When Ivan mentions meeting her family, Anora only mentions her mother and sister—no mention of her father.

Perhaps Igor is just too poor to have afforded his own car. But the way he said it was his grandmother’s, you sense the affection he holds for his grandmothers and that he misses her. These interactions contrast with Igor, who isn’t like the others. His gentleness stands out, and Anora recognizes it. She admires this about him deeply. So she doesn’t just want to thank him (although this is the main reason); she also wants to do something for someone whose gentleness and kindness she deeply appreciates.)

But when Igor tries to kiss her, something shifts. He doesn’t just want to enjoy some sex with a pretty woman. In that moment, Anora sees someone who truly wants her, someone who feels something for her. Whether that something is genuine care, a recognition of what she’s been forced to endure, or sorrow at the humiliation and pain she has suffered. Maybe, from the kiss, there’s something else too—maybe he feels for her in a way that’s deeper, something close to tenderness.

After everything, after the relentless sexualization and dehumanization—not just in the past day by Ivan, the family, the family’s henchmen, but throughout her entire career—having someone who sees her as more than that, who cares, who sees her pain and feel sorry for her - is overwhelming. She breaks down.

But in that breaking, there’s also something else—comfort. The safety to let herself unravel, to let her emotions spill out, to exist beyond the role she has always been forced to play. Not to smile, not to move and speak seductively, but to cry. To finally express the hopelessness and pain in her soul in front of someone who isn’t expecting her to perform.

- my own interpretation of the ending

[olvanne]

In the final scene, where she feels so defeated and has accepted that she is nothing more than a piece of meat, she uses the only thing she has - her sexuality - to transactionally repay Igor for the ring. When he tried to kiss her, she realised that real human connection is possible, and after everything leading up to that point, it breaks her.

- one reddit user’s interpretation

[olvanne]

I got to watch Anora in the cinema today !! I loved it so much.

[olvanne]

Anora experiences for the first time a relationship that is not transactional and someone genuine. Thus, the breakdown is a sign of comfortability as she feels she can show her genuine self in front of someone who isn't expecting her to act as the sexualised object she's been throughout her entire career.

- one reddit user's interpretation

[olvanne]

Ivan saw Anora as a fleeting distraction - someone to fill the time before he returned home, a tool to provoke his mother, and ultimately, someone disposable. He wanted her, but he never loved her. And so, Anora’s tragedy isn’t just about losing Ivan, but also realising what she thought was real was never real at all.

[olvanne]

No matter how much external power someone may have over you, there’s always an inner strength that can’t be taken away unless you allow it.

[olvanne]

bitch this is all you’re gonna get. this life, this face, this body. you better not ‘maybe in another universe’ your way out of everything. sit your ass down and face this. go make tea and have a picnic and read a goddamn book. kiss your loved ones, send that damn text, and hug your siblings. this is all you’re gonna get.