"The Bride of the Water God" divided opinions, we had people who loved and find it the best drama ever, and people who hated and thinks it's the worst drama ever. It's a 50/50 situation. I personally found it a disappointment, but even though it was not the best I've ever seen, it's not the worst.
*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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