When Life Gives You Tangerine, It Gets Into Trouble For "Defaming" And Bullying Park Bo Gum

Worthy of being a hit movie, "When Life Gives You Tangerines" suddenly caused controversy because of a share related to the male lead Park Bo Gum. Many people felt it was unfair on his behalf.

Recently, Park Bo Gum is the name that netizens across Asia affectionately call "national husband" because of his excellent performance in the movie "When Life Gives You Tangerines", co-starring with IU.

He plays Gwan Sik, a man who has loved Ae Soon with all his heart since childhood. Gwan Sik's unspoken, delicate feelings and sacrifices make the audience "absolutely fall in love". Park Bo Gum, with his handsome appearance, tanned skin and warm smile, has therefore become the ideal model in the eyes of countless women.

Most recently, the director of "When Life Gives You Tangerines" - Kim Won Seok shared about the journey to create the character Gwan Sik. In which, revealing how the crew tried to make Park Bo Gum "ugly" is causing fierce controversy.

According to Conrad Seoul, director Kim believed that Park Bo Gum's handsome face was the most difficult thing to match for the role. For this reason, he tried many ways to change his appearance, including tanning and gaining weight for the male god Park.

Bo Gum himself also shared about how he was "made ugly" in the film: "For this project, the makeup team applied dark foundation to my entire body, from face to toe. They worked hard to create the look of someone who had lived in Jeju for a long time and had been tanned by the sun. I also gained a lot of weight for the role. When I watched the film, I thought I looked firmer than expected, although my face still looked slim. I gained about 4-5 kg."

On forums, Korean netizens reacted quite strongly to director Kim Won Seok's statement. They said that the view that "Park Bo Gum's handsome face is the hardest thing to fit the role" is not true. Because in the movie, the character Gwan Sik is described as "tall, handsome" while Ae Soon is "short, rude". Being ugly is completely unnecessary for the character's setting.

Meanwhile, international netizens were more harsh. On platform X, many posts quoted Park Bo Gum's sharing about having to tan his skin and gain weight, along with questions and questioning Korean aesthetic taste.

Although the debate about the overly imposed and rather strict beauty standards in the entertainment industry has exploded and is not over yet, the male god Park is still receiving many compliments thanks to his efforts to renew his image to look like a real worker, a real fisherman (and handsome).

Previously, Park Bo Gum's near-disappearance from the latter part, especially Act 3 (episodes 9-12) of "When Life Gives You Tangerines", also caused a stir in public opinion. According to the plot, this period shifts the focus to Ae Soon and Gwan-sik in middle age and old age (played by Moon So-ri and Park Hae-joon), while also exploring the relationship between daughter Geum-myeong (played by IU again) and boyfriend Young-bum (Lee Jun-young).

As a result, Park Bo Gum's performance as the young Gwan-sik only appeared sporadically in flashbacks, creating the feeling that the character was gradually withdrawn from the main flow of the story. Many viewers questioned whether Park Bo Gum was really the male lead throughout, or just playing a leading role in the first part.

Fans expressed disappointment in expecting a full and consistent storyline for Park Bo Gum's character. However, some also said that the director's storytelling choice - by letting older actors take on the later parts - reflects maturity and life cycles that are true to the film's message.

With a few more episodes to go, the audience is still expecting Bo Gum's memorable return in the final scenes, to complete the emotional journey and bring a profound ending to the young character Gwan-sik.

Kim Seon Ho "robbed" 2 male leads "When life gives you tangerines", revealing private life Kim Oanh13:36:28 01/04/2025Despite only appearing in the second half of the film, Kim Seon Ho still won the hearts of the audience, becoming an unexpected highlight of When Life Gives You Tangerines - a work that is taking Asia by storm.