Kdrama 2022

Twenty Five Twenty One (Kdrama Review & Summary)

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• Genre: Youth, Friendship, Baptism By Fire, Romance
• Release Date: 12 February 2022
• Origin: South Korea
• Kdrama: 16 Episodes

Cast

• Kim Tae Ri as Na Hee Do
• Nam Joo Hyuk as Baek Yi Jin
• Bona as Go Yu Rim [Athlete]
• Choi Hyun Wook as Moon Ji Woong
• Lee Joo Myung as Ji Seung Wan
• Seo Jae Hee as Shin Jae Kyung [Hee Do’s mother]
• Kim Hye Eun as Yang Chan Mi [Hee Do’s coach]
• Choi Min Young as Baek Yi Hyun [Yi Jin’s brother]
• Choi Myung Bin as Kim Min Chae [Hee Do’s daughter]
• So Hee Jung as [Seung Wan’s mother]
• Kim Young Sun as [Yi Jin’s mother]
• Park Jung Pyo as [Yi Jin’s uncle]

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Episode 1

Because of the financial crisis of 1997-1998, Korea had to seek help from IMF.

IMF had provided some recovery strategies such as tightening on every sector.

And this has a major impact on schools and universities.  Some extracurricular activities were cut down which included a fencing club at Na Hee Do’s school.

Episode 2 Secret Happiness

Her mother asked the fencing instructor to accept Na Hee Do at her school.

Yijin confessed to Heedo that he feels he had no right to happiness after another man came to Yijin asking for money as compensation to what he lost that Yijin’s father managed.

Yijin felt hopeless and helpless because he understood the desperation of having no money but he can’t really do anything about the money situation as his family had gone bankrupt.

Heedo told Yijin that it was not really his fault but if he really felt guilty about being happy then he could set aside being with her a time when he can be happy.

Her cheekiness won him over.

Episode 3

Full House Volume 12 had been released.  Both Heedo and Yurim went to the book shop to get it.

Heedo got there first and asked Yi Jin for the copy but he said it had been hired out.

Heedo was so disappointed but Yi Jin said they have a copy of another manga.  Heedo was slowly getting over her disappointment when she saw Full House Volume 12 neatly tucked in behind the till.  She went to get it but Yi Jin took it first telling her that it was reserved for someone else and that someone just walked in.

It was Yurim.

Heedo was not having it.  She insisted that both YiJin and Yurim are contravening the rule of the bookstore.

Being a member, Heedo has priority over a non-local Yurim.

In the end, Yijin gave Full House Volume 12 to Heedo, who then left happily.

Yi Jin and Yurim were left talking.  She told him that she knew him first and that he was her first love.

Without being malicious but rather pragmatic, YiJin told Yurim that her first love was his sports car.  He was a different guy then.

Anyway, the ranking in fencing was that the first 24 had a chance for a place in the national team.

poor Heedo was number 26.

She was still thinking about this on her way home and she overheard that someone was looking for YiJin.

Thinking that he was another creditor, Heedo ran all the way to the bookshop to tell Yijin that a guy was on his way to see him.  She told him to hide.

The man did come.

Later on, Yijin found a note from the man, who was his father.

He was concerned that he did not get to speak to him so he went running to the bus station.  He dropped the note which was found by Heedo who felt too guilty about making Yijin miss his father.

What she did not know was that Yijin was able to see his father at the bus station.

Yijin promised his father that he will find a way for the whole family to be together again.

Anyway, Heedo as a friend online that she talked about everything.  The friend was a great friend and a perfect sounding board for all her troubles and issues.

What she did not know was that Yurim is her secret internet pal.

Episode 4

Yijin and Heedo ware become firm friends.

Yijin confessed to Heedo that he misses her when he encounters another setback.  Somehow her resilience of accepting losing and winning gives him hope.

They had a profound conversation that even tragedy can be comical if you look at it from afar.

I love this drama.  It is uplifting and yet full of pathos as well.  Lots of highs and lows.

Episode 5

1998 National Fencing Team Tryout

Heedo won in the tryout and now become a member of the national team.

Meanwhile, Yijin saw his young brother being beaten up by his father’s debtors so he quickly packed and took him to his relative’s village to reunite with their mother.

Episode 6

3 March 2022: Aww Kim Tae Ri has been diagnosed with Covid 19.  I wonder whether this will affect the scheduling of this drama.  I hope this drama is pre-produced.

Get well soon, Tae Ri.

Yijin and Heedo met again and ended up in a restaurant where a shocked Yijin met Heedo’s new boyfriend.

He was rather disappointed but ended up laughing as the two were just comical.

A few days later, Yijin met Heedo again and found out that Heedo is not footloose and fancy free.

He asked her how can she dumped a boyfriend within a couple of weeks only.

Heedo said that she wanted a boyfriend because she was curious how if feels to break up.

Episode 7

Heedo is playing against YuRim for the finals.

Yurim was ahead at first but Heedo won eventually and then it all went wrong.

This was because Yurim could not accept defeat and insisted that she was robbed of a gold medal because of a bad decision by the referee.

This of course upset Heedo because the gold medal was now tainted so she removed it from her neck and left it on the table and then walked out during a press conference.

In the end, Yijin managed to interview the referee who said that he was in front of the players and saw who was faster.  If the viewers did not want a real decision, they should watch a movie.

Anyway, Heedo could not face her mother because she thought her mother was a journalist first before she was a mother.  Heedo misses her dead father who was always on her side no matter what.

Anyway, she went to the loft of the school to spend the night but the security guard locked her in accidentally.

Heedo had to call Yijin for help who then called her friends to unlock the door.

Why waiting and destruct herself from thinking of going to the toilet, Heedo listened to past broadcast cassette takes of Yijin.  In one of his recordings she heard him being lovely dovey with a girlfriend, Da Eun.

Episode 8

Heedo went to meet her online friend which was of course YuRim

They agreed to carry a single yellow rose each to recognise each other for their first meeting.

YiJin found saw Yurim when she was leaving for the meet-up and insisted that he tagged along with her as the online friend might be a pervert.

So they waited and then Yurim spotted Heedo with a single yellow rose.  Yurim chickened out and gave the rose to Yijin.

Yijin was totally gobsmacked especially when a wondering Heedo approached and told him that she was his online friend and she must have him.

Episode 9

Heedo said to Yujin that their relationship can’t be described by just friends or lover so they had to think of a name for their relationship.

Yujin said he likes rainbow while Heedo said she like scissors. But rainbow it was.

They were driving to the hospital to get Heedo checked up when Heedo said to stop the car so they can see the rainbow which can be seen by the bridge.

Looking at her, Yujin upgraded their rainbow relationship to Love.  He said ‘I love you, Heedo.”

Saranghae!

Episode 10

Episode 11

Episode 12

Heedo and her mother finally understood one another.  They became closer for only five minutes.🤣🤣🤣

Because they were both feisty, they started screaming again at each other in no time.

The issue was that Heedo would like to continue with her sport and not go to college which made her mother see red.

In the end, Heedo did take the college entrance.

Surprisingly, the brainiest student in their school, Ji Seung Wan, left school on principle.  One of the teachers continued to use corporal punishment on his students despite being banned by the government.  Ji Seung Wan talked about the issue on her pirate radio naming the school and the teacher.

The teacher was annoyed he wanted her to issue an apology and to clarify the issue as a misunderstanding.

Ji Seung Wan felt that the school was in the wrong and that it was no longer a value for education so she left.

Meanwhile, it was 1999, superstitiously believed to be doomsday.

The friends gathered at Yi Jin’s place.

Just before midnight, the friends went home to their respective families to spend their last moment on earth if doomsday does happen.

Heedo stayed with Yi JIn as her mother was away broadcasting the doomsday night.

As the countdown to midnight happened, Heedo went for a kiss wth Yi JIn.

Episode 13

Heedo felt the world had collapsed from the embarrassment of having kissed Yi Jin who seemed uncomfortable from their brief kiss.

They tried to avoid one another for a while but Heedo could not control herself and missed him to much.

Still, he continued to rebuff her.  Still, she would turn up.

It was snowing when he came home one day.  He can’t help but look around if Heedo was waiting for him.

She was behind him suddenly.  He told her to go home, it was too cold.

He the sid that whatever was between them, it was over.

Heedo was heartbroken but began to walk away.  But suddenly he was there and gave her the longest deepest kiss.  He then told her to be prepared as he was going to do everything with her.

Whoa! There had been many rumours of who Heedo’s daughter’s fatherr.  It looks like she did not end up with YiJin.

We are finding out the story of her Heedo with Yijin and friends through the daughter who was rippling into Heedo’s journal.

Episode 14

This is a box of tissues episode.

Yu Rim’s father had an accident.  He crashed into car being driven by a young guy.  The young guy did not die but will be disabled for life.

YuRim’s father will have to go to prison if he failed to provide reparations to the young man.  Going to prison would mean damaging the reputation of YuRim.

YuRim’s mother said that they should sell their restaurant but they are already deep in debts because her mother acted as a guarantor to a friend who ran away when he cannot pay his dues.

So Yurim thought that she is the only that could save the family.  With consultation with Coach, she offered her fencing services to the highest bidder.

Russia bid the highest but YuRim had to change her nationality to be able to compete for Russia.

Yijin found out about it had really no choice but make it into a ‘Breaking News

YuRim’s friends who knew about the situation supported her decision as really she hasn’t got much choice but because she is Korea’s sweetheart, the beautiful fencer, the people started thinking the worst about her.  She suddenly turned into the devil who sold her soul to the enemy, she became a traitor to Korea.

It lots of crying among the friends, especially between Yurim and Heedo.  They promised to practice and meet in Madrid for the 2001 finals.

Meanwhile, YuJin who became rather a pariah to his friends felt so guilty of what he had done to Yurim; everywhere he goes, graffiti about Yurim being a traitor can be seen and all the posters of her endorsements were pulled out and chucked into the bins.

The episode ended with Yijin who is now a fully-fledged broadcaster interviewing Heedo who won her third gold for Korea.  She was in San Francisco.

Yijin added that he was also congratulating Heedo on her marriage.  Who is the husband?

Episode 15

At long last, Heedo and Yijin were going on a holiday together.  They had fun buying  Couple Suitcases in twin red,

But then Yijin did not show up as he had an emergency assignment.  A bombing in New York.

This was in September 2001, after the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York.

His experience changed Yijin a lot.  He had some sort of PTSD from covering news and updates of bodies being pulled up from the wreckage of the fallen buildings.  Every day the numbers were piling and he was taking it personally.

He had become an insomniac and relied on cigarettes and alcohol to calm down.

Not hearing from Yijin made Heedo lonely.  Their LDR was not working.  Then she heard that he actually applied for a post at KBS New York branch.

Episode 16

It started with the most unrealistic scene.  Yijin was being driven in a taxi when he got a call which make him use his laptop.

He asked the taxi driver if he could park nearby so he could get his laptop in his suitcase.  Duh, why would a journalist put his laptop in luggage that he would check-in rather than his hand-carry?!!!

Of course, this scene was needed for him to have an immediate interaction with Heedo as they seemed to have arrived in Korea at the same time from the same place on the same plane because Yijin picked up Heedo’s luggage rather than his own.  So when he opened the luggage, he found Heedo’s clothes and medal.  By the way, they don’t padlock their luggage anymore?

Yijin could not face Heedo when he returned to Korea so despite taking both luggage with him, he left Heedo’s one on her front door, and after ringing her bell, he cowardly left.

Heedo grabbed the bull by the horn and told Yijin that she can’t do their relationship anymore especially when he said that her calls became a burden when he was in the middle of coming to terms with the growing numbers of fatalities from the bombing which he had to report.

Heedo told him that their relationship was about supporting each other in good times and in bad.

But he only seems to share the good times and when it is bad they become burdens to each other.

Their breakup turned into bitter words.

In 2009, Heedo won her third medal in San Francisco.  She was interviewed live via satellite by Yijin who had gone back to Korea and taken over from Heedo’s mother as a news anchor.

He congratulated Heedo on her win and her marriage.

Who did she marry, I would like to know.

Who is the father of Minjae?

As to the other characters:

Yijin was able to reunite his family.  He got a mortgage and bought an apartment for them.

Yurim returned to Korea and opened a fencing school.  She was to marry Ji Woong.

Ji Woong started posting his photos in early 2000 online and then opened an online shop, selling clothes, which has became successful.

Ki Seung Wan became an assistant director and get reacquainted with Baek Yi Hyun who had always had a crush on her.

Coach Yang left the National Team to return to coaching at university.

Shin Jae Kyung retired and became a doting mother and then a grandma to Minchae.

Minchae decided to return to ballet.

I do feel a little cheated with the ending because I am an old romantic.  To the bitter end, I was hoping that Heedo ended up with Yijin but nope. And then Heedo’s husband, the father of Minchae remains a mystery.