When Life Gives You Tangerines is in the same genre as Reply 1988 and Our Blues.

Tell me about it. I was in a drama slump before Tangerines … and now back in slump.

I just can’t start anything fluffy at all. The likely step is watching non-emotional stuff and three choices I’ve come up with: Big Bet, Dong Jae or Doubt. Any thoughts, my Beanie Friends?

For those who want something as thoughtful as Tangerines, time to watch My Ahjusshi if you haven’t watched it yet.

I guess as a fresque of a long period of time, Pachinko could work.

Ok, I'm going to tackle this in two parts and maybe something will hit.

First, long-spanning kind-of-epic dramas that center around families or romances: As others have said, Reply 1988 is the first one that comes to mind, and probably nails the tone in a way that is most similar. But it also makes me think of Mr. Sunshine in some ways, since you get to follow the characters and their relationships for a long time through many hardships.

BUT if we're just looking for things that made me laugh and cry a lot, it's a wider field! I'd put Move to Heaven in this category - the central relationship between uncle and nephew is amazing as it grows, and you get windows into other peoples' relationships through the trauma cleaning business. I also laughed and cried a ton in The Uncanny Counter which, despite all the super hero/demon stuff, is actually a coming of age story about finding your people and your motivation to keep going. And then for a romance how about Just Between Lovers/Rain or Shine? It's got complicated family dynamics, people trying to deal with the fallout from events they had no control over, and a really sweet central couple.

Way Back Love!! If 🍊 Tangerines 🍊 squeezed our hearts and eyes alike 😭💗 with its epic storytelling and hi-key emotions, so did Way Back Love with its deft handling of a sensitive topic with a lot of heart. ❤ Obviously it was a low budget production and had none of the large scale sceneries of the Netflix wonder, but Way Back Love hits ALL the right notes - emotional and lacrimal. 😂 The drama's handling of the past and present timelines in seamless storytelling with heartfelt moments weaved in was both masterful and engaging. The drama never veered towards heavy melodrama and had quite a few surprisingly comic moments but still managed to tug the heartstrings. The lack of production value in no way affected the story and the way it unfolded and the character growth was cathartic and satisfying. With a handful of characters in the drama, all were well delineated and added their own charm to the story. It was truly a moving experience.

Are there any dramas that did what Tangerines 🍊 did?

The answer is no.

While there were some that were similar, Tangerines as a whole (the production, the story, the actors) was in a class by itself

Dear My Friends, for your crying pleasure.

I finished Tangerines on Tuesday night and Wednesday night (once the swelling of my eyelids was mostly gone) it felt so much like, where are all my friends? I miss them ❤️

I’d watch the Italian film Cinema Paradiso which is the movie they saw (twice) in the drama. It’s my #1 favorite film of ever and I almost passed out when it started on the cinema screen (that should have been my Squee of the week!). They screened the original (1988, won the Oscar for best foreign film) for his mom and then later they each probably saw the Directors Cut (2002). The original is better and and then you can look up the OST by Ennio Morricone who was one of the great film composers. It’s also about the passage of time and love, so much love.

I’d also recommend Reply ‘88.

i'm so bored with not much to watch i'm doing Duolingo - bouncing between japanese and spanish (spanish to earn hearts because i don't pay to play)... tried korean and chinese -- they are super hard!

Hi, bye Mama has some very sad parts as the husband really did love the wife and the mum was struggling too but there were some funny parts with the ghosts too.

It's not a k-drama, but I think the c-drama The Bond gives similar nostalgic vibes, but it didn't need to make the audience cry. It is an excellent show.

From Korea I highly recommend Twinkling Watermelon (father-son relationship), My Perfect Stranger (mother-daughter relationship) and 25-21 (just because it's very good and most part of the show takes place in 1999-2000). Also Go Back Couple (very good balance between comedy and melodrama. It also is about motherhood).

I did not watch WLGYT, but the drama I immediately thought of for this prompt was Hi, Bye Mama. I would both cry my eyes out and laugh out loud most episodes. On top of a great cast (Lee Kyu-Hyung in a lead role!), it was a fun yet heart wrenching story about mothers/daughters, love, loss and grief.