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4.1 - Episode 1 of 25, 21

Today, we’ll be kicking off Season 4 of K Drama Chat by discussing Episode 1 of 25, 21, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Kim Tae-ri as Na Hee-do and Nam Joo Hyuk as Baek Yi-jin. We discuss:

  • The song Starlight by Taeil

  • The main actors of the show:

    • Kim Tae-ri

    • Nam Joo Hyuk

    • Kim Ji-yeon, better known by her stage name Bona

  • How age is calculated in Korea vs. internationally, which is why there’s confusion over how old the actors in this show are

  • The origins of the 1990s Asian financial crisis and how it affected South and East Asia

  • The impact of an IMF bailout and austerity measures on countries

  • The South Korea gold campaign

  • The surprising dominance of South Korea in the world of fencing

  • Polite language between Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin

  • The large number of K Drama elements we see in this episode:

    • Beautiful actors

    • Crying

    • Flowers

    • Food

    • Alcohol

    • Wrist grabs

    • Clothing and fashion

    • Umbrella scene

  • The challenging mother-daughter relationship between Hee-do and her mom

  • Our favorite lines

  • How much we loved this K Drama from the very first episode


References:


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K Drama Chat is a weekly podcast where we take one Korean (K) Drama each season and and recap and analyze each episode. K Drama Chat is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

 

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