sun
This review may contain spoilers
refreshing slice of life- with some drawbacks
i didnt have any expectations for this drama at all, but it ended up being fantastic (for the most part). it was so authentic and organic, from the friendships to life situations. i found all of the characters to be very human and interesting to follow. this is one of the few kdramas ive seen that depicts humanity so realistically, with their flaws and growing pains.
i will mostly be discussing the negatives of this drama, because everything was good besides a few things that i felt prevented this drama from being perfect. ill still mention all of the good things briefly, and in short i recommend you watch this drama (i recommend only watching ep 1- the first ten min of ep 15 and calling it finished)
a slice of life romcom would be a good way to describe the plot. teenagers and adults alike are struggling amidst the imf crisis, and two young athletes struggle at friendship while competing. kim tae ri is endearing as 18 year old heedo, a fencing prodigy that is strong willed, stubborn, kind, and energetic. yurim, a gold medalist fencer, was difficult to like at first but she became a great friend and worthy of praise. nam joohyuk feels grounding as yijin, forced to grow up too quickly but learning to find happiness again with heedo. jiwoong and seung wan started getting more screentime later in the drama which i greatly appreciated as i thought they added a lot to the overall show. i loved discovering the hidden sides of themselves, how their opinions on the world as teens wanting to rebel in their own ways was slowly shown to us. overall i really enjoyed watching them all grow and form bonds with each other, it was truly the definition of youth.
the friendship between heedo and yijin was one of my favorite on screen relationships to date. i thought they would do well whether it was romantic or platonic and the show did a good job at showing why they would work together, but also why they wouldnt have. they started to rely on and support each other, becoming a source of happiness for the other person. but they were also in two different stages of life: yijin had to grow up too quickly and became more mature and grounded while heedo still had a sort of childlike optimism and persistence. these were traits that drew them to each other: what the other was lacking. they needed each other, but they were still growing on their own. regardless of the romance arc this friendship was just so believable, healthy and organic.
the friendship group formed between heedo, yurim, seungwan, and jiwoong was lighthearted and refreshing. what really brought them together was their willfulness and stubbornness, each in their own ways. heedo in fencing, yurims in her love for her family, jiwoong in his interests, seungwan in her morals. the drama touched on a lot of important subjects, especially with the jiwoong/seungwan school punishment arc. yijin also ended up as a part of this group, and i loved the mentor role he took on. he knew what it was like to grow up too fast, so giving heedo and yurim a school trip and reminding them to enjoy their youth was so heartfelt. when he stepped in to save seungwan from the reporter as well, hes using his knowledge to save them from going through troubles. there were a lot of parallels between the characters and the relationships depicted were all complex and realistic.
and of course the cinematography was unique to the show, the soundtrack was nice, and the acting- obviously- top notch. production wise i have no complains. the 90s vibe and aesthetic alone is enough to watch this drama. i compliment the writers for creating such realistic and smooth conversations and such believable characters.
some of my favorite moments:
-heedo telling yijin they should be happy with each other while running around at night.
-the mini school trip where they all sat on the beach watching sunset.
-the friend group watching the fireworks on the rooftop
-them watching heedo and yurims interviews on tv
-when heedo and yurim cheered seungwan on for quitting school
-jiwoong not being able to park the car and them all jumping around in happiness when they lifted it
some things i disliked about the drama that affected my rating:
1. false advertising
it doesnt actually take place when they are 25 and 21. its mostly when heedo is 18 (korean age) and yijin is 22. considering the description says “ Two people first meet when they are 22 and 18 years old and fall in love years later when they turn 25 and 21. “ i was a little confused. so why did they called it 2521 and give a misleading description & title ? probably because they knew the age gap might cause a problem, leading into my next point.
2. the age gap.
ive seen some people defending it, 18 and 22 is not that far off after all. id love to say “this is just a work of fiction, lets just enjoy this wholesomeness!” but i just cant. especially because it IS a work of fiction and the writers couldve done this differently.
a four year age gap isnt a big deal between two adults at the very least in the same stage of life. if this romance actually happened when they were 21 and 25 i wouldnt be writing all of this right now. thats what the description states after all, and yet the romance happened prior. but heedo was a highschooler, an immature one at that- remember how she dated and broke up with a guy just to see what its like? she thought you have to wash lettuce with soap. when yijin and heedo were out together, it was so uncomfortable seeing her in a school uniform and him in a suit. yijin, despite being a good man, was an adult. not even a college student, but an adult living alone with a job out in the real world. luckily, they started dating when she was old enough to drink alcohol, so i suppose thats adult enough.
but i think the problem lies within his confession to her. we know they like each other, it wouldve been better build up and more comfortable for the general audience had the writers waited for them to both be full grown adults (or at least for heedo to graduate highschool) to have them confess. this is made worse by the fact that ALL of his friends highschoolers. i do understand that this is a small neighborhood in the 90s and it was all by circumstance- yurim due to family, heedo by accident, seungwan as the neighbor etc etc. but he rarely hung out with adults his age outside of work, that’s what makes this whole situation weird to me. and its not just yijin: in ep 10 seungwan tells yijins 15 yr old brother “ 4 more years? ill wait for you”. gross. what is with this show and its love for inappropriate 4 yr age gaps? overall im blaming the writers for not being a little more nuanced about a potentially inappropriate relationship. i dont think this is enough to write off the drama, but this is important to note:
this is the most avoidable problem in the whole drama, especially when since the beginning yijin has said “adults should only date other adults” and “highschool drama is for highschoolers, im an adult” and has brought up how young they all were and how different their lives were. the writers know this isnt okay and made a point to comment on it- but did it anyway.
i dont care if this age gap doesnt matter to you, i dont care if you think this specific situation is okay or if “the 90s were a different time!” or if “theyre both technically adults!” this drama has a responsibility to portray this relationship with a certain sensitivity. a few simple changes couldve been made to make it a little more acceptable to the general public, but like i said i dont think this is enough to swear off watching it.
2. yurims arc
the writers really pushed yurim as a bully from the beginning. she was cruel to heedo, belittled her, affected her personal and school life. she often played the victim despite constantly being supported by everyone around her. being poor and scared of losing was the excuse they gave her, it caused an inferiority complex. i didnt think this was strong enough to combat heedos problems, although i suppose theyre meant to be equal. yurim is poor and loved, while heedo is rich with a dead father and an absent mother. i understood what the writers were trying to do here. but the actual switch, the injeolmi reveal, was a weak turning point. if you watch the episodes one after the other, it makes it obvious how jarring and simple yurims personality shift was. pre ep 8, she caused the whole nation to hate heedo on her behalf and constantly belittles her. none of this matters until yurim sees that she was her internet friend. only this sparks her apology, which means if they hadnt been internet friends she would be forever cruel and unapologetic. this makes yurim seem continuously self centered and flimsy as a character. after ep 8 heedo and yurim are awkwardly kind to each other and start building a friendship. yurim kind of explains herself in the later half but i just thought they built the mean yurim up too well, or at least didnt put enough care into her arc. i am glad yurim retains some of those feelings (ep 11 she says she is still scared of heedo) so it isnt like she woke up a different person.
i guess your opinion on this depends on which you empathize more with, but i always felt more on heedos side. we saw her walk home alone after matches, advocate for herself, practice until she couldnt stand, be bullied by someone she admired, win a gold medal with no support from her coach or mother. im sure yurim went through difficulties, but it was heedos that were shown on screen, so i resonated more with her. all i wanted was the best for her, especially in terms of her and yurims relationship. and when heedo forgave yurim, their scenes were very cute and heartwarming and i did grow to love her and i enjoyed all of their scenes together. but i cant just pretend she wasnt a horrible person for half of the drama. heedo is clearly more forgiving than i am.
i did end up having to just let my feelings on this go in order to enjoy the drama, but i wanted to mention this.
3. the present time
this drama wouldve done well just focusing on the past. it felt unbalanced, we start off in the present and heedos daughter is sort of a narrator, but then we exist in the past uninterrupted for periods of time. i guess 2521 was going for a reply series kind of thing, but i would’ve preferred it to just take place in the past. the story of the friend group, the romance, the sports, the imf crisis, it was all enough to keep us going for the entire duration of the show. the present time brought down the whole mood of the drama and made it dip more into melodrama territory. i didnt want to worry about if someone was going to die or get amnesia. i didnt want angst, i wanted to watch what seemed like a lighthearted slice of life character based romcom as promised. like id be watching the characters laughing and having fun and bam- heedos daughter is on screen killing my vibe. or we are having a cute moment and we have a flash forward sequence that makes us question who breaks up with who. i dont think this drama needed extra mystery or suspense, it already had a sort of darker tone with the imf crisis (which was all but forgotten in favor of other side plots). yijins family troubles were as much sadness as i needed and like i mentioned before, there was plenty of side plots to keep this drama going. i guess some people didnt mind, but i definitely noticed much of the audience speculating on the ending constantly instead of just enjoying the show, which is major buzzkill for anyone wanting to watch and hoping to just enjoy it. perhaps this is just a personal preference but i strongly think this couldve been more powerful as just a slice of life. those are hard to pull off, and they were so close. i ended up not watching the future scenes as they ruined the vibe for me.
4. the ending
just trust me on this, dont bother with the last two episodes. the characters were completely different people, too much angst and a lot of decisions made by the end were so distasteful. the writers just stopped caring by the end. it just goes to show the drama was written to be anticipated for weekly ratings and not just to be enjoyed.
and thats the end of my review. i know it was mainly negative, but again- everything besides these points was top notch. id still recommend this drama to anyone.
i will mostly be discussing the negatives of this drama, because everything was good besides a few things that i felt prevented this drama from being perfect. ill still mention all of the good things briefly, and in short i recommend you watch this drama (i recommend only watching ep 1- the first ten min of ep 15 and calling it finished)
a slice of life romcom would be a good way to describe the plot. teenagers and adults alike are struggling amidst the imf crisis, and two young athletes struggle at friendship while competing. kim tae ri is endearing as 18 year old heedo, a fencing prodigy that is strong willed, stubborn, kind, and energetic. yurim, a gold medalist fencer, was difficult to like at first but she became a great friend and worthy of praise. nam joohyuk feels grounding as yijin, forced to grow up too quickly but learning to find happiness again with heedo. jiwoong and seung wan started getting more screentime later in the drama which i greatly appreciated as i thought they added a lot to the overall show. i loved discovering the hidden sides of themselves, how their opinions on the world as teens wanting to rebel in their own ways was slowly shown to us. overall i really enjoyed watching them all grow and form bonds with each other, it was truly the definition of youth.
the friendship between heedo and yijin was one of my favorite on screen relationships to date. i thought they would do well whether it was romantic or platonic and the show did a good job at showing why they would work together, but also why they wouldnt have. they started to rely on and support each other, becoming a source of happiness for the other person. but they were also in two different stages of life: yijin had to grow up too quickly and became more mature and grounded while heedo still had a sort of childlike optimism and persistence. these were traits that drew them to each other: what the other was lacking. they needed each other, but they were still growing on their own. regardless of the romance arc this friendship was just so believable, healthy and organic.
the friendship group formed between heedo, yurim, seungwan, and jiwoong was lighthearted and refreshing. what really brought them together was their willfulness and stubbornness, each in their own ways. heedo in fencing, yurims in her love for her family, jiwoong in his interests, seungwan in her morals. the drama touched on a lot of important subjects, especially with the jiwoong/seungwan school punishment arc. yijin also ended up as a part of this group, and i loved the mentor role he took on. he knew what it was like to grow up too fast, so giving heedo and yurim a school trip and reminding them to enjoy their youth was so heartfelt. when he stepped in to save seungwan from the reporter as well, hes using his knowledge to save them from going through troubles. there were a lot of parallels between the characters and the relationships depicted were all complex and realistic.
and of course the cinematography was unique to the show, the soundtrack was nice, and the acting- obviously- top notch. production wise i have no complains. the 90s vibe and aesthetic alone is enough to watch this drama. i compliment the writers for creating such realistic and smooth conversations and such believable characters.
some of my favorite moments:
-heedo telling yijin they should be happy with each other while running around at night.
-the mini school trip where they all sat on the beach watching sunset.
-the friend group watching the fireworks on the rooftop
-them watching heedo and yurims interviews on tv
-when heedo and yurim cheered seungwan on for quitting school
-jiwoong not being able to park the car and them all jumping around in happiness when they lifted it
some things i disliked about the drama that affected my rating:
1. false advertising
it doesnt actually take place when they are 25 and 21. its mostly when heedo is 18 (korean age) and yijin is 22. considering the description says “ Two people first meet when they are 22 and 18 years old and fall in love years later when they turn 25 and 21. “ i was a little confused. so why did they called it 2521 and give a misleading description & title ? probably because they knew the age gap might cause a problem, leading into my next point.
2. the age gap.
ive seen some people defending it, 18 and 22 is not that far off after all. id love to say “this is just a work of fiction, lets just enjoy this wholesomeness!” but i just cant. especially because it IS a work of fiction and the writers couldve done this differently.
a four year age gap isnt a big deal between two adults at the very least in the same stage of life. if this romance actually happened when they were 21 and 25 i wouldnt be writing all of this right now. thats what the description states after all, and yet the romance happened prior. but heedo was a highschooler, an immature one at that- remember how she dated and broke up with a guy just to see what its like? she thought you have to wash lettuce with soap. when yijin and heedo were out together, it was so uncomfortable seeing her in a school uniform and him in a suit. yijin, despite being a good man, was an adult. not even a college student, but an adult living alone with a job out in the real world. luckily, they started dating when she was old enough to drink alcohol, so i suppose thats adult enough.
but i think the problem lies within his confession to her. we know they like each other, it wouldve been better build up and more comfortable for the general audience had the writers waited for them to both be full grown adults (or at least for heedo to graduate highschool) to have them confess. this is made worse by the fact that ALL of his friends highschoolers. i do understand that this is a small neighborhood in the 90s and it was all by circumstance- yurim due to family, heedo by accident, seungwan as the neighbor etc etc. but he rarely hung out with adults his age outside of work, that’s what makes this whole situation weird to me. and its not just yijin: in ep 10 seungwan tells yijins 15 yr old brother “ 4 more years? ill wait for you”. gross. what is with this show and its love for inappropriate 4 yr age gaps? overall im blaming the writers for not being a little more nuanced about a potentially inappropriate relationship. i dont think this is enough to write off the drama, but this is important to note:
this is the most avoidable problem in the whole drama, especially when since the beginning yijin has said “adults should only date other adults” and “highschool drama is for highschoolers, im an adult” and has brought up how young they all were and how different their lives were. the writers know this isnt okay and made a point to comment on it- but did it anyway.
i dont care if this age gap doesnt matter to you, i dont care if you think this specific situation is okay or if “the 90s were a different time!” or if “theyre both technically adults!” this drama has a responsibility to portray this relationship with a certain sensitivity. a few simple changes couldve been made to make it a little more acceptable to the general public, but like i said i dont think this is enough to swear off watching it.
2. yurims arc
the writers really pushed yurim as a bully from the beginning. she was cruel to heedo, belittled her, affected her personal and school life. she often played the victim despite constantly being supported by everyone around her. being poor and scared of losing was the excuse they gave her, it caused an inferiority complex. i didnt think this was strong enough to combat heedos problems, although i suppose theyre meant to be equal. yurim is poor and loved, while heedo is rich with a dead father and an absent mother. i understood what the writers were trying to do here. but the actual switch, the injeolmi reveal, was a weak turning point. if you watch the episodes one after the other, it makes it obvious how jarring and simple yurims personality shift was. pre ep 8, she caused the whole nation to hate heedo on her behalf and constantly belittles her. none of this matters until yurim sees that she was her internet friend. only this sparks her apology, which means if they hadnt been internet friends she would be forever cruel and unapologetic. this makes yurim seem continuously self centered and flimsy as a character. after ep 8 heedo and yurim are awkwardly kind to each other and start building a friendship. yurim kind of explains herself in the later half but i just thought they built the mean yurim up too well, or at least didnt put enough care into her arc. i am glad yurim retains some of those feelings (ep 11 she says she is still scared of heedo) so it isnt like she woke up a different person.
i guess your opinion on this depends on which you empathize more with, but i always felt more on heedos side. we saw her walk home alone after matches, advocate for herself, practice until she couldnt stand, be bullied by someone she admired, win a gold medal with no support from her coach or mother. im sure yurim went through difficulties, but it was heedos that were shown on screen, so i resonated more with her. all i wanted was the best for her, especially in terms of her and yurims relationship. and when heedo forgave yurim, their scenes were very cute and heartwarming and i did grow to love her and i enjoyed all of their scenes together. but i cant just pretend she wasnt a horrible person for half of the drama. heedo is clearly more forgiving than i am.
i did end up having to just let my feelings on this go in order to enjoy the drama, but i wanted to mention this.
3. the present time
this drama wouldve done well just focusing on the past. it felt unbalanced, we start off in the present and heedos daughter is sort of a narrator, but then we exist in the past uninterrupted for periods of time. i guess 2521 was going for a reply series kind of thing, but i would’ve preferred it to just take place in the past. the story of the friend group, the romance, the sports, the imf crisis, it was all enough to keep us going for the entire duration of the show. the present time brought down the whole mood of the drama and made it dip more into melodrama territory. i didnt want to worry about if someone was going to die or get amnesia. i didnt want angst, i wanted to watch what seemed like a lighthearted slice of life character based romcom as promised. like id be watching the characters laughing and having fun and bam- heedos daughter is on screen killing my vibe. or we are having a cute moment and we have a flash forward sequence that makes us question who breaks up with who. i dont think this drama needed extra mystery or suspense, it already had a sort of darker tone with the imf crisis (which was all but forgotten in favor of other side plots). yijins family troubles were as much sadness as i needed and like i mentioned before, there was plenty of side plots to keep this drama going. i guess some people didnt mind, but i definitely noticed much of the audience speculating on the ending constantly instead of just enjoying the show, which is major buzzkill for anyone wanting to watch and hoping to just enjoy it. perhaps this is just a personal preference but i strongly think this couldve been more powerful as just a slice of life. those are hard to pull off, and they were so close. i ended up not watching the future scenes as they ruined the vibe for me.
4. the ending
just trust me on this, dont bother with the last two episodes. the characters were completely different people, too much angst and a lot of decisions made by the end were so distasteful. the writers just stopped caring by the end. it just goes to show the drama was written to be anticipated for weekly ratings and not just to be enjoyed.
and thats the end of my review. i know it was mainly negative, but again- everything besides these points was top notch. id still recommend this drama to anyone.
Was this review helpful to you?
