Funny moments but ultimately falls flat
I started this show with the intention of having it on in the background while I worked or browsed on my phone, but the initial scenes scenes were beautiful and caught my eye. I stuck it out and was pleasantly surprised by the dad jokes and silly banter between the characters. It felt like a show that wouldn’t take itself too seriously.The first half of the show had a nice pace to it—things progressed and you learned a little more about character quirks, but the drama didn’t ever fully go in depth with anything. You’ll only receive a surface level understanding about why people are the way they are and you’ll never fully grasp this godly world everyone comes from. Those two points didn’t bother me much until the latter half of the show. Suddenly the show is extra serious with random wrenches and plot lines added to help fill time. The plot was too thin to carry an hour long drama. It was as if the writers forgot they had 16 episodes to fill. The story just dragged on and on, filled with extra long drawn out scenes of nothing. At some point I hit the fast forward button five or six times and the characters were in the SAME position.
It was a bummer to see the show just tank so quickly. If I ever needed a pick me up, rewatching the first few episodes would make me laugh. Hokey silliness carried through would’ve helped lift the show.
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Cliche Ending
Anyways, on to the review for “The Bride of Habaek.” Tbh, I’m gonna go on a little side rant… if you ask me, “Did I enjoy it?” I’m gonna answer… “Kinda?” At the beginning, I was super hyped for the drama, especially since I loved the manhwa. I knew that the drama would take a different route by modernizing the setting… and yet, that’s not the reason why this drama disappointed me so much. The most disappointing aspect about this drama was the plot itself. There was so much they could have done with all the elements they introduced into the story… but instead, they took the typical boring route and casted aside development for their characters to have a happy cliche ending.1. Plot/Story
Again, I’m going to reiterate, the plot/story wasn’t really captivating. Even in the beginning, the plot was kinda confusing. Habaek’s mission was to collect the god stones to become king… but once he found all the god stones… they kinda became insignificant to the storyline. As well as, answers to the questions in the drama were revealed “too late” to add to the suspense of those questions; it would have been helpful to reveal the backstory sooner to better comprehend the plot. Really, the whole purpose of the god stones were for Habaek to travel to the human world to understand and empathize with humans — but once I figured that out, I already didn’t care why those god stones were important. What really threw me off, though, was how this drama ended and basically said “forget all the things we’ve built up for the plot, let’s just have a bullshit happy ending.” Various elements were introduced into the drama to stir up “drama” and create a unique story, such as Habaek’s missing powers, the half-god Shin Hoo-ye, So-ah’s missing father, Habaek’s ex-lover Nak-bin, the disappearance of the other god stone, the rambunctious childhood friend Bi-ryeom, and the cold but unrequited love of Moo-ra towards Habaek. These various elements added flavor to the enjoyment of the drama, however, they were readily tossed aside when it came to the progression of the main couple’s love story — which, in my opinion, was a hit or miss. Sometimes I felt the chemistry between the two and then sometimes it completely flat-lined, but they focused way too much on “fan-service” action and not enough to completely convince me the depth of Habaek and So-ah’s love. Also, so much “fan-service,” to the point where the “heavy consequences” of the drama were complete jokes. Overall, the story was bearable enough for me to finish the drama, but I found myself dreading each episode as they dragged on.
2. Characters
The acting wasn’t phenomenal, but it wasn’t the worst either. I was fairly impressed by Shin Se-kyung’s acting; she was able to portray So-ah’s character of kindness, understanding, but — yet — she is ashamed of her upbringing. Despite being ashamed of her upbringing for helping others before herself, she chose a career that was the definition of helping others — a psychiatrist. Sometimes she didn’t seem like a competent psychiatrist (which I always seem to have problems with dramas that portray mental health and illnesses), but So-ah was a genuine and considerate person when it mattered and she reminded us that she is only human. Thus she makes mistakes (such as her ridiculous debt lmao). As for Habaek, I’m not sure if Nam Joo-hyuk was the best fit to play the character considering how complex Habaek’s personality was, but NJH was very adorable and definitely “eye-candy”… if you know what I mean. I just personally think that perhaps a more experienced actor could have done better to fully bring out the gravity of Habaek’s complex and demanding personality, his trust issues with humans from the betrayal of Nak-bin, and the grandeur of being the chosen king of the gods.
As for the other characters, I really liked Moo Ra and Bi Ryeom… and I kinda wished there was more development for these two characters. Tbh, they didn’t really feel like “second lead” characters and more like side characters. Towards the end, we got a bit of romance between the two, but even their love story was rushed and didn’t fully convince me of Moo Ra’s feelings because she has always loved Habaek. Honestly, you could remove these secondary characters and it wouldn’t change the plot of the drama… that’s how poorly written the second characters were. They just added drama that made the story more disorganized.
Lastly, the winner of this drama goes to Hoo Ye — the adorable CEO. Lim Ju Hwan did a PHENOMENAL job… I completely fell in love with his character to the point I was shipping him with So Ah. In my opinion, Hoo Ye had the best character development and story out of everyone. His character was relatable and felt realistic. He was an abandoned child who was casted away because he was considered a mistake — someone who shouldn’t have been born even though it wasn’t his fault for being a demigod. I loved how the moment he met So Ah, he gradually changed and he became a better person to where he could love and accept his true self. I was so disappointed at how they simply casted him aside after his story was “resolved.” If there was a sequel drama just about him, I wouldn’t complain at all because he deserves a happy ending.
3. Overall
There were too many concepts that this drama introduced, but the writing failed to concretely focus on one message or issue to solidify the drama as a complete story. Basically, this drama was about one’s fate and searching for happiness; to give other people happiness is to sacrifice your own, so you have to learn to love yourself before you can love and understand others. Habaek learned this concept that to be a king, he must be capable of protecting others and not just himself. So Ah learned that in order to help others and give them proper advice, she must help and take care of herself too. Hoo Ye learned that he has to accept him for what he his, so he can learn to accept and trust others into his life. Unfortunately, this drama lands in my list of “dramas that I wouldn’t rewatch.” I still scratch my head to this day as to what the “real” message of the drama was supposed to be. But I guess… one thing that was clearly seen was that Habaek and So Ah were just fated to be.
Though this drama is fantasy, one thing this drama really lacked was the element of the gods’ powers. We got to see snippets of these godly powers, but it continued to be dragged out with Habaek being powerless. I understand why he lost his powers, but we only saw his powers in action like once or twice. The cinematography and sceneries of this drama was done well, so those are some redeeming qualities (as well as the nice music). My recommendation is… if you like these actors and actresses, then give this drama a shot. However, this drama will require your utmost patience and understanding to follow the reckless ideas that occur randomly throughout in this drama. Also, if you just want to see some really cute romantic scenes between the main couple, then this drama takes the trophy.
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K-Drama City
Looking for something cute and fluffy? You've come to the right place! Looking for something different from the typical K-Drama scene? TURN BACK!Idk how I found this series and it's not even that it's bad, it's just so.... predictable? The MCs seemed to have good chemistry so that made the story flow well but the plot was kinda eh. A God falling in love with a human is pretty standard at this point BUT the series over all was good. There were loads of quirky silly moments and I think everyone got appropriate screen time. I think the ending was kinda thrown together and even though it was cute, I feel something was missing. I liked the side characters a bit more but only cause they brought much needed amusing chaos lol
Enjoy.
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This review may contain spoilers
A waste of time
TL;DR You could change the description to: "A man with amnesia who believes himself to be a God from another world meets a neuropsychiatrist and they fall in love", and it would have been a far more interesting story.I know writing a review for this show means nothing now, because there will be plenty for everyone to read, and this will just get buried. But in the off-chance someone reads this: don't watch this drama. I'm annoyed I sat through all of it in the hopes that the water-deity plot would actually go somewhere at some point... spoiler: it didn't.
The 'water diety' plot doesn't go anywhere.
The powers he supposedly has? Don't mean a thing.
The characters (played by actors I like) are one dimensional and completely unrelatable.
The FL's tragic money struggles? Only turn up a few times, and don't change a thing.
Want to watch it for the romance? Sorry, it was unbelievable and boring.
PS: I apologise to anyone who actually enjoyed this drama, I just feel that everything this drama did was lazy, and I really hate it when dramas are lazy.
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The plot made me sleepy and it is all over the place that I don't know what's the goal.
Nam Joo Hyuk I will always love you (and Lee Sung Kyung) and your acting career but this one is a big NO for your role. :( Doesn't fit. Shin Se Kyung, your acting here is a bit meh. Sorry. Krystal and Gong Myung are much better acting in this drama.
The music though is good to listen and there is one song that I like.
I dropped this already after episode 12 because it didn't excite me and is really boring D:
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The story while interesting on the surface is really boring and does nothing new or interesting. While the plot isn't bad it's just been do much better in other shows.
The acting is probably the best part of this show. You can tell the actors are really trying trying and doing the best they can with the material but their is only so much you can do with what your given. They have all done better work in other shows so I just think it's the material.
The music is good for what it is. Nothing that really stands out or is really memorable but all the music fit well with the show.
Overall I would say that while your watching the show your gonna have a good time, it's probably not gonna become one of your favorites but it's OK. The main issue is after your finished with it absolutely nothing stands out or is memorable so remembering what happened is hard.
tl;dr-It's Ok but you probably won't remember even watching it in about 3 months
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That is the end of my review i know its pretty critical but i ABSLOUTLY hated it and i needed to get it of my chest.
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