Cultural Post #3 Vivian Shon

[Vivian Shon]

Since I finished watching Uncanny Counter for one of my bi-weekly journal posts, I decided to start a new Korean drama called “Twenty Five Twenty One” with Rachel. “Twenty Five Twenty One” was already trending even before it aired because it had two very famous actors named “Kim Tae Ri” and “Nam Joo Hyuk.” After watching “Our Beloved Summer” for a bi-weekly journal post, I was less hesitant to start another mellow romance drama since I absolutely loved that show. As I have stated previously, I was never a big fan of slow, romantic TV shows called “멜로,” but I can notice that Korean cinematography and their plots have become more complex and sophisticated. Essentially, the show is about two young adults named Na Hee Do and Baek Yi Jin who develop a strong friendship and explore the premises of love with each other. Na Hee Do is a high school fencing prodigy who aspires to be a national fencing player while Baek Yi Jin is the son of a bankrupt CEO who must now start his life all over again. The setting begins in 1998 and goes on to cover the brutal reality of the Asian financial crisis called the “IMF crisis.” Since I was born in 2000, I never really heard anything about the IMF crisis, however, through this drama, I finally got to understand what happened in the late 90s and what my own parents had to experience. The crisis began when South Korea partnered up with the International Monetary Fund to assist the country in managing its financial systems. The structural provisions increased the flexibility of interest rates, tightened monetary policies, and removed features that would stunt future economic growth. However, this ultimately caused interest rates to rise and an entire restructure of the government which greatly affected the South Korean population and families. The drama goes on to cover how unemployment rates affected the households and there were many protests to end this movement. Learning about this part of history really opened my eyes to South Korea’s culture and my parents’ 20s. In terms of cinematography, the first element I noticed about the drama was the use of film and vintage filters. It made the drama even more real and authentic and I really liked how the director incorporated the traditional yellow fonts as well to make it seem like we were really watching the characters from the 90s lens. All in all, “Twenty Five Twenty One” was not only a great romantic drama, but also a great historical show as well.