Why do you dislike the ending......I think people forgot how yijin had sacrifice his love or his work because…
I think the difference between an earnest friendship and a relationship lies in greed/expectation. They once shared a fantastic friendship, one that was non-committal essentially. But once they stepped into a romantic relationship, it was a point of no return. Once they tasted the forbidden apple, and learned of how much humans can feel connected and loved, they could not return to their foundational friendship. Idk if I articulated it well.
The only way they could be friends is if they reconnect at their 40's. Time diluted their good and bad memories. They can learn to be friends with their newer personalities.
This show is a equivalent to first love. It will remain with us like our first love. We will look back to it like…
Hi! I really loved OBS too. I don't place them in the same category. In fact, I like OBS for its indie/art-school feel and its depiction of bad breakup to understanding and make-up. 25, 21 is an excellent slice-of-life depiction of our all encompassing memories of youth and it's short-lived beauty. Not the same, but both very excellent. I feel like both shows really nailed the styling and OST and symbolisms the same. But I still feel like 25, 21 will thrive at the awards (while OBS will snag a lot too) because of it's approachability. If OBS is about a particular couple and their struggles, 25, 21 is about anyone. Anyone can find something to related and reminisce. May 2022 give us more wonderful shows! Cheers!
although they later revealed that they did not mean half of what they meant here. *sigh
More like, the message itself is true but they did not mean to carry it in harsh sounding words. In other words, they did not want to vocalize using tough words and regret that, but what has been said were all true. Even if they want to deny it.
this scene convinced me for the nth time again that they will try to make it work. The push and pull until the…
This show is a equivalent to first love. It will remain with us like our first love. We will look back to it like we do our first love. And it will squeeze our hearts, propose the very many 'what-ifs' and leave us desiring for more, like our first love. Simply a masterpiece really! I am so excited for end of years awards time. This better win everything. It will be a tough battle for any other drama to be released in the future. This has surpassed Our Beloved Summer which I thought was a very strong contender for awards season. It nestled itself in legend status!
So let's say you all hit bulls-eye and Na HeeDo did end up married to a man with a busy work schedule who is absent often.
Maybe her experience and regrets from first love with Yijin taught her what she needed to learn and therefore cherish her marriage? She wanted Yijin badly, but could not overcome her fear of abandonment in her youth. But as she grew up even more, and her horizons widened, she was able to learn to forgive her mother, see things from other perspectives (more), understand Yijin's perils in the past deeper. Thus, when the "times" threw lemons at her older self again (perhaps covid is what caused their marriage to become long-distance, which explains the current day covid scenario), older Heedo was able to trust the man and find ways to cope with loneliness to maintain her marriage. Her great rainbow love with Yijin, and it's heartbreaking ugly end, has taught her what true love and hearbreak was. And that's exactly why she was able to mature and become the woman that she is in current day. That experience is the foundation to her successful marriage today.
It’s because we could see it in her looks? She really looks like she’s jaded and seems lonely in the present…
I think that's the point. In her youth, all she had to care about was friendship and love. Cherishing them gave her joy and she was carefree everyday. As she grew up, she had many more things to balance; a long-term goal, a career, emotional baggage from others etc. She no longer was able to smile and live vicariously all day. At 40, all that phenomenon is heightened. She probably worries for Minchae, worries about her mother being on the last lap of her life, worries about her long-term goals, perhaps the safety of her husband. All these thoughts that were foreign to her in 1998-2001. Which is why they hired another actress to play older Heedo. The production team clearly wanted older Heedo to embody melancholy in her contented expressions, because that's how they weaved the poem of adulthood. Goes back to that quote, "just because you are not living your dream doesn't mean you failed at life/ just because you live your dream doesn't mean you succeeded in life." "The only constant thing in life is gravity." It's beautifully philosophical and poetic.
I was waiting for this to end and binge watch.Is that sad/bad ending?Please anyone tell me?
It's a cinematic masterpiece kind of an ending. The kind that keeps you repeating the scenes in your mind and reminisce on how you wished it to be; just like how replays memories of their first love and the regrets that accompanies it.
i lost the motivation to finish this after knowing the ending, currently at ep 12.
finish it if you can, the beauty lies in the feels it gives you. It was heart-wrenching but I don't regret it at all. But I'm not forcing you, you know what will be the best choice for you!
What makes this show, Twenty-Five Twenty-One so memorable compared to Record of Youth? They both had a similar trajectory to the lead's love-line. Even the dialogues were very similar.
On one hand, Twenty-Five Twenty-One absolutely took my breath away and I will probably never be the same again. I mean this in the best way. I have witnessed the most beautiful fleeting love story and now I am physically unable to accept anything else that is not on par to this standard. I gave out my first 10 in decades, no joke! However, Records of Youth, with their near premise didn't hit me much. The leads there also nailed their acting.
I genuinely wonder why. Any thoughts? (maybe the general atmosphere/ colour palette, editing, OST, and symbolisms were better in this show?)
Definitely! The last time I felt this way was Saiai and Goodbye my Princess
My English isn't good enough to express this as eloquently as I would love to but I will try. I... I enjoyed the heartache this show gave me. I think it was the point. The show cleverly used 14.5 episodes for us to empathize, grow a soft spot, relate, and live as the characters. And then it brought us back to our reality. Our sweet ol' reality where fairytale endings are not common and everything takes work and effort. I was choked up and unable to do anything productive yesterday. Why? Because I genuinely grew to care about the characters, they were 'me' in another universe. They were "supposed" to get a fairytale end that the 'me' in my universe can only dream of. But that's the beauty of this show. They extracted sweetness from the bitter truth. Often we confuse our wants and needs in our youth, and it's a bittersweet sign of growth when one can differentiate between them. Yijin and Heedo desperately wanted each other. But the sad reality is that they able to live just fine without one another. The fact that two people can be soulmates in theory, but in the end, it's the words and actions that manifests the future hurts.
Bcoz the writer wanted to make an obvious comparison between the 2 couples. NHD and BYJ were endorsed all the…
But the thing is, we as viewers know that Yijin will return in 2009. During the breakup scene in 2002, Heedo and Yijin was faced with permanent separation. Had he confided in her, had she practiced more patience... These are all sweet regrets of first love. Which is why in 2009, the teary, longing look they had made sense. It was a compilation of "I'm so proud of who you've become," "I miss our innocent rainbow days" and "you are my 'the one that got away.'"
It's not that they were in love with each other in 2009, but it was a sweet reminiscing of the regrets in their last moments together, their inability to maintain the beautiful harmony they shared. They were too young to know then, but in 2009, they both knew what they had was one of a kind. And that it can no longer be replicated. This is with the assumption that their world has broadened more and their life has gotten richer in 2009 than in 2002. Only when one is wiser in life can they see the beauty they left behind. Perhaps an ode to the line "... At that time, I couldn't deeply understand; (That) even then, the flowers were still beautiful.." line from Jaurim's 25, 21. Cheers!
it’s crazy how my heart aches randomly. i’m doing something, i get reminded of of 2521 break up scene, my…
Which is probably why this show is such a masterpiece. They got us invested in the character, then live through the character, then experience the emotions present! I felt like I was part of their gang, that nostalgic 1998 era seemed mine ( when I was born in 1997 so clearly not possible). I felt like I too was in a relationship, then I felt like I broke up with the love of my life. Then I put my adult glasses on for the 2022 scenes and realized that first love aches never quite heal, but adults learn to live with a hole in their heart. All the what-ifs and regrets become the sparkling memories we look back to when life feels tough.
I think it would have been possible if they didn’t introduce Minchae at the beginning as Kim. That would have…
Can I leave my two cents as to why that may have not worked? Remember how Coach Yangmi and Heedo Mom were good friends in their youth/early twenties? Remember how timid and generally afraid Heedo Mom's personality back then was. How evolved she has become in her life thanks to her career, her surrounding, her life choices. Heedo Mom resembles nothing like her youth (maybe her core is still the same). The point I am trying to make here is Heedo and Yijin too will no longer be the people they were in that summer when they have both entered their 40's. They were in love with each other's present when all that mattered was friendship and love. But they realized that they were diverging and morphing into different people with different attitudes and patterns because of their individual environments and "the times." Meeting at 40's and reconnecting is hopeful, but would have been unlikely due to all this.
The only way they could be friends is if they reconnect at their 40's. Time diluted their good and bad memories. They can learn to be friends with their newer personalities.
So let's say you all hit bulls-eye and Na HeeDo did end up married to a man with a busy work schedule who is absent often.
Maybe her experience and regrets from first love with Yijin taught her what she needed to learn and therefore cherish her marriage? She wanted Yijin badly, but could not overcome her fear of abandonment in her youth. But as she grew up even more, and her horizons widened, she was able to learn to forgive her mother, see things from other perspectives (more), understand Yijin's perils in the past deeper. Thus, when the "times" threw lemons at her older self again (perhaps covid is what caused their marriage to become long-distance, which explains the current day covid scenario), older Heedo was able to trust the man and find ways to cope with loneliness to maintain her marriage. Her great rainbow love with Yijin, and it's heartbreaking ugly end, has taught her what true love and hearbreak was. And that's exactly why she was able to mature and become the woman that she is in current day. That experience is the foundation to her successful marriage today.
Just a food for thought :)
They both had a similar trajectory to the lead's love-line. Even the dialogues were very similar.
On one hand, Twenty-Five Twenty-One absolutely took my breath away and I will probably never be the same again. I mean this in the best way. I have witnessed the most beautiful fleeting love story and now I am physically unable to accept anything else that is not on par to this standard. I gave out my first 10 in decades, no joke! However, Records of Youth, with their near premise didn't hit me much. The leads there also nailed their acting.
I genuinely wonder why. Any thoughts?
(maybe the general atmosphere/ colour palette, editing, OST, and symbolisms were better in this show?)
It's not that they were in love with each other in 2009, but it was a sweet reminiscing of the regrets in their last moments together, their inability to maintain the beautiful harmony they shared. They were too young to know then, but in 2009, they both knew what they had was one of a kind. And that it can no longer be replicated. This is with the assumption that their world has broadened more and their life has gotten richer in 2009 than in 2002. Only when one is wiser in life can they see the beauty they left behind. Perhaps an ode to the line "... At that time, I couldn't deeply understand; (That) even then, the flowers were still beautiful.." line from Jaurim's 25, 21. Cheers!