“When we were 18, we first called each other by name. At 21, we fell in love.”
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.
Latest episode: S1 E16 Episode 16 (Apr 3, 2022)
The dreams of two young people are crushed by an overwhelming financial crisis in the 1990s. But when they reunite at the ages of 25 and 21, the spirited pair finds friendship and affection in times of adversity as they venture into adulthood together.
Twenty Five Twenty One has the kind of premise that can sound, in the wrong hands, latestnetflix.com argues, like a greeting-card slogan about youth and perseverance. Dreams feel far away. A teenager fences.
A boy starts over. But what lingered with me wasn’t the setup; it was the show’s stubborn interest in the little humiliations that make ambition feel expensive. Who gets to keep believing in the future when the present keeps asking for rent?
Kim Tae-ri’s Na Hee-do isn’t written as an inspirational machine, which is exactly why she works. She’s awkward, intense, and often a little embarrassing in the way the most alive young people are embarrassing: she commits too hard, speaks too fast, and carries her feelings in her shoulders before she ever says them out loud. Kim plays that recklessness without sanding it down into likability.
I kept watching her hands. They’re always doing something — gripping, fidgeting, insisting on contact with the world. That physical restlessness gives the series its pulse.
The show arrived, as I understand the conversation around it, in that sweet spot where Korean television often does its best work: part nostalgia piece, part coming-of-age drama, part quiet social history. It’s set against the financial collapse of the late 1990s, which is not just background color but the pressure system that shapes every relationship in the story. That matters.
Youth here isn’t an abstract season of life; it’s something lived under economic strain, with adults making frightened decisions and children inheriting the consequences. The series belongs to the same broad family as dramas that remember history through private lives, but it’s less interested in grand political statement than in the way crisis enters a household through the front door, then rearranges the furniture.
What I like most is that the show understands labor, both emotional and literal. The people in it are always working at something: fencing, journalism, studying, job-hunting, pretending not to be hurt. Nam Joo-hyuk’s Baek Yi-jin is built on a different kind of bodily logic from Hee-do.
He’s careful where she’s impulsive. His face often seems to pause half a second before it registers a feeling, as if he’s checking whether he can afford to have it. That restraint fits an actor who has spent years in roles that ask for model-like composure and easy charisma; here, he lets tiredness sit in the frame longer than vanity usually allows.
"A warmly received coming-of-age romance sports drama that inspires both love and debate."
Viewers tuned in for a 16-episode South Korean drama about teen fencer Na Hee during the financial crisis, blending romance, drama and sport. Crowd response leans warm with an audience rating of 7.latestnetflix.com's read is that 7 from 534 votes, with some viewers celebrating it as AMAZING while others post long critiques of what did not work for them.
Twenty Five Twenty One (2022) captured hearts with its nostalgic coming-of-age story, but the drama behind the camera was just as eventful. latestnetflix.com's take is that From casting chemistry to controversy and production hiccups, here’s what went down during the making of the hit K-drama.
The central romance between Kim Tae-ri’s Na Hee-do and Nam Joo-hyuk’s Baek Yi-jin drove the series, but it also landed in hot water. In Episode 10, Yi-jin—a 23-year-old character—confesses his love to Hee-do, then a 19-year-old high school student 
. The age gap, though legal in South Korea, drew backlash for "idealizing" a relationship between an adult and a minor .
Kim Tae-ri addressed the controversy, though details of her response remain vague in the evidence. The debate highlighted how K-dramas navigate sensitive themes, even when fictional .
The shoot wasn’t immune to real-world disruptions. In early March 2022, Kim Tae-ri tested positive for COVID-19, forcing a temporary halt in production until she completed quarantine . While the incident didn’t derail the series, it underscored the pandemic’s lingering impact on TV schedules.
The ensemble cast—including Bona, Choi Hyun-wook, and Lee Joo-myung—brought the 1998–2021 timeline to life, but Kim Tae-ri and Nam Joo-hyuk’s dynamic stole the show. Their characters’ meet-cute at ages 22 and 18, followed by a slow-burn romance, became a fan favorite 
. Off-screen, the pair’s chemistry was reportedly effortless, though no behind-the-scenes anecdotes about their rapport are confirmed in the evidence.
Despite the controversy, Twenty Five Twenty One earned praise for its emotional depth and period details. It holds a 7.7/10 rating on SensCritique, with viewers lauding its bittersweet ending . The drama’s exploration of youth, ambition, and love resonated globally, cementing its place as a standout 2022 release.
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