Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022)

What a disappointing last two episodes

I have such a mixed feeling of this drama. Up to Ep14, it was one of the perfect score 10 that made me cried so many times. However the ending of this drama was total disappointment. That’s why my review is rather low.

It is well written family drama, sportsman-women ship, school friendship, teenage first love and etc. However the drama created such an anticipation how it will end, then it crashed me. The final episode was total disappointment, especially for ML. It may have been a bitter sweet teenage first love experience for FL, but ML was already a young adult with hardship due to family issues. That is one of the reason why I hoped the ending would be a happy one. It was too much hardship for young adult to down fall financially at such a young age. It would have been much better drama if ML and FL to stay together by overcoming the difficulties. Such happy ending may be a cliché but I will give 10 if this was happy ending.

Oh boy, I just have such a bad taste in my mouth after watching such a disappointing ending. It is funny thought, I do not dislike bad ending like ‘Moon Lovers’. It was such a heartbreaking drama, But I keep watching the last episode over and over knowing I would cry so hard.

Too bad there is no way to make season 2 since characters are already in 40ish. Especially FL closed her chapter, her true love , at the very end. It would have been better if it was an open ending to bring them back together and makes happy ending at season 2. I would liked if ML meets FL at funeral and finding they are still single. Then daughter was their love child. And she was finding their parents love story in season 1. Hmmmmm I should have been the director of this drama. LOL

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Bitter Sweet Journey

Production , cinematography, world/year events and scenery were all excellent. The music/OST also was very well done.

LIKES:
The acting of both ML and FL was very good. All the actresses and actors did phenomenal jobs in their roles; the supporting cast, the cast for sporting and news events, all the extras too. The Director did an amazing job for this drama. I felt that the ML and FL had amazing chemistry, but so did all the younger couples. The friendship, love and rivalry flowed nicely throughout the storyline and plot. All the sports competitions and training about Fencing, was the best from all similar dramas. It was as if you were at the competitions yourself as the viewer. The theme of growing up to handle hardship and happiness, while never giving up on hopes and dreams was mostly well delivered. I liked how most of the relationships were concluded. They showed plenty of growth for all the main leads. I enjoyed that the story was based on the diary being read by Na Hee Do's daughter. I didn't notice if there were any "FX". I liked how they concluded or tied in the book store from beginning to end.

DISLIKES:
Baek Yi-jin's mother was very annoying and I wanted her to just shut up. Maybe it was how the writers wanted that character.
Throughout the drama there were some moments that made me say WTF [See spoilers at the end of this review]. The ending felt a little rushed and should've been changed to 2 or 3 more episodes. I think time management became an issue in some of the episodes, especially noticeable in the last 2 episodes. The ending was a little too open, based on what the viewers were fed about the ML Yi Jin and FL Hee Do.

OVERALL: Everything up until the last two episodes was great, interesting and had me enraptured. I would recommend this drama and might re-watch it in the future.

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[SPOILER ALERT ]
I liked that Baek Yi-jin's brother and Seung Wan reunited at the end, to give more depth to their characters.
I disliked that Hee Do didn't show as much growth as Yu Rim. Same with Baek Yi-jin, as a reporter he grew, but as an adult there wasn't much character growth. I was thoroughly annoyed that we don't find out who Hee Do married and had a daughter with. Having focused in the beginning on the fencing and going to the olympics for Hee Do, then at the end nothing of the stress and excitement of going to the olympics and winning gold was shown. In the end I hated that they didn't show Baek Yi-jin and Na Hee Do reuniting (even as friends) at the end and final episode. It made the adult Hee Do seem pointless. Also some of the flashbacks in the final episode, ran too long and they could've used the time better.

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