Dear Hongrang

A little disappointing...

I started this drama mainly because Lee Jae Wook in it but the story, while reading the synopsis was interesting too. Sadly, it didn't live up to the hype it got on TikTok (at least on my fyp).

The drama centers around the Sim family and begins to tell the story of Hong Rang. He's a little boy when he vanishes from his home under mysterieus conditions. No one knows where he is and everybody starts to look for him but no one ever finds him. His half sister, Jae I, is hopefull though. She desperately hopes he's alive somewhere and will return to their home someday. In her life he was the only one who treated her like a normal human being. She's a bastard child to the master of the house and frequently mistreated by family members. Most of them blame her for Hong Rang's disappearance and tell her she's a curse upon the family. Especially her stepmother.
And then Hong Rang returns home. Everyone thinks he's the real deal because he passes some tests and claims amnesia. But Jae I is weary of him and doesn't trust it. He cannot be her brother. She would have recognised him, wouldn't she? But nothing to him feels familiar.
But he becomes someone she can trust, someone who treats her like she matters. And soon she starts to fall for him.

If only the story could have been just about that, but it tried to be so much more by adding all kinds of storylines and plots. It became a little too much in the end. There was too much going on and most of it didn't get resolved at the end. It became a romance above all when more important stuff was going on. Like Hong Rang (the imposter) his origin and his life story. In the beginning of the story you get some info sprinkled throughout the scenes about a painter and something horrible, but you won't find out exactly what they mean by the painter and the horrible things until much later. If it did anything for the suspense in the show you wouldn't hear me nag about it, but it got backsided by so many layers of other plots... I didn't understand any of it most of the time.
There was a power struggle within the Sim family. There was a abduction/runaway storyline about young Hong Rang. There was a plotline with a prince. There was a storyine with the imposter Hong Rang and that split into two storyline when the romance began... It became a spider web of stories and none of them really took the show and brought it to another level.

In the end it fell like a bore to me. Nothing really stuck with me or kept me locked in.

So if you're looking for a show that's not that thrilling or exciting, I'd recommend this one. But for anything else I'd look elsewhere.

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a gripping tale of grief and obsession

'dear hongrang' has a haunting setting with dark themes and brutal reality of how abusive evil people are. additionally, there is a heart-breaking element shown in jae-yi's character as she struggled as her heart yearned to see her little brother again.

as a drama that also has politics in it, it was intriguing to watch the rivalry between hongrang and mu jin plus how yeon-ui's cruelty comes to play. while it does make my blood boil how yeon-ui is as a character, she does work well as an antagonist. speaking of antagonists, the villain was portrayed as this person in the shadows at first, yet we are also given hints of just how his presence is not pleasant. he craves power. bound to be obsessed by his creations. he looms over you and will drain your very existence. deeply eerie and sends chill to your bones when you find out the things he did.

however, despite how interesting the concept is and how the drama started, i can't help but feel frustration halfway through. i felt the romance between the leads to be lackluster and it was so sudden. in addition, the story seemed to have fast-forwarded itself. there was this rushed feel to the pacing that even though the scenes were very much impactful and heavy, it felt as though i was jumping from one episode to another. the start was slow and stable then ended like a whirlpool of things all at once.

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Yes it's messy.

Watch it dubbed while cooking, doing the laundry, or cleaning, so you won't feel like you're wasting your time.

Also, I'm sorry it's just from what I've watched so far ---I have never seen Jo Bo Ah (Jae I) having any chemistry with any male leads.


Story:

Even for a past time series, (something you don't expect to be worth your time), the plot holes are bothering. I can't recall everything, but the important ones were mentioned in Chipmunk101's review. Also, the ending doesn't make sense, it's a big "huh?" moment.

Acting/Cast:

Amazing acting that it almost made me forget how terrible the storyline is.

Music:

The music just makes it REALLY cinematic!!! NGL! I got goosebumps in some scenes.

Rewatch Value:

NONE.

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It Hurt to Watch—and That’s Why I Loved It

Dear Hongrang is not just a historical drama it’s a slow, aching elegy for everything we lose but still carry inside us. It’s a story about grief that doesn’t scream, love that doesn’t ask, and the kind of pain that lingers quietly in the corners of your heart.

The plot begins with the mysterious return of Hongrang, the long-lost heir of a powerful merchant family, who disappeared when he was only eight. His homecoming doesn’t bring joy it brings confusion, fear, and longing. His mother, broken by grief, clings to him as if he’s salvation. His father remains cold. His half-brother Mu-jin, raised to replace him, begins to spiral. And Jae-i ,his half-sister, the only one who never stopped waitingstands frozen between love and disbelief.

This drama doesn't rush. It unfolds like a secret. Every scene is laced with silence, every gesture says more than words. You don’t watch it, you feel it, slowly, deeply, until you realize it’s inside you.

⚡The Ache It Left Behind:

I didn't know Dear Hongrang would stay with me long after the final scene faded.

At first, I thought it was a mystery, who is this man? Is he really Hongrang? But soon, I realized the real question wasn’t about identity. It was about memory, about belonging, about whether we can ever truly return to the people we once were.

What moved me most were the characters not for what they said, but for what they couldn't say.

Jae-i broke my heart in the most quiet, beautiful way. She carried so much weight on her shoulders but never let it show. Her love for her brother wasn’t loud or dramatic, it was steady, patient, aching. She reminded me of what it’s like to be strong when there’s no one left to lean on. The way she looked at him, the way she held back when she wanted to run to him—I felt all of it.

And Hongrang... I still can’t find the right words for him. He walked like a ghost. Like someone who didn’t believe he deserved to be remembered. He was always halfway gone, even when he was standing right there. But when he was with Jae-i, something shifted. He became softer, almost human again. Their connection wasn’t just emotional ,it felt spiritual, like they belonged to each other in a past life they couldn’t quite reach.

Then there’s Mu-jin. His pain was the kind that doesn’t make a sound. He loved too deeply and too quietly. You could see him crumbling from the inside out, but he never asked for anything. That kind of heartbreak,the silent kind,hit me the hardest. It made me think of all the times I’ve pretended to be okay just to keep someone close. I saw myself in him more than I wanted to.

The drama is beautifully filmed,the forests, the candlelit rooms, the haunting music. But what really stayed with me were the pauses. The unspoken words. The tension that wrapped itself around every scene like a fog. It wasn’t about dramatic twists or big reveals. It was about the ache of wanting something that’s already gone. It was about learning to live with that ache.

And the ending... I cried harder than I’ve cried in a long time. Not because it shocked me, but because it felt so real. It didn’t give me closure. It didn’t offer peace. But it gave me something more honest,a kind of quiet acceptance. It told me that sometimes, the people we lose never really come back. And sometimes, neither do we.


FINAL THOUGHTS:
Dear Hongrang doesn’t try to fix you. It doesn’t hand you easy answers or happy endings. It just sits beside you, like sorrow does, and lets you feel. It asks you to stop pretending. To stop running. To look grief in the eye and say, “I see you.”

It’s a drama about remembering people who are already gone. About loving them anyway. About living with the hollow spaces they leave behind.

And maybe that’s why I loved it so much.

Because I know what that feels like.
🪄🤍

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GREAT DRAMA!!!

I just finished watching and let me say, it was such a gripping, story. I cried so much!!! I didn't expect it to end the way it did. All of these actors did an amazing job!!! Lee Jae Wook is so good. Anything he's in, I will watch. The other Wook, Kim Jae Wook... DAMN!!!! he didn't come to play! He was something else in this drama. As I stated before hand, all of the actors did great. Can't list them all. If you want to know if it's worth watching???? Yes, most definitely. Don't sleep on it. I usually don't watch historical dramas because most of them end up being silly. However, the only other historical drama I watched was Kingdom, and Ashin that was part of Kingdom, Queen Woo, and this one. If I had to rate this drama, it's a 10 for me across the board

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Dear Hongrang - it's a must watch

I recently watched Dear. Hongrang, and I’m still trying to recover from the emotional rollercoaster it took me on. This drama is truly something special. While it has action and intensity, at its core, it's a deeply emotional story — one that stays with you long after the final episode.

The tragic ending broke my heart in the best possible way. It was beautifully written and powerfully executed, leaving a lasting impact. The chemistry between the main leads was absolutely stunning — you could feel every emotion they portrayed, from tenderness to heartbreak.

I also have to highlight the main OST — it’s just breathtaking. The music perfectly captured the tone of the drama, especially during the most emotional scenes. The background score elevated the entire viewing experience and made the emotions hit even harder.

The cast gave outstanding performances, and the storyline was rich, thoughtful, and unforgettable. If you enjoy emotional dramas with incredible acting, a powerful soundtrack, and a story that truly moves you, Dear. Hongrang is a must-watch. It’s beautiful, heartbreaking, and simply unforgettable.

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What a fab cast!

If you are looking for a sweet, easy to watch drama, this is not it. It’s a very condense, intense, spiral drama that will take you with the characters.

Massive shout for the writers and the director - it cant be easy to pull this one up - there are not that many characters’ lines that could carry the story - and by exposing bit by bit from each line they built a glorious picture.

Lee Jae Wook for me was the weakest of the line - and not because he was bad, but because eve try one else was so exceptionally good. Kim Jae Wook was mesmerising - he always excels in complex characters, especially if there is an element of disorder or trauma! Jo Bo Ah also delivered a solid performance and brought to life a girl, who really wanted to love and be loved.

The drama didn’t offer many explanations and left the viewer to fill the gaps, which I like - it’s like you watch many versions of the story.

All and all, very enjoyable - prepare some handkerchiefs tho..

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good concept lousy and rushed execution

As a premise, this drama was very promising , but alas the execution was lousy, the story began to go all over the place, weird pacing, rushed conclusions to some story arcs, and even inconsistencies with some of the flashback events.

The drama opens to an intriguing mystery with a touch of fantasy and horror elements. The story then offers the familiar yet promising aspect of second guessing and doubting whether our main lead is an imposter who is deceiving everyone, or is he/ might be genuine. Was he a tormented soul that is good at heart, or is he simply a conniving evil person. If executed well such a tool be highly advantageous to building a mystery thriller, where a degree of doubting the true intentions or nature of a character gives extra depth to the story, keeping us watching doubting each and every word or action they take, always in anticipation of the moment the truth comes out. This drama even added an extra layer to that mystery; our main male lead might be truly the person he believes he is conning people into thinking that he is. That premise was good on paper, but unfortunately I have to say I felt the execution was somewhat sloppy and riddled with question marks, and the reveal was eventually rather anticlimactic.

The romance was poorly done. The Enemies-to-lovers card was just so rushed we were not shown enough to be bought on their love story, a couple of swoon-worthy moments or a couple of heroic actions can not make the viewer believe how she could shift one moment from despising and doubting him to all of a sudden falling madly in love with him. And I want to stress, that the issue with the romance was not owing to lack of acting skills or chemistry between the actors, rather it was just an issue with writing and script itself, it felt like the writer just decided at one point maybe due to time constraints with the air time and the progress of the story to just advance the romance to the next level.

Now, addressing the elephant in the room, which was the faux-incest aspect of the romance plot. I'll put it this way, showing us signs of attraction between the main leads at a point when we were still highly doubtful whether or not he was her brother was one thing, but when there is outright flirtatious skin-ship AFTER he supposedly convinced her he was her long lost brother that is a totally different thing. Let's just say that was a bit too much for me.

As for the pacing of the story, the drama wasted a large chunk of its short airing time on the "guild" power struggles or whatever that was, which to put it bluntly was boring and never managed to interest me as a viewer. I never really managed to wrap my head around what the whole guild and stake thing to begin with. and I felt like even the writers were being indecisive as to how much they wanted to build this story, they were always hinting at things like the gift of deed or whatever but never properly explaining anything. And even after we were introduced to the backstory of our lead and his motivations to approaching the guild master, the writers managed time and time again to lose the viewers attention toward the main mystery that our main lead was risking his life to uncover (i.e. the painter and his snow man), and left us trying our best to follow the inner machinations of the power struggle between the husband and wife fighting over control of their precious guild, and we were only ever introduced to their background story too little too late. It is hard to be interested in a plot that involves characters that we were not properly introduced to, with just one quick rushed scene to give you the gist of their background story. That may cut it if it was just a side character with a side plot that didn't consume most of the drama, but here at least one third of the story was about the god da*n thing! They managed to lose my interest completely to the point that whenever there was a part where different factions sent their henchmen to hunt down our leads which tended to happen a lot, I couldn't care less to recognize who was on which faction's side and who was fighting who, I was like whatever just get it over with. I found myself a couple of times literally checking how many episodes were left, and wondering when will the story address the mystery of the painter already, or just focus on our main lead's story.

The ending was super rushed, and I do not think that the shorter format was purely to blame, the story with its different plots could have progressed with a different pace and more balanced way so as to give more time for the main plot to progress without feeling it was just haphazardly executed like that.

Like many people mentioned on here, the OST was nice and memorable, the main song gave Indian vibes with dark and ritualistic sounding vocals I felt matched the story.

If you're a huge fan of the actors, it would not hurt to check it out, other than that I would not recommend this drama.

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Hauntingly beautiful

I personally like saeguks so I watched this . Ngl the plot felt weird at first but when u keep watching it gets better and somehow gets u hooked . This is one of those drama which SHOULD have been at least 16 eps. The romance build up needed a lil more time but was understandable if u can connect with the characters.
Cinematography,ost and action scenes were top notch. Jo boah ATE as jaeyi , LJW never disappoints and KJW oml he was on different level on the last episodes. Personally didn't like the love triangle but it added some volume to the storyline. And ofc the ending,it was beautifully painful.

Would I recommend? Yes 💯

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A Beautiful Love is born within a tale of Torturous Depravity and Revenge

At first the story and its main plot is hard to follow. It weaves in and out giving us details to set the stage of what climaxes in the last 4 episodes. I have to be honest and say there were times where I didn't stick with it. Mainly because the writing and this "weaving" in and out the main plot to establish the cast of horrible villains was confusing. Scenes would change suddenly without much transition. Certain characters were meant to throw us off. This provided twists and turns, but it also made staying with the main plot frustrating. Luckily I came to kisskh and read a couple of reviews that said to stick with it to the end. I have to say, although this started somewhat slow, it ended with a bang. You won't regret watching it to the end.

What did I like most? The acting was amazing. The actors were put into the right roles, and really brought their characters to life. The ML and the FL had amazing chemistry. The production was top notch, especially the lighting and music which added drama when it was needed. I loved, loved, loved the costumes!! For a period piece, it was nice not to have to see the usual palace apparel. This was still set in the Josean era, but the series was about a wealthy merchant family. Most of the actors were servants to this family, merchant trades people or guards. There was a lot of white and cream colored garments, that looked to be made of cotton or linen which was more true to that period (as opposed to the polyester palace garments that are suppose to be silk). The hats and head pieces were amazing. After seeing so many Kdramas set within the palace, it was nice to see a period piece set outside the palace walls.

As slow as this started out, by episode 8, I was glued to the story. The last 4 episodes reveal what everything was leading up to, all the pieces fell into place, and I was on the edge of my seat until I was crying at the end.

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