i was discussing fav kdramas w a friend and have just been thinking abt parallels between 2521 and Our Beloved Summer. it’s been a bit since i’ve watched both dramas tho so some of this commentary may be a bit off
both dramas show the characters as adults in the present day w flashbacks to them as students. with this, they also center around the maturing of the characters and come with a sense of nostalgia (2521 especially). furthermore, both heedo and yeonsoo are shown to be loners as students—heedo bc of her fencing and yeonsoo bc of her financial situation.
but the endings of the dramas differ drastically. in 2521, while heedo does find a close group of friends, at the end of the drama she’s isolated again, and at one point with minchae she seems to have forgotten some of her experiences with them (when she didn’t remember the beach trip they took). this differs from yeonsoo, who as an adult at the start of the drama only has one friend in sol yi yet at the end reconnects with ung and jiung. while the friendship between the three of them doesn’t seem to be as close as the one depicted in 2521, there is still a sense of closeness and community there.
i think something that really crystallizes this difference between the dramas come from some of the last lines in each. in 2521, when adult heedo is reflecting on the past, her last words are “i had thought love and friendship were mine to have for a brief moment. looking back, every day was a practice. the moments when i dared to say everything would last forever. i loved living in that illusion. right, there was still one thing we could have. that summer was ours to keep.”
in our beloved summer, choi ung says, “everyone has unforgettable memories from a certain year of their life. they cherish those memories so much that it lasts a lifetime. and our year hasn’t ended yet.”
with both of these you can see that 2521 approaches relationships as temporary, but life-altering in some circumstances (according to that last scene between heedo and yijin but there are some conflicting messages they’re giving there). overall the show accepts these relationships as temporary and almost acts as if the characters themselves have no agency to change the fact that they’re drifting apart (as shown w heedo and yijin’s long distance relationship)
but yeonsoo and ung also have a long distance relationship for some time, and although the framing of these is different in the dramas, w that section of the relationship being a central point for 2521 and being glossed over in our beloved summer, in our beloved summer i think the characters show more agency over their relationship and trying to take advantage of the fact that they’ve been given a second chance. furthermore, it seems in 2521 that summer has been preserved in memory, made all the more nostalgic film given that the friends don’t talk to one another anymore whereas in our beloved summer the friendships/relationship shown in the last is not as idealized and are seen as a more continuous thing that changes and alters as the characters grow.
i don’t really know where i’m going with this but i think the main point i had at the start of this is that 2521 really plays into the fear so many young adults have of growing up into adults who are isolated, which honestly seems to be a reality for so many ppl today. on the other hand, our beloved summer offers a more hopeful tone of being more fulfilled as an adult (as both choi ung and kook yeonsoo seem fulfilled both socially and career-wise by the end of the series). but also looking at the differences in how these characters view relationships we can see and take away that fact that no matter our stage in life relationships do take effort and that it’s worth it to put in that effort, even if adult relationships require more of it.
