THE Twenty-five twenty-one The ending is a bittersweet conclusion to the 16-episode romantic arc between Na Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri) and Baek Yi-jin (Nam Joo-hyuk). One of the best Korean dramas streaming on Netflix, Twenty-five twenty-one is a one-season show that premiered in 2022. Set in the present day, Hee-do's daughter, Kim Min-chae (Choi Myung-bin), finds her mother's old diary, and it is from that diary that the The story is told in flashbacks, jumping back and forth to the present.
In previous episodes of the K-drama, Hee-do and Yi-jin's lives are shown, first when they begin to fall in love in high school, then through an unseen breakup that drives the two away from each other. They both end up living successful lives, and Na Hee-do goes through a few relationships before ending one that apparently gave her a daughter, although who Min-Chae's father is is carefully obstructed from the public. It's a K-drama that will hook viewers from the first episode and the season finale satisfactorily illuminates the couple's separation, reunion and the meaning of the diary.
Baek Yi-jin and Na Hee-do break up
The lovers' lives are moving in opposite directions
Seeing that Yi-jin and Hee-do are not together at the beginning of Twenty-five twenty-oneit is assumed that they broke up at some point between their whirlwind high school romance in 1998 and the present day. Episode 16 finally reveals exactly what happened that night and it's heartbreaking. Yi-jin has been slowly distancing himself from Hee-do, more concerned about his career as a journalist than his relationship. For her part, Hee-do has been hyperfocused on her fencing career and getting to the Olympics, so the couple hasn't been able to see each other very often.
Problems in their relationship come to a head one night, and they fight and exchange insults before breaking up and leaving. Soon after, Yi-jin comes across Hee-do's diary, the same one Min-Chae is reading in the present, after Hee-do leaves him on a bus and the driver returns it to Yi-jin, seeing his address. scribbled inside the diary. cover. Yi-jin reads the diary and sees how much Hee-do loves him. He runs to find her, but together, they both realize the same thing simultaneously.
The reasons for the separation were real. Yi-jin goes to America to pursue a career as a journalist and Hee-do will stay in Korea, determined to represent the country in the Olympics. However they may feel about each other, the reality is that their lives are going in two very different directions and unless someone is willing to make the sacrifice, the relationship will never work. It's a sad truth that they discover, but they do it, apologizing for what they said during their initial breakup, and at least they part without having hurt each other.
Kim Min-chae discovers his mother Na Hee-do's lost diary
Yi-jin left a special note for Hee-do
Despite finding her mother's diary in the season premiere, Min-chae does not reveal this to her until the end of the series. Since Hee-do and Yi-jin's separation, she has won countless medals at the Olympics and started a family, while he becomes a news anchor and returns to South Korea. He coincidentally ends up working for Hee-do's mother in her hometown. After Min-chae finishes the diary, she takes it to her mother, 20 years after she and Yi-jin broke up. Hee-do opens it and finds a final page that she never wrote.
It turns out that after Yi-jin found the diary so many years ago, he added a page of his own filled with all the strong and loving emotions he felt for Hee-do and also regret for the fight that led to the breakup. Instead of returning it, however, he gave it to a shopkeeper who completely forgot about it until Min-chae found it. Hee-do reads his words and cries as she recalls her strong feelings for her former love and happily confirms that the feelings she felt so strongly were reciprocated.
Baek Yi-jin and Na Hee-do don't end up together
Hee-do already has a husband, daughter and a life
Hee-do returns to the same place where she and Yi-jin ended their relationship in 1998. There alone, she now realizes how their arguments were a waste of time and how much, as evidenced by the diary entries, they loved each other. other. Instead of remembering the hurtful things they said to each other, She wonders what would have happened if they had said the things they wrote in the diary.
It is finally revealed that Hee-do does in fact have a husband, and she moves away from the site of her and Yi-jin's separation, presumably to return to her family. However, Twenty-five twenty-one ends before showing what she will do next, leaving her future up to the viewer.
The True Meaning of the End of Twenty-Five and Twenty-One
The story isn't over yet for Yi-jin and Hee-do
There are some who might consider Twenty-five twenty-one a great K-drama with an emotional ending that ruins the series, but it's an honest ending. 20 years have passed since Yi-jin and Hee-do broke up. Both have lived full lives since then. Getting back together isn't as simple as reading some loving words written in a diary lost two decades ago. While the words certainly change Hee-do's perception of what was said that night, it doesn't change the fact that the reason for the separation was not emotional, but situational.
Whether the fight took place that night or another night, it was always accompanied by the ambitious personal lives that each person saw for themselves. If they had both said the loving thoughts they wrote that night, days, months or years from now, they would still have to deal with Yi-jin being obligated to wherever his stories took him and Hee-do focusing only on swordsmanship. No loving words could have resolved this impasse.
However, those who felt that the K-drama characters deserved better should keep something in mind. Just because Twenty-five twenty-one ended without Yi-jin and Hee-do coming back, doesn't mean they never will. There is still plenty of time for the pair to rekindle their relationship. Perhaps Hee-do and her husband have separated and separated amicably in recent years. Perhaps Yee-jin will remain in South Korea as a news anchor and be able to prove her love decades after the series ends.
There is a relevant story on the Facebook page Humans of New Yorka page dedicated to the city's strange, romantic, funny and fortuitous stories. In a curiously similar anecdote, a woman from South Korea falls in love with a man in America but returns to Korea to take care of her familyand the two never heard from each other again. That is until 20 years pass and the woman finds the man on Google. She writes him a long message detailing all her feelings for him and how she has thought of him all these years.
He had a similar opinion. Both had been through marriages and had children, but now reconnected much later in their lives and ended up getting married. A similar story could be true for the couple in Twenty-five twenty-one. 1998 wasn't their year, nor was 2018, but no one can say that 2028 couldn't be, or 2038, or 2048, or any time when Yi-jin and Hee-do are at a point in their lives where they can accept each other's love.
How the Twenty-Five and Twenty-One Finale Was Received
The Romance K-Drama's Final Episode Was Divisive
While Twenty-five twenty-one is one of the most beloved romance K-Dramas to hit Netflix in recent years, the ending of Yi-Jin and Hee-Do's story was incredibly controversial among viewers. Few K-Dramas have ended on such a polarizing note, with audience opinions split almost down the middle on whether the Twenty-five twenty-one the ending was either a refreshing and realistic final part, or an irritating conclusion that rendered the entire show pointless. Online discussions about the final episode of Twenty-five twenty-one are passionate, to say the least, and both camps have interesting takes on the ending.
Who liked the ending? Twenty-five twenty-one celebrate the realism and authenticity of Yi-Jin and Hee-Do's separation, and the fact that it was foreshadowed at the beginning of the show. For fans of the final episode, Twenty-five twenty-one it wasn't a traditional love story or romance narrative. Instead, it's the story of two people who are obviously right for each other, but who find themselves at the wrong time in their lives.
Yi-Jin and Hee-Do's story is not one of lovers destined to be together despite the odds. The end of Twenty-five twenty-one instead, it made it clear that they are "the ones who escaped" to each other - a common and familiar concept in many romance stories, and one that many viewers find incredibly relatable.
Fans of the final episode celebrated the authenticity that came with that conclusion, and many found the fact that Yi-Jin and Hee-Do never managed to resolve things incredibly refreshing. However, this is also the reason why so many viewers found the ending unsatisfying, disappointing, or tiresome.
Twenty-five twenty-one may have subverted expectations by telling the story of two lovers without a happy ending, but many fans simply wish it didn't happen. Many online expressed that they felt somewhat cheated by the final episode and that they spent the entire show hoping and hoping for the more traditional happy conclusion present in most romantic dramas, Korean or otherwise.
Ultimately, opinions about the Twenty-five twenty-one Endings, as strong as they are, are also subjective. No one claims that the episode itself was bad from a production perspective. The acting was as strong as ever, as was the highly emotional narrative. Who didn't like the ending? Twenty-five twenty-one would have preferred a different outcome for Yi-Jin and Hee-Do, but no one feels like the show has lost the momentum that made it a success.