CGI Or Real? — Park Bo Gum Talks About His Iconic Swimming Scene In “When Life Gives You Tangerines”
When Life Gives You Tangerines has successfully set a new standard for romance in K-Dramas with its iconic lead characters, Ae Soon and Gwan Sik. The younger versions of the couple were played by IU and Park Bo Gum, respectively.
Since the show’s release, many of its romance scenes have been going viral on social media, leaving netizens swooning. One of them is a scene where Gwan Sik quite literally crosses an ocean to get to Ae Soon after jumping off the ship that was supposed to take him from Jeju to the mainland.
romeo and juliet who? i only know gwansik and aesun 😩
he took the “I'll swim every ocean just to be with you” quite literally#WhenLifeGivesYouTangerines pic.twitter.com/qDnE4RIF3q
— daisy han (@kdramadaisy) March 10, 2025
isn't it crazy how gwanshik left when aesun told him to but the second he heard her crying voice calling his name, he jumped off a moving ship and swam back to her? no fictional man will ever come close to the devotion gwanshik has for aesun#WhenLifeGivesYouTangerines pic.twitter.com/lJYWPU7wzK
— 𓇼 (@ruvIsly) March 8, 2025
get you a man who will jump off a moving boat and swim back to you.. real kdrama television #WhenLifeGivesYouTangerines #WhenLifeGivesYouTangerinesEp3 pic.twitter.com/44zEAIq39R
— lin (@soowolz) March 7, 2025
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the scene has created its own separate fanbase among audiences. In a recent YouTube video by Netflix, Park Bo Gum talked about how they filmed this iconic scene.
In the YouTube video, the main cast of Life Gives You Tangerines were rewatching some of the most memorable parts of the show, offering their commentaries on it. During the swimming scene, IU was left in awe as she exclaimed at Park, “You actually swam in the ocean!” He confirmed, answering, “I did.”
Park Bo Gum then clarified that though the scene might look like CGI, it was completely real. He didn’t even use a body double— it was just him and his incredible swimming skills that the camera captured. “I was actually in the middle of the ocean,” he explained, highlighting that he indeed swam from mid-ocean to the breakwater.
When IU asked Park when he learned to swim, the actor giddily responded, “Since I was born.” His reply left his co-stars baffled.
Recalling the filming process, Park shared that he loved how the senior actors were cheering loudly for him while he was swimming.
Actress Moon So Ri was so impressed by Park’s swimming scene that she wondered, “Should he have gone to the Olympics?” IU agreed wholeheartedly.
This iconic scene ended with an iconic ad-lib. Read more about it here:
