Twenty-five Twenty-one, not your normal story about youth, the art of letting go, living your life without regrets but a story that injects the refreshing feeling that puts you on an emotional roller coaster ride. The drama is set in the 90’s and early 2000’s revolve around, Na Hee Do, who is a reckless teenager, admires Ko Yu Rim, who is a young successful fencer, when Na Hee Do’s school cuts off her fencing team due to the IMF crisis in the country, she is determined to enter Ko Yu Rim’s world and become her rival.
Hee Do, played by Kim Taeri, then meets Baek Yi Jin who is a high school dropout in his early 20’s and a victim to the crisis in the country. We are also then introduced to Ji Woong who is also known as ‘the pretty boy of class seven’ in Yu Rim and Hee Do’s school and Seung-wan who is the class president and finds life boring at all times.
HOOK POINT:
Get ready, drama will break you, heal you, tear you apart and then heal you again. The romance aspect in Twenty-Five Twenty-One is just a teensy part of this drama. Very beautifully crafted, it tells you about the complexity of love, self-growth, friendships and family dynamics.
Twenty Five Twenty One is more Coming Of Age than romance, the drama focuses on the characters growth individually more than their love life. This is one thing I love about the drama, the growth of the characters, especially Ko Yu Rim who we all hated at first because of her inferiority complex of her family being poor as well as her fear of Hee Do as a fencer, but at the end of the day, she was a teenager too, her character development makes the show a lot better. While watching this drama it is very important to keep in mind that this is more of Coming of Age, if you view the drama with that mindset you will be able to enjoy and appreciate how beautiful this drama actually is.
Baek Yi Jin, who promised to not be happy ever again, meets the reckless teenager, Na Hee Do, who makes him happy, supports him no matter what, roots for him just like Baek Yi Jin roots for Na Hee Do throughout the show.
Baek Yi Jin who only wanted Hee Do to have good experiences and would do anything to make sure of it, in the end, realized how he was not able to do that for her anymore, despite their love for each other at the end they realize how they would only be miserable if they were together, broke everyone’s heart.
However, as much as times weren’t in their favor, I also think partly it was because of Hee Do and Yi Jin, this is when Twenty-Five Twenty-One tells us how love is not the only thing important for a relationship.
In this aspect, we also see Yu Rim and Ji Woong who despite years of distance managed to keep it together and refused to give up on each other.
Twenty-Five Twenty-One tells how people who once played an important part I our life, whom we thought would stay with us forever, can become a memory.
“Looking back, everyday was a practice. The moments when I dared to say everything would last forever. I loved living in that illusion.” – heedo
But those people still somehow played a crucial part in their lives, and helped them become what were in the present. They met each other at their lowest point, then led each other to great places and supported each other at every point.
On the other hand the OST’s of Twenty Five Twenty One deserve to be appreciated as much. The 90’s feels and the nostalgic and fresh vibe to it, resonates so well with the scenes, Starlight, Very Slowly, and Your Existence as well as the OST that was sang by the whole cast, Kim Taeri, Nam Joohyuk, Choi Hyun Wook, Bona (WJSN), and Lee Joo Myung called WITH, are a few memorable ones that still make me feel so nostalgic and emotional upon hearing them.
Stream it or skip it?
In conclusion, Twenty Five Twenty One is the drama that would always be so special to my heart and recommend you to make it your special as well as it always be my top Kdramas of all time. From achieving dreams and goals, to navigating life and love, and enjoying your youth to letting go, twenty five twenty one has everything that I never knew I needed to watch.
A review by Urwa Usama
