Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth (2016–2017) User Reviews

i liked it

[paryanazari · 8/10 · 11 September 2019]

I liked the story, characters, funny moments and all but i think ost wasn't that much proper. and lead actress sometimes was acting very dry that made romance parts not that much i expected impressive. but other than that they all act really good and for me whole episodes was amusing. i will recommend it even with some flaws that it had.

Wrong Choice of Female Lead

[minangocnhi · 7/10 · 24 March 2020]

This drama is good! I like its plot. I love all the actors and actresses in this drama, except for the female lead. I would give better rating if the female lead could do beter. Her acting was dry and overreated. Her facial expressions were very odd and unpleasant. They did not describe well the emotions of her character. Plus, she did not have good chemistry with netheir the male lead or the second male lead. This is very sad that such good drama plot was runied by the wrong choice of the female lead! However, the drama is worth it to watch!

The good things overpowers the flaws.

[pravitagupta · 8/10 · 30 September 2018]

I won't call this the best K-drama I have ever watched, but it's not that bad as some people make it out to be. Could the acting have been better? Yes, it could have been because often times you may not be able to connect with Park Seo - Joon , but that's how his character is. The ending could have been better as the show doesn't tell where and how they ended up. Had those loose ends been tied up, it would've been an A drama. Still, it's worth watching if you're looking for some period drama action.

The 2 men leads were crushing it!!!!!

[natassa-athens · 10/10 · 18 April 2021]

What can I say about this drama! It's unique and fantastic!

Great story and excellent acting in this historical, action and romance kdrama!

Every actor was great but the 2 men leads were really crushing it!!! I'm speechless!!! Park Hyung-Sik, you are a God of acting and beauty!!! Park Seo-Joon you are such a powerful, charismatic and handsome actor!!! I love you both!!!

The music was also fantastic! One of the best music in a historical drama!

You created an amazing series! Very Well Done!!!

Best Show I've Watched

[sugarcube-14950 · 10/10 · 22 February 2017]

I started watching this show for V, but ended up falling in love with the show. The first 2 episodes weren't so great, but it gets better and better. All of the cast members are fabulous actors. They can get themselves to cry at the drop of a hat! The story-line is very well made. The shows main male character is a nobody, peasant who ends up in the capital. He ends up being a Hwarang because of the Queen, and quickly makes enemies and friends. The main female is a cheery, youthful, and the daughter of a physician. Everyone in the capital likes her. She tells love-stories to the girls and is a part-time assistant to her father. The other main male character is the hidden King. Whoever sees his face is killed. He is a romantic, strong, friendly man. He wants to be the King, but at the same time is afraid of not being strong enough. His mother refuses the idea of giving up the throne. In this drama there is a lot of stuff going on, you have love triangles, fights, friendships, betrayal, war, & a whole lot of good-looking faces. Seriously the best show I've seen. It makes you laugh, cry, get angry. That's when you know it's good! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good drama. :)

Whimsical Historical Drama!

[morebon · 10/10 · 24 October 2019]

Absolutely fabulous young male warrior historical drama! Just adored the comedic bantering and comradery among all the guys: the brotherhood-esque narrative really made this series unique, and extremely enjoyable. (Sure wish more of these all-star male humorous genres were created.) The entire cast's performance was over-the-top extraordinary. I initially began watching this drama because of my fangirling Park Seo Joon, who is brilliant in all his works. Cheers to the outstanding costume drama and fantastic cast and crew. (By the way, excellent ending!) Loved it!

Park Hyung Sik for the win!

[remy-11794 · 10/10 · 18 May 2020]

Park Seo Joon took me to this drama. But after watching it, I fall in love with Park Hyung Sik. I became one of his fans. This man can act! I've been watching all his movies and series after Hwarang!

This series is one of the best Kdrama I watched so far.

I watched it for Go Ara...

[kzhngg · 7/10 · 26 November 2021]

And I regret it. Her character was crying every second episode, and it got old pretty fast. The romance was... weird. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Ah-ro thinking that the dude is her brother and still having feelings for him? No thanks, that's weird. The acting was just fine and the leads had no chemistry at all. Some episodes had their moments, but that's all there was. I still finished it because I just gotta.

LOVE

[xeniamd-35210 · 8/10 · 4 August 2020]

HWARANG (2016)

Crown. Mystery. Brotherhood. Love.

Had fun watching this. Loads of pretty boys! I love V and PSJ the most. I love their dancing and sword fighting! I don't like Go Ara, over acting! Kairita! 😛

There were couple of loopholes in the plot. They didn't show why Dog Bird was always collapsing, didn't explain if Dog Bird knew it was not the Crown Prince who killed his friend, and they should have shown more interactions between the Queen Mother and the Crown Prince.

I give it an 8.5/10.

Poor and non logical story and character development

[soumitat · 6/10 · 25 January 2021]

In the first half of the series, the way the characters are portrayed and in the second half the same characters seemed so different. The way the character of the King has been potrayed in the first 12 episode is so different to what they tried potraying in the last 6 episodes. It made no sense.It felt as if he had an accident and lost his memory. Then only a character can change so much in no time.

In the first half, they show the king (Park Hyung sik )to be : Smart- The way he was planning to claim the throne. The way he so easily understood when he was being followed by park seo joon and he escaped. All showed signs of a very smart man. Bold- The way he approached the actress was bold. In the first half, the way he tried protecting the actress all the time was bold. When he got to know Park Seo Joon wanted to kill him, instead of running away in fear, he planned to become his friend.This showed the signs of someone being bold and strategic. Highly skilled and educated- It was clearly shown he was highly skilled and learned man.

But in the last few episodes they try showing, the king as a good hearted nervous kid.( What happened to the smart, bold man that we were seeing in majority of the episodes of the series?)

On the other hand, they show dog-bird, as a character like Tarzan. He had no education, no smartness, no knowledge how a town looked like or functions. Only full of aggression and muscle strength. But once he enters hwarang, he starts preaching how a king should rule.( Sorry what???. Does he even know how to run a small shop. Let alone a kingdom.This series seriously downplays the value of good education and experience). It felt that they suddenly needed to give more importance to the male lead and made the story non- logical. If that is how you wanted the story to go then you should have shown the male lead very differently in the first half.Atleast the ending was logical. In short, it is a one time watch. Kindly throw all sorts of logic out of the window.

Good one time watch, could've left the female character out

[chsan-99606 · 8/10 · 17 July 2022]

All the male actors who play Hwarang are brilliant and do a wonderful job. Their characters are also well written and the casting is quite appropriate. However, the female lead just boils my blood by her constant crying. There isn't a single scene in which she is NOT crying. Why did the writers do this? They could've made a more strong-willed and stable character out of her.. completely missed the opportunity. Overall a good drama! Oh also, I didn't know about BTS and Kim Taehyung when I watched it so really didn't pay attention to his character :)

A fun drama

[tay-sedai · 7/10 · 27 October 2019]

It took me ages to get around to watching this show, as I've been more into the contemporary dramas in general. But I'm so glad I did get around to watching it.

There was plenty of eye candy to go around, but the show was entertaining in its own right as well. It made me laugh a lot, but also had heartfelt moments relating to each character's struggles. It was kinda silly at times, true, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the series.

I would say I like it enough to watch it again, which I can't say for all dramas.

Kind of disappointed

[macdugong · 4/10 · 6 March 2019]

Ah I was really looking forward to watching this fun period kdrama with an eye candy cast. But I found myself being extremely annoyed. I liked all the male characters and their acting aside from the main character dog-bird. I found him to be a little annoying and seemingly stupid. I also wish V's character had some more development and screen time from the start because though the acting was a little meh (don't bite me I'm a big bts fan) I think he should've had more time to settle into his character properly. Now the female characters, don't even get me started. When Aro was introduced I though 'hey she seems cool and strong' but as the show went on I found her to be rather irritating because she was always whining, crying and getting in trouble! The queen and princess were just shallow power hungry characters who were rather useless. The storyline had so much potential but it was slow to start and didn't finish great either. I know that it's supposed to be like this but I couldn't stand how historically incorrect it all was either. Now on a nicer note, it was fun to watch and was completely mindless. The young male cast were positively gorgeous and their acting wasn't too bad. Overall I was pretty disappointed and I do suggest watching it for yourself dispite all I've said so you can form your own opinions on it.

Loved it!

[ErikaBW1978 · 10/10 · 12 June 2020]

I only started watching Hwarang because of V from BTS, but the show is so much fun! Didn't quite enjoy the first two episodes but it does get better! The funny moments had me laughing hard! The songs might not be what you expect from a period drama, but I think that's what makes it fun to watch. Loved the actors (Park Hyung-sin especially!) and Kim Taehyung gets to show off his dancing skills!

Absolutely Fun to watch!

[anaaannya · 9/10 · 10 January 2022]

"Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth" quickly became one of my all-time favourite series. It features an array of phenomenal performances of Park Hyung Sik, Park Seon Joon, Kim Taehyung, Go Ara, Choi Min Ho, Do Ji Han, Cho Yoon Woo etc. This series never feels slow, it never feels stale and you can't help but get sucked into the show's engaging world.

The storyline is very well made. The main male character, Dog-Bird, is a nobody, a peasant who ends up in the capital. He had to join Hwarang because of the Queen and quickly makes enemies and friends. The main female character, Ah Ro, is cheery, youthful and the daughter of a physician. Everyone in the capital likes her. The other main male character, Sam Maek Jong, is the hidden King. He is a romantic, strong, friendly man. He wants to be the King, but at the same time is afraid of not being strong enough.

So, in short, this drama has love triangles, fights, friendships, betrayal, war and a whole lot of good-looking faces. These will make you laugh, cry, angry.

Although, I will say that the pacing falters towards the end as the show rushes to meet its inevitable conclusion. In the end, I also wanted to know more about what happened to Princess Sook-Myung and Suk Dan-se.

Therefore, according to me, Hwarang isn't perfect, but for what it is, it's damn good. If you haven't seen Hwarang, I highly recommend checking it out. It's one of those shows that feels like sitting down to a good meal. Every part of the dish is enjoyable and you're able to walk away feeling satisfied when it's done.

(Ps- Honestly speaking, I started to watch it for Kim taehyung, but then I fall in love with every character. Especially I became a fan of Park Hyung Sik. After Hwarang, I am watching all his series and movies!)

Tae

[nawastar-46029 · 10/10 · 27 March 2020]

This is the drama that taehyung from bts acted in 💜💜💜💜💜💜😍😭

A good script ruined by a lousy director

[Ariebeth · 10 March 2023]

The script had great promise and deep, thought-provoking dialogue, but unfortunately was ruined in the hands of the director. The director was terrible, constantly replaying previous scenes over and over again (some of which were in the same episode just 5 minutes ago!), which did nothing except to bloat the episode count and waste our time. The acting was atrocious by most of the cast except for a handful of actors. The lead actress was especially bad, she only had that one mopey frowny expression throughout the show. There were a lot of useless scenes with over the top slapstick humour that weren't funny and didn't add to the plot. The romance was boring and unnecessary. Overall, a complete waste of time.

In my top 5 kdramas

[sez_tim · 10/10 · 10 January 2021]

I love this TV series, it has it all, romance, great story line, action, suspense, comedy and best of all you go on a journey with the characters as they develop and grow. The chemistry between all the actors is fantastic and I love the props, and settings. Its a must watch..

K-Pop and Anachronisms.

[steve-butten · 7/10 · 25 September 2019]

Set in Seorabeol, the capital of the Korean province of Silla in the 7th Century, many of the characters in this are historically correct. Soo Yeon witnesses the killing of his best friend and believes the assassin to be in thrall to the King. He gains access to the capital city illegally and poses as his friend, who was the son of the royal physician. Meanwhile The Queen has kept her son, Sam Maek Jong, (aka Ji Dwi) the Crown Prince in hiding because of numerous death threats. He joins the group of young warriors known as Hwarang along with Soo Yeon, who has vowed to kill the king when he finds him. It becomes known that the king is among the Hwarang warriors and there follows a lot of tension as the Queen seeks to protect him. This is a K-Pop lovers dream. Many of the warriors are clearly From Boy Bands and at one stage there is even a choreographed dance routine. And here lies the problem with this epic. The music and some of the clothing are clearly out of time (rubber soled boots already), and the music sometimes seems so out of place. I'm not saying it should be the music of that day, but chart songs seem way out of place. All that said, these actors and their female co-stars are very easy on the eye. In particular Park Hyung-Seok as the king in waiting looks amazing in the warrior dress of the day and all the lads sport what I am guessing are hair extensions. Every one of them has flawless skin and takes a close-up very well. A worthy mention too for Lee Da-In as Su Yeon (Dog-Bird), Do Ji-Han as the moody Ban Ryu, Go Ara as the physicians daughter and so many more. Despite my reservations the costumes are amazing and the scenery a travel writers dream. A worthy binge on Netflix.

Watched this show for Kim Taehyung

[taehyungsohot · 10/10 · 28 May 2022]

Watched this show for Kim Taehyung. Watched this show for Kim Taehyung. Watched this show for Kim Taehyung. Watched this show for Kim Taehyung.

Watched this show for Kim Taehyung. Watched this show for Kim Taehyung.

Loved it!

Bad story and character development. Good acting

[sanafyz · 6/10 · 9 December 2020]

I dont know silla history but i found a few things odd.. Story development was bad. Too many things were shown. For example no proper screen time was given to V to make his story ending have an impact. King jinheung was shown weak untill the end. He became king because of dog-bird support. I was expecting a strong come back by the real king but untill the last episode he was seen as weak. He saw his people get killed in bakejae and didnt come forward. The whole series showed dog-bird to be the perfect candidate for. King and yet its like all hwarang had pity on the ji dwi in hiding and just accepted him.. ban ryu side story was nice.. soo yun lokong ban ryu was sudden though.. but ban ryu and his complicated life was shown nicely. Soo hoo liking the queen was just meh. Acting by everyone was good. Chemistry of lead actors was okay. Not bad not too good. The bromance of hwarang was the BEST thing in the whole series.

A fun watch. A solid 8.

[reganmonique-23097 · 8/10 · 15 July 2020]

I hate how many Korean and Chinese dramas start off airy-fairy, light and full of laughs and then suddenly the episodes turn gloomy, dark and angst-ridden. One minute you're loving the series and laughing your arse off - next you're crying, worried and all the laughs are completely cut and you're left wondering ... wtf just happened there? That's not fun; it's not a fun watch in my opinion.

I've learned it's a story-line process writers must follow and apparently it appeals to many. Not me though - I feel sucked in, robbed and deceived when the story takes a sharp turn from fun and funny to gloomy and dark.

This doesn't happen in Hwarang. It's definitely not an airy-fairy, light drama but the comedic moments remain through-out the series lightening the dark parts of the story.

The Cast - some I was familiar with and others not so much but I couldn't fault their acting for the most part. The lead actress crying all the time was annoying and that didn't gel with the happy-go-lucky persona she was suppose to have but I put that down to the script and not her herself. The male lead didn't come across as particularly sympathetic; I'm unsure whether that was due to the script, his acting or a combination of both. I was surprised to read it was young V's acting debut (and last to date). I thought he played his part brilliantly. I was even more surprised what happened there didn't result in World War 3. ;)

The Set and Music - others have mentioned the set either wasn't up to par and looked cheap or it was out of date for the period. They can't have it both ways. Parts of the Palace looked a bit unkempt and needed painting or attention but to me - that's more real than having every tile glistening and gold plated. The Kisaeng house looked a bit like a modern-day dance club with music to match - that was hilarious and just a bit of fun. Think, "A Knights Tale", with Heath Ledger. Modern music through-out the series appealed to me.

I guess what let it down for me was the script. It was so promising in the beginning but didn't quite deliver. The last episode in particular tried to tie up all the loose ends but it just dragged and the scenes didn't follow a logical path. I especially wanted to see the male lead "show respect" to the King which he never did. I get that they were friends but - he's the King; bow godamnit! Lolz.

The Hwurang were a 10/10

[JiSoonJa · 6/10 · 6 April 2021]

I tried to love this show but the female lead was so frustrating to watch that I ended up really disappointed. All she did was cry, pout, pitch fits, and make faces for much of her scenes. I grew weary of her scenes quickly & by the end I could hardly watch. The casting of her was a huge fail for me. The guys in the cast as well as the other 3 females were great as were the older men.

Dislike the female lead

[mrsskt · 5/10 · 5 October 2021]

I thought I was the only one annoyed by the female lead.

The male lead was too dependent on the female lead, and she was causing him a lot of trouble.

The problems always appear as if they have no end. I'm tired of watching this drama, even though I finally finished it.

Anyway, it's my first time watching Park Hyung Shik's drama, and he's really handsome.

Pardon my bad english, it's from google translate.

A Must watch if you like Park hyungsik

[Joyfulunicorn · 10/10 · 6 December 2021]

Cause he acts and he looks just so beautiful in it. I fell in love with this beautiful king. You will too if you watch this. The story is good too although I agree with some viewers who were disappointed by the female lead. It is worth watching because there is bromance you can enjoy.