A 25-year-old woman named Go Hajin is pulled out of the present and dropped into the Goryeo Dynasty, where she wakes inside the body of Lady Hae Soo and finds herself standing among the ruling princes of the Wang family. That is the whole engine of Scarlet Heart: Ryeo, and it is enough. SBS aired the series across 20 episodes, from August 29, 2016 to November 1, 2016, with Tong Hua credited as creator. It is a drama, a fantasy, and a war story at once, and it earns all three labels.
Trailer, via Emya Imaginee.
Go Hajin Wakes Up as Lady Hae Soo
The time jump is not a puzzle to be solved. Scarlet Heart: Ryeo treats it as a door that opens once and then shuts. Hajin does not spend her episodes hunting a way home. She spends them learning the rules of a court where a wrong word can end a life, and the show is sharper for it.
IU plays both Go Hajin and Lady Hae Soo, and the double role is the spine of the series. The modern woman and the Goryeo noble share one body, and the performance has to carry the seam between them without letting it show. It does.
What the show understands is that a body is not a disguise. Hae Soo has a place in the palace, a family, and a set of obligations she did not choose. Hajin’s knowledge of what comes next does not free her from any of it.
The Fourth Prince, Wang So
Lee Joon-gi plays Wang So, the fourth prince. He is the role the series turns on, and the show gives him the most ground to cover. Wang So is a prince who has been kept at a distance, and the court treats him as a problem to be managed rather than a son to be raised.
The romance between Hae Soo and Wang So is the show’s main line, and it works because the series never lets either of them forget where they are. Every warm scene sits inside a cold house.
- Wang So, the fourth prince, played by Lee Joon-gi
- Wang Wook, the eighth prince, played by Kang Ha-neul
- Wang Yo, the third prince, played by Hong Jong-hyun
- Wang Eun, the tenth prince, played by Baekhyun
- Wang Baeka, the thirteenth prince, played by Nam Joo-hyuk
- Wang Jeong, the fourteenth prince, played by Kim Ji-soo
- Wang Won, the ninth prince, played by Yoon Sun-woo
- Wang Mu, the crown prince and first prince, played by Kim San-ho
That is eight princes, and the show gives each of them a face and a motive. Kang Ha-neul’s Wang Wook, the eighth prince, is the quiet counterweight to Wang So. Hong Jong-hyun’s Wang Yo, the third prince, is the one who makes the palace feel small.
A Palace Full of Brothers
The crown prince, Wang Mu, is played by Kim San-ho, and his position shapes everything around him. A crown prince is not a character in this show so much as a deadline. Everyone in the palace is measuring the distance between now and the day he takes the throne.
The younger princes carry the lighter scenes, and the show needs them. Baekhyun plays Wang Eun, the tenth prince. Nam Joo-hyuk plays Wang Baeka, the thirteenth. Kim Ji-soo plays Wang Jeong, the fourteenth. Yoon Sun-woo plays Wang Won, the ninth.
The women around them are not decoration. Seohyun plays Princess Woohee. Kang Han-na plays Princess Hwangbo Yeonhwa, who becomes Queen Daemok. Jin Ki-joo plays Chaeryeong. Each of them has a stake in which brother wins.
Scarlet Heart: Ryeo is listed under War & Politics as well as drama and fantasy, and the label is accurate. The fights here are mostly fought in rooms, with seating and silence and who gets to speak first.
What 20 Episodes Buy
Twenty episodes is a real commitment, and the show uses the room. It has space to let a grudge sit for a few weeks and then pay it off. It has space to let a friendship build before it is tested.
The run is not padded. SBS aired the first episode on August 29, 2016 and the last on November 1, 2016, and the show moves at a steady pace across that window. It does not stall in the middle the way long historical dramas often do.
The fantasy element is used with restraint. The time travel is the premise, not the plot. Once Hajin is inside Hae Soo, the show rarely reaches back for the device, and that discipline is a strength.
The Score: 8.5 Out of 10
The published audience score for Scarlet Heart: Ryeo sits at 8.5 out of 10 on TMDB, drawn from 601 votes. That is a high mark, and it holds up. This review lands in the same place: 8.5 out of 10.
- Score: 8.5 out of 10 (TMDB audience score, 601 votes)
- Network: SBS
- Creator: Tong Hua
- Episodes: 20 across 1 season
- First aired: August 29, 2016
- Last aired: November 1, 2016
- Genres: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, War & Politics
A 601-vote sample is not a mass verdict, and it should be read as what it is: a committed audience marking its own show. That audience is not wrong about the central thing.
Where the Show Is Weakest
The weakest stretch is the one where the show leans hardest on the time-travel premise. Every time it reminds you that Hajin is from elsewhere, it loses a little of the grip it has built. The palace is interesting enough on its own.
The other soft spot is the sheer number of princes. Eight brothers is a lot of names to hold, and the show does not always give the middle ones enough to do. Wang Won and Wang Baeka drift in and out of focus.
Those are real costs. They are also the kind of costs a show accepts when it decides to build a whole court instead of a single romance, and Scarlet Heart: Ryeo made that trade on purpose.
Why the Ending Still Lands
The last stretch of the series is where the War & Politics tag stops being a label and starts being the actual subject. The show has spent 20 episodes teaching you how the palace works. Then it uses that.
The final episodes do not soften what the court has been building toward. The show keeps its nerve, and it keeps faith with the version of Wang So it introduced in the early going rather than the one the audience might have preferred.
That is the part worth watching. Plenty of historical dramas promise a throne and then hand you a wedding. Scarlet Heart: Ryeo promises a throne and delivers one, with the cost still attached.
The Verdict on Scarlet Heart: Ryeo
Scarlet Heart: Ryeo is a 2016 SBS series with a creator credit for Tong Hua, 20 episodes, and a cast led by IU and Lee Joon-gi. It is not a perfect show. It has a premise it does not need and a supporting bench it does not fully use.
It is, however, a show with a clear idea of what it is doing. The double role at its center is the best argument for it. IU has to play a woman who is two people at once, and the series is built so that the audience feels that split rather than just hears about it.
The 8.5 out of 10 is the right number. It is high enough to say the show works and low enough to admit where it does not. Scarlet Heart: Ryeo earns it.
Score: 8.5 out of 10.
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