[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Twenty Five Twenty One" Episode 2

I-jin (played by Nam Joo-hyuk) is the male lead of "Twenty Five Twenty One" despite his often feeling like a background character. This continues through most of the second episode, as our heroine Hee-do adjusting to her new school. Somewhat amusingly, there's not really much adjusting to be done. Hee-do is known to be an athletic transfer, with other students mostly just acknowledging her existence and going about their business.

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Yoo-rim (played by Kim Ji-yeon) is the big exception, but only because Hee-do is very invested in becoming her friend. Yoo-rim is already famous as a big hopeful for the South Korean Olympic fencing team, to the point that Hee-do explicitly calls her a role model. The irony being that Hee-do actually beat Yoo-rim at a major fencing competition for children. Yoo-rim resents Hee-do, not for winning, but because Yoo-rim can't counter Hee-do's determined never-give-up personality.

This makes for an intriguing dynamic. I'd actually assumed in the first episode that Hee-do wasn't a great fencer, partially because of the framing device of the dance competition, but also because Hee-do herself didn't really act like it. She consistently treats fencing as a passion mostly divorced from any notion of actual success. Hee-do's powerful sense of determination is a huge departure from the oppressive aura of the IMF era which permeates so much of the rest of the story.

This is where I-jin finally comes in via the last act, which goes into his backstory. The short of it is, I-jin used to be in a very well-off family, to the point he could reasonably expect a German car as a graduation gift. The IMF crisis literally destroyed that, forcing I-jin's parents into a sham divorce to protect what little assets they still had. I-jin takes this failure very personally, knowing as he does that lower-level employees who relied on his family's business are much worse off than even his own fractured household.

Hee-do still isn't really appropriate as a love interest for I-jin, just because of the age gap. Well, beyond the age gap, just the fact that she has an actual goal in life, and I-jin doesn't. Hee-do looks at I-jin's situation with humility and understanding, knowing that not long ago she too was on the cusp of losing everything she cared about. "Twenty Five Twenty One" is a very sweet story about empathy in trying times- an era not so different from our own.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Twenty Five Twenty One" is directed by Jung Ji-hyun, written by Kwon Do-eun, and features Kim Tae-ri, Nam Joo-hyuk, Kim Ji-yeon, Choi Hyun-wook, Lee Joo-myung, Seo Jae-hee. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/02/12~Now airing, Sat, Sun 21:10 on tvN.