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The upcoming tvN romantic series, Twenty Five Twenty One, will mark actress Kim Tae-ri’s return to the small screen after a break of almost four years. In a press conference (via Soompi) for the series, the actress, last seen in the popular Mr. Sunshine, revealed the unique aspects of the script that attracted her.
Set in 1998, Twenty Five Twenty One will tell the story of Baek Yi-jin (Nam Joo-hyuk) and Na Hee-do (Kim Tae-ri), who first meet aged 22 and 18, respectively. They fall in love when they meet again when they are 25 and 21.
As described by the director, the youth drama will explore the experiences of five young people whose dreams are broken due to 1998’s IMF crisis.
Kim Tae-ri’s character in Twenty Five Twenty One used to be a fencing athlete in high school, but her team got disbanded because of the IMF crisis. Speaking about the script, she said:
“The script was so fun. There are a lot of thriller genre (dramas) these days, and amidst all of those, this was a beautiful, heart-fluttering, and uplifting story. Hee Do is incredibly bright and energetic. I liked that she was a type of character I hadn’t played yet.”
For her small-screen comeback, Kim Tae-ri once again chose to work with Mr. Sunshine director Jung Ji-hyun.
“While doing ‘Mr. Sunshine,’ I had a good feeling about the director and have many good memories of him. I was really happy to meet him again. Right around when we had just started filming the drama, the director once said, ‘Hee Do, I’m really not sure.’ That honesty gave me a lot of faith in him. I liked talking about and communicating on aspects we weren’t sure of.”
Kim Tae-ri underwent fencing training for Twenty Five Twenty One
To authentically play her role as a national fencing athlete, the star diligently practiced the sport, along with her co-star, WJSN’s Bona, for about six months.
“About five or six months before we began filming the drama, I received lessons from a gold medalist. Fencing is a cool sport that also makes you miserable. Since I do everything with my heart and soul like Hee Do, I spent five months laughing and crying because of fencing. Bona and I learned from the same teacher, and I got angry because I kept losing, so I did a lot of research. I wrote a diary every day. That diary was then actually used as Hee Do’s diary in the drama, as a prop.”
But despite the difficulties, Kim Tae-ri believes that Twenty Five Twenty One “shines bright” as while it reserves nostalgia, it beautifully explains that “nothing lasts forever.”
Twenty Five Twenty One premieres on tvN on February 12 and will also be available for streaming on Netflix.
