Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022)

What if it did all work out, for at least a few golden years?

The nostalgia and and wistful longing is painfully strong in this drama. Targeted at adults, it explores common what ifs from teen-years:
1) What if the popular, cold bully in high school turned out to be my best friend?
2) What if that handsome older guy who I have a huge crush on, actually was pure of heart and waited for me?
3) What if I actually could be world class using a talent from my teen years?

Credit to the show, not all of these "what ifs" end up happily.

With the world we live in now, it is painful to look back on such golden times and this emphasis adds another layer of emotional connection for the viewer. Credit to actually honoring the professions featured (fencing and reporting) and not just giving superficial treatment to cut to the romance bits. I was inspired enough by the show to checkout some fencing on YouTube!

The acting for Na Hee-Do is a bit over the top at the beginning likely to create a believable teen and leave room for growth. By the third or fourth episode, I thought Kim Tae-Ri settled into the role wonderfully, and I became extremely attached to her character. Baek Yi-Jin is played a bit more subtly, and I must say Nam Joo-Hyuk at this point has had a great career of portraying angst, protectiveness and 'holding back' strong emotions.

I really really liked two of the songs on the soundtrack which is rare for me for a modern drama. I especially liked Your Existence by Wonstein and Very, Slowly by Bibi.

I grade on other criteria as well:

Complex Themes: 7.5
Sometimes life does not go as planned, but the journey can be one to remember. Make sure you cherish those who care and support you. Plateaus happen, but just around the corner could be the success of your dreams. Relationships can be work yes, but they shouldn't make you feel like your life is on hold.

Character Growth: 7.5
Na Hee-Do is the guiding light and has strong moral convictions at the start and doesn't so much grow as come to terms at the very end with the lesson that not everything can work out through sheer determination alone. Baek Yi Jin is the one who grows from being cynical and entitled to being inspired by Na Hee-Do to be more earnest and to seize life.

Complex roles for women/between women: 9.5
There's excellent roles for women and amongst women especially the complex relationship between Na Hee-Do and her mother, and the friendship/rivalry between Na Hee-Do and Ko Yu-Rim. Both allow for a mix of complex emotions and resentments and a lot of screen time.

Cinematic/Production Quality: 9
Excellent as we've come to expect from these dramas with a fair amount of outdoor shooting and a good amount of different sets. Some experimentation with framing scenes in interesting ways such as from the back. The fencing scenes were top notch.

*** A note on the age difference portrayed. I am disappointed the focus of the story is in the ages where the romance is squicky and inappropriate e.g. Na Hee-Do is in school, living with her mom, and in a completely different development stage than Baek Yi jin.

In addition, in real life, older guys who can't make it in the real world and come back to their hometown to hang out with teenage girls are huge, walking red flags.

As the actors were actually much older, and there was a big emphasis on slowing the romantic part of their relationship until Na Hee-Do was more grown up, I wasn't so offended by the inappropriate ages that I turned it off.

However, just focusing the show on a couple years later would have made this much less problematic without sacrificing much.

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I award this drama as the best acting to all the cast

The drama contains Pure emotions and true side of a teenager. (I dont know about baek yi jin as i am a teen rn) It have those beautiful scenes and beautiful relation between each character.
Romance is there, Comedy is there, Slice of life is there, Chemistry is there.
It was a really good play between the leads. Kim tae ri did a good job for her role, She is similar to Na hee do irl too. Nam joo hyuk helped this drama score alot because of his actinggg. When he was in love with na hee do it made feel so third wheeling.
Also Their friends made its 1000 times better. The struggle of starting from a poor family and how she over comes is simply portrayed by ko yu rim was touching too. Overall do not rely on this review just go and watch. It is not as i have said too as these are my pov only. Go watch and write yours too.
Many people seem to not like the drama just because of the ending. Well the ending was pretty obvious right from the first episode.

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Crashing and burning

I really enjoyed the drama initially, but a few moments stole it's essence, making it a huge disappointment instead.

While the portrayal of friendship throughout the years warmed my heart, the depiction of the romantic relationship between our main protagonists left it somewhat broken. There were two aspects that I found particularly disappointing:

1) The part where the older Na Hee Do (NHD) doesn't seem to remember going to the beach with her friends, which is such a core memory of her adolescence. I understand they wanted to convey how nothing lasts forever and how, at some point, we may desire to capture a moment and freeze it in time. However, most people remember the pinnacle moments in their lives.

2) Although I understand that this drama wasn't primarily about the main protagonists getting together at the end and was meant to showcase NHD's first love and subsequent breakup, I felt that the reasoning behind their breakup wasn't strong enough. It's hard for me to get over how easily they gave up on such a profound "love." Baek Yi Jin was going through a challenging period, striving for change, and was understandably not available for NHD. She, on the other hand, was busy with her training, and the two had little time to spend together. NHD's rationale for breaking up with Baek Yi Jin, citing that she didn't want to live her life waiting for him and then getting disappointed, made sense, given her mother's career-driven choices. However, her other reason for the breakup, which was that he didn't share what he was going through, seemed a bit harsh. Baek Yi Jin likely didn't want her to suffer alongside him, as some people find it difficult to express their emotions to their partners. Their was a lack of understanding on NHD's part and her behavior was insensitive towards Baek Yi Jin work struggles.
I felt that if they truly loved each other, they could have taken a break, given each other space as they settled into their new beginnings, and then attempted to rekindle their relationship. Even Yu Rim and Ji Woong managed a long-distance relationship because they didn't give up on each other. Yu Rim's father wasn't around all the time due to work, but her parents still made their relationship work. So, Na Hee Do and Baek Yi Jin could have ended up together if they had put in a bit more effort, which was almost negligible - a disappointing fact considering all they had been through together.

This drama held so much promise, but unfortunately, the last few episodes left me disappointed. It was in the final 4-5 episodes that the charm seemed to fade. While the humor remained entertaining, the overall atmosphere took on a more somber and gloomy tone.

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heart and inspiration

“The things I have can’t be lost. Such as my dream, and my aspiration.”

Na Hee-do says, as she throws the flower to the sky and walks past something that the adults can worry about. Little does she know, that she will walk us through sixteen episodes and five years of growth, friendships, pursuing her dream, love, and memories of her unblemished transition from child to adult. I went into Twenty-Five Twenty-One practically blind, and did not expect them to take Hee-do and Yi-jin through so much of these photographed and diaried moments that, as adult Hee-do says, are brief but are what makes a long life shine. Last October I experienced My Mister, the only other work of television that has rent my heart in two full quaking pieces, and one that also highlighted the strength and purity of relationship that two people facing uncertain points in their lives could bring to one another. I had seen many Korean movies, so was very well familiar with how Korean screen work elevates human emotion, but more importantly, how with the nation’s cultural backdrop places an emphasis on the past, and remembering the sad events that have contributed to their present backbone. What I was not prepared for was first, unlike most of those movies, and second, unlike all of the previous Korean dramas I had seen and sampled, how realistic it handled the characters’ circumstances, interactions, and emotional moments. It seems to me, as it likely does by now to many others, that Korea manages to get at our emotional cores more fitfully, perfectly, than anyone else; and so My Mister not only brought me weeping for its characters’ sadnesses, but in its journey uplifted them, and through them, myself as the viewer who could only bear witness. As with My Mister, I came in a fan already of one of the main leads (IU), here with Kim Tae-ri. She is—to put it in as true a way as possible—breathtaking. The first few episodes alone were me trying to get over the fact that at age 31, she had played an 18-year-old, but as I couldn’t stop watching her smile so purely, laugh with her youth, and upend drinking fountains I fell completely into her character and as Hee-do grew older, I was only watching Hee-do, and sixteen episodes later, I am not watching Hee-do anymore. Her roles in Little Forest and The Handmaiden well displayed the lightness of the persona she brought to the scene. Imagine that but as light itself has a source, that source is Twenty-Five Twenty-One. While I have yet to see her completely in Mr. Sunshine, I have no doubt that just as Leonardo DiCaprio perhaps found his crystallization in The Wolf of Wall Street, Kim Tae-ri has done so here, in portraying a character in the best and sweetest spirit that she can be. Even if you have no idea who she is, that doesn’t matter; for like Baek Yi-jin, you too will be inspired, and find resolution to keep walking forward, in merely watching her. Having seen my good share of Japan’s shounen protagonists, who equip us with amazing dreams and work towards them in motivational (but hard to follow) arcs, as again the present day Hee-do says, progress takes place in steps, and witnessing Na Hee-do keep at attaque. touche. point. or without, because she loves fencing, and never gives up, gives me motivation like I have never felt before. Just as Baek Yi-jin tells Hee-do, in her presence he can stand on top of the world, he can do anything, after a number of episodes and during, I said aloud or thought to myself, I feel like I can do anything. I had been somebody who, for the past six years, have sought out in fiction those stories that I not only adore, but that can keep me going as stories, which has often been a tenuous mountain. For they are only stories, and when watching or reading these characters whom I love, I am not really living in the real world. I can go to bed at night thinking about how the episode or chapter ended, and have to wake up the next day facing real problems of my own. And I am going to have to do that tomorrow, besides which carrying a heart both empty and boundlessly inspired after Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin’s moments. But I feel like—for the first time, truly—I can do that for real. This Korean drama is transcendent. Not only did it take me through, unlike My Mister, five years practically in full, but even beyond its presiding song of love, the purest kind there is, in all its ways—but its most important theme, that of cherishing, remembering, and coming to where you are today because of moments in the past. These moments don’t go on forever. But they did happen, and you can cherish them in the moment, remember them later, and continue to live. Continue to love.

Now I have just the rest of my life ahead of me—and I feel like I can do it.

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Pure and real love

For me the ultimate romance/sad drama ever.
The acting is so good, and the characters fit the actor like a snug globe.

I also like that is about a type of love that no one talk about, that love when you don't need or demand anything from the other person, when you just love.
There really no words to express how much I love this drama, for me is in a different level just because is makes you feel something so pretty.

Kim Tae Ri and Nam Joo-Hyuk are such amazing actors, that it doesn't feel like a drama or like a super production, instead it feels real, as the series develop you fall in love with them in a wonderful way.

Plis wacht it

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Can love stand it all?

It was one of the series that made me think a lot about the end of my adolescence and the beginning of my youth, my expectations for the future and my dreams.
I think anyone who is already in their 20s may even realize that history connects very strongly to our lives.
And not just in love, in everything.
Our friendships are different from the ones we had in elementary school, in high school, in college...
Life is an eternal farewell and an eternal encounter (of new people) (and reunions)
We let people go, and we accept new people into our lives.
I think the main lesson of Dorama is to remember with affection each stage lived, and that moment that yesterday is difficult, tomorrow will become a brief, or beautiful memory.

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Made me cry my eyeballs out but would do it again cause its bloody good

Firstly this drama is so freaking amazing 😭😭😭
The way the rs grew between the 2 main leads was so pure, adorable and beautiful. I invested my heart and soul into their rs. They supported each other and became a pillar of strength to each other. It was so cute i cried every episode(im not very mentally ok as you can tell)
The bg music was very well picked cause it made me cry harder during the sad scenes like it really broke me down yk 👍🏼👍🏼 (give the sound director a raise tbh)
The entire cast was so adorable and they are really good at their jobs. i was straight up convinced kim tae ri was 18. There isnt much to say except they did an amazing job

Overall, The drama was really beautiful and such a pleasure to watch except the last 2 eps when they showed the downfall of the main rs. I cried for 3 days straight and no longer believe in love. However i would still totally rewatch and go through the pain again cause its really worth it 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 yall should watch it but prepare urself

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A story about coming of age and the relationships that will shape you

I finished this almost a month ago and I still think about some scenes. This story is more than just a youth drama about romance, it is a story about life.

This is going onto my list of GOATs. One of the best shows I've ever watched (ignoring episodes 14-16 lol), this has the nostalgia of Our Beloved Summer and the spirit of Haikyuu in the best way.

It's a story about an unforgettable summer of youth - coming-of-age, looking forward and moving forward, with the deep camaraderie and friendships/relationships that will shape who you are as a person in the years to come.

I loved every single relationship and moment, so full of joy and nostalgia and warmth. I could write essays about Na Heedo and Bek Yijin's relationship. The ending was controversial yes, but their relationship moved me so much. It's my happy place. Regardless of how it turns out, the fact that they had such a relationship is what mattered the most.

Kim Tae-ri and Nam Joo-hyuk shone in their respective roles, especially Kim Tae-ri. It's worth watching just for her alone.

(Can't believe I found f/f kagehina in Ko Yurim and Na Heedo's relationship 🤣)

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the ending?

would’ve been a 10/10 if it weren’t for the ending. it was rushed, the characters were acting out of character, and the message the writer was going for was poorly executed. eps 1-14 were literally perfect, but then the finale undid so much of it. first of all, the ending made the present-day storyline pointless. what was the point of having it if minchae was yijin’s daughter and we wouldn’t get to see present-day yijin and heedo meet again? second of all, why give everyone else but baekdo a happy ending with a nice little bow on top??? that’s just unfair. third of all, why does heedo not even seem over yijin twenty years later? her atelier is named 2521, her reaction to her mom meeting yijin, and the fact that she talks like the life has been sucked out of her at times??? also the joke about how breaking off an engagement is easier than getting a divorce that she makes WHEN SHE’S A NEWLYWED??? does she just hate her husband???

anyways, i don’t care what anyone says, the ending completely ruined the story. the only reason my rating for it is still on the higher end is because most of it was amazing, it’s just that the ending undid all that hard work. i will say that the acting in is absolutely impeccable, especially kim taeri and nam joohyuk. their chemistry was so good, i hope they work together again some day.

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GREAT START AWKWARD ENDING

Like many of the people reviewing this drama, i am really not bashing this drama but total opposite I am praising this drama just disappointed with the ending. Don't get me wrong i am not one of those people that necessarily needs a (leads end up together) type of happy ending. I understand what this drama was mainly about. This drama is basically about the two main leads having and relying on each other at a time of their life where they needed each the most. Without each other who knows if they would have been able to accomplish and get out of that slump that they found themselves in at that point in time. For me as a previous post mentioned is that they did not show if they at least remained friends. For me is just hard to explain how the deep love they felt at least on the side of Na Hee Do she was able to marry and have a child with who seems to be the same reasons she and Beak Yi Jin broke up. Never do they show her current husband who apparently is to busy to be around it doesn't make sense how she would end up with someone she always said she would neve be with ergo the reason they broke up.

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Fantastic Characters

I don't remember why I added this show to my ever-growing "Plan to Watch" list. More likely than not I saw a preview on Netflix after a movie or something, like I do so many, and saw that it had fencing and figured I'd put it on my list, but I can't really be sure.

In any case, we actually started watching Twenty-Five Twenty-One by mistake. In my household we pick a series to watch while having dinner, and when our last series finished up I gave my teenager the pick. They had previously suggested a series, which also exists on the "Plan to Watch" list, but we couldn't remember which show it was. When we reviewed the list and saw the title, not remembering what it was, we thought that must be it and started watching.

I loved the series immediately. Na Hee Do's never-give-up attitude and largely sunny disposition especially made it enjoyable to me, but there were plenty of reasons to love the show. I loved that the rivalry didn't become a bitter feud with Go Yu Rim and instead became a close friendship. The level of humor was just right for me. The main characters all had development as they grew into adults.

While I understand a lot of people were unhappy with the ending, it was telegraphed from the beginning. While I avoided such endings (or anything short of super-happy) for a long time, this wasn't what I'd call a bad ending. I think a lot of people just weren't ready for the ending they surely knew was going to arrive.

Twenty-Five Twenty-One is a coming of age drama, and part of that experience is learning that sometimes life doesn't go as planned. Sometimes you have to drop out of college because you need to support your family, like Baek Yi Jin. Sometimes you have to give up all your hard work to maintain your integrity, like Ji Seung Wan. Sometimes you have to leave everything you know behind because of circumstances, like Go Yu Rim. And sometimes you have to accept that a relationship isn't going to work out regardless of how you feel about each other.

The only real issues I had with the show were some of the way flashbacks were handled, and that Kim Tae Ri was fine playing Na Hee Do at around 30, but for some reason they had Kim So Hyun play her in her 40s. This just seemed weird to me, especially given that Kim Tae Ri is actually in her 30s so I don't think it would have been that hard to "age" her for her older self.

An important thing to note about how my family watches the shows we pick is that we only watch 30-45 minutes at a time, and we never watch if one of us isn't here to watch with us. Due to various circumstances, and the holiday season, this means we started watching around December 9th, and just finished on February 8th. So Na Hee Do and Baek Yi Jin have been part of my family's lives for two months, and I can honestly say I will miss these characters.

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