South Korean drama 'Twenty-Five Twenty-One' starring Kim Tae-ri and Nam Joo-hyuk is facing a furious backlash online after it depicted a romance involving a minor during the most recent episode 10, aired on 13 March.
According to the story, Nam Joo-hyuk (whose character Baek Yi-jin is a 23-year-old man) declares his passionate desires to Kim Tae-ri (who plays 19-year-old highschool girl, Na Hee-do). The scene ended with Hee-do submitting to his pleading.
But this scene sparked criticism among K-Drama fanes, since it is unclear how old the heroine really is at the time of the events. The problem is that in the plot description it was not specified whether Hee-do's age has been calculated by international standards or South Korean ones.
In Korea, a person's age is considered to be two years older than in international calculations. Regardless of whether your birthday has passed, in Korea you add a year to your age every 1 January which is why at your actual birthday in any given year you age twice as fast as people who follow the western system of aging.
Ironically, Joo-hyuk is 28 by international standards, having been born in February 1994, making him three years younger than Tae-ri who was born in April 1990 and will be turning 32 next month.
However, the two characters fall in love when they are 25 and 21 years old but they meet for the first time when they are the ages of 23 and 19.
The audience expressed their wish that the creators of the drama would clarify how people view such kinds of relationships.
'Twenty Five, Twenty One' has the highest viewer ratings among K-Dramas released this month and continues to be the most newsworthy.