Before anything else, I want to mention my OTP Kim Soo Yeon and Park Ban Ryu. Throughout the entire thing, I had secondary couple syndrome and I love it.
Story:
The story for this drama is overall... not the best. I found it difficult to figure out what the plot even was. There were many small conflicts that does not really have anything to do with the main story. It also led up to an anticlimactic ending too. In the first half of the drama (like episode 1-7) I was really curious to get to know the characters and how they would react, but after that, their actions and what happens next becomes kind of predictable. There were also too many plot holes and questions left unanswered. Normally, some unanswered questions for me is okay, but this drama leaves out too many things that fans would love to know. The character development wasn't that great either. The character development was really little for all of the characters except two, Ji Dwi and Ban Ryu.
Acting/Cast:
The acting was pretty good, except for some scenes with the main couple. I didn't really see the chemistry, even though I'll gladly ship Ah Ro with either of the two leads. I'm not sure if the acting was the main problem for the scenes with the main couple, I have seen dramas with Go Ara and Park Seojoon before and they were able to it pull off pretty well. I would have given this category an 8.5, but it's acting and cast. I fell in love the cast members, making me search up all their names to find out more of their real personalities, except Kim Taehyung, Choi Minho, and Park Hyungsik since I already knew them.
Music:
The music in this drama didn't always with what was going on in the scene. The songs get awkwardly cut off at the end to play a different song. But despite all this I love listening to the OST. I find myself singing along and singing it randomly. Also I didn't know Park Seojoon could sing so well.
I watched this drama expecting to see a bunch of pretty boys wearing fabulous clothes and that's exactly what I got. I don't think you should watch this drama if you to see a drama with an amazing plot and chemistry, but you should watch it when you're feeling bored and you want to binge on something. I feel like this drama is so you can laugh along with characters (or scream when they something stupid) and sing along to the OST in the background. And if you don't like something you can always skip ahead or drop the show completely.
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It's good
I started watching it for Taehyung and fell in love with all the male leads lol.I loved it. The visuals, the acting everything was perfect. The hate love bromance between Banryu and Suho was really fun to watch. Taehyung being himself in the whole series was also a mood. The chemistry among the male actors was so genuine. No foubt they're great friends irl.
The only thing I didn’t like about the series was the female lead. Yes, Ah-ro. She cried her eyes out literally in every effing episond and the brother -sister romance storyline was kinda weird too.
Ban Ryu and Soo Yeon were my perfectly cute Ship. They carried the whole romance part of the series. Loved them alot.
The tracks were great. I loved everyone of them. But my favourite was "Even if I die it’s you" by V and Jin.
Just watch it guys.
The visuals are enough to carry the whole show.
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This review may contain spoilers
A great story with great acting, music, and teaches important life lessons.
The only bad thing i can say about this drama is that Kim Taehyung's character was killed towards the end. This drama left me being tormented when Han Sung was accidenally killed when he saved Sun Woo. Most of the characters are so lovelable (Queen and Park Young Sil are just evil, although the queen somehow reddems herself at the end) and have great personalities and they are portrayed by great actors. By the end of this i was crying happy tears because the main cast overcame so much to create a new and better Silla. What a great story of how a hidden king gains loyal friends along the way to form a better kingdom, and take his place as king with the support of the Hwarang. Although I was very much is support of the main couple, I did feel sorry for the king. He's such a good king. Definitely worth the 20 episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
Worth the watch
Because of this being an "older" drama, my husband and I were hesitant about watching it but because of the cast, we decided to give it a try. Boy, are we glad that we did. The acting is great, the costumes are beautiful, and the scenery some of the best. My only complaint is that sometimes the music would come on and then suddenly end. Not the best music in a drama. The rest was great though. The story has us guessing right up to the last moment on how it would end and it did not disappoint. Certainly worth the watch.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Writer appreciation review! Might contain (big) spoilers
I'm giving ten on ten for casting and direction and editing too. The music however, is sometimes very irritating. BUT I'm here to actually APPRECIATE the writer of Hwarang.It happens very rarely in costume drama that all characters get equal justification. Ji Dwi, who has lived all his life in sufferings and hardships and unable to justify his people, finally finds his power. Even after being in so much confusion and pressure, he kept his heart pure and got what he deserved. Ghae-sae didn't get washed away by desires and did the right thing. Ban Ryu... I don't have enough words to tell how i feel for him. Soo Ho did his duty well both as a son and as a Hwarang..but there were instances where i wanted to smack the shit out of his head. Nvm. And Han Seong..the kind little kid like man, his death was the most painful. His Hyung turned out to be a good person as well.Pressed by the power driven elders of the society, it was not easy for anyone to pave the way and change their nation according to their merry dreams. But they did it. They proved to be the Hwarang they were meant to be.
Love, Power, desires , greed and honesty.. every single thing has been touched perfectly and winners were chosen and justified extremely well.
Author-nim, You did well :)
Also, i wanted to REALLY know if Ban Ryu got to marry Seon Woo or not.
They've made me cry river of tears afterall.
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On to romance - I feel like this should be a category since whenever I read reviews I want to know about the romance in each drama. I honestly love romance but the romance in this drama was just not for me. This is not a dig at Go Ah Ra, I adore her in everything she does, she always plays her characters really well and she has phenomenal comedic timing. But when it comes to playing off of a romantic lead it just always feels.. I honestly don't know the word. Usually when I'm watching moments even small ones with the two leads, I have to pause everything I'm doing to pay full attention and I'll even rewatch the same scene because I'm so invested but when it came to Ah Ro and Moo Myung it didn't even phase me. I didn't feel the connection to their relationship so I wasn't invested in it.
Would I rewatch this drama again? I mean I already did, no regrets it was a nice and easy watch. Would I watch it again for the third time? Probably not.
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Imperfect but I still loved it!
I heard mixed things about this and hadn’t planned on watching it, but I’m so glad I gave it a chance. It’s not perfect but I feel most its criticisms are too harsh; and besides, for me, lackluster execution of a show/movie/etc can be forgiven if there are compelling characters, relationships, and dynamics - and this has all that in spades. Usually with a large cast there are characters you don’t care about, but not here; there are many different personalities and relationships and I was invested in them all. I’m often indifferent to the second lead but I loved him, as his own character with a wonderful arc, without getting second lead syndrome - which is a difficult balance to achieve. I smiled, I cried, I raised a brow at some of the creative missteps but quickly forgot about them in my excitement to see what happened next. I found the ending very satisfying.Was this review helpful to you?
no introductions i'll move on with my review
Story: I love historical dramas in general and this drama as a matter of fact surprised me because most of the historical dramas have a dark vibe to them but this one is different it was pretty cheerful and even the dark moments weren't as dark as they should be despite them existing though. I also liked the plot even the ending was charming I didn't feel bored at all even though that sometimes there were some unnecessary events but can't complain because I didn't really mind that .
personally I don't think I have a problem at all with the story except that it was kinda long
acting: okay I'm going to need to talk about this for a bit..
going for the positive thoughts first , it was my first time watching Park Seojoon and despite the character being too overrated I liked his acting he did a very good job portraying it .. as for Hyungsik he was the best one so far he totally gained a new fan of him in this drama he did a very very good job with his character and his facial expressions were amazing it totally showed what is the character thinking without even him talking .. Minho wasn't bad his acting was average but he has a cute vibe that I didn't mind at all .. I liked Jihan protraying Panryo but for some reason I think he could've done better with his facial expressions..As for Taehyung for a first time appearance as an actor he did great but Hansung had pretty short screen time which made the character really underrated despite it being important in the protagonist's character development
now leaving all this aside i'd like to talk about Go Ahra because her acting in Hwarang was disastrous that I don't even know where should I begin
starting the very first scenes of her in the drama I was like oh boy.. Her acting especially in the funny scenes was so overrated that I can see that she is actually acting In serious moments it was even worse she was overrating her acting to the point that I really thought that this woman really doesn't belong here I really did a huge effort to stop myself from skipping her scenes .. but near the end somehow she started to get better not really great but at least bearable
I watched you are all surrounded and Go Ahra wasn't really that bad which made me wonder is it the character's fault that She's not funny and acceptable at all or Go Ahra should just stay away from these kind of roles?
Music: If I die.. this song is the only thing I'm going to put here because it's one of my greatest favs
rewatch value: not into rewatching in general but I would love to replay some of hyungsik's scenes
overall: the drama is very light and entertaining and will give you a good laugh and also the story is really nice and the cast is very good so I don't regret watching it at all
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skip the romance and stay for the bromance
I came to watch Hwarang for the star studded cast and only really stayed 'til the end to watch the bromance chemistry between the Hwarang boys.STORY:
Hwarang started off well with its promising storyline. Episode 1 was pretty good and got me interested straight away. The chemistry between Sun Woo (Park Seo Joon) and Mak Moon (Kwang Soo) was amazing and the episode instantly got me emotional. The next few episodes were fairly good as well as we find out the main reason for the Hwarang. The introduction of the rest of the cast as the Hwarang boys did make the first few episodes interesting enough. Unfortunately as the drama progressed, the less interesting it got since most of the plot actually revolved around the romance side of the story. In the end it became tedious to watch because of this.
The romance side of the story kept going back and forth between Ah Ro and Sun Woo. When she's not getting mad at Sun Woo then it's Sun Woo trying to avoid her. And the worst parts were when Ah Ro somehow always needed rescuing by either Sun Woo or Ji Dwi. The romantic scenes became very monotonous to watch.
On the other hand, Sun Woo and Ji Dwi's background storylines and bromance were interesting enough to warrant watching through the terrible romantic scenes. The side stories of the Hwarang boys (Ban Ryu, Soo Ho and Han Sung) did also help to keep me watching to the very end. Ban Ryu's love story/romantic scenes were actually more interesting than the main leads which says a lot about how substandard the main leads love story really was.
I did think the last few episodes also dragged on and it would've been better if the director made it a 16 episode drama instead of 20. Since the extra 4 episodes were filled with problem after problem and it got a bit tiring and boring to watch towards the end.
CHARACTERS:
Ah Ro was a damsel in deep distress since she seems to be always crying like seriously 80% of the time she's crying. If she's not crying, then she had a grumpy face on. She became annoying to watch most of the time. That's not to say the actress (Go Ah Ra) who plays her is a bad actress, it just so happens the character she played was not the best.
Ji Dwi had the greatest story arc overall in terms of how he was in the 1st episode; being cowardly, scared and still child-like needing protection from his mum. In the end becoming what he was really born and destined to be: The King. Park Hyung-sik exuded the aura of being a secret king really well. You will feel sorry for his character but also get annoyed at his coward-ness but then still root for him to be the king in the end. He played this character really well.
Sun Woo (Park Seo Joon) was also great in this drama. From the very first episode to the last, he played a great pauper with that classic 'for-the-people' attitude. He exuded great leadership skills and towards the last episode he really did make me so anxious as to what decision he was going to make. The overall chemistry between the Hwarang boys was excellent too especially Sun Woo and Ji Dwi. It's really what got me through this drama.
The supporting casts were also good, especially Kwang Soo even though he was only on a couple of episodes. Kim Jee So as the Queen Mother Ji So did a fantastic job, I disliked her the more episodes I watched which just goes to show how well she played her character.
OST:
I loved the OST of this drama. I especially appreciate Park Hyung-sik and Park Seo Joon taking part in the OST as well. And of course, V of BTS with the main OST 'It's Definitely You' along with Jin from BTS. I had this song saved on my playlist before even watching the drama as it's just so good.
OVERALL:
The drama had a decent storyline that if the romance side of the story was done better or there was less of it and more of the Hwarang then I probably would've given it a higher rating. The chemistry of the Hwarang boys especially Ji Dwi's and Sun Woo's along with their own background stories are the main reasons to stay for this drama. You may want to skip the romantic scenes between Ah Ro and Sun Woo, I sure did, but it's worth sticking until the end to see Ji Dwi finally sit on the throne as he should.
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Han Sung you will always be famous !! cries
first k drama i ever watched, originally watched for Taehyung, however the cast actually ended up holding a piece of my heart.this may not be Park Hyungsik's best acting role (his character wasn't interesting enough tho so it's understandable), but it's still so refreshing to see him on screen. for a debut role, V did so well and I hope one day we'll get to see him as a male lead. the hwarang boys were all endearing and the queen and the princess were so !!! (i love them cold). I wish Aro had actual character development instead of being in constant need of saving all the time. no I won't mention Park Seojoon, we talk about him enough <3
tbh this drama is not really meant to be that serious so if you're looking for outstanding performances you may want to pick something else, this is more of a comfort show (and by that I mean that it will make you laugh then cry then laugh etc)
the ost is so memorable! i will never forget it, it's so good and catchy!
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