Hwarang

Hwarang

8.5/10

Hwarang

Genre:                                 Episodes: 20                          Year: 2017

Historical

Romance

Synopsis:

Queen Jisoo has ruled the Kingdom of Silla since the death of her husband. She keeps her son hidden from the people under the guise of wanting to protect him while she remains in power. Men from noble families plot against the Queen and the unseen young King, desiring to take the throne for their own families. In order to force the nobles to be loyal, the Queen creates Hwarang- an army of young men whose sole purpose is to protect the unknown King, and is made up of the sons of the noble families. Amongst the Hwarang is Ji Dwi, the young King himself, and Sun Woo, a nameless peasant posing as a nobleman’s son.

Cast:

Park Seo Joon (Moo Myung/Sun Woo)

Go Ara (Ah Ro)

Park Hyung Shik (Ji Dwi)

Choi Minho (Soo Ho)

Do Ji Han (Ban Ryu)

Seo Ye Ji (Princess Sookmyung)

Jo Yoon Woo (Yeo Wool)

V (Han Sung)

Kim Hyun Joon (Dan Se)

Kim Ji Soo (Queen Jiso)

Sung Dong Il (Wi Hwa Gong)

Lee Da In (Soo Yeon)

Lee Kwang Soo (Mak Moon)

General Thoughts:

Okay, I’ll admit- this show was definitely not without flaws. In fact, there were many, many flaws. So why did I rate it so highly? Because despite some of it’s plot-holes and dropped story-lines, it was still highly entertaining.

Yes...highly entertaining.

Though I do believe that those who disliked the drama were far louder than those who liked it, I can agree that it is by no means flawless and understand how some people were disappointed with it. But I liked it a lot. It was just the thing I was wanting at the time- a lighthearted youth drama set in a historical period.

Cute youth romance. Plus swords. And death.

I really like historical dramas, but I always find myself getting bored by the wordy political goings on in the second halves when there are swords and poison and you can kill people and make things interesting, but they tend to…not. The lightheartedness of ‘Hwarang’ meant that I could enjoy the things I like about historical dramas (the clothes, the rules, the dangers) without having to sit through looooong stretches of our hero and our villain exchanging hard-to-follow (particularly if some of it isn’t translated as well as it could be) banter about how they will bring each other down, while in actuality nothing much happens. It’s one of the great reasons I like this drama- things happened. While one conflict came to a close, one or two more were already jumping up to take centre stage. So yes, the writing may not have been as smooth or as flawless as we would have liked, but I could be happily distracted by other aspects of the drama. The greenness of the writer (this is her first drama) became quite apparent at the end of the series when things didn’t tie-up quite as nicely as they could have. While I adored Han Sung and thought his death was brilliant (both the way it occurred and the acting behind it from V and Kim Hyun Joon), it didn’t actually add anything to the story, and ended up being quite a meaningless death when it could have been so much more.

What do you mean you have to finish telling the story after he's dead?

Sun Woo wasn’t really impacted by the death of his friend, and it didn’t motivate him to any action. He was sad for a scene or two, then got over it. Similarly, it didn’t seem to have any great impact on Dan Se- he was sad, tried to kill himself, then nothing. Then suddenly he’s a Hwarang- how did that happen? The story of the brothers was deeply enjoyable, but sadly lost its way at the end and fizzled out. On the other hand, Ban Ryu’s side-story was just brilliant. It had the perfect amount of comedy to balance out the more serious parts of the drama, and the story arc had a nice complete feeling.

100% best Hwarang boy side-story

The smaller love-line wasn’t without its bumps, but those issues were never blown out of proportion, and it was a cute little deviation away from the main plot-line. I was never disappointed to have screen time given to Ban Ryu and Soo Yeon. Also, on an unrelated side-note, I think the reason I enjoyed this drama more than other viewers is that I watched the episodes back-to-back rather than waiting a week in between.

Funny, when you watch 8 episodes a day the plot just seems to move quicker

This meant that the small pieces of new information came relatively quickly- I didn’t have to wait weeks for one new development. I can understand how some people became frustrated with the slow pacing and spaced out reveals. This is definitely a drama to marathon rather than waiting. I guess another reason people were so vocal about their dislike for this series is that fallen expectation is a bitter pill to swallow (as I discovered myself in ‘Legend of the Blue Sea'). A lot of people were hoping for a lot of different things from this series, so expectations were pretty high. The key to enjoying this drama- expect nothing and thus avoid disappointment. Anyway, moving on. I didn’t quite see the necessity for the Princess at all, except that there really should be more than one female character. But the Princess didn’t do all that much, and her motivations were extremely unclear. It didn’t help that I’m not a fan of Seo Ye Ji. It’s not that I think she’s a bad actress, I just find something a little lacking and it puts me off both her and her characters.

Go away Princess. You're awkward and weird and not in a funny way.

It’s almost as if she can bring all the right emotions on her face, but there’s something hard and almost robotic underneath that prevents her characters from having any likability (for me).

It's like he's making up for all that lack of emotion in 'She Was Pretty'

Which doesn’t work so well when the character is also a giant hard-ass who supposedly learns to soften up a bit (I saw no softening).The rest of the acting was pretty fabulous. Park Seo Joon was amazing as our leading man. I love him when he gets to emote. He brought a lot of emotion to the story, and starting out with him and his friend in so much danger really stuck us right into his mindset- screw the nobles and the King who think they’re so much better than everyone else. Park Seo Joon held Sun Woo’s anger well, even as he started to grow friendly with the Hwarang boys. Even though he was starting to love these kids, he was still horrifically scarred by what had happened to his only friend and wanted some sort of revenge. Park Hyun Shik also acted well, and managed to hold his own next to Park Seo Joon. While I don’t think they’re on the same level, Ji Dwi had far less emotional scenes than Sun Woo did, which made it easier for Park Hyung Shik. I found his confliction between wanting to hide and wanting to step forward as King believable and though I didn’t appreciate his insanely pushy and assertive attitude towards our heroine, I did believe his affection for her.

Maybe I'd like you more if you weren't such an entitled weenie. Who knows.

Go Ara was okay as our leading lady. She was fantastic in parts of the story that let her character have any sort of personality, but was reduced to a typical heroine that needed saving for most of the show’s run. I’m pretty accustomed to female characters in historical dramas being pretty darn useless, so the inactivity of the heroine didn’t really bother me that much.

Please save me...again.

I do find it funny that so many people were out to criticise Go Ara and the character she played when she was no more useless than the heroine in ‘Moonlight Drawn by Clouds’ which everyone loved and raved over. Park Bo Gum effect, I guess. While I wouldn’t say the romance here was one of the greatest romances I’ve ever seen, it was cute and enjoyable and I loved the hero enough that I was happy for him to be in a relationship with the girl he liked, even if she was constantly being used to control him. The drama was very pretty to look at- the costumes, actors, and sets were all phenomenal and wonderful to look at. The music was a nice blend of traditional and modern. The modern twist on the series added a sense of youthfulness to it, and made it feel much more lighthearted than your typical sageuk. I’m not sure if it happened in the whole series and I only noticed in the last three episodes, or if it only occurred in the last three episodes, but sometimes I did find that the drama was relying a little too heavily on its soundtrack, and I started to notice the absence of other sounds (such as footsteps or doors closing) as the only sound that was being played was the music. All in all, I found ‘Hwarang’ to be an extremely enjoyable watch despite its shortcomings. I found the story very addictive, even if it wasn’t perfect, and look forward to this writer developing her skills and coming out with new dramas.

Did these boys ever actually learn how to fight? This is the most poorly trained militia ever.

What Was Great:

Cameo:

Lee Kwang Soo was magic at the beginning of this series. I was pretty disappointed when I saw he wasn’t in the main cast meaning his appearance was but a cameo. But what a cameo it was.

You total star- I hope you get more serious roles soon ★

Lee Kwang Soo’s character basically sets the stage for everything to happen. Mak Moon is the one who brings Sun Woo into the city, and it’s Mak Moon’s death that sparks Sun Woo’s desire for revenge. The story could have totally fallen apart if the character of Mak Moon hadn’t been strong enough, but Lee Kwang Soo delivered an absolutely stunning performance. He was delightful in his happy scenes, and the chemistry between him and Sun Woo was so sweet and so engaging. And then Mak Moon’s death was just carried out perfectly. Lee Kwang Soo acted the scene with the perfect amount of fear and love and his death really ripped your heart apart. His performance was so strong and so memorable that the character remained a constant presence throughout the whole drama. It was clear that Mak Moon was often the driving force behind Sun Woo’s actions, and where his love for Ah Ro started. It was brilliant that the drama didn’t shy away from being bloody. While Mak Moon’s death was pretty gory (by K-Drama romance standards), it did ensure that we as the audience felt horrified and offended by the murder just as Sun Woo did. It never felt like Sun Woo was overacting in his revenge because the scene was so vivid and so heartbreaking. Lee Kwang Soo really owned the character and gave a spectacular (albeit short) performance.

Where Lee Kwang Soo died and everyone cried

Tightening Tension:

One of the better aspects of the writing for this drama was that they knew how to build tension. There was never any point in the story where nothing was happening- there was always some sort of conflict for our hero and his boys to face. And as the story progressed, these conflicts gradually intensified.

Fight, fight, fight

While there’s nothing boring in any of the conflicts our hero faced, it could have been a bit of a let down and led to a slow in momentum if some of the bigger situations happened before other smaller ones. However, all the conflicts seemed to happen in the right order at the right time, so it really felt like our characters were growing as people and learning how to step up and face bigger, more complicated tasks. My favourite piece of tension was definitely our foray into foreign territory with Sun Woo stepping up and claiming to be King to save the lives of civilians. It was a fantastic climatic point in the story, and served as a successful tool to switch the focus from external forces trying to damage Hwarang to the internal struggle between the two kings. I do think the writing was pretty good overall, the writer just needs to learn how to neaten up and tighten a few aspects of the story.

What Wasn’t:

What’s With the Queen?:

The Queen made no sense. None whatsoever. I spent most of this series thinking she was a villain only to find out that she…wasn’t? Was? I don’t know, I’m still confused. We were never told what the Queen’s motivations were for keeping Ji Dwi off the throne, and that just made her character too confusing.

So much screen-time, so little sense

Sure, there can be grey characters who aren’t just good or just bad, but it wasn’t like that for the Queen- she just had no idea what she wanted to be. It never felt like she was trying to protect her son from assassination attempts, but it also never quite felt like she was trying to steal the throne from him.

Oh wait, this was a thing? Let's just ignore it and hope the audience forgets...

It was quite awkward. The backstory between the Queen and Sun Woo’s father (the fake one, not the real one) was dropped pretty early and didn’t really get picked up again, which just left a bigger question mark over the Queen. Who is this lady? What does she want? Why’s she being such a b*tch to everyone? Alas, some questions have no answers. It also didn’t help that I didn’t think the actress was doing such a great job (which is understandable, the character was difficult). She never felt all that threatening, but she also never felt all that loving. The weird love-line (crush-line?) with Soo Ho was also confusing as hell and super weird. She’s old enough to be your mother. She is the mother of one of your mates. Yeah, could have done without that one.

Where’s the Promised Bromance?:

Yes, we’ve arrived. The biggest issue with this drama and the main reason for the malcontentment of the masses. There was no bromance. Well, there was some- but very little.

There was a bit- but not nearly enough

It is very much a story that focuses on the main love-line and the love-triangle. Not so much the young men growing into independent shapers of the future. Which, I guess, it kinda did promise to be. Whoops. Friendships always make a story meatier, and this drama would have been much more compelling if relationships between the boys had been given more screen-time and development. The boys were all introduced in such rapid concession that I had some trouble figuring out who’s who (I wasn’t a religious follower of the casting news, which kinda seemed necessary during the character introduction phase).

This isn't bromantic at all

Then the side boys didn’t get a lot of screen time so it took that much longer to mark down all the characters, who they were, and what roles they’d likely be playing in the story. While I didn’t mind the romance, I did find myself wanting more about Hwarang as a whole, rather than just the King and the Fake King who just so happened to be in Hwarang. There was also very little friendship between the King and the Fake King. Ji Dwi was a total toss-bucket at the start of the show, and was really quite rude to Sun Woo- especially when you consider that Ji Dwi believed Sun Woo was the biological older brother of the girl he was interested in. The friendship between the two boys was really pretty shallow and pretty short. Unfortunately this meant that the drama’s final conflict lacked a lot of substance. 1- I never truly believed Sun Woo wanted to be King as it was so out of character for him. 2- there was no ‘oh no I might have to kill my best mate for the good of the nation’ because, well, they weren’t really best mates. The final conflict could have been so much more compelling if the drama had spent a little more time focusing on the friendship of these two boys, rather than only on their rivalry.

Imagine how intense this would be if I thought you guys actually cared about each other at all

Re-watch?

Maaaaybeee. It’s one I’d probably like to watch again, but as I’m discovering on an occurring basis- there are so many dramas and so little time. If I won the lotto and never had to work again and suddenly had more time than I knew what to do with- yes, I would revisit ‘Hwarang’.

It would have been pretty cool if the guys had done something as a team too