Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022)

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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I laughed my heart out and bawled my eyes out too!!!

This drama is so so good. I cannot even explain how much attached i had grown to it. This drama made me laugh out loud at so many instances and in the end made me cry for almost half an hour. This was so fresh. This is by far the best age of coming series. The acting was sooo sooo good. I fell in love with hee do's character, and each and every actor played theit roles very well. This drama was so so good. I just completed watching it and i binge watched it. It feels like i was with them in their journey too ,the drama feels just so much real, even though hee do and you Jin didn't end up together i don't hate the writers,, even the heartbreak was so well written and the build up was so so so much amazing which is why i ended up crying so much in the end as if I was having a heartbreak. This series will always have a very special place in my heart. Everyone needs to watch this series right now.

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“I’ve missed you. But I saw you because you showed yourself to me.”

Originally written on Oct 31, 2022

Twenty-Five Twenty-One is a traditional, sappy K-Drama combined with a live-action sports anime. While I know that sounds weird, it’ll make sense once you’ve seen it. I won’t dive too deep into the story, because Twenty-Five Twenty-One is at its best when you go in as blind as possible, but what I thought to be a lighthearted romcom quickly turned me into a broken mess. I’ve seen enough K-Dramas by this point to know what to expect, yet they still get me.

I’ve liked Kim Tae-ri ever since I saw her in Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, so I went into Twenty-Five Twenty-One thinking her Na Hee-do would be my favourite character of the show, but I have to say I really enjoyed WJSN’s Bona as Ko Yu-rim as well. Seeing her character grow and finding out what blocked her from doing so for the longest time really resonated with me and turned her from someone I actively disliked at the start into a standout character. The rest of the cast, consisting of many great characters and friends to Hee-do, is very likeable as well.

Something I liked less, however, was how slowly the romances developed. Twenty-Five Twenty-One falls into the same trap as many other K-Dramas in that characters rarely say what they really want to say to each other, thereby dragging out character development and the beginning of their relationship(s) for as long as possible. Which, in the case of Twenty-Five Twenty-One, results in people getting into a relationship at the worst possible moments, resulting in frustration and more heartache than I could have imagined at the start of the show. It’s very effective, but it could’ve been paced a little better.

If the shoelace scene doesn’t wreck you after spending so many in-story years with these characters, I’m convinced you don’t have a heart. It is without a doubt one of the most precious moments I’ve seen so far in a K-Drama.

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''From a time when love and friendship were the most important things in life''.

When the female lead said that it really made me stop and think for some time, because I myself think I am still in that time in my life. But as someone who also had a first love that didn't work out, but still, that person is someone who ''means so much to me'' as the main couple in Twenty- five Twenty-one feel about each other... The series was amazing, and their love made my heart race many times, but I think it talks about a lot of inconvenient truths about love and hardwork. The results of effort grow in stairs and one shouldn't despair and give up if they are stuck, if they like what they do, rather than like being congratuled about the good results of their hardwork. Besides that, it says that love changes, life is made of choices and people are imperfect. Na Hee Doo couldn't do another relantioships in which one person is sorry all the time and the other is always waiting. Some people called that ''imperfect writing'' about her characther, but I don't agree with that. I thought it was very good writing. I have a very similar feeling about the end of romantic relantioships in ghibli movies: the main couple doesn't end together, but still the pain and happiness are feelings very precious. That's when you know you loved hard. In the end, Na Hee Doo said it best: There're very few things in this life we can do exactly in the way that we want.

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Life is an amalgamation of everything sweet and salty!

The reality of life is simple, it's bittersweet. It is an amalgamation of everything sweet and salty; it is everything that we dreamed of and everything we didn't want to happen or didn't think would happen.
That IS the reality of life, and this drama portrayed it beautifully. The resilience of youth, the belief in the possibility of anything, the friendships, the moments our naive optimistic young selves want to remember forever, and the relationships we want to stay the same, as well as the bitter reality of life hitting us- of change, of loss, of our own limitations, and of impossibilities; Twenty Five and Twenty One, encapsulates all of this in its 16 episodes and it does so in a way that leaves you feeling too many emotions all at once but at the same time it has the ability to make you feel all warm inside.

I hadn't planned to pick this up until all the episodes had been released, however, 2-3 weeks before my (very important, career deciding) exams I ended up starting the show since I couldn't help but procrastinate on studying. Plus I was also going through a hard time in terms of mental health during the same period and this drama turned out to be such a healing watch; the music, the cinematography, and especially the dialogues, it felt like they were all coming together to give me a hug from the inside. It is what kept me going and certain dialogues I think will stick with me for life.

*slight spoiler starts*
One of my favorite moments from the whole drama is when Na Hee Do is talking to her daughter about the progression of ability, and how it isn't a graph with the linear increase but rather an exponential increase. She likened it to a staircase and how once we hit the wall to jump onto the next step, we should keep at it instead of giving up. That most people when hit this wall, give up but to keep being better or doing better we need to keep going at the wall and keep trying until we are able to jump over that wall
*slight spoiler ends*

I genuinely enjoyed watching this and could see myself re-watching it again a few years down the line when I find myself stuck trying to jump onto the next step. Missing out on the opportunity to watch this would be missing out on a true gem!


p.s
*Opinion on ending* *major spoiler*
I know quite a lot of people weren't too happy about the ending but to me it was perfect. Putting aside the fact that personally, I was more of a fan of Na Hee Do and Baek Ye jin's friendship than their non-platonic relationship; I did want them to find a way to get back together, I mean who doesn't love a happily ever after, however, I think if the writer had done so it would have missed the whole point of the message of the show that is life will have moments that will make you feel so alive and moments that will have you feeling totally hopeless and both are needed for life to be truly appreciated in its essence. Moreover, the drama also showed that change happens; it is inevitable, however, that does not invalidate the moments, memories, or relationships you had before the change happened, it does not make the most beautiful moment in your life any less beautiful and neither does the change mean there will be no more beautiful moments in your life in the future. Borrowing from the idea behind BTS's new album (Proof coming out 10th June :3), The beautiful moments in our life are always yet to come so we need to keep on moving.

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I haven't been able to complete a show in a long time, so having completed 2521, I've come to a realisation as to how special this experience has been and it's one that I will perhaps never forget.

I guess Korean dramas serve as an escape from the mundane routine-based lives we've always been living, so if we can't have an ideal story, then why not these shows paint the perfect endings for us then? ...Except that 2521 isn't your cliche Korean drama that follows the conventions of two leads ending up together. We're torn by the fact that Heedo and Yijin don't end up marrying each other and spending the rest of their lives together, but I think as viewers, we've always been too focused on what entails as a happy conclusion that we've compromised the experiences we've been blessed with along the way. This ends up momentarily blinding our judgement as to whether it's a good or a bad show.

The greatest blessing I've been able to take away from this series is watching the characters discover for themselves what they want in life. Life is unpredictable and at times, so cruel, demanding and even unforgiving. Very often we lose ourselves in the midst of our battles. Not everyone has the strength or the luck to see light at the end of the tunnel, but for Yijin, he's lucky to have found hope in Heedo. Through Heedo, he has gained the strength to recreate a future for himself that he once had seemingly lost, and now he's regained the ability to smile and laugh. And for Heedo, Yijin is someone who has helped to create a new world. A new world where she was able to draw her own paths, dictate her own life, and ultimately shine as a star athlete.

Watching Heedo and Yijin guide each other was perhaps the most beautiful takeaway from 2521. They have formed a love so deep that I doubt will ever dissipate, despite both having headed their own separate ways. 2521 has taught me that, well, perhaps you don't need romance to prove that your love is stronger than anything else. They may no longer be in love, but they've taught each other to find love and strength in other experiences. Isn't that just so worth everything we've experienced together with them? It would truly be a blessing of a lifetime to have had someone like that in life.

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Not happy with the ending....

Since the drama had started I always had a guts feeling that something bad happened with th ML's character . Because the drama went into flashback ,in present time they both ere not there and FL's character's daughter got her diary in whi h her story had mentioned . Seriously I am not happy with the ending . I am all the time emotionally connected with the ML's character . This character's didn't get good ending and at the end where he had disappeared ,why they never be together ?In the end drama had shown that everyone's life then get better then why were they never meet ? Whatever the episode I were watching but my mind always been thinking that what would be happened in the end? Why were the main characters not be together? Why ? I liked the story but ending disappointed me.

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