With its 11 episodes, each an hour long, the 2025 Korean romantic period drama series on Netflix, Dear Hongrang, feels almost like a never-ending epic, although it manages to hold on to its fervor through the runtime. The plot follows the story of Sim Jae-yi, a young woman still grieving the loss of her younger brother, Hongrang, who disappeared twelve years ago. But as a man comes into her life, claiming to be the adult Hongrang, dark secrets about her wealthy merchant family come tumbling out of the closet. Overall, Dear Hongrang makes for a decent viewing, and its melodrama can definitely be satisfying to fans of the genre.
Spoiler Alert
What is the Netflix K-drama about?
Set at some point during the Joseon period, Dear Hongrang begins with a flashback to the fateful day when Sim Jae-yi woke up to learn that her younger brother, Hongrang, was nowhere to be found in the Min Family Guild that was home to them. Only a few days earlier, Hongrang had complained of seeing a ghostly figure, clad all in white, in the forest near their home, following which he had even fallen sick, and now there was no trace of him at all. Although the wealthy merchant family used a lot of money and influence to spread the word about the boy’s disappearance, and missing posters were put up in the entire region, he could never be found. Unable to bear with the disappearance, Hongrang’s mother, Min Yeon-ui, resorted to alcohol and drugs to ease her pains, while his father, Sim Yeol-guk, eventually adopted a boy, Mu-jin, almost to substitute his missing son, despite his wife’s disapproval.
Twelve years later, the Sin family still have no clue about where Hongrang is, or if he is even alive, although there is no dearth of young men posing to be their missing son. Yeol-guk has to entertain these men at regular intervals, who claim to be the long-lost son of the merchant family, and therefore the one who would inherit the guild and all its wealth someday. Knowing that they are greedy imposters who are insensitive to his and his family’s grief, Yeol-guk often chops off their fingers as punishment. Jae-yi, now a young woman, is aggrieved by her brother’s disappearance the most, for she was the closest family member to the boy, and accompanied him at all times. For this reason, Jae-yi also holds herself responsible, to a certain extent, for Hongrang’s fate, as she was supposed to keep him safe at all times. Therefore, she often ventures out to the nearby towns and forests at present, in search of any clues or leads about her missing brother.
At such a time, an informant suddenly brings news of Hongrang one fine day, stating that the boy, who had seemingly lost his memory after surviving a devastating fall, had been raised by a female entertainer, before he went on to become a wandering soldier. Although Yeol-guk is unconvinced at first, Yeon-ui does not want to give up any chance of reuniting with her lost son, and therefore the young man is ordered to be brought to the guild. As soon as the man makes his entry, Yeon-ui is confident that he is indeed her son, and all the measurements of body parts, as well as a hasty blood coagulation test prove the same. Thus, it is announced with great joy that Sim Hongrang has finally returned home after twelve long years, although Jae-yi continues to refuse the claim, believing that the new Hongrang is an imposter, while her real brother is still out there somewhere in the country.
Is Hongrang really Jae-yi’s lost brother?
As the adult Hongrang is immediately welcomed back by the Sim family, one thing that sets him apart from the previous imposters who had claimed to be the boy is that he does not try to recount any old memory to prove his point. While the earlier imposters had tried to spin stories based on information they had gathered about the boy before he had gone missing, Hongrang simply claims that he had lost his memory, and then pretends to be remembering some minor things with time. Although Yeol-guk and Yeon-ui are convinced, it is revealed that the man is actually not related to the Sim family, and is really just an imposter, but with a special plan. But Dear Hongrang never mentions the real name of the man, because he had been raised with the same name as the missing boy, and although his younger self is referred to as Rodent Scrap, the adult man is called Hongrang throughout the series.
The adult Hongrang we see was actually born to a poor couple who served as slaves at a noble household, and so the boy was soon subjected to similar harsh treatment as his parents. He was made a talisman for the boy of the noble family, meaning that whenever his master made any mistakes, he was thrashed on behalf of the rich boy. It was here that he was given the name Rodent Scrap, reflecting how insignificant his life and existence was to his masters, and the boy soon escaped the place along with his mute friend, another slave boy named In-hoe. After managing to survive by themselves for a few months, both the boys were kidnapped by the Snow Man, an apparently ghostly figure who is spotted on the outskirts of villages after young boys and girls go missing, even to this day.
The Snow Man was no ghost, as believed by the villagers, but an albino man who had been working for a mysterious figure known as the Painter. Hongrang and In-hoe were taken to the Painter’s house, where they were horribly tortured for a long time, before a woman came and rescued them. This woman happened to be Kkot-nim, who was once the lover and mistress of Sim Yeol-guk, who had professed his love for her, but had ultimately abandoned her and left her to die. When Kkot-nim became pregnant with the merchant’s child, he decided to take his wife, Yeon-ui’s words seriously, and so he stabbed his mistress and left her to die. It was purely a stroke of fate that the stab wound only killed the baby in Kkot-nim’s womb, but she escaped the ordeal otherwise unharmed, and she soon started a shadow organization of assassins, with the main intention of taking revenge against Yeol-guk someday.
Thus, when Kkot-nim found Rodent Scrap, she took him in and raised him as Hongrang, possibly because he shared some physical similarities with the missing boy, and finally sent him to the Min Family Guild. Her plan is to make Hongrang pretend to be Yeol-guk’s son, in order to remove the other successors, Jae-yi and the adopted son, Mu-jin, ensuring that Hongrang claims the entire inheritance. Kkot-nim then modifies her plan slightly and asks Hongrang to get hold of the partition papers, which is basically the legal documents of the Min Family Guild, and hand them over to her, so that the woman gets to take away all the wealth and property of the man who had wronged her so horribly.
What had happened to the real Hongrang?
The mystery of the real Hongrang, the young boy who had gone missing twelve years ago, is solved towards the end of Dear Hongrang, when it is revealed that the boy had actually died. Since Jae-yi was the child of Yeol-guk’s previous wife, Yeon-ui absolutely hated the little girl and always tried to teach her biological son, Hongrang, to do the same. Yeon-ui remained extremely jealous of the fact that Jae-yi would also get part of the inheritance in the future, which she wanted only for herself and her son, and so she tried to blame and curse the girl at every possible chance. On one occasion, she even had a ritual performed by her trusted priestess, Madam Gwigokja, with the intention of causing harm to Jae-yi, and both the children witnessed this. Despite her lessons in hatred, young Hongrang loved Jae-yi like his own sibling, and never saw her as a stepsister, and it was his love that made him want to protect her from all the evil that his mother was bringing upon her.
Thus, Hongrang sneaked out to the courtyard and tried to get rid of the totem that had been put up to harm Jae-yi, but in the process, the boy slipped and fell down, injuring his head severely. By the time a maid had found Hongrang lying in a pool of blood, he had already passed away, and she quickly ran in to inform the other servants about it. However, Madam Gwigokja had taken notice of this, and she had quickly removed the boy’s body, to make it seem like he had disappeared, possibly to protect young Jae-yi from any more harm and persecution. It was she who then had Hongrang’s body secretly buried at the bottom of a well inside the compound of the guild, while the Sim family continued searching for their missing son.
What is the Painter’s identity?
For the most part of the series, Hongrang and his loyal friend, In-hoe, secretly search for the man who had horribly tortured them when they were young boys; the man who is only known as the Painter. By the end, it is revealed that the Painter is actually Grand Prince Hanpyeong, who happens to be the most powerful man in the region because he is the royal prince. Although the prince pretends to be a nobleman with no interest in any royal matter except for art, he is a perverted and morally corrupt individual with extreme delusions that make him a psychopath. Hanpyeong believes that if he has a dark ritual performed, he can attain superhuman stature, and will ascend from his mortal existence and become a god, or at least a demi-god, who will then act as a bridge of communication between the divine and mortal realms.
In order to have this ancient and currently forbidden ritual performed, he had to get hold of various unusual objects, like newborn animals and the locks of virgin women, along with six very specific talismans. He got hold of all this by mercilessly abducting children from the villages and trapping animals, while he wanted to create his own talismans, both in order to ensure that they couldn’t be destroyed, and also to exercise his artistic passions. Therefore, he literally used the skin on the backs of the six young boys that he got hold of with the help of the Snow Man, to paint the talismans required for his ritual. Hongrang and In-hoe were among the kidnapped boys, and so both of them have elaborate talismanic paintings etched, or tattooed, on their backs.
At present, Hanpyeong tries to have the ritual performed, but Hongrang manages to free himself and seeks out the villainous prince at his palace. In an act of revenge, Hongrang first cuts off the two hands of Hanpyeong, which happen to be his most prized possessions, since his only passion in life is to paint, and then slashes open the prince’s face, killing him mercilessly. In a satisfying twist of fate, the very last sight that Hanpyeong sees is of Hongrang’s back, on which his talisman tattoo has now been defaced with scars from the recent fights. Thus, the Painter dies knowing that his most beloved piece of art has been ruined.
What happens to the Sim family members?
During Dear Hongrang’s ending, each of the Sim family members face the repercussions of their actions, either good or bad. While Jae-yi’s fate is slightly happier than the others, and is discussed a little later in the article, her parents do not have the same luck. Kkot-nim finally appears in front of her estranged lover-turned-foe, Sim Yeol-guk, and reveals how she had been conspiring against him through Hongrang all this while. This enrages Yeol-guk, and he tries to strike the woman down, only to be stopped by Kkot-nim’s trusted henchman and protector. In the end, Kkot-nim kills Yeol-guk and exacts her revenge, although her own severe injuries probably mean that she will be unable to live for long.
Once the truth about the real Hongrang is out, Jae-yi refuses to bow down to her treacherous stepmother anymore, and she calls out Yeon-ui’s vile nature. It was indirectly because of Yeon-ui’s senseless hatred against Jae-yi, and her constant desire to rob her of her inheritance that her biological son, Hongrang, had died. Although the adult Hongrang gets a chance to end Yeon-ui’s life, he decides not to do so, and instead leaves her alive to face the consequences of her actions. At the very end of the series, Min Yeon-ui is seen living with Madam Gwigokja, having completely lost her sanity and still believing that her son will soon return to her.
The adopted son, Mu-jin, had changed his allegiance midway, deciding to serve Grand Prince Hanpyeong instead of the Sim family, because just like Hongrang, he too had become romantically attracted to Jae-yi, despite her being his stepsister. Therefore, Mu-jin wanted to marry Jae-yi, and since Yeol-guk did not support his wishes, the man joined Hanpyeong and obeyed his orders. However, when Hanpyeong has Jae-yi abducted, Mu-jin decides to switch sides once again, for he has vowed to protect his stepsister-cum-beloved at all costs. Thus, Mu-jin fights off the prince’s soldiers and is fatally injured in the process, while he manages to help Jae-yi escape. Although Mu-jin gets away from the prince’s palace, he decides to rest and wait for death calmly, knowing that there is no chance of him surviving.
How Did Hongrang Die?
Once Hongrang reveals his real identity to Jae-yi, and there is no barrier to their romantic relationship anymore, he does everything he can to ensure his beloved’s safety, including making a deal with the merchant’s guards and then settling down in an abandoned house in the hills. When Mu-jin and his men come to take her away, he does his best to fight them off, and then rescues her from the prince’s palace as well. However, his story does not get a happy ending, owing to the fact that he and the other boys kidnapped by Hanpyeong were brutally subjected to harsh chemicals like alum, arsenic and bleach in order to make their skin whiter and more suitable for the evil Painter’s artworks. The extensive use of these chemicals on his skin have now started an effect on Hongrang, who starts to suddenly experience blurred vision and perceptual confusion. These symptoms get more frequent and stronger in nature very quickly, and he can no longer keep it a secret from his beloved. Finally, at the end of Dear Hongrang, both the effects of the chemicals and the fatal wound from his fight against the Painter kills Hongrang, and the man takes his final breath in the arms of his beloved Jae-yi.
What happens to Sim Jae-yi?
Sim Jae-yi survives all the attacks against her, and is one of the few central characters still alive at the end of Dear Hongrang. Having had enough of her family’s horrible secrets, she had dug up enough incriminating documents to prove how her father, Yeol-guk, had been helping the royal prince kidnap and torture children, and she hands in all of this to the higher authorities. This ensures that the horrific sins of the Sim family are exposed, and she can live with a clean conscience, having done the right thing. At present, she uses the family guild to provide shelter to the downtrodden people that her family used to ignore, and also to all the children who had been abducted, tortured and exploited by the Painter.
Jae-yi has to live with the grief of having lost her lover, Hongrang, but then the woman is used to surviving without a dear one, as she had to go through the same ordeal for twelve long years, hoping that her brother would return. At least she now has clarity about the impossibility of any such return, and so her mind is at ease.
In Dear Hongrang’s closing sequence, Jae-yi is seen sitting on the roof of her house just like before, as she claims to be able to see her lover, exactly how she used to apparently see her missing brother at the beginning of the series, and she is then seen on a snowy field with Hongrang. This final scene signifies that Jae-yi continues to feel the love of both the Hongrangs, her younger brother and her lover, and their warm memories will support her throughout the rest of her life.
