M&Tv || 25 - 21 : The best Dorama I have ever seen. || Review

Blessed day my fellow readers, I hope you are feeling great and this new week will be of many blessings for all of you. Today I am really excited to tell you about a new Korean series that I was able to watch a few days ago. So if you are a fan of Korean dramas I invite you to read this review. If you have already seen the series, tell me if you liked it; and if you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you watch it because you will surely love it.

The series is called 25, 21. A rather particular and curious name, in my opinion, but at the end of the story you will understand the reason why it has this name. It is categorized within the genre of drama and romance; although there is also a bit of comedy. It is a very fresh and funny young series. This series has one season of 16 episodes and you can find it on the Netflix platform, but if you don't have a Netflix account, you can also download it on Doramaflix.

The series is based on the love story of two young people with very hectic and complex lives, who convey a lot of emotions through their experiences.

The main characters are Baek Yi-jin and Na Hee-do.
Na Hee-do is a young fencing athlete who, despite not performing very well at the beginning of the plot, and not having the support of her mother, has very clear goals and goes to great lengths to achieve them, gaining Baek Yi-jin's admiration.

On the other hand, Baek Yi-jin is a young man who was dragged down by his father's bankruptcy, which forced him to mature much faster, thus abandoning his early youthful dreams. This love story begins with a friendship where the boy's admiration for the protagonist prevails. He perceives all the impetus and energy with which she decides to live her life and does not allow anyone to come between her and her dreams.

They meet when she is 18 years old and about to finish high school; he is 22 years old and going through the hardest stage of his life, doing all kinds of jobs to make ends meet. Both have very intense family dramas; as friends they support and sustain each other. It is beautiful to see how she, being much younger, is the one who offers comfort and unconditional companionship, her encouragement and energy is so strong that he does his best to rub off on her.

The supporting characters are Na Hee-do's schoolmates and their families. Each character has a life story and a psychology that reflects the typical dramas that teenagers face when they are about to finish their last year of high school and must decide what direction their lives will take.

As for the historical setting, this series is set in the late 1990s. It has as a cultural and historical reference the 1998 financial crisis in South Korea. I liked how they developed the impact this crisis had on the lives of each of the young people and their families. Other world historical events that I was able to relive with this production were: the turn of the century with the beginning of the year 2000, I liked how they addressed all the fears and myths that arose at that time regarding the belief that the world would end on that iconic date. On the other hand, being a series that has sports as a secondary theme, they show us the national games and the Olympic games and all the commotion that these games caused in that country. Another important historical event that has an impact on the lives of the main characters is the tragedy of the twin towers in the United States.

It also allows us to remember the technological advances we experienced at that time, such as: the use of the beeper; the appearance of the discman and the arrival of the first cell phones. It was wonderful and nostalgic to remember the first online chat platforms and the first text messages we experimented with in our youth.

To my way of thinking the script of this series handles very well how to take the viewer back in time and provoke feelings of nostalgia for the experiences of youth. The jumps to the past are made through the reading of the daughter of the protagonist of the diaries, where her mother captures all the youthful history so intense and full of experiences. It should be noted that the protagonist's daughter is living the quarantine period due to covid-19, when she finds her mother's diaries at her grandmother's house.

I think there is a perfect coherence and balance between the romantic plot and the sports plot on which the story is based. Both scenarios fill us with emotions, this series is a roller coaster where you can laugh and cry with the same intensity.

Each character is very well done, the interpretation of the actors is impeccable, each one conveys the emotion and the message that corresponds to him, there is a nice chemistry between them, which makes the story very believable. The group of young people reflect on screen a lot of union and fraternity, at the same time the fun they show in the scenes is very genuine.

Personally, I really liked the songs that accompany the different moments of the plot, but my favorite is the one performed by the whole group of friends. I was fascinated by how the production shows us the best and maybe the worst of the 90's from the point of view of a group of young people. I felt very identified with the story and I connected with the message of perseverance that it shows us. Undoubtedly it is a series that I would recommend for those, like me, who lived their adolescence in the 90's; but also for those teenagers who are curious to know what their parents' youth was like.

Without spoilers, I can tell you that this wonderful series has a very unexpected ending, which leaves us with a bittersweet taste and many tears in our eyes. They also leave a bit of mystery, which makes me think that there may be a second season, which for me would be great. For now I think I'm capable of re-watching this series one more time. I hope you liked this review and feel like going to see the series.

Thanks for reading, regards and blessings.