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Twenty-Five Twenty-One (스물다섯 스물하나): Plot, Characters and Cast
Twenty-Five Twenty-One (스물다섯 스물하나, Seumuldaseot Seumulhana) is a coming-of-age drama with romance and sports that tvN aired in 2022. It has 16 episodes, written by Kwon Do-eun and directed by Jung Ji-hyun. NME magazine picked it as the best K-drama of 2022. Here you have the plot, the characters, the cast and a tongue-in-cheek Saju for each lead.
- Cast
- Kim Tae-ri, Nam Joo-hyuk, Bona (Kim Ji-yeon), Choi Hyun-wook, Lee Joo-myung
- tvN
- 2022 · 16 episodes
Official video
![Twenty Five Twenty One | Official Trailer | Netflix [ENG SUB]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gYp4cKumTwU/hqdefault.jpg)
Official video by Netflix K-Content on YouTube. It only loads if you press play.
Plot (no spoilers)
It's 1998 and the IMF crisis is shaking South Korea. For Na Hee-do, a fearless 18-year-old fencer, the crisis has an immediate effect: her school's fencing team is disbanded. For Baek Yi-jin, the blow is even harder: his once-wealthy family loses everything and he ends up living off odd jobs.
Hee-do isn't about to give up on her dream. With a plan as daring as she is, she manages to get onto a new team so she can train alongside her idol, Ko Yu-rim, the national fencing star. What she doesn't imagine is that her idol will also become her rival.
Meanwhile, Yi-jin, who now delivers newspapers, keeps crossing paths with Hee-do. Out of those encounters grows a closeness that makes him her biggest supporter. Around them are Moon Ji-woong, a laid-back, popular classmate who dreams of being famous, and Ji Seung-wan, the sharp, outspoken class president and Hee-do's best friend. In the present, Hee-do's daughter finds her mother's old diary and, reading it, relives that intense youth.
Characters and their Saju
Na Hee-do 나희도
Kim Tae-ri · Yang Metal · The Sword
Hee-do is 18, with boundless energy and zero fear. Her life revolves around fencing, and when the economic crisis takes away her school's team, she refuses to take no for an answer. She is stubborn, intense and absolutely determined to keep competing.
If Hee-do had a Saju card, it would be Yang Metal · The Sword; what else could a fencer be? Direct, fast and with an edge that doesn't bend in the face of adversity. Every defeat tempers her a little more.
Baek Yi-jin 백이진
Nam Joo-hyuk · Yang Water · The Ocean
Yi-jin grew up in a rich family, but the crisis took everything away. Now he makes a living with odd jobs, including delivering newspapers, and learns all at once what it means to start from zero. In the middle of that collapse, his run-ins with Hee-do become an unexpected breather.
If Yi-jin had a Saju card, it would be Yang Water · The Ocean: deep, adaptable and able to keep moving even after the storm has emptied him out. Water doesn't break when it falls; it changes shape and keeps going.
Ko Yu-rim 고유림
Bona (Kim Ji-yeon) · Yin Metal · The Jewel
Yu-rim is the national fencing star and Hee-do's idol. She is talented, disciplined and lives under the pressure of always living up to her fame. Hee-do's arrival on her team turns the admiration between them into rivalry.
If Yu-rim had a Saju card, it would be Yin Metal · The Jewel: refined, precise and polished by training. She shines on the podium, but her Saju lesson is to let someone see the marks the polishing leaves too.
Moon Ji-woong 문지웅
Choi Hyun-wook · Yang Fire · The Sun
Ji-woong is one of Hee-do's classmates, laid-back and popular, who dreams of being famous. He takes life easy and has a carefree air that contrasts with his friends' intensity. His humor lightens the load of a hard time for everyone.
If Ji-woong had a Saju card, it would be Yang Fire · The Sun: cheerful, carefree and eager for everyone to see him shine. He dreams of the spotlight because, deep down, he was born with a light of his own.
Ji Seung-wan 지승완
Lee Joo-myung · Yang Wood · The Great Tree
Seung-wan is the class president and Hee-do's best friend at school. Sharp and outspoken, she says what she thinks with a clarity that commands respect. Next to such an impulsive friend, she brings the group's analytical eye.
If Seung-wan had a Saju card, it would be Yang Wood · The Great Tree: upright, steady and with opinions that grow upward without asking permission. A tree like that gives shade to its friends and bends for no one.
And what would your Saju be? Find out free with your birth date.
Why so many people fell for it
Twenty-Five Twenty-One captures something universal: youth lived all-out, even while the world around it is falling apart. Fencing, friendship, first love and a very '90s nostalgia. In Latin America it premiered on Netflix under its Spanish title, and Spanish-language media reported it among the platform's most-watched shows in March 2022. It stayed in Netflix's global Top 10 for 10 weeks in a row.
Facts
- Written by Kwon Do-eun and directed by Jung Ji-hyun, in 16 episodes.
- Its story takes place during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
- NME named it the best K-drama of 2022.
Ending (spoilers)
Show the ending
Spoiler: Hee-do and Yi-jin end their relationship when their careers take them down different paths. Years later they exchange the diaries they had lost, and each finally discovers what the other felt. A bittersweet ending, truer to life than to fairy tales.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Twenty-Five Twenty-One about?
In 1998, during the IMF crisis, a young fencer fights to stay in her sport and crosses paths with a boy whose family lost everything. In the present, her daughter reads her old diary.
How many episodes does Twenty-Five Twenty-One have?
It has 16 episodes. tvN aired it in 2022, written by Kwon Do-eun, and the series spent 10 straight weeks in Netflix's global Top 10.
Who stars in Twenty-Five Twenty-One?
Kim Tae-ri plays Na Hee-do and Nam Joo-hyuk plays Baek Yi-jin. Bona, Choi Hyun-wook and Lee Joo-myung complete the main group as Yu-rim, Ji-woong and Seung-wan.