Twenty-Five Twenty-One: What About That Ending?
Twenty Five Twenty One (Netflix)
“In a time when dreams seem out of reach, a teen fencer pursues big ambitions and meets a hardworking young man who seeks to rebuild his life.”
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched this K-drama and you don’t want to know what happens—stop reading now!
“Girl, call me when you’re done. I wasted my emotions on this drama.” With this one text from my friend I knew she didn’t like the ending of one of 2022’s top-rated K-dramas. I had to tell her she can’t say even something this vague to me before I watch an episode because now I knew too much before seeing the first minute of the finale. Thus the reason I started this post with SPOILER ALERT.
Twenty Five Twenty One had been rife with online conspiracy theories for weeks but I don’t think any of them turned out to be true. I don’t go looking for these theories but I can’t help but see a few come through various social network newsfeeds or hear about them in conversations. It doesn’t help that my brain is always spinning trying to figure out where the story is going while I’m watching.
Midway through the series when these theories started popping up I told my friend I felt we needed to ask what we could glean from the title. From almost the beginning of the series, it looked like our main couple wasn’t together present-day, so maybe the title is indicating the ages when they got together, when the relationship ended, or both.
I don’t want to go over everything with a fine-tooth comb. If you haven’t seen this drama I definitely recommend watching it. There’s a lot of laughter, a lot of tears, and everything in-between.
Kim Tae-Ri (김태리) is one of the reasons you should watch. I first saw this wonderful actress in Mr. Sunshine as a young noble Korean woman who was also an undercover activist fighting for Korea's independence. That 33-year-old Tae-Ri is so convincing as a modern-day teenager after her turn as a classy early 1900s aristocrat and her rebel alter ego speaks to the kind of actress she is. Not only is Tae-Ri believable in her portrayal of these very different characters it’s nice to see her take on such varying roles.
For all the viewers who aren’t sure if they even like Nam Joo-Hyuk (남주혁) after the Start-Up debacle, Twenty Five Twenty One gives this young actor another chance to win fans over who were team Han Ji-Pyeong. If he doesn’t win you over in this K-drama you might want to check your heart.
Na Hee-Do and Baek Yi-Jin meet when she’s 18 and he’s 22. Their friendship has an underlying crush element and it turns out the 4-year age difference really bothered some people since 18 is considered to still be a minor in Korea. Granted Hee-Do and Yi-Jin didn’t meet until he was out of high school but they’re close enough in age theoretically they could’ve started dating when she was a freshman and he was a senior. Also given the fact Hee-Do was an elite athlete her life wasn’t the same as most students her age—she didn’t even attend classes regularly because of the training fencing required at her level. Yi-Jin, on the other hand, had just gone through a huge financial crisis with his family which prevented him from attending college, and he was forced to work a number of part-time jobs which seems more similar to that of someone in high school. His entire friend group during this period was Hee-Do, Ko Yu-Rim, Ji-Woong, and Seung-Wan—all of who sought him out because he was living in the spare room at Seung-Wan’s home. The way the story was told, Yi-Jin didn’t take advantage of them being younger, in fact, he prevented the younger ones from doing things they otherwise might have done, like underage drinking. Even though we could see Hee-Do and Ye-Jin had feelings for each other, it wasn’t until they were 25 and 21 that they actually moved from friends to dating. One reason viewers came to love them is because we’re shown over and over how Hee-Do and Yi-Jin support each other through hard times.
In fact, the storyline between Baek Yi-Jin and Na Hee-Do is so compelling viewers were not happy they didn’t end up together in the end. Turns out I was right when I said the title Twenty Five Twenty One 스물다섯 스물하나 was meant to be a big hint of what was to come.
I was caught off guard when they introduced 9/11 into the storyline. I already felt a connection to Baek Yi-Jin as I watched him become a reporter because his path wasn’t so different than my own. In 2001 I was working at the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was a production assistant for weekend news and an “intern” during the week for the entertainment reporter. Once we all realized this was an attack on America the last thing I wanted to do was take a bus downtown and be away from my young kids who were in elementary school at the time. We didn’t know if there were more attacks coming. 9/11 was on a Tuesday and entertainment news was non-existent that week, so unlike most folks in the news business, I didn’t have to go into the station during the week and especially as a single mom, didn’t feel safe leaving my kids.
Until I saw Baek Yi-Jin covering the 9/11 story from a Korean perspective I hadn’t thought about how it might’ve affected a country like Korea. America knew the world was watching and sympathizing with what had happened but most of us were so focused on the impact to America I doubt many of us thought about what it felt like for other countries who had citizens perish in the attacks that day. It was especially surreal to see it framed from a Korean reporter’s viewpoint.
Ironically, one of my K-Adoptee groups had a weekend conference planned in NYC for early October 2001. I was meeting a couple of friends a few days early and had been on AOL instant messenger on Septemeber 7th when my friend asked if I wanted to go to the World Trade Center. I had said I wasn’t sure because, “Once a target, always a target?” in reference to the WTC bombing that had happened in 1993. Four days later those planes flew into the towers. My question had been theoretical—because of course I would’ve gone to the WTC. After the terrorist attack, the next question was—do we still go?
My K-adoptee friend organizing the conference had a local NYC friend who helped find the hotel that would accommodate our group as well as the restaurant for our Saturday night dinner. We learned his friend was killed in the WTC attacks. As nerve-wracking as it was to go ahead with the weekend as planned, by then NYC was asking people to support the city by coming and spending money. Even a month later the sights, sounds, and smells were still drenched in the attacks of 9/11, much as Baek Yi-Jin was seen experiencing. The restaurant opened for the first time since 9/11—for our group. It took them until that week to even make that difficult decision. Police officers had to let us go behind official barriers to access Giovanni’s because it was right next to Ground Zero. It meant a lot to be able to support this restaurant and we collected donations from the group to go towards a fund for the friend who was killed in the WTC for a scholarship his family started in his name.
9/11 was the beginning of the end for Na Hee-Do and Baek Yi-Jin. Kim Tae-Ri not only shared the viewers’ sadness at the final outcome in a Soompi interview, she also talked about what a fantasy Na Hee-Do and Baek Yi-Jin’s first love was and let readers know her first love was nothing like her characters’.
“We see dramas in the moment, as if Hee Do is experiencing this in the moment, but honestly when you think about your first love, don’t you glorify it or frame it more beautifully? That’s why I think that faint and abstract beauty appears like reality when you’re watching a drama. That aspect is so sad.”
In my opinion, the fact Na Hee-Do and Baek Yi-Jin don’t end up together isn’t the real issue. It’s the way they set the story up. Why show us present-day Hee-Do and her daughter if you’re going to leave us in the dark about how she got there and anything significant about her daughter? We were so invested in all the character’s lives, they made us also want to know what happened to Baek Yi-Jin, Ko Yu-Rim, Ji-Woong, and Seung-Wan. Why tell a story in a way that literally demands answers if you have no intention of filling in the blanks? I always say Rom-coms end right when a couple gets together because rarely is real life that fairytale "happily-ever-after” and audiences don’t want reality, they just want to be left with the fantasy. That being said, there’s no reason why we can’t tell stories with more realistic storylines. Especially ones with the depth Twenty Five Twenty One gave us. If they hadn’t given viewers the future storylines that were so incomplete I think the ending would’ve been accepted much differently.
What if the story started with the scene where the bookstore owner finds the package with the lost diary and once he puts that package with Baek Yi-Jin’s handwriting on it in Na Hee-Do’s hands that triggers the flashback? We really didn’t need any of the other current-day scenes. If it was primarily a first love story they could’ve ended with the scene where current-day Hee-Do goes to the tunnel once she’s read Baek Yi-Jin’s message in her recently returned diary and then fade to black.
The audience would probably still be disappointed they didn’t end up together because we were really cheering for them the same as Kim Tae-Ri who said, “They had such a fantasy-like first love. Doesn’t it feel like they had everything you could add to a first love? Breaking up with that kind of first love was so sad to me.” In this scenario, I would’ve aged Kim Tae-Ri so Hee-Do was the same person who we’ve come to really care for—not a separate actress who doesn’t even seem to share any of the qualities we saw in Hee-Do.
It also wouldn’t have hurt to show current-day Baek Yi-Jin and let him really be in that final scene. Or what about a reunion of sorts with all of them? Anything but what they did. Even without a perfect backstory, many people have fond memories of their own first love. A better foundation for the story to be told may have elicited the emotions Kim Tae-Ri referenced for viewers instead of so much disappointment.
What did you think about Twenty Five Twenty One? Are you glad you watched it or did you think your emotions were wasted like my friend? Did you have any conspiracy theories? Would you recommend others to watch? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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The ending aside, I did enjoy this K-drama and unlike my friend, I don’t think it was a waste of my emotions. I don’t think she really does either. I might rewatch it with my daughter Taylor because I think she’ll enjoy it. If I were ever to rewatch on my own I’d fast forward through the current-day scenes because they’re basically irrelevant to the story.
Released: February 12, 2022 Episodes: 16
Cast: Kim Tae-Ri Na Hee-Do, Nam Joo-Hyuk Back Yi-Jin, Bona Ko Yu-Rim, Choi Hyun-WookLee Moon Ji-Woong, Joo-Myoung Ji Seung-Wan, FULL CAST
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