My first criticism is for the plot. I want to preface this by saying that I've never read the comic, so I wasn't influenced in any way by the source material. The issue is that the backstory information that would have been so helpful to understanding what was going on was dribbled out like crumbs on the trail in Hansel and Gretel. I wanted to know more, but the writers would have the characters give some cryptic piece of dialogue and then fail to explain well enough that I felt satisfied as a viewer. The answers came "too little, too late" for many people and I felt somewhat like that myself. I was mostly satisfied with the answers we finally received, but not 100%. I also tend to believe that the budget may have been cut early on. The reason I say so is because the "realm of the gods" was only shown briefly, even though it was splendid. And Ha Baek came through to the human's realm without his powers. He was able to use them twice, and they were marvelous special effects, but then they were not used again. I think they made a good choice to cut the special effects rather than lose production value, but I think they made it a little obvious anyway since the show really could have been something special with a bigger budget.
The acting was fine, but not phenomenal. I think Nam Joo Hyuk was not quite the right choice for Ha Baek. He's adorable, sure. And I've enjoyed his other works. But I don't know that he carried the weight of the role as well as a more experienced actor may have. He wasn't a horrible choice, but I just think they could have done better. On the plus side he was VERY cute. :) And Shin Se Kyung got a lot of criticism for her acting, but I don't think she is a bad actress at all. She played her role fine. The chemistry between the two was hit and miss. Sometimes I thought it was there, and other times, not so much. Im Joo Hwan really knocked it out of the park, though, and was one of the lone actors that really stood out in this show. So much so, that a lot of viewers kept watching for him alone. The other actors were fine. Not anything special, but just fine.
Now, the music on the otherhand, was beautiful. I absolutely loved the track, Glass Bridge. Mesmerizing song! I don't know the names of the others, but the music was lovely. The cinematography was beautiful as well.
I can't say I would re-watch this. Maybe after I read the comic, more of the story will fall into place and I'll understand it better, but that's about it. I do think they ended the show much better than I was expecting, even if it was a bit anticlimactic. This show wasn't horrible by any means, and I hate that so many people gave up on it so quickly. But it was a decent watch even though it didn't live up to its potential. I'm not mad I spent the time watching it.
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Are you looking for a gripping adrenaline fest to watch on the edge of your seat?
Are you looking for a mature story line and brilliant characters?
THEN DON'T WATCH IT !!!!
Not only that this is a huge snooze fest, The actors and the characters have absolutely spark and the story makes no sense. This was the biggest disappointment of 2017 after last year's uncontrollably fond. Not only they managed to completely destroy a beautiful story but they reached new heights of trying to make a fool out of the viewers. This whole drama was just pretty people declaring themselves as deities and acting like snobby little bastards and squabbling like high school kids. The story was long lost and there was almost no chemistry between the leads.
Genre : rom-com, supernatural, manwha
Story : This drama was inspired from the manwha series Bride of water god by Yoon Mi Kyung and then they went ahead to rip the story into shreds turning it into bullshit. If you're looking for a similar story as the manwha about sacrifice, love and grace and politics, then go watch something else because this has absolutely none of that shit. The so called god of water is a narcissistic asshole who's self-centered to the point you're annoyed. Yoon So Ah is a materialistic bitch who is way too involved in acting like the victim. The story makes no sense till a while and the characters that actually were exciting like the one of Im Joo Hwan and the nurse aren't developed further. At least Goblin developed all the characters well.
Actors : Shin se kyung is a bad actress and i don't think i am going to watch any of her other dramas. Nam Joo hyuk's acting was a wasted opportunity same as In joo Hwans story. There is almost no chemistry between the leads and the other side actors aren't that commendable. The only surprise in the package was Crystal who surprisingly was way better than the drama.
Will i watch it again... Hell No.
Will i recommend it to anyone?... I am doing a public service by advising you to go look for some other drama. Seriously there are tons of better ones out there.
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The exceptional beauty of most of the cast members were at times distracting. But for the most part, I think everyone did a good job. There was good chemistry between the main characters as well Moo Ra and Bi Ryum. Also a special mention for Im Joo Hwan who is always such a consistent performer. The rest of the supporting actors didn't have much to do because of the weak script.
Music was one of the best parts of the show. This soundtrack will stay on my playlist for a long while.
So to sum it up, you'll enjoy the show if you go in with little expectations. Give it a try, the romance and awesome music might just win you over.
Edit:
2 years and dozens of dramas later, I stand by my initial review. I think rewatching it helped me understand it better. Forget about the comparisons with the manhwa. On its own, it was great and doesn’t deserve nearly as much criticism it gets. The story was well planned and tied together in the end. The fact that all the answers came in the final episode made it feel a bit too artificial but other than that I have no major complaints. My only gripe is that they sort of abandoned Shin Hoo Ye’s storyline. I would have loved it if they’d have elaborated on his ending, perhaps showing some hope of gaining acceptance from the other gods that he so desired. All in all I’ll say that it was a great watch the second time around. So everyone please give it a chance and decide on your own rather than relying on the reviews.
Edit #2:
I’m coming back here 8 years later in 2025. After watching nearly 350 k-dramas since this one first released, I can confidently say that this drama is still in my overall top 5. By no means is it perfect. They could have easily done away with all of the human side characters and limited the series to 12 episodes like what we see today. That aside, I now retract statement in my first review. This isn’t a messy drama. It was actually very well thought out. When you rewatch it, you’ll see there were many things that were foreshadowed and the building blocks were there right from the beginning. The Bride of Habaek is like a well worn novel. You keep being drawn to it and upon each rewatch you discover things you hadn’t noticed before and you fall in love with it all over again. To sum it up, if you’re here for a fantasy/mystery story you might be disappointed. If you’re here for a tale of star-crossed lovers, the love story of Habaek and So Ah will stay in your memory for a very long time. It has everything I could want in a drama: beautiful romance, well thought out story, and outstanding music 10/10.
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Perfectly Imperfect Romance
MUST READ REVIEW IF YOU'RE HESITANT TO START THIS DRAMA :This drama is based on a spin off ( original side plot ) from the manhwa(Korean comic) with the same name .
The original manhwa has a total different plot .
If you're here to watch a fantasy drama with God's fighting , or expecting fantasy things like power and more . Sorry to disappoint you there's no such plot as that .
Morelike the central plot of this drama is empty . It's the romance which has the main focus on . I don't believe you always need some quirky
twists to build up romance . The more the natural , the better it is
This drama is the maturest romance drama . This drama is what you call
" CANDID " . It has a new way of direction and plot writing which many people are unable to digest as they are used to watch bullshit . Those who demand unnecessary twists , a begginning and a ending .
It's slow initially but picks up the pace after episode 4 .
This drama is based on the interaction of a god and a human .
Their romance , fights , moods , jealousy , and somewhat comedy .
It was about the romance and love of a god and a human in the most human way ever . I mean how often do you come across a romance plot was has the power to continue itself with just focus solely on 2 leads .
It's tempting in that way . Slow , but worth it .
When people hear supernatural they always expect more ,
If you have watched My love from another star , that's it .
This drama has the same romance but without any powers or much of a fantasy .
As simple as that .
I always decide to watch a drama based on it's poster .
And it always pays off , this drama has a tempting poster . And mind you posters never lie .
Coming back ,
What surprised me was the interactions , the cinematography , the dialogues , the satire .
Both the leads do have a chemistry . I am a romance maniac and I don't watch things which don't connect .
This one did , and so I did .
I hesitated so much to watch this drama after reading such mean comments . But finally I did after 8 months . All the comments here are BULLSHIT which are criticizing this drama .
This isn't perfect , Yeah I accept that . But this isn't that bad .
They could have had made this drama a 100 or a 1000% times better ,
It's just like that irritating feeling that when you have such a great plot why not try to make it better . But I'm not disappointed with what I watched . Rather i enjoyed it to the fullest coz it was interesting .
THIS IS WORTH A WATCH . ONE OF THE BEST ROMANTIC DRAMA'S I HAVE EVER WATCHED MOREOVER THIS HAS THE BEST ROMANTIC SCENES . The scenes aren't copied . They are surreal , something that you could connect with .
Plot 8/10
Cinematography 10/10
Dialogues 10/10
Soundtrack 10/10
Acting 9/10
Overall 9/10
P.S : Somehow after reading the comments I felt people nowdays don't like mature romance . Maybe the audience who are watching this are teenage girls or boys . --_-- to make such abrupt bullshit statement about this drama .
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1As I dont read mangas I dont know the origional story. I set my mind to "NO EXPECTATIONS" and just watched. I really enjoyed this drama. I thought it was funny and a little bit cute/sweet. They could made it a little bit cuter/sweeter.
The cast and OST are great but character wise I didn't like Bi Ryum, (Moo Ra and even more so the CEO) but I found Bi Ryum hilarious. I also enjoyed the bromance between Habaek and Nam Soo Ri and the conflicts between Habaek and Bi Ryum. I will say that Nam Joo Hyuk might have not been the best actor for the role as I couldn't take him seriously for someone whose supposed to play a God but never mind. At times I honestly couldn't see the chemistry especially during the early kisses but I think it gets better as the drama goes on. Also, Shin Se Kyung's lack of expression sometimes put a downer on some scene but I think the other actors made up for it.
I'm kinda disappointed with how the story ended as it could've been way better.
Rewatch? I believe I've already seen it over 10 times since it aired so it's safe to say that I will most definitely be watching this drama AGAIN.
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The story barely made any sense and even when it did, it left you wondering if perhaps they wrote a little bit of the script and then realized how many plot holes it has and then added onto it, which made it very weirdly paced and mostly mellowed out and too chill for what this was originally supposed to be.
Kudos to Im Joo Hwan, I'm pretty sure that during the airing time of this drama the commentary that I've read both on MDL and other websites pointed out how fond the viewers were of his character and how much we've all been invested in his story from the very start. The other characters, however, were quite bland and felt a little bit like stand-in cardboards for Twilight-ish kinda roles, definitely not that appealing. I did root for the secondary couples, since the main ship had zero chemistry and even the romantic scenes felt awkward to watch most of the time.
The saving grace of this drama is its OST, which I'm sure we'll all remember for quite awhile, it greatly helped in a few moments in the plot where the acting was terrible and the overall musical background to the scenes was well-thought out.
To be honest, the only reason I could watch this through all of its episodes was because I watched only one episode in awhile, and took it as a slow-paced but consistent messy drama that it is. I would definitely never watch it again, but it was surprisingly such a miss in so many aspects that everything lacking did lower its level to a very linear-feeling experience which was, due to its comfortingly non-changing nature, strangely watchable.
If you're here for a supernatural romantic story, go watch something else from the genre. If you're here for a slow-paced, not so serious, modern-setting varation of the original manhwa that you're not gonna binge watch, you might want to try it. It would be very dishonest to recommend this as anything else, so if you want to experience this kind of a story in a proper way and to enjoy some beautiful art and writing in the process, opt for the manhwa instead.
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*Get ready for a long review *
"The Bride of the Water God" had an excellent base story, but then they decided to turn a melodrama with a not-so-lucky ending into a romantic comedy, it just went wrong.
Story: The initial plot was simple, a God who comes to earth with a goal and ends up falling in love with a human and that love is forbidden. But as the drama progressed the writers simply abandoned the initial premise and it started to be a bit difficult to keep up with what was happening, leaving to the very end to really solve the loose endings. The story had a predictable ending, which for a moment, left me with even more questions than when I had first started to watch.
If you like the main couple, even if you don't like genre, you will probably still watch it anyway. The main couple in "The Bride of the Water God", had little to no chemistry, something that made me very annoyed at times, because sometimes they seemed like two robots acting, something that improves a little in the final episodes.
In CEO Shin's arc, the stories improved a bit, so much so that the only reason I continued to see was for him and for Moora and Biryeom, who had more chemistry than the main couple. CEO Shin has a complex but really interesting story.
I have to admit that my two favorite characters throughout the drama were Moora and Biryeom, although Moora was supposed to be the bad one, her relationship with Biryeom stole, at least for me, the spotlight from the main couple.
Cast / Acting: Personally I think the two actors who got the main roles were not the best choice. I had already seen Nam Joo Hyuk in other dramas, and he is someone with a lot of potential, but who was not prepared for this role. Not that he was bad at all, but there were times when it was a little cringeworthy to see him. I think a more experienced actor would be able to handle better such a complex 3000-year-old God.
Shin Se Kyung, I can't say much about her, because it's the first work I see of her, I don't think she is such a bad actress as people are saying, but she isn't an excellent actress either. The biggest problem I see in her is the fact she suffers from something that I like to call stone resting face, th emotionless face expression, making her tries of demonstrate some emotion seem very forced and unnatural, it's something that I think she should work on for her next drama.
The biggest surprise for me in this drama was undoubtedly Krystal, because I always thought she wasn't a good actress, but I was completely mistaken, which made me quite happy.
The OST in this drama was normal, none of the songs excelled for me, it suited the mood, but it was no big deal.
My biggest problem with this drama was its slow pass, everything went by very slowly, the drama focused more on things that did not matter more than on those that really mattered, making the drama very annoying at times. And with that, the episodes became very repetitive without much to add to the story development. (Habaek did something bad, So-Ah was annoyed, he did something cute and she was already okay with him again, this is a summary of almost every episode). On the other hand the cinematography and the special effects were quite good, it was sad that they focused more on fancy effects than on the actual plot.
Will I watch this drama again? Probably not anytime soon. If I recommend to watch it? Yes... if you really don't have anything better to do. This drama is not the worst I've seen, but neither is the best, I think it left much to be desired for how hyped it was.
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NJH is so cute and hot, SSK is so amazing here too.
At first, I hate this drama but then I slowly loved this drama. I can't miss any of the 16 episodes.
I'm a little bit unsatisfied with the ending but still, I loved it.........
I'LL ABSOLUTELY REWATCHED IT AGAIN......
I miss them so much.
I wished to have a season 2 or a movie after what happened to them in the end.
How was there life after that?
How about Habaek? let him use his powers once without limitation in the human world.
Well, thanks to our very talented writer for writing this drama
And also to the directors and actors to fill our imagination not by just reading it or seeing it in unmoving pictures (manga).
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Props to IJH his acting was the best next would be SSK.
This drama took me on an emotional ride felt sad, happy, scared, anxious,etc... all of my emotions were brought out.
Hope that they'll have a season 2 since I want to know more but overall this drama is pretty decent wouldn't say it's the best or worst.
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STORY: The story isn't something I expected. I expected the actually plot of the manga, yet I got something different. It's not a bad thing though because different is good. The love between two main characters was something I've been never seen before, so it was a great watch on that part.
CAST: They were all pretty good looking, and they all had valuable parts. I applaud them for doing such a good job.
MUSIC: Songs were pretty adorable, but sometimes they got a bit upsetting that is if you know what I mean?
- I wouldn't rewatch it unless I'm really bored and in need of some romantically made comedy,
Overall this was a good watch and I'm not really complaining with how things turned out.
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“Believing what you want to believe is your truth. Because that’s easier and less tiring.”
It is my first time writing here so I am not sure if I'm doing it right. Apologies! Since we're on the subject, let me also apologize for my english in advance 😆.So here are my thoughts on "The bride of Habaek" ✨🦋
(No spoilers)
As someone who does not like the fantasy genre I've really loved this drama! It made me think, laugh and cry. The romance and the chemistry of the two leads was perfect and very sweet. The idea of a love that goes beyond time and space is showed very well and it is not cheesy at all. However, what I liked the most in this drama is that each one of the characters are interesting and growing throught the drama, sharing with us their lessons and their stories. Not to mention the osts of this drama! Wow! There is one entirely in english too: glass bridge. ❤
“Isn’t it merely that you are the only one who is unaware of which direction your heart is trying to fall in?
If you keep trying to force yourself to steer in the other direction you’ll fall over and fall ill.” - Habaek.
The actress Shin Se Kyung (Yoon So Ah) portrayed a very interesting and human character and I personally could see myself in her actions and thoughts many times.
Not to mention her beauty and her talent. I've seen her only in "the girl who sees scents" before and back then she didn't leave a strong impression on me as much as she did in this drama.
The role of a psychiatrist who struggles every day both in her work and in her private life without apparently giving show of her true personality, emotions and weaknesses is somehow relatable and impressive. When someone call her a kind person she denies it, and yet when she is called mean she says she was justified to act in that way. Her weaknesses make her beautiful while she is strong to endure it all, she still wants to escape the "reality" she believes to live in.
Until she meets someone who catches her attention in many ways. He devotes tender attention to her, he "keeps her busy" and he makes her think. He tells her he is a god and she considers him to be another one of his patients.
“I learned that the one who has more should naturally help the one who has less from my father. It’s also natural for the strong to protect the weak. That’s how the world should be. Just because someone has more than you, doesn’t mean that person is stronger than you.” – Yoon So Ah
It was my first time seeing actor Nam joo Hyuk (Habaek) after "Who are you: school 2015" and I couldn't recognize him until I saw his name and clicked on it to see his past roles 😆. Stupid me!
Anyway his looks are really the ones of a deity! 🤩
Habaek is himself growing as a character: he is convinced to be superior and yet find himself confused in a new world where nobody respects him as a god.
He is a god but does not know the meaning to protect someone and forgive, having failed to do so in the past. He himself has yet to understand his true self just like Yoon So Ah.
His character too is relatable and fascinating. Besides his looks, it is really difficult not to love his personality more and more as the drama goes on. The emotions he starts to express in his face as the drama goes on are strong and genuine and something we could not really expect from his character in the first episodes. The fact that he start to express emotions is sweet and moving itself.
In this drama it is really difficult to hate someone from the 1st episode to the last one non-stop. CEO Shin, Moo Ra and Bi-Ryeom and even the side characters (secretary Min, the chairman Shin and his nephew, Yoon so Ah's colleague etc.) are all worth our attention and their stories are again relatable and interesting.
I will definitely miss Yoon So Ah and Habaek. but I will also miss all the characters in the show (not even one excluded) since they've made me think and reflect on various experiences life gives us.
I really needed this drama and if I had watched it last year it could have benefited me even more than it has now.
Let me conclude saying that I really hope to see the two leads together again in the future 🥰.
Lots of love from Italy, stay strong and healthy! 😊🌻🌈
PS: I just want to share a review on the drama which is really good and emotional. Since it is a nice article and since the author has bravely shared with everyone her story, I think the least I can do is to share it with you all too. Here is the link:
https://www.mashitafandia.com/2018/10/the-bride-of-water-god.html?m=1
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This drama was a complete disappointment. I know it was hyped up since everyone thought it was going to be like Goblin but it is not!! Initially, it was pretty cool since they are Gods but after that, all they do is boast that they are Gods and it gets really boring. There isn't really much character development. In fact, the second couple was so much better. There was good growth that you can see.
CAST-4/5
They were pretty much okay but there was NO CHEMISTRY at all between Shin Se Kyung and Nam Joo Hyuk that the romance parts looked more like awkward parts than romantic.
ACTING-3.5/5
Krystal and Gong Myung were hella amazing! Even for Im Joo Hwan, their acting was so good that it seemed more like they were the main in this drama.
RECOMMEND-0/5
Definitely a NO NO to watch if you can't stand any of the above. TBH, I would say it was a waste of my time to watch but the second couple made things more pleasant.
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