tokk

i will start by saying that dear hongrang goes into some heavy topics, which i applaud the writers/producers for. it's not easy to portray a lot of this stuff, and i think they did well in some parts. however, there were many plot holes and the pacing felt choppy—i do think everything only really fell into place in the last 4 episodes, but that the foreshadowing up until then wasn't well executed. i think this would've been a great 3 hour long movie instead of a drama series.

there is a very noticeable shift in the atmosphere of the romance/intimacy halfway through the show which would have worked great if they had set it up better earlier on. i do think their chemistry was quite nice in the last few episodes 👍

the actors all did a great job though—especially jaewook. i think hongrang's story is a very haunting one, and he did extremely well with such a heavy role. there is a lot of emotion both he and bo-ah bring to their characters individual stories, which did save the drama a bit.

the costumes and the cinematography were all gorgeous! the ost was also beautiful and i think probably my favourite thing about this drama 💕

overall, i think the ending works really well with this kind of plot, but i do wish it was better paced/executed throughout the actual episodes. it is very haunting though and does leave an impression on you.