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On March 10, 2025, online fans drew notable parallels between IU's latest drama, When Life Gives You Tangerines, and the plot of her 2024 music video, Love wins all. Both works explore themes of enduring love amidst adversity, prompting audiences to reflect on the resilience of human connections.
When Life Gives You Tangerines, released on Netflix on March 7, 2025, is a South Korean romantic drama set in 1960s Jeju Island. The series chronicles the life of Oh Ae-sun (IU) from her childhood through various stages of her life, highlighting her relationship with Yang Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum).
Released on January 24, 2024, Love wins all features IU & BTS' Taehyung. Directed by Um Tae-hwa, the video is set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world where mysterious floating cubes, known as "Nemo," hunt humans. However, their love for each other helps them have the last few good moments together before they die in each other's embrace.
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The audience was quick to notice and discuss these parallels. Online forums and social media platforms are abuzz with fans drawing connections between the two narratives. One fan wrote on X:
"This is making me cry again"
Some viewers have expressed that both works offer a profound commentary on the lead characters' love for each other against all odds.
"I do agree, Ive been thinking of love wins all song when saw every cut vidio of WLGYT, like why don't love wins all being WLGYT ost bruhhh," a fan wrote.
"I've been thinking the sameeeeee!! I also think "shh" was inspired by this drama. The strange love hate relationship between the mother and daughter," another fan added.
"I want WLGYT edit with the winning album as a bgm pls," another fan said.
Some fans also mentioned how IU's track, Shh.., from The Winning has several parallels with When Life Gives You Tangerines as the song speaks of women finding their power across different generations.
"I have been listening to love wins all since i've finished when the life gives you tangerines. I immediately associated the song with their story in my mind," a fan remarked.
"Amazing! Now someone write about Shh and its parallelism to When Life Gives You Tangerines! there has to be a striking yet intricate layer of similarity- vaguely u can kind of point it out, but particularly u may have to wait till all seasons out, not just “spring” volume," another fan added.
Parallels between When Life Gives You Tangerines and Love wins all explored
When Life Gives You Tangerines delves into their personal growth, the socio-economic challenges Ae-sun and Gwan-sik face, and the evolution of their bond over several decades. Despite their glaring poverty, Gwan-sik's life revolves around Ae-sun. His strong devotion to her and his wish to support her in her dreams drive the show's plot.
The show is characterized by its slow-paced, slice-of-life storytelling, focusing on the subtleties of daily life rather than high-stakes drama. Ae-sun sacrifices her dream of becoming a literary poet as women didn't have any opportunities in the 1960s. She becomes a housewife and tolerates abuse from her in-laws quietly so that she can provide her daughter with a different future.
Gwan-sik, on the other hand, works to his bone so that he can earn for his wife and daughter. He gives up on his dream of becoming a gold medal athlete just so he can marry Ae-sun and take care of her.
Even though Ae-sun gives up on her dream of an education, Gwan-sik works harder to earn some extra money to buy advanced GED books for Ae-sun, taking care of her dreams even though she left them behind.
Meanwhile, in Love wins all music video, Ji-hye (IU) and Tae-joon (Taehyung) portray a deaf and mute couple. Ji-hye is a deaf and mute woman, just like Tae-joon. However, he is also half-blind in one eye.
As the world comes to an end, the couple tries to escape "Nemo," the hunting alien ship, and seeks refuge in an abandoned building. They discover a camcorder that allows them to see an alternate reality in which they are free from their physical impairments.
In this imagined world, they enjoy simple pleasures: sharing a romantic dinner, trying on wedding attire, having their wedding, and capturing joyful moments. Their brief respite is shattered when the Nemo locates them, leading to their implied deaths.
Both When Life Gives You Tangerines and Love wins all portray couples who traverse treacherous grounds but persevere as long as they have each other.
While Ae-sun and Gwan-sik stand toe-to-toe against society, economic trouble, and personal loss for decades, dwelling on the capacity of their love, Tae-joon and Ji-hye face their impending deaths in a deserted world, where every moment together is a break from life's pain.
The use of visual metaphors in both of the works cements their thematic alignment. In the music video Love wins all, the camcorder acts as an object that enables these two to bridge through an otherwise desolate universe into one, where love isn't scourged by boring and bitter problems of living.
That in itself reflects the very message in When Life Gives You Tangerines, where Ae-sun and Gwan-sik harness their love into a lens through which they see life challenges to keep up against.
When Life Gives You Tangerines is streaming on Netflix, and it will release episodes 5 to 8 on March 14, 2025. Love wins all is from IU's comeback album, The Winning, and is available on YouTube.
