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This is my first time writing a review even tho I watch a lot of kdrama. I decided I should really write a review to Hwarang because of how much thinking and headache it gives me. It is annoying at some time and good at some time. I got to admit, the first episodes were good, but until episode 12 I got bored of it. Because of many reasons, but there is a main reason. Just so to the people who is reading this know, I’m a big fan of romance, just so you know because I’m about to write something related to it. Okay, so one thing that annoyed me the most if the fact that Seoun-U and Ah-Ro liked each other and the fact that they are the main couple is disgusting. Firstly I know they are not siblings but Seoun-U was introduced to Ah-Ro as her brother, and before Ah-Ro knew Seoun-U is not her actual brother, she 100% has feelings for him already. The fact that they act in front of his dad as if Ah-Ro doesn’t know the truth and at the back they are kissing and dating that’s really disgusting. Even if they are not related from bloood they are still kinda family from the eyes of almost everyone. Now poor Ji Dwi, he’s my main reason why I continue the Drama, it’s all just because I wanted to know when he is going to say he’s the king, and to see how much he can do as a king. He loves his people, so much different from his mother and sister. Okay so anyways, the fact that Ah-Ro seemed to ignore Ji Dwi’s feelings to her is pathetic, for real he tries his best, he did so many things that he shouldn’t be doing all because of her, and her being pathetic falling in love with her “Fake Brother” is dumb. So yes I do ship Ji-Dwi and Ah-Ro but it didn’t seem to be working. Ji-Dwi story is really interesting, poor kid being hidden the whole time, I understand that the mother loves him deeply and is hiding him for his safety, but it seem like his mother is doing it too much. Now I thought Seoun-U and the princess relationship was a bit cute, it’s cute since it’s kinda like a love in the first sight. I’m sure she likes him, but not sure what happen since I kinda drop on episode 16 and continued on episode 19 since that’s the episode Ji-Dwi announced he is the king. Also another reason why I continued the show was because of the support roles they are quite good and is interesting watching them, my favourite got to be Bin-Ryu he annoyed me the first episodes but I learnt to like him trough each episodes, his Tories are also interesting, how he has two fathers and how he cares a lot about One father and respect a lot both but it seem to be hard for him to follow their orders because he seem to disagree with whatever they come up with, so in conclusion he’s a good kid. Also his relationship with Su-Ho’s sister is cute, that one got my heart even tho my mean ship is Ji-Dwi and the agh -.- Ah-Ro but well I do like them other two. The stories were a bit of a mess, it got so bored and you just end up not understanding what’s happening. But I had to finished it even tho I passed a lot.
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Story: The story for Hwarang could have been better. The main story was not that bad, what killed it for me is that they really didn't focus on it too much. In my opinion, the beginning was really more intriguing than the end; in the beginning it had a very playful vibe, but the vibe completely changed towards the end... It just felt like a different drama all together. Most episodes consisted of smaller stories that had no real impact on the big picture. Plus the romance seemed kind of forced... I don't think it was the actors fault, the story just didn't have key moments to make the romance feel more real and give chemistry between the two. It's hard to explain without giving spoilers but it just didn't work. I also found myself suffering from second lead syndrome so that kind of affected the way I viewed the main couple. However, overall the story line was entertaining; I just think they could have done a better job at it. Acting/Cast: I absolutely love the cast of Hwarang, in fact that is what drew me to this drama in the first place. I think the acting wasn't bad; it was dramatic at time (but what Kdrama isn't dramatic right?), but that isn't necessarily a bad thing unless you don;t enjoy dramatic Kdramas. My biggest complaint in the acting would have to be the amount of crying Ah Ro did; I felt like they overdid it with her crying.... she cried so much... but overall, good acting! Music: Loved the OST, I actually purchased some of it and listen to it on a regular basis. But just a warning, the music does get really dramatic at time... like too dramatic; that's my main complaint with the music. Rewatch Value: I don't really rewatch dramas (only ones I really, really love) and I wouldn't rewatch this one. Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
It's good drama. It's fun to watch. If you don't compare it with Goblin-which was also airing that time- you will find it's a really good watch.
Why you should try this? Here are my reasons.
The cast got most of the attention, when it came to Hwarang. It was star studded drama. And for that reason people were expecting, I don't know something really great from this.
I think they were good. If we talk about the their roles, they were good.
Park Hyung Shik nailed his character. Even thought I felt his character was a little weak written than Sun-Woo's but this man made it better. He acted like he was the lead and that was the reason why he shined, even though he was the second lead character. His acting, his expressions, his posture everything he did made his character stronger. And It takes great skill to do that. To make a weak character look stronge.
Go Ah Ra I absolutely loved her character Ah Ro. She was charming, clever, sometime a little scary. I loved her. Though sometime she wasn't necessary needed. She just got dragged along the storyline.
Park Seo Joon character was well written. Because of being the lead, it got more attention from the writer.
Do Ji Han cast as Ban Ryu Rang. Oh my god the last scene! That was brilliant!!
Choi Min Ho playing Soo Ho Rang. Jo Yoon Woo as dashing Yeo Wool Rang. And Kim Tae Hyung as Han Sung Rang all were pretty good. And pretty and cute. ^_^
And many more who were part of this.
The story line was slightly cliched. In the ending few episodes the story really took off. So if the makers didn't pushed the first episodes it would had been a well balanced story.
I don't like when a character suddenly goes missing. Same happen here. Not good.
I was more interested in the 2nd couple, Ban Ryn and Soo Yeon than the lead couple. From the beginning their story was more fun and happening then the others. I love the last scene between them. A gold star just for that!
The bromance between Park-Park was really something to watch. Specially in the ending scene. Not going to spoil but that was/ is going to be the reason why they are going to be ship together even more now.
But I love the bromance between Soo-Ho and Ban-Ryu. They were so so funny. The perfect love and hate relationship that we all love.
I like the songs. They were catchy. 'Our Tears' by Hyolyn that is a beautiful song. Even the male version which was by Park Seo Joon was kind of cool.
I'm probably not going to rewatch it any time soon. But maybe one day?
So in short watch this because you will love the beautiful faces in front of you. And a little bit of craziness that's in there.
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The story is somewhat lacking. There are points that are not discussed and so so many plot holes. Some episodes seem like a drag to me and there are episodes that made the back of my neck shiver (yes, i'm not exaggerating). I can't discuss it here in the review, but once you finish episode 20, there are still unanswered questions that of course, will remain unanswered. There are unnecessary scenes. Like why did that happen?
The acting is more than okay. Park Seo Joon acted well but I think the his character lacked as a person. Too much anger. This is my second Hyunsik drama, and he really really did well! I would like to commend Minho and Ji han. They were my favorites in this drama. The bromance and the bickering. Ji han - I love how he pools the tears in his eyes. It was real. Ban Ryu was real for me. And of course, Taehyung, as for a debut drama and a Saguek, he did well and he was the sunshine in the dark clouds the story has. I loved every bit of Taehyung here. His emotional scenes got through me too. I love the Hwarang ensemble!!!! They had chemistry and they were fun to watch. It's just sad that the the ensemble was not able to save this kdrama. The downside of my "more than okay" is Go Ara. All she did was wail and cry. Weak.
Music is good!! My only 9 points.
Rewatch value is my lowest because I am not gonna rewatch this. Despite Kim Taehyung.
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There is a little bit of everything in this drama - love triangle, bromance, political intrigue, martial arts. It is a lite-sageuk - where the love triangle and romantic angst take center stage for much of the drama - not much complexity. I don't mind that so much, but the main criticism I have for this drama is that it just gives a little bit of everything and could have amped up the drama, action, bromance, intrigue in the middle and given a little less of the romantic angst. There are plot holes, storylines left hanging and potentially juicy scenes that could have been shown, but weren't. It is the type of show that makes you feel frustrated with it's characters or inconsistencies, yet compels you to tune in every week anyway. So that says something. The actors do a good job with what they are given.
PROS:
Beautiful to look at. The 2 main male leads are good and have charisma. I enjoyed the love triangle. The pacing and emotional impact of the drama starts off really strong and emotionally charged in the first several episodes, getting viewers invested in the characters and their dramatic backstories. You are introduced to a hidden king battling his fears and longing to be strong and good, a peasant with fighting skills and a noble heart, and a spunky heroine who tells racy stories in backrooms for money.
CONS:
The middle episodes are disappointing and messy with the story stalling and going in circles a bit. The characters that were set up nicely in the beginning aren't given much to do. But the ending is redeeming and rewards viewers who held on til the end. The bromance is implied, but I wish there could have been more male bonding scenes. More rousing adventure and drama in the middle episodes would have amped up the quality of this drama considerably.
But I'm glad I watched it. It was fun.
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Very disappointed with this star studded drama
I have quite a high expectations with this drama, especially with their cast that are full of highly regarded actor and actresses. The story is unfocused and just keep on dragging. With such wonderful cast, the acting of the main character feels so bland and uninspiring.There are no chemistry what so ever between the ML, FL and SML. I don’t even understand why they would try to make a love triangle that just doesn’t have any fire.
They should have focused just on the live as Hwarang, because when they focus on that, that’s when I find the story to be interesting. They really need a better writer. I find myself keep fast forwarding all the romance scene between the FM and either of ML and SML. Her acting is so bad, I cringe, I’m sorry if I sound like I bash her. This is my third time watching her drama. She has the same problem, no chemistry what so ever with ML in Black, I don’t remember her at all in Reply. I really wish they drop this awkward romance and instead focus on the character and relationship development between all the members of Hwarang.
The attempt on palace politics is just plain boring and cliche. They didn’t even bother to clearly explain the background story, the real reason why all of this is happening. It feels so shallow, like we just look at a book by the summary page. Nothing is explored, they spend most of the run time trying to develop the romance that is really awkward between a lot of the character.
The ending feels so rush and anticlimactic while the whole story feels dragging and shallow. It have so many plot holes the size of Jupiter with how obvious they are.
Gosh, I don’t want to keep on ranting but his is really bad. I better stop here before I keep on bashing this show...
Definitely not going to watch it again. And the music... I didn’t like their attempt on trying to mix modern music on ancient period drama, the latter part ost is nice, but the beginning is just... no.
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Story:
The plot was kind of boring to me, most things that happened could've been predicted three episodes earlier
The drama really only focused on the story of the main character (park seo-joons' character), with mentions of other character's backgrounds.
Eventually the writers seemed to drop the side stories and focus on the main, which i mean okay, the plot is about him, let's focus on him, but abandoning other characters' background story made them so 2 dimensional, and they became boring
And don't get me started on Ar ho's (Go Ara) character, after around 10 episodes she spent almost every one of her scenes crying, it grew tiring, it was as if the script writers stop trying with her, i would almost roll my eyes every time she appeared on screen, and i don't even know what she was crying about half the time to be honest.
(I don't balme Go Ara for such a terribly structered character, the writers should've tried a littler harder with her and not given up on the character)
Acting:
Park Seo Joon, Park hyungsik and Minho's acting were probably the best out of them all, nothing too amazing that stood out though
Go ara's acting was pretty average, but damn that girl can crying on demand if she needed too (and she did lol)
Everyone else's acting was okay, no one was horrifically bad at it, so yay for that
Music:
No particular song really stood out to me, but i don't remeber anything bad, so i must've subconsiously enjoyed it, i guess?
Rewatch Value:
I didn't finish the first time, i won't rewatch it to finish it
I wanted to see the ending, i really did, i tried to force myself to watch the last few episodes when they aired, but i just couldn't.
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I finished this drama til the end just because I was curious how the plot would turn out. I continued watching it because of Park Seo Joon and he was also the reason why I started watching it. Through the drama, the audience seemed to fall in love with Ji Dwi more than Sun Woo. But, it was not the case for me. I loved Sun Woo's character - a carefree, yet considerate, heroic character. Regardless of the plot or the character, Park Seo Joon did not disappoint me. Like most would agree, Park Hyung Sik also shined in this drama.
And I enjoyed some bromance between Ji Dwi and Sun Woo, Sun Woo and Han sung and among the six Hwarang. I wished it had more of that.
I hate to say this but this drama is only worth watching if you love either Park Seo Joon or Park Hyung Sik. Only then, you will be able to tolerate all the flaws and cliches in the drama.
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Average drama
The starting was ok and I still thought it had hope. But a few episodes in and you're like ???..I still watched it though cause it wasn't thaaat bad but average.What I liked was the relationship between Park Seo Joon and Go Ara. It wasn't the greatest but they did have a few cute moments here and there.
There were a number of weird or ??? moments when watching the drama. Firstly, the Queen and son have this weirdly distant relationship and it's not properly explained. Then you have unnecessary actors who join the plot who don't really add anything much like the Princess.
Ok what was really the worst for me was the background music and the songs. Seriously a drama with the worst background music. Either it came on and off at the wrong time or the music was just wrong and didn't match the scene.
So overall, watch if you're bored cause it's an easy drama to go through but don't expect much.
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Fanservice disguised as historical drama
This drama should really be taken for what it is - fan service. All the effort was spent on casting idol actors to attract a certain fanbase of adolescent girls and nothing else. There is no coherent plot, just pretty boys running around with fancy hair and lip gloss looking like they belong in an 80s glam rock band.Romance was a tropey mess. Dude momentarily gains consciousness just to kiss a girl after hearing her confession, then loses consciousness again. Puhlease. The characters were kind of shallow and didn't really have much development. Even if the focus was on fanservice, the writers could've done something with the plot. Instead, we had convoluted storylines that didn't make sense. The queen wouldn't give up the throne to her son and kept hiding his identity to supposedly protect him, instead of putting him on the throne and helping him secure it. Not to mention, there was this lame conspiracy plotline and the queen's self-serving motivations for the sake of pretending there was a plot. The Hwarang were supposed to be the king's guard, but they spent most of their time bickering and doing song and dance. Only towards the end, somebody started doing something interesting. And don't even get me started on the incest plot where the queen wanted to marry her son the king to her daughter the princess because of some "sacred bone" tradition. I understand this is a fake historical drama, but seriously. And, OMFG, Sam Maek Jong's CONSTANT whining about how weak he was as the king during the entirety of the show - while he was in hiding, after he became Hwarang, after he officially became king, every freaken time he was faced with adversity he bitched and moaned about being incompetent.
The OST was pretty underwhelming. The same song with a female singer was playing in most episodes during romantic/angsty scenes as if it was on a loop. Production and acting were ok. I thought Park Seo Joon and Park Hyung Sik did a good job. Seo Yea Ji had the easiest acting gig as the princess, she looked constipated with the same expression in every scene. Ah Ro was forgettable and weak. She never stood up for herself and allowed everyone to make decisions for her and did whatever she was told. Her bland chemistry with Sun Woo did not justify any of their romantic angst.
All the side characters with their stories and romance would've been interesting if the writers took the drama a little more seriously and wrote an actual plot and character development. I ended up skipping most scenes from episode 13 onward because there was no interest in anything other than the three main characters. I don't think I missed much.
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