Bullet Point Review: Hwarang

• One of the strengths of a pre-produced drama is that there is a strong hold over the story throughout the show. There are no sudden changes in character traits and no unnecessary subplots and Hwarang plays exactly to these strengths. The show progresses smoothly from start to finish, introducing it's conflicts in the initial episodes and then the means to solve them throughout the rest of the show.
• It is one of those few shows (which includes Pinocchio, She was Pretty, Reply 1997) that has enough content to milk out for the entire running time. You have the Hwarang's training, Sun Woo's birth mystery, Ban Ryu's family, Jwi Dwi's fight for the throne, Ji So's and An Ji-Gong's history and much much more that keeps the show afloat till the end.
• The setting may be old, but the situations are of this century. There are nightclub like parties, drinking, dating and in one scene Ah Ro begs Sun Yeon to cover up for her, when she ends up spending the night at Okta, and only returns home in the morning.
  
• Every new character introduced brings about a change either in the love stories, or in the main story line. Nothing is done out of reason or seems to be done out of the blue, with a hurried thought. Take the scene where Ah Ro narrates to a few villagers (in the forest) some of her love stories in exchange for some food for the Queen and the soldiers. This particular skill of Ah Ro seems unimportant at the beginning of the show except for being a reason Ji Dwi seeks her out, but later on, it becomes vital, and not something conjured out of the air to further the plot. Even the scene where Ji Dwi and Sun Woo rescue the prisoners in Baekjae (beautifully choreographed), becomes a small insight to a scene later on, when they both have to work together to steal medicines from Master Young Shil's shed.
• Characters like Pa Oh, Soo Yeon, Yeol Woo and Han Sung provide the much needed humour amongst all the tension.
• Kim Ji So was exceptional as the Queen Reagent. A difficult character to portray as it felt right and wrong to hate her. Right on how she was protecting Ji Dwi, but wrong about how many people she used to get her work done, (no matter how cleverly done.) The scene where she reveals to Ji Dwi that she was aware of her tea being poisoned, but continues to consume it, is heartbreaking. For the first (and the last time), we see her breakdown. She regrets not being able to frosee, something as simple as poisoning, but at the same time there is a tinge of relief in her face, as she understands that will be the only way she will give up the throne.
• All that being said, the show isn't without flaws. Many situations are not reacted to and many character's conclusion is either not satisfying or not shown at all. After Master Young Shil's medicines are robbed, we never get a scene where this discovers this crime and plans a counter attack. We never get to know what happens to Kang Sung, how Dan Sae becomes a Hwarang from a disciple and what happens to So Ho after the queens death. Even Ban Ryu sudden act of drunkenness to distract the guards when the Hwarang are stealing the medicines from Young Shil's shed goes by unexplained, just when a scene before, he did his adoptive fathers bidding without any conscious in Baekjae.
• Transitions between scenes are very abrupt, and I would have liked them to linger a bit longer for the effect they were aiming for. Even the background songs are cut in mid, and we are taken to the next scene immediately.
• Killed Taehyung didn't you? Always kill off the cute idol actor. First Baek and now Tae...Why?
• Both Minho and Park Hyung Sik were excellent! They both have improved so much more than their previous outings, and hoping to see more of them.