#2521 episode 16

[starburstfloat]

The Triumph of Twenty Five Twenty One

Now that 2022 is coming to a close, it felt worthwhile to revisit the one show this year that shook my world and kinda shifted my perspective on life :’)

It's hard to know where to begin when talking about Twenty Five Twenty One. I could start by sharing how beautifully shot this drama is, the way viewers are invited to delight in the vibrance and oftentimes loneliness of the landscape.

Or I could start with the historical context, how the drama managed to bridge the struggles of the 1997 IMF Crisis to the current pandemic.

Or I could start by marveling over the individual characters, how they come across as so genuine and real, and how they are delightfully funny and messy and truly alive. 

But I think instead the best way to start by honoring what a triumph this show is - from the acting, the cinematography, the directing, the screenwriting - is by stepping back to something more abstract, namely the acquiescence and narrative empathy the show provides.

In literature (and I assume film studies as well), acquiescence refers to a viewer's accepted passivity, meaning we as the viewers become so naturally enveloped in the world presented to us that we genuinely start to feel that this place, these characters, and their stories, are all real. We forget there’s a host of camera and lighting crews watching and controlling every meticulous move. 

As a result of our passivity, we begin to develop an emotional connection with the work. This is referred to as narrative empathy.

Simply put: acquiescence = viewers’ accepted passivity; narrative empathy = viewers sharing the feelings witnessed on screen

So how does Twenty Five Twenty One reach a level of acquiescence that I find unparalleled in any show or movie I've seen this year? It’s hard to exactly pinpoint one piece since our passivity and subsequent emotional investment revolves around several intermingling factors like the aforementioned cinematography and authentic characters. Personally though, I'd say what really makes Twenty Five Twenty One reach an all new high of acquiescence is the feeling-centered narrative revolving around the diary. 

After all, the premise is that Kim Min Chae begins to read her mother’s diary in 2020, and slowly starts to understand her mother through the detailed entries.

I initially glossed over the significance of the diary, seeing it more as a useful transition device to travel viewers back into the 1990′s whenever Min Chae was reading it, and then transporting us back to the present when we needed to see her reactions. It felt like nothing more than a simple plot device.

But there are so many scenes where the diary is important in building narrative empathy. For the sake of brevity, I’ll focus exclusively on the way the diary heightens viewers’ acquiescence and narrative empathy in the last episode.

~spoilers ahead~

After rewatching the last episode multiple times (and still crying almost as hard as the first time sjhdhsjs), I’ve found that the diary is such an integral part in conveying the drama’s intended message of remembering and living in the moment.

And even more so than that, the diary as a thematic and narrative tool is so clever, because diaries are something so incredibly personal. A diary is an output of our innermost thoughts; an intensely honest inner monologue meant for our personal retreat, unintended for the consumption of outsiders. By placing the diary in the open, by using it as a narrative device that allows us to see Hee Do’s thoughts and interpretations of the world, and by welcoming Min Chae into her mother’s youth as well, the audience develops a sense of intimacy and understanding for these characters. 

Nothing seems more indicative of this point than the scene in which Yi Jin starts reading Hee Do’s diary and realizes how truly lonely she was in the later stages of their relationship; how he took her support for granted. 

Like Yi Jin, we are welcomed into seeing these pages for the first time, hearing Hee Do narrating the words on the page. We can’t help but feel deeply disheartened by her loneliness. As if that weren’t already enough to digest, we witness Yi Jin soak in the words and cry as he slowly makes his way through the pages. Like many emotional scenes in the show, the camera does not cut away. We are forced to sit in the pain with him for a while. This heightens our empathy for both Hee Do for having experienced such a solitary love, and Yi Jin for immersing himself in her sorrow and truly, for the first time in months, understanding her. 

This diary scene really brings the show’s acquiescence to another level. The intimacy of Hee Do’s words; Yi Jin reading them in the privacy of his empty room, with lingering shots on his face capturing his welling sense of grief and guilt - these are details that make this drama just feel so achingly real and powerful. 

The most noteworthy use of the diary, however, is the very last scene in which Hee Do imagines how their last encounter would have been had they said the words that they saved for the diary pages instead. The added detail of including a fade-in of their writing from the diary was so incredibly touching and made this scene a whole new level of emotional. Because, like I mentioned, diaries are an honest inner monologue. Nothing they could have done could have been quite as sincere as this. 

Honestly it’s so beautiful that their last farewell is captured in the pages of the diary. It initially seemed unfair to have this farewell by the tunnel be a hypothetical, imagined goodbye, but the more you think about it, the more you realize how truly beautiful it is that their honesty is forever immortalized in Hee Do’s diary.

In the end, the diary served as the best parting tool - for the characters and the audience. It gave Yi Jin closure because he was able to truly understand Hee Do and respond to her. It gave Hee Do closure all those years later when she had the opportunity to read his final message. And it gives us as an audience closure because we know they’ve parted in a way that is untainted by bitterness; celebrating the love they shared, recognizing the value of cherishing every moment.

And now Hee Do, with her diary - the physical embodiment of all that ever came between them - has that right in the palms of her hands. 

I still struggle to understand how something so sad can be so beautiful. So profound. 

All I can say is that this, for me, is what makes the show a triumph.

[prbni]

My controversial Kdrama opinions

1. Ko Moon Young was just a psychologically messed up girl. She isn't the 'girlpower' or 'badass' that the Kdrama fandom likes to dub her into.

2. In 'Hotel del Luna', they could've just chucked the entire character of Gu Chansung out of the window and gave Chang Myung a rebirth/rebirths,make him go through various trials and tribulations to repent and earn Man Wol's forgiveness. Didn't have to make it unnecessarily tragic.

3. Unnecessarily tragic reminds me, the 'realistic' ending of 2521 was a JOKE. There was NO point of developing such a power couple if they were to break up for such a mundane reason.

4. Romance genre isn't Song Kang's 'thing'. He shines better as an actor in non-romance genres.

5. Had they focused on developing Ju Kyung as an individual character who finally learns how to completely take a stand for herself instead of dangling her between Suho and Seojun, 'True Beauty' would've become a more popular and appreciated drama.

6. The love line between Hwang InYeop and Seo Hyun Jin's character in 'Why her: Oh Soo Jae' was absolutely unnecessary and awkward.

7. Jo Bo Ah and Ahn Bo Hyun and an amazing chemistry in 'Military Prosecutor: Do Bae Man'. However, they could've developed a slowburn romance between them instead of abruptly putting a kiss sequence in the last episode out of nowhere.

8. In 'Snowdrop', Eun Young Ro forgiving Soo Ho later on didn't make sense. Their kiss sequence was purely fan service,nothing else.

9. Individual acting aside,Kim Hye Yoon had more chemistry with Lee Jae Wook(2nd lead) than Rowoon(main lead) in 'Extraordinary You'.

10. Writers are overusing 'Let's kill off the main character and make the show tragically memorable' trope wayyy too much.

11. As much as it physically hurts me given the chemistry of the actors,Choi Do Il and Oh In Joo not having any proper romantic sequence till the end of 'Little Women' makes sense to the storyline(the shipper me might've wanted a hug though).

12. Also the writers should stop doing the 'lets make the second lead better than the main lead'. Its annoying to see one person actually making sincere effort for the girl but the girl ends up totally ignoring their effort and like the ML. Not in just Kdramas but in all sorts of dramas. I actually saw a Chinese drama where the second lead finally turned into a villain. I LITERALLY commented 'good for him' lmao.

13. Sunho in 'Cheer Up' is problematic. Neither his sad backstory nor his sincere feelings for Haeyi changes that fact.

14. The Heirs(2013) drama wasted an opportunity to pair Young Do(Kim Woobin) with Yoo Rachel(Kim Jiwon). No, they didn't need to be 'siblings'. I'd have chosen the two heartbroken yet sassy and tough people romance over the sappy romance of the main couple in a heartbeat. And the actors would've NAILED it.

15. Jojo not ending up with Sunho in 'Love Alarm' finally broke the 'Cinderella and Prince Charming' fairytale trope of Kdramas. That girl was too messed up in the head . She didn't need the rich,fierce and impulsive lover, but the quite,patient and thoughtful one. So don't go ahead and say the ending sucked. Maybe they could've made things more coherent, but no the ending didn't suck.

16. Moon Dong Eun should have remained single, with the last episode ending with him crossing paths with Do Yeong, with Yeonjin & gang & all the revenge agenda gone, she could hv offered him a smile and a game of Go, keeping an open ending for them. Lee Do Hyun was fabulous in playing Yeojeong and their chemistry was amazing. But they could hv just been partners in crime with their teamwork without the romantic plot between them.

17. No. Ryu Shi Oh doesn't give second lead syndrome. Byun Woo Seok is a very good actor but he plays the villain in 'Strong Woman Kang Nam Soon' and not anti-hero. Lee Yoo Mi and him should be paired opposite to e/o in some other project in the future but Shi Oh and Nam Soon ain't the 'enemies to lovers' you think it is.

18. After Byun Woo Seok's popularity skyrocketed with 'Lovely Runner', many people dug up his previous works & lamented over not noticing him earlier. People even felt sad that he got his recognition late. But honestly, he wasn't very noticeable as an actor in his earlier stages imo. He kept working hard on his acting skills to get to where he is now. What I applaud about him is not giving up & putting the efforts in all right places but he didn't start from a 100.

19. I'm actually glad they brought back the fresh romcoms in 2024. Got tired of consistently watching crime thrillers,school violence,zombie apocalypse and stuff. I mean, of course they're good. But the key ingredient for Kdramas will always be those cringey classic slightly over-the-top romcoms.

20. Cha Eunwoo's acting in 'My ID is Gangnam Beauty' isn't as bad as people try to make it. His character actually demanded those stank cold expressions that he delivered. In fact, I'd say his character Do Kyeong Seok was one of the first Kdrama male leads that actually understood and empathised with the FL's situation and protected her in his own way without going over-the-top cliche "she is my yeoja and only I can bother her" about it.

[world-smitten]

2022 Kdrama End of Year Roundup

I wasn't going to do an end of year round up because I didn't finish anything this year (🙃), but reading everyone's 2022 roundups was so fun and inspiring that I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring. This is less a review of anything and more a series of rambling thoughts about the different dramas I bounced around this year.

My Name is Kim Sam Soon (2005): Kim Sun-ah is one of my favourite actresses and after watching her amazing turn in Children of Nobody, I hopped onto her starmaking drama, My Name is Kim Sam Soon. The first episode is perfect - razor sharp writing and comedic performances, and the most endearing heroine in Sam Soon. She's a hot mess but a very adult hot mess, with a strange dignity about her even as she rushes from one humiliating situation to another. Her chemistry with Hyun Bin is charming, although the character himself was not quite as nice. Kim Sam Soon is a character who still feels novel, but pairing her with Hyun Bin's grouchy, aloof, grabby love interest felt regressive, like the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it. I dropped it not just because I was lazy, but because the relationship didn't seem like a fun journey. But man, that first episode really is so good.

2521: Kim Tae-ri's performance as Na Hee-do has to be seen to be believed. Na hee-do is an animated character and I mean this in every complimentary sense of the word. Animation is a medium where the artist has exacting control over every image the audience sees, and so the best pieces of character animation will transform even the act of walking - from one imaginary point to another - into something transcendent; Kim Tae-ri's physicality is so finetuned and precise that every gesture she makes feels like something whole and wonderful in itself - she's so good that she elevates every scene into a more vivid, exciting reality. She really didn't need to carry this drama - the cast is solid - but somehow it ended up being that way. She's so good in this that everytime it jumped to the present, I felt lost and even upset at how little of her I could see in Kim So-hyun's Hee-do. Maybe that was the point, but it still hurt lol. I liked looking at Nam Joo-hyuk - he's very pretty and has nice arms. That's really all I can say about him here. I dropped the drama before he and Hee-do got together, but to be honest, watching Hee-do and Yu-rim finally become "friends" felt more rewarding. It's always fun to see Kim Hye-eun - she brings a certain malicious edge to even the most innocuous characters. And the show's art direction was gorgeous. Can't see myself going back to it but I had a great time.

My Liberation Notes: before I knew about kdrama screenwriters and their creative powers, and that it was possible to learn these writers' names and follow their works and idiosyncracies, I knew of Park Hae-young from her terrifying Another Miss Oh which made me wish desperately to never fall in love if being in love meant endless humiliation. I've already talked about how painful it is to watch PHY's shows and My Liberation Notes was no different. I'm sure it's a show that rewards patience; I'm sadly a deeply impatient person. Another Miss Oh had some very good humour to keep me going for 7 episodes; My Mister propelled me through all 16 episodes with its tight storyline and captivating interpersonal drama. My Liberation Notes didn't have any sugar to help the bitter pill go down easier - the pill being a claustrophobic, feverish depiction of adulthood. Setting the story in an autumn where summer has lingered too long meant I could feel the humidity in the back of my throat. I guess I dropped it because it was a little too good. But I might go back to it - all those gifs of Kim Ji-Won and Son Suk-ku look very tantalising.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo: this one is tricky to talk about because I was certain I was going to finish it and love it forever. Episode 1-9 of EAW are practically perfect. I can't speak for the accuracy of its representation, but it's wonderful to hear that Park Eun-bin's performance hit the right chord with many autistic viewers. This really was an excellent ensemble cast - seeing Kang Ki-young in such a measured performance after watching him all these years in comedic supporting, then second lead roles was oddly touching (and this is also the last time I'll ever compliment him, since he might be doing brownface in his next movie in the year of our lord 2023, hope he's proud of himself). Favourite moments: the “Children’s Liberation Army”; "Spring Sunshine" Soo-yeon; Young-woo eating breakfast with Geurami after running away from home; Young-woo's meeting with her mother, played by the immensely gifted Jin Kyung. The series was poised to become my new favourite thing, but episode 11 happened and was so embarassing I dropped the show off the face of the earth. Episode 11 is so baffling, so unexpected, so utterly juvenile compared to what had come before. Listen to this - Young-woo takes on a case of a couple contesting lottery winnings with the husband's friends. She wins but the husband might be a crook. But - uh oh! - he's also abusive. But - uh oh! - he's also cheating on his wife. But - uh oh! - he gets run over by a truck before anyone can bring him to any kind of justice. Even typing this out I'm laughing because it’s just so strange. After previously thoughtful, organic writing, to see the show suddenly fall back into what was comfortable and safe was disappointing to say the least. And the worst part was that it no longer felt like Young-woo's story - as if the narrative had been wrenched out of her hands, which had been carrying the story beautifully all this time. But I think it was unfair of me to judge an episodic show so harshly for one dud, which is why I plan on finishing it. I think 2022 was the year I discovered that I'm a very judgemental viewer.

Little Women: a gothic modern day retelling of Little Women was the last thing I expected to watch this year. Starting the story post-mortem was an interesting choice - "Beth" is already dead and her memory haunts her sisters who can't even remember her name. And her death distorts the characters, as if to challenge the original novel's thesis, to say that poverty breaks rather than builds character. "Marmee" does not pull herself together, but is permanently damaged from the loss and abandons her surviving daughters at the first instance. There's a sense of disturbed girlhood - I'll forever be struck by the image of a corpse wearing a pair of red shoes, and hidden in the wardrobe of a girl's dollhouse. This combination of gothicism with otherwise hardnosed suspense made for a very thrilling, heady watch in places. Ms Go beating up In-joo was easily one of the best things I've seen all year. This woman wears clean sharp lines with her hair in a neat bun, and the moment a vulnerable, desperate young woman offers herself up for punishment, the facade flakes away to reveal an obscene love of cruelty. I was terrified for In-joo, delighted to see a woman who actually delivered on her promise of violence. Park Bo-kyung is a star. If I see another comment talking about how "oh, In-joo and Do-il should've gotten together, they had such great chemistry," I'm going to scream. I'm sure Wi Ha-joon has been wonderful elsewhere, but here, next to Kim Go-eun, who was acting, he was painfully flat. I will finish this one, partly because I’m really intrigued to see how it resolves itself, but also to get another glimpse of my favourite violent woman Ms Go. 

Into the Ring (2020): checked this one out at the very tail end of 2022, and honestly, best decision I made last year. This drama is, on a scene to scene, frame to frame level, the funniest show I've ever watched. It’s full of delightful little quirks from its eccentric cast of characters that it mines for every giggle. Our heroine Goo Se-ra isn’t weird in a cute way, not weird in a quirky way, not weird in a sexy way - just weird. She’s unhinged but also scarily competent, as if all those short-term jobs have accumulated into latent superpowers. Her and Gong-myung are the rare drama couple that actually delight in each other’s company - there were brief moments of intimacy where I was taken aback by how completely I believed in this fictional relationship. It’s a show that needs its brevity and its indestructible heroine, because its world of local politics can be incredibly defeatist. The underdog rarely wins - she’s at least 15 years too late, without connections, wealth or the time to build a strong base within the system. I appreciated the narrative’s bluntness about what it meant to be an effective politician, and at some point, even though she really vexed me in places, I came to understand councilwoman Yoon Hee-soo’s world-weary pragmatism (played by Yoo Da-in who I’ve not seen since Weightlfting Fairy, and who, in hindsight, was wasted there). Also Ahn Nae-sang was hot in this. Yeah, I don’t know either. I’ve only got 2 episodes left and I can’t wait to get back once I’ve finished all my essays.

Offhand, I checked out episode 1 of Why Her? while doing schoolwork, and I love me a morally ambiguous girlboss but when that morally ambiguous girlboss physically assaults a worker - who is both significantly younger than her AND her student - and the show carries on as if nothing is wrong (and even ensures that the student is already emotionally attached to her, meaning that he is never appropriately angry at her for assault...), eyebrows start to rise. Of course there’s an interesting story in there about power imbalances and how powerful women uphold abusive power structures, but I don’t think Why Her? is that story. Oh well. Seo Hyun-jin’s hair is beautiful in this though, the stylists should get a raise.

And that’s it for 2022! Wishing you guys a belated, but very happy new year, and good things in 2023! 🥰🥰

[thecoolestfreakyouknow]

I posted 8,017 times in 2022

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I tagged 4,005 of my posts in 2022

Only 50% of my posts had no tags

#film - 638 posts

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Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i’m glad he’s challenging himself and growing as an actor since extraordinary you. btw they removed it from netflix and i’m not okay with it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The dumbest thing is if they wanted to claim "realistic" then how in the hell did the other couple which were cute but the definition of puppy love end up together and get married and baekdo didn't like pick a lane, the ending reeked of edgy bittersweet ending because it's the cool thing to do, sad endings aren't synonymous with good writing, sad endings don't make a show/movie better. The fake pseudo intellectualism is hilarious, acting like they're somehow above a happy ending and writing a sad ending filled with plot holes and inconsistencies from the characters. How is it that so many people who make television just do not understand what people actually want. Also screw them for not giving us Yi Jin and what's happening to him, Hee do wasn't the only main character here so she's married and sort of content although it seems she's still kinda in love with him and regretful, what about my boy, I loved him so much and I wanted to know he was happy even if they weren't together, I wanted to see him lead a good life like wtf did these writers smoke I am so mad. Honestly in a time where real life is such absolute garbage and we seem to be heading towards annihilation, having something that is supposed to bring you comfort just devastate you and leave you angry and sad for a long time is not it and it's not just 2521 this is a trend with Korean media and western media where they try to be subversive and shock us completely missing the point. I'm tired...

fucking solidarity to whoever sent this to me anon!!

For all we know, Yijin could be in space, taming lions, dead and buried, married with 16 kids.... like can we have some fucking information, please? Is he happy at all, or is he still pining for her? Does he think of her, like she thinks of him? There were so many loose ends. I hate how this ending implies that as soon as you hit 25 you can't contact your teen friends anymore and your life is over. For many people, life actually begins when they get to this age - being a teenager can be hell, and it's not always like the romanticised "youth" narrative. Who is Min-chae's dad? Who is Hee-do's husband? Why is he absent, a characteristic that made her break up with the love of her life, but she marries a man who does the same thing? Where does that lead us? Exactly where we began (but NOT different this time), which is no story at all.

I totally get your point about happy endings being this icky thing TV writers have to avoid now. At this point, it does feel condescending. It wouldn't be so bad if that was the story from the start but 2521 NEVER felt like that to me. There were hints that things don't last forever, which is standard for growing up, but it doesn't automatically mean that you have to leave EVERYTHING you loved about being that age behind. You can still have your partners and your friends, you can still go places and meet up. It's harder because you all have careers but it IS possible. They all act like they're going to die tomorrow and never see each other. I'm sorry, but that was not where you were leading with the most fantastic build up of 14 episodes. It is sad to grow up but it is NOT the end!

Wow, I thought I had nothing to add here but apparently I did. Thanks for sending this to me. It's nice to know I'm not alone!

56 notes - Posted April 3, 2022

#4

When the writer had Hee Do say that she and Yijin were only lovers in the good times, not the bad times, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I still don’t understand how you can misread your OWN themes and messages. Is that what you smoke? You smoke crack? Their ENTIRE relationship has been them taking turns to pull each other out of the abyss. That was how this show started - the IMF crisis hurt them in different ways and they saved each other. They support each other long distance with phone messages. They support their careers and stand up for each other when they needed it. And you are breaking up in the hour of need, something your relationship was FOUNDED on. Perseverance in dark times my ass.

123 notes - Posted April 8, 2022

#3

I love the creative scene transitions in Business Proposal. They also add similar stuff in the scenes themselves from cgi, sound effects, and original camerawork all the way to editing, which really makes the entire experience a fun time. I love that the stereotypical drama that the characters like and is playing in the background often is used to make meta commentary that both allows you to laugh at and be invested in the actual narrative. It's like a wink wink nudge nudge, "it's ok to enjoy this" hug. It's all tropes all the way down in this town and it knows it, asking you to hop in and enjoy the ride with them. There's nothing wrong with tropes if you execute them well.

124 notes - Posted April 2, 2022

#2

I've seen numerous people defend the 2521 finale for typical snobby reasons - "just because you didn't get what you wanted, you're upset". First off, as if kdramas aren't known for plot twists and unexpected happy endings. It's not dumb or weak for people to hope for it, especially because the tone of the show was like that throughout 13 episodes. It's not a stretch to assume that tone would continue until the end. It just wasn't able to stick the landing and drastically changed tone, pacing and characterisation, shocking everyone who followed the outline the show had already drawn out before those final episodes. It jumped from A to H to Z without much forethought and never filled in the glaring gaps. As a writer, you shouldn't punish viewers for caring, and you should never punish them for reading the writing on the wall.

Romantic relationships aside, the entire cast's adult lives are a depressing vision of a bleak future. This is in direct and startling contrast to the strength of bonds built up through hours of well crafted screenwriting, directing, acting, and so on. They don't hang out, they don't call or talk - something "realistic" adults actually do. Hee Do spends the final moments of a nostalgic, hopeful text pining away after her youth, where she was clearly happier than she is as an adult, friendless and isolated. We don't even see what happened to everyone else, so we can only assume the others do not fare much better. The threads opened for their futures (as each character had a lovely side story) are not followed through. "Realistically" (people love this word when it comes to fiction) adult life can be, and is, better than youth in different ways. The passions and ambitions you have as a teenager don't disappear when you reach a certain age - you can act on them now. So it is horrifically bleak to have them all give up and condemn themselves to suffering until they die, regretting and reliving a very short period of their long lives. While the rest of the drama did romanticise youth, it should've followed through on its established tone and romanticised adulthood as well. The core of the show itself was ambition (for careers, family, friends), hope and perseverance, and holding each other up in dark times - something it completely abandons in those final hours.

And that is why watchers are frustrated, angry, and upset, at what was one of the best television shows on air.

267 notes - Posted April 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

IN CONCLUSION. NEVER LOVE ANYTHING.

292 notes - Posted April 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[kdramacrybaby]

Joseon Attorney: A Morality (2023)

Genre: Historical, Law, Romance

Synopsis: Kang Han-soo is a lawyer who has started his own business under the disguise of helping people win lawsuits, but in reality it is all a bigger plan to get revenge on the people in the palace who killed his family. He teams up with a young woman from a guesthouse, who insists on helping him - what he doesn't know, is that she is actually from the palace and holds an important key to his past.

Episode info: 16 episodes / Runtime around 70 minutes

Lead cast: Woo Do-hwan (Kang Han-soo), Bona (Lee Yeon-joo), Cha Hak-yeon (Yoo Ji-soon), Lee Kyu-sung (Dong-chi), Shin Dong-mi (Lady Hong)

Link to watch: You can watch on Viki or Dramacool

Drama rec masterlist | Drama rant thread (beware of spoilers)

I want to like this drama so bad, I really do. It's Woo Do-hwan's first drama after coming back from the military, and I really liked Bona in 2521 - so really, what could go wrong with this drama? Pretty much everything, actually.

It started out really promising, and was something at least I haven't really seen done before. We have a princess who spends most of her time outside the palace working in a guesthouse, trying to help her people in every way she can. Then comes this lawyer who immediately makes an impression in his way of fighting the corrupt officials, and she decides to make him one of her people - hoping he can help her reach even further in helping her people. Together they fight corruption from the ground up with only the law on their side.

Sounds good right? At least I think so. Only that's not really what happens. If I have to be completely honest, I stopped paying too much attention after about halfway through, so perhaps some of the plot points have been lost on me, but I still feel like they really missed the mark here.

The writing especially, the overall story line, was so... stiff and inorganic feeling that none of their emotions came off as real. The actors could be screaming in rage or crying their eyes out, and I would not feel a thing because I truly did not care for these characters at all. They say and do things that make no sense to their characters shown so far, and then the next scene none of it even matters anyway.

Somehow nothing happens ever, but everything happens at once, I don't really know how to explain it. Even the actors could not salvage how the writing was running the drama, and in the end, even the chemistry between the actors ended up feeling too formal.

I don't even know what else to say. It really just was not for me at all, but it had so much potential to have been great.

It was so bad, I even ended up bonding with another viewer over how much we disliked it all, but at least I made a new friend 😂

[madlymine]

watched Twenty-Five Twenty-One Ep. 12/16

“Athletes decide on a path at a relatively early age and stay committed for the rest of their lives. For us, to give up is to face our greatest challenge.”

“I don't want to live just minding my own business, just because it doesn't concern me.”

“Seung-wan, you have to learn how to be flexible. You can't live in this world if you only know how to break.”

- “Is this the school that repeatedly assaults its students? There he is, the abusive teacher. How dare you have the audacity to keep your job without an apology, and tell my daughter to apologize? You still call yourself a teacher?” - “Wah. I take after my mom.”

What a mind blowing and fascinating episode! It tackled so many issues and presented them from different perspectives. This drama is definitely a 10 so far. I’m beyond impressed.

Now that the FL is 20, I’m worried because I feel that 2521 will lead to a breakup. Why do I also have this scary thought that Yijin might be dead in the present?

2 years ago

[shlvss]

Gara-gara Twenty Five Twenty One, Aku Jadi Kangen SMA

Aku barusan selesai nonton 2521. Yang memang bagus sekali. 

HAAAAH BAGUS BANGET DRAMANYA :”(((((((( 

Membuatku jadi kepingin nulis. Udah lama banget nggak nulis disini (re: menumpahkan isi kepalaku) dan thanks to Heedo yang selalu punya adegan nulis diary, aku jadi ingin nulis lagi, hahaha. Meski aku menyesal dengan semua diaryku yang menghilang (aku yang lalai meletakkannya) aku senang aku punya blog ini. Setidaknya aku punya kenangan, walaupun sedikit. Kemarin-kemarin aku berhasil membuat Ingar dan Sutel larut dalam nostalgia SMA karena satu post yang sempat aku tulis dulu, bersama Sensei dan anak-anak bahasa Jepang hahaha. Kata Sutel, “Nggak ngira aku bisa juga kangen SMA.”

Aku sama sekali nggak peduli sama kisah cinta Heedo Yijin. Bohong sih, agak peduli. Sedikit. Tapi semua orang tahu kalau cinta pertama itu, ya, cuma cinta pertama aja. Mengesankan, it is. Indah, berbunga-bunga, you name them. But being with them? Until you married? Just a few people who got such a lucky experience. Termasuk Jiwoong dan Yurim hahaha.

Aku suka sekaliiii suka suka sukaaa sama kisah mereka berlima waktu masih bareng-bareng! Ngingetin aku sama Reply 1988 (yang kalau boleh kutambahkan, sampai sekarang belum ada tandingannya). Bocah-bocah prik itu berhasil membuatku ingat masa-masa SMA yang sayangnya kok enak betul ya dulu kerjaan cuma main dan belajar, ga ada cari uang wkwkwk. Persahabatan yang begitu tulus dan bodoh, percaya dengan janji-janji dan mimpi. Belum dihantam realita hahaha dih gaya banget kayak w udah hidup 1000 tahun aja.

Aku meski dulu nggak banyak main (yg ngelencer gtgt karena w jelas ga punya duit dan kendaraan) tapi paham banget kok kalau anak SMA se-freak dan sebodoh itu kelakuannyaaa hahaha. Dan memang setulus itu.

Dan aku lebih suka drama ini karena juga menunjukkan kehidupan dewasa mereka. Yang begitu realistis. Nggak banyak k-drama yang menawarkan plot realistis, kebanyakan dari mereka happy ending sehingga aku nggak terlalu banyak nonton drama romance.

Yijin Heedo yang putus karena sebenernya sepele aja sih LDR.. komunikasi susah.. saling sibuk.. Mereka waktu masih muda ga akan ngerti ya.. Deeek cinta ga selamanya indah deeeek 😦 Seungkwan yang kerja di entertainment, tidur sehari cuma dua jam. Yijin yang lembur mulu. Heedo yang akhirnya nikah sama orang lain. Yang edan mah Jiwoong Yurim salut deh LDR Korea-Rusia pacaran 10 tahun bisa ampe nikaaah cuy! Wkwkwk.

Dan mereka yang udah jarang keep in touch lagi. Itu tuh.. kayak aku banget wkwkwk. Some of my dearest people when I was on highschool, we never meet each other since we are all on different cities. And somehow our time never match, and it ends up to another.. promises. Another promises to meet, and I hope not the kind of promises that break. If I remember how close we are, how we used to share our secrets, laughing on a joke that it’s just us that know, sharing foods together.. sedih hahaha.

Maybe some people were made for some time.

Different time, different people.

Semua ada masanya.

And I’m glad I have such a great highschool memories that I am not regret it. The only regrets I have is why I don’t try to make money from apa kek jualan apa kek biar bs maeen wkwkwk.

Tapi aku masih menjaga hubungan baik sama mereka-mereka. We just never meet each other, that’s it.

Gara-gara drama ini tuh aku jadi mikir kalau kita tuh emang harus living in the moments karena some moments are just made for once.. Bener-bener setiap hari harus dilalui dengan sadar dan mindful. Karena waktu tuh cepeeet banget yah. Tau-tau udah 5 tahun. Ntar tau-tau 10 tahun.

Ini kenapa bahuku udah pegel yah dibuat nulis segini doang hahaha. Is adulting hits me very hard omg menangisss XD

Aku kehilangan drama ini hiks. Suka banget sama OST-OSTnya bener2 membangkitkan semangat. It’s a very22 good 16 episodes thankyouuuuu jagganimmm & writernimm & Kim Taeri Nam Joohyuk Bona Choi Hyunwook! Drama coming of age yg paling bagus kutonton setelah apa yaah udah lama banget ga nonton drakor sampe selesai setelah Hospital Playlist hahaha.

Terus tuh aku suka banget akting Kim Taeri ihhhh bener-bener she’s a living goddess. Gimana ceritanya usia 33 tahun meranin anak 18 tahun TAPI PAS BANGEET begonya DAPET BANGEEET keliatan BEGO BANGEEETT 😦 Terus so far ini akting Nam Joohyuk yang paling aku suka karena disini dia lumayan nggak flat gitu hahaha kamu cakep kak tapi kalau akting aku masih lebih suka kak Dohyun :)) Terus Bona sama Hyunwook bagus juga aktingnya yaa! Hyunwook itu masih 2002 lho ihhhh muda banget. Aku paling suka yg di opening waktu Hyunwook nutup kepalanya pake ember sambil senyum, senyumnya anak SMA banget XD

Jadi pengen sering nulis disini lagi walaupun nggak penting. Karena kayaknya aku udah melewatkan banyak momen dalam hidupku tanpa dituliskan dimanapun..

Kenapa ya.. Kupikir-pikir lagi.. Kenapa ya?!!! -______-

Now i so used up to nulis di Instagram & Blogku yang itu, mengunjungi dan menulis blog ini rasanya sebuah kemewahan. Tadi waktu aku ngetik username dan kata sandi, rasanya kayak ngebuka buku harian yang digembok. Disini aku bisa bebas nulis semau-mauku, sengarang-ngarangku, seaneh-anehku, meski hampir semua yang kutulis selalu aneh hahaha. Even the impossible, I can make it possible while I build it through words and letters in this blog.

Na Hee Do, makasih banyak ya! Until we meet again! ❤

[kdramaladies]

I was going through the 2521 tag and saw your post for the Kdrama ladies. I never seen, If you wish upon me. I'm only on ep 3 but I've cried for every single ep so far 😭🥺 I'm enjoying it. Literally am seeing the quote you put on the gif right now and god I love it, as someone who endures the pain... I need to learn to scream it, tell someone.. anyone. Anyways thanks for exposing me to a great series, it's feeling like a comfort series to me now 🥺

Hi Anon! Thank you for sending us this message. I believe you are referring to this amazing gifset by Aubri (@hansomang) made for our blog's 1st year anniversary. I've passed on your message to her, and she has the following response:

Hello lovely human~ First off, I appreciate you for sending this ask! Second, I'm really glad you came across our post, and it makes me delighted to know that you picked up If You Wish Upon Me because of it! Seeing that you, so far, cried every single episode (which I also did for ALL 16 episodes, by the way) means that this series is for you. I may not know what you're going through right now, but please remember to be kind to yourself. sends comforting hugs your way And thank you too, anon! I made that set hoping that it would resonate with people like me who needed to hear those words, and I'm glad that it did with you :) —aubri ( @hansomang )

[press-one-to-replay]

Feeling very bitter that two fictional characters getting together is taking up so much real estate in my head. Fuck romance and marriage and babies and happily ever afters. Amazing, transcendental friendships that are built brick by brick in front of the audience are a drop in the pool compared to “traditional” love stories. The characters and their bonds with each other were what mattered in the end and that was ignored to make a point about first loves and youth.

[chi-koo]

can someone please write a fluff one shot where baekdo got to go on that trip in ep 15 😭 that place looked so nice and yijin having ordered a cake and champagne (it was champagne right? I can't remember) was so sweet 😭😭 and the note 😭😭😭😭 so like in this version he's actually there and he says all those nice things minus the apology and we get a lot of cute lil moments with our babies :((

[starburstfloat]

Ranking 2521 ep 16 moments that broke me 💀💀

Leggo

1) Yi Jin calling after Hee Do at the tunnel

The way the camera pans out and all the greenery that used to be on the tunnel wall, all that vibrance, is gone. It's just grey concrete and Yi Jin looks so small on the other end. But what had me sobbing was the way he half sighed/half cried in defeat. A piece of him died in that moment.

8/10 broke my heart, definitely cried

2) Hee Do writing in her diary in the hospital

There's something about this shot - maybe the way she leaves her light on overnight and can't sleep, the way the camera lingers on her heartbroken face for a while. And the way her voice narrates to say what she really wanted to tell him, how there's so much tenderness and intentionality behind her words.

8.5/10 I cried a river. Fuck, I'm tearing up writing this now 😭

3) Yi Jin waking up crying from his dream

Ouch. OUCCHHHH.

This one hurt so bad because the camera is so close to his face. We feel like we're right there next to him, soaking in his pain. And then boom we get a broad shot of him laying there all alone

10/10 Broke me 😭 I had to pause the video to recover

4) The cherry blossom bus stop

If you didn't fucking break down during this scene you need therapy. Then again, this scene is the reason I need therapy now.

The lead up to this had me holding my breath - the running, the searching for each other, the build up of the music. And then time feels like it freezes when they see each other again, and they're trying so hard not to break face, to just have a normal goodbye, but it's when he kneels down to tie her shoelace that they both crack and y'all 😭 they're so in love fuccckkkk

100/10 heartbroken, this was the moment the drama should have gone "they have too much chemistry, let's just make them endgame 🤷‍♀️"

Anyway. Let's cry about it some more, which scenes hit you the hardest shsjakakak

[everydaykdramasstuff]

Twenty-Five, Twenty-One, episode 16

Final episode!!

First impression:

It’s bittersweet to say goodbye to Twenty-Five, Twenty-One. But what a final episode!

I knew Yi-Jin and Hee-Do would eventually break up, but it felt like a knife to my chest where their words kept twisting it into my heart. I truly believe that they are each other’s soulmates, but it wasn’t the right time for them and they wanted different things with their lives. It was an episode filled with sad and emotional emotions, but Ji-Woong and Yu-Rim taking off their matching couple beanie when Hee-Do told them that her and Yi-Jin had broken up was such comic relief and just what I needed after their “first” breakup.

It was right for Yi-Jin to finally tell Hee-Do how he has suffered mentally while reporting about 9/11. She needed to know that he didn’t want to be burden her, but at the same time I think it would have done him some good to have someone he could tell how he felt about everything. He became lonely. One thing that made me cry was when Hee-Do said this: “We are lovers only during the good times, and a burden to each other in the bad times”. They have different perspectives on how to be in a relationship. Yi-Jin didn’t want to burden her with sad and miserable feelings, but she wanted to share it with him, because that’s - by her definition - what a relationship is and that’s what left them to break up.  

Yi-Jin reading her diary was tough for me emotionally. It didn’t seem like before that he understood how she must have felt while he was gone and drifting more and more away. This gives him his answers and maybe it will help him understand why she made the decision to break up. I think I cried just as much as Hee-Do and Yi-Jin when they finally said their goodbyes and broke up on a good note. It was difficult.

Nam Joo-hyuk and Kim Taeri did an amazing job with this drama. I loved their acting and definitely think this is my favorite drama with Nam Joo-Hyuk.

[underdevelopedbutterfly]

To everyone that feels depressed with the ending, I just want you to know that your feelings are valid and it's okay if you feel disappointed with the ending of a drama you once enjoyed and loved to bits. We cannot always interpret the ending in the same way as others do. We can also take time to process things. Believe me, I know 2521 is not only a romance and I am mostly satisfied with how they wrapped up the story of Na Hee Do and Ko Yu Rim which are both amazing, if this drama didn't show me Baekdo's great love and I only had to witness Heedo and Yurim's friendship, I think I will end up very satisfied and happy.

I also loved that we had a non-toxic male character and Nam Joo Hyuk owned him and made him even better. Their acting was top-notch and every time I think of their last hug and the nightmare of Baek Yi Jin, I knew that Baekdo's love for each other is worth fighting for. I stand by my perception that the writer had this ending planned out from the very first start she started writing it. She wrote the characters beautifully and while some parts of the ending of course can be understood logically, I do think the spirits of the characters were condensed to fit her initial ending. The characters were so out of control for 13 episodes (in a beautiful way) and to everyone who appreciated their love, their feelings, and everything that they did as two individuals, we interpreted and gave meaning to it as something very beautiful and precious and really worth fighting for. And I hoped the writer let the characters write their own story for the remaining episodes as well.

It was good that Na Hee Do became a good mother, finally fixed her relationship with her mother, had the best youth, and most of all got her own private space in the workshop for her father, but I sincerely believe that it was not displayed as powerful as Baekdo's relationship. I don't even think that we had the perfect amount of exposure to Na Hee Do's life in the present that made others sympathize or relate with her. If you had watched the animated movie, "Only Yesterday" and want to feel nostalgic about youth and you want to free yourself from pains from the past, it's a very healing movie and it would've been better if that same amount of exposure that the present woman in the movie had was same from what we've got with older Heedo. I don't want to put it here but the way they also provided subtle clues that Heedo and Yijin could've still ended up with a happy family and with how they build up the suspense, I believe it's a trick to hook us from the start to finish and this is one of the reasons why some viewers were left feeling betrayed.

I may accept this ending just to let go of the pain, but I think I need more time to do so. And when I do that, I want to think that Baekdo are living in an alternate universe, where communication, efforts and their courage to fight for their great love won. Every time I see Yurim's mother and father, I think Heedo and Yijin could've been that.

It's a love worth fighting for, not letting go for—at least for me.

[thecoolestfreakyouknow]

Would just like to agree with the 2521 finale. Like 8 months later or whatever and it STILL leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I hate it so much because the drama is genuinely my favourite I can't remember another one impacting me as much as that one did??? Then episodes 14-16 happened and they all just shit on all of us. Like I seriously don't think I'll ever recover it's singlehandedly the worst thing I've ever seen

exactly! i'm so glad you get it. It was one of those tv shows that comes along once every few years and displays the best of what it can offer as a medium. It was incredibly emotionally involving and so charming, in every single aspect. It was the potential it had that hurts the most! If it was an average drama, the crackpot last three episodes wouldn't be so vile. Unfortunately added to the list of things never to be rewatched in the wake of tripping up on the final hurdle. :(

[pororoe]

Twenty Five Twenty One

Everything about this drama will always be bittersweet. I want it to end, but I also don't. I'm happy with how Yijin and Heedo's relationship unrolled. But somewhere down there, it also stings. It was the most beautiful and painful breakup. Bittersweet.

2521 is perfect in every way. The cast, the production, the script, the execution. Everything was well done

I wish there was a perfect word to describe how I feel about this drama. But there isn't. I am satisfied with how things turned out for each character ✨ wouldn't have it any other way.

—end 220304

[kdramacrybaby]

So, I just finished Twenty Five Twenty One, and I’m just… I have a lot of feelings but I don’t really know how to put them into words? All I know is that that tears are streaming down my face, and I don’t really know what to do with myself rn