Drama Review: 'Hwarang': Flower Knights ride high into the small screen

Prying into the three "Hwarang" characters introduced in the new poster and teasers will pass a brief but substantial introduction that awaits the evening- couch- potato- drama watchers.

It is part of the break while expecting the release of the new KBS2 television drama. The concept is a twenty-episode plot that will dominate television viewing come December 19, 2016.

The cast off the printed page

Both reveals a love triangle in the making, Park Seo Joon (Moo Myeong), Park Yung Sik (King Jinheung),  and Go Ara  (Aro) are a picture perfect description of the Hwarang combatants - beautiful, befitting the "flower knights" that the story relays.

Each character has his scenes that somehow present a sneak peek into the characterization that will astound, feel loved, hated or the exacted one that shapes up as the plot progresses.

The camera closes in

Seo Joon is mighty competitive.  However, the close-up shots miss the carefree character.

The script says he is brave. Interestingly, he did not grow as such by nature; he had to learn the hard way. Snippets show him falling off his horse.

His struggle on the skillful use of an arrow is a trial. At this point early on, he is manifesting as a strong antithesis to King Jinheung, described as a part commoner and part royalty.

The question is how he will keep the balance of both personalities without shifting the conflict within himself? However, of course, there is a tinge of the hedonist in the laughter he parts and his nonchalant mane caught by the camera in passing.

Yung Sik, per the press release, is the quiet and shy type. His character, King Jinheung, is likewise withdrawn despite his status as the King of Silla for thirty-seven years.  

Notwithstanding the shortcoming, he learned to hide his identity and join the Hwarang warriors; here, he becomes a very skilled fighter. The teaser took a snapshot of this nature by presenting a stern apprentice joined by a cacophony of sounds that tend to hide the soft spot of his character.

Could he be howling the growl of a monster in his warrior moves because he has learned to be the brave warrior or just a façade? 

On the other hand, Ara flaps lightness in character as Aro for the most part, to the point of bringing a personality via a parody in the way she commands her little acts.

Already, there is the show of a purposeful (deliberate?) hand and body contortions (extensive use of space while leaning backward or looking up or adjusting to another character 's position (with Joo-Yung after falling off the horse) and the way she shares most of her scenes with Park Yu Sek.

Save for the scenes when she talks to the elderly, the camera pans to a dark face. The conscious control of facial muscles turned blank. One can almost expect lethargy setting in while she talks to the old man.

However, she gets hit by a ball. An exaggerated hand gesture makes you wonder why she had the share of the most number of hand businesses in her so short a teaser scene.

You can see them through the use of hooks and needles played before her eyes, stripping veggies for kimchi making, emptying kimchi jars, jar raising, clothes pulling in the meeting of Park Yu Sek, the warrior.

The noticeable body distortions through the use of facial and hand muscles while acting pre-empt that she will land as the balancing act, the lighter side of the drama that will soon unfold.

The audience cannot wait.

Tags
Go Ara
Park Seo Joon
Hwarang update
Flower Knights
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