Media Rants: Twenty-Five Twenty-One

 

Alexander McQueen's exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria

Twenty-Five Twenty-One if I were to describe it in 3 words it would be love, passion, and growth. 

The drama follows Na Hee-do, an aspiring professional fencer, and Back Yi-jin, a formerly wealthy oldest son following the Asian Financial Crisis who needs to create a career for himself to support his family. 

It's a coming-of-age drama that explores the theme of love in how it shows the complexities and layers of platonic, familial, and romantic love as the characters work through their own demons and insecurities to love the other person and passion in the sense of never giving up and always finding an alternative way to achieve our goals. 

My favourite part though was its portrayal of platonic, familial, and romantic love. I resonated a lot with familial love, particularly Na Hee-do's relationship with her mum who was absent and found it difficult to express her emotions. Whilst I am very lucky that I have present parents, this is definitely a struggle I experienced when I was young, living in Singapore as the workplace culture back then was for employees to work long hours late into the night. There were even times when I would wake up and both my parents would've already left for work and I would cry as I thought they abandoned me. More-so nowadays, my heart strings tugged a lot when Na Hee-do struggled with her mum being unable to express her emotions - whilst I don't experience it to the extent that the character does, one of my parents struggles a lot to effectively communicate what they are feeling, especially without getting angry which has put a huge strain on our relationship. 

However, what almost made me cry was the ending when Hee-do and Yi-jin split due to being incompatible as it made me reminisce about my own high school friendships and relationship. In both contexts, I found myself empathising with Hee-do in my romantic relationship where no matter what I tried to do, I wasn't able to support my ex in the way that they needed to be supported. And for Yi-jin, there was definitely a time when I was not being a good friend to some of those around me and no matter what they tried to do, I couldn't get out of that rut which was destructive for everyone. 

Similarly to older Na Hee-do who is watching her daughter read her old diaries, now that it's been a few years since I've left those relationships - even though relationships don't always work out, you can still look back fondly at the memories you made no matter how bad the ending was. 

Written on: 31st of March 2023