K Drama Chat - 4.16 - Episode 16 of 25, 21

4.16 - Episode 16 of 25, 21

07/28/23 • 124 min

3 Listeners

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 16 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. Ernabel Demillo is back as our special guest! She was a reporter and news anchor in New York, AND a reporter in New York during 9/11. This is a long episode, so we hope you stick with us and enjoy this long discussion. We promise some laugh-out-loud moments! We discuss:

The beautiful songs we hear in this episode: Starlight by O Dong Jun and New Beginnings by Jin Myoung Yong
Baek Yi-jin’s applying for, and accepting, the correspondent job in New York. What was his motivation for going to New York and staying?
Ernabel’s experience during 9/11. She was trapped in Italy at first. When she got back to New York, it was chaos and Ernabel and her co-workers worked really long days.
The crushingly sad scenes between Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin: outside Na Hee-do’s house after the luggage mix-up, at the cell phone store, at the tunnel, and then at the bus stop.
How Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin had numerous opportunities to get back together, but they just could not bridge the gap between them; they just could not understand each other.
How the creators of K Dramas often give us clues to the show’s ending early in the show. For example, in Episode 2, we learn that Baek Yi-jin is not able to share his sadness and despair; Na Hee-do tells Baek Yi-jin that when they’re together, they should always be happy; Baek Yi-jin tells his father’s creditors that he would never be happy again.
How Ko Yu-rim and Moon Ji-woong stay strong, despite Ko Yu-rim living in Russia. We cheer when Moon Ji-woong proposes to Ko Yu-rim.
Ernie’s perspective on being a reporter and news anchor. How reporters are super heroes because they are often running toward danger.
When Baek Yi-jin asks, “Did I screw this up?” we say YES!
The amazing friendship between Na Hee-do and Ko Yu-rim, how being each other’s rival was the proudest moment of their careers.
How Baek Yi-jin is selected by Shin Jae-kyung to be the news anchor for UBS because he represented youth and innovation.
How Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin contributed to each other’s success. Despite their sad breakup, they each are now living pretty good lives.
How Na Hee-do’s diary has been so central in Na Hee-do’s life and how, in the end, it reconnected Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin, and Na Hee-do and Min-chae.
We speculate about what Na Hee-do would have done after receiving the diary after all these years. Would she call Baek Yi-jin, or do nothing?
How Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin, through the diary, got to say what they really meant to say to each other at the tunnel that day.
The show that we will recap and analyze in Season 5 of K Drama Chat.

References

The beautiful songs we hear in this episode: Starlight by O Dong Jun and New Beginnings by Jin Myoung Yong
Baek Yi-jin’s applying for, and accepting, the correspondent job in New York. What was his motivation for going to New York and staying?
Ernabel’s experience during 9/11. She was trapped in Italy at first. When she got back to New York, it was chaos and Ernabel and her co-workers worked really long days.
The crushingly sad scenes between Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin: outside Na Hee-do’s house after the luggage mix-up, at the cell phone store, at the tunnel, and then at the bus stop.
How Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin had numerous opportunities to get back together, but they just could not bridge the gap between them; they just could not understand each other.
How the creators of K Dramas often give us clues to the show’s ending early in the show. For example, in Episode 2, we learn that Baek Yi-jin is not able to share his sadness and despair; Na Hee-do tells Baek Yi-jin that when they’re together, they should always be happy; Baek Yi-jin tells his father’s creditors that he would never be happy again.
How Ko Yu-rim and Moon Ji-woong stay strong, despite Ko Yu-rim living in Russia. We cheer when Moon Ji-woong proposes to Ko Yu-rim.
Ernie’s perspective on being a reporter and news anchor. How reporters are super heroes because they are often running toward danger.
When Baek Yi-jin asks, “Did I screw this up?” we say YES!
The amazing friendship between Na Hee-do and Ko Yu-rim, how being each other’s rival was the proudest moment of their careers.
How Baek Yi-jin is selected by Shin Jae-kyung to be the news anchor for UBS because he represented youth and innovation.
How Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin contributed to each other’s success. Despite their sad breakup, they each are now living pretty good lives.
How Na Hee-do’s diary has been so central in Na Hee-do’s life and how, in the end, it reconnected Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin, and Na Hee-do and Min-chae.
We speculate about what Na Hee-do would have done after receiving the diary after all these years. Would she call Baek Yi-jin, or do nothing?
How Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin, through the diary, got to say what they really meant to say to each other at the tunnel that day.
The show that we will recap and analyze in Season 5 of K Drama Chat.

References

Previous Episode

4.15 - Episode 15 of 25, 21

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 15 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 songs we feature in this episode: Dreaming Day by Kim Ji Young and Propose by Lim Ha Young.
How Ko Yu-rim asked Baek Yi-jin to break the story of her move to Russia, and she wants him to say that she is doing it just for money.
How Baek Yi-jin always hides his pain, something that makes Na Hee-do really unhappy; this echoes episode 2, when Ko Yu-rim complains that Baek Yi-jin hid his family’s financial troubles.
How Baek Yi-jin ultimately couldn’t manage the distance between himself and his friends, and himself and the victims’ families in New York. He is getting lost in his reporting and suffering as a result.
How Na Hee-do’s mom lets Baek Yi-jin move to the newsroom after Baek Yi-jin admits to having lost all objectivity when it comes to Na Hee-do.
How Na Hee-do is the one who always seems to know how to comfort Baek Yi-jin, but later in the episode, when he moves to New York, he grows more distant and she can no longer comfort him.
The amazing match in Madrid between Ko Yu-rim and Na Hee-do that showed how evenly matched they are. Na Hee-do wins the match but she tops Ko Yu-rim by just a little bit.
How Ko Yu-rim and Moon Ji-woong’s relationship is so different from that of Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin. Ko Yu-rim and Moon Ji-woong are making it work; he has three part-time jobs; he even visits her in Russia!
How Na Hee-do is shocked and saddened when she learned from her mom that Baek Yi-jin applied for a position in New York.
How we’re furious with Baek Yi-jin for the way he is treating Na Hee-do, how he’s distanced himself from her, and how he didn’t even tell her himself that he had applied to the position in New York.
The K Drama elements in this episode, including clothing, food, alcohol, flowers and product placement.
We also talk about a new K Drama element: talking to someone while they sleep.
How Ernabel Demillo will be back on the show next week!

References

Next Episode

5.0 - Special Episode with Carolyn and Dayna Where We Discuss the Korean Movie "Be With You"

1 Recommendations

*** We know that the audio quality of this episode is not great. We are sorry! ***

We are in between seasons. In this episode, we recap and analyze the movie “Be With You,” the hit Korean movie starring Son Ye-jin as Im Soo-ah, So Ji-sub as Jeong Woo-jin, and Kim Ji-hwan as Jeong Ji-ho. Be With You was released in 2018 and directed by Lee Jang-hoon. The film is a remake of the 2004 Japanese film of the same name, which is based on a novel by Takuji Ichikawa.

Special guests Dayna and Carolyn join us for this episode. This episode was filmed while we were in Bélize together for our annual girls’ trip.

This episode is full of spoilers! If you haven’t watched this movie, drop everything, watch the movie and come back to this episode. If you’ve watched the movie, please listen to this episode and join us!

Next week, we will recap and analyze episode 1 of Mr. Queen, the K Drama we will discuss episode by episode in Season 5 of K Drama Chat. Start watching now!