Kim Tae-ri, Nam Joo-hyuk
After months of speculation, Kim Tae-ri (Mr. Sunshine) and Nam Joo-hyuk (Start-Up) have been confirmed as the leads in a new coming-of-age drama called Twenty-Five, Twenty-One.
The story is centered around the romance between two youths who met when they were respectively eighteen and twenty-two. Nineteen is the age of adulthood in Korea, so they met when she was a high school student and he was a college student. When they’re both adults at ages twenty-one and twenty-five, their relationship changes into something more.
In addition to our two leads, Bona (Homemade Love Story), Choi Hyun-wook (Racket Boys), and Lee Joo-myung (Now, We Are Breaking Up) are rounding out the cast.
Kim Tae-ri’s character is Na Hee-do, a passionate high school student whose fencing club is dissolved due to the lack of funding after the IMF crisis. Somehow, despite the struggles, she continues to pursue her dream of becoming a national fencing champion.
Similarly, Nam Joo-hyuk’s character Baek Yi-jin was also impacted by the IMF crisis. His family went bankrupt, and as the first son, he worked relentlessly through the years as a paper boy and bookseller before becoming a reporter.
Bona plays Go Yoo-rim, Na Hee-do’s rival, and the youngest national gold medalist in fencing. Go Yoo-rim is fierce in her fencing garb, but once she takes it off, she’s all cutesy and lovable.
Choi Hyun-wook’s character is Moon Ji-woong. He claims he’s a school bully, but he doesn’t actually harass others — he just wants to become a famous influencer on Cyworld (Korea’s equivalent of Facebook at the time). He’s stylish and edgy in his own clumsy way.
Last but not least, Lee Joo-myung plays Ji Seung-wan, the number one ranked student at school. Despite her outward appearance as a model student, she has a rebellious heart. She heads the broadcasting club where she makes incendiary statements about society, school, and the current state of the times as a DJ on her radio show.
Written by Kwon Do-eun (Search Query: WWW) and directed by Jung Ji-hyun (You Are My Spring), Twenty-Five, Twenty-One is expected to air in early 2024, as filming has already begun.
Bona, Choi Hyun-wook, Lee Joo-myung