♥♥♥♥/♥
TITLE: The Bride of the Water God (The Bride Of Habaek) [하백의 신부 2017]
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: July 03, 2017-August 22, 2017 (TVN)
WIKI: http://asianwiki.com/The_Bride_of_Habaek
SEASONS/EPISODES: 1 season, 16 hour-long episodes
US AVAILABILITY (as of 2018-11-11): "Retired:" This drama has now been removed from all legal US streaming sites that I know of. :(
Overview:
The scenes in the Drama Fever trailer/preview for this one were more irrelevant to the drama than the Drama Fever writeup/description. I'm not sure how they could have gotten any farther off the mark if they tried, when it came to giving a good trailer and writeup to get the right people to watch it. The titling and timing were also quite unfortunate in that they gave many viewers the mistaken impression that this drama was intended to be similar to (and 'as good as') Goblin: The Lonely and Great God [쓸쓸하고 찬란하神-도깨비].
If you're looking for the next "Goblin", this isn't it. You'll be really glad later if you go into this determined to enjoy (or not) this show for itself and not as a Goblin-rebound-fix. The writeup on Drama Fever describes the lead male character as "narcissistic" and says he came to Earth to find *a* magic stone (there are 3). It also says that the goddess Moo Ra dislikes Habaek's "wife" (technically the series title also refers to her as his bride, but they aren't actually shown marrying during the course of this series).
Basic summary:
Habaek is destined to be the god of Water World, but in order to claim his rightful throne, he must go to Earth and find 3 "god stones" which the priest of Water World hid there. When Habaek and his servant arrive on Earth, they are separated, unclothed, and having somehow lost the coordinates which will lead them to the god stones on the way. In addition to this, Habaek is frustrated to learn his powers aren't working on Earth. There is a family lineage on Earth who is supposed to help them with their mission, however the lone descendant of this family is jaded psychiatrist So Ah. As a child, So Ah's father was constantly bringing home street children, even going so far as to give So Ah's things to them. So Ah felt like her father loved the street children he brought home more than he loved her and developed a good deal of parental resentment. Her father left on a humanitarian mission for a year when she was a teenager and never returned, and her mother passed away. So Ah once tried to kill herself to hurt her absent father, so she threw herself off a bridge, but miraculously woke back up before dying and swam to safety, forever-after ashamed and averse to cold water. When Habaek meets So Ah, she's supposed to recognize who he is, but she thinks he's merely an attractive but delusional human who needs psychiatric help.
Flow and sequence:
The early episodes of the series deal with Habaek's struggle to get So Ah to recognize his deity and accept her role as a servant of the gods. The middle episodes of the series deal with the jealousy and animosity of the other Earthbound deities toward Habaek and So Ah, and how that hinders the finding of the stones. The final episodes deal with the inevitable goodbye between Habaek and So Ah, as well as wrapping up plot mysteries that have been brewing throughout the series.
I usually find a "slow zone" in dramas somewhere between episodes 5 and 15, but I didn't feel like this drama really slowed down specifically at any point. It was a leisurely paced drama all along, with funny parts and sad parts, but neither the ups nor the downs were ever too extreme. Basically, I didn't find it boring but it wasn't so strenuously suspenseful I couldn't sleep between episodes either. (Though it WAS suspenseful enough that I looked forward to the next episodes all week until the series was complete.)
Cast and acting:
Nam Joo Hyuk's portrayal of Habaek is about the least narcissistic leading male character I've ever seen. The character Habaek is SPOILED at first, indeed, but he's also pretty much brimming with compassion for humanity and especially So Ah, which is the opposite of the aforementioned supposed narcissism. Nam Joo Hyuk's character's emotions are all well acted in his expressive eyes. If you like him in this, he does a fabulous job in Scarlet Heart: Ryeo also (though I haven't finished that one yet and hear it has a super sad ending so happy-ending-addicts beware!)
Im Ju Hwan did fantastic job bringing out the conflictedness, guilt, pain, and desire to be good in his character, the reluctant villain CEO Hoo Ye. Im Ju Hwan's portrayal of Hoo Ye pretty much ripped my heart out every time he came on screen. I've almost never wanted to climb inside the screen and hug a character that badly. I've never seen Im Ju Hwan in anything else, so if anyone has a suggestion for something else he's in that ends happily, please leave it in the comments!
Shin Se Kyung is an actress who I often see disparaged as lacking talent but I personally see no grounds for the hate. I have only seen her in 3 or 4 dramas but I felt she did a decent to great job in all of them. There was a degree of sameness to the various characters I've seen her play but I think it is due to the writing and directing of those characters and not so much her acting. For her portrayal of So Ah, I think people may somewhat be confusing their feelings about the character and the plot with their feelings about Miss Shin's acting. There are some discrepancies in the plot (particularly early on in the series) which are confusing and frustrating, mostly centering around So Ah's character. I'm currently also watching both Blade Man/Iron Man AND Sensory Couple/The Girl Who Sees Smells which Shin Se Kyung plays in- both are cute dramas so far.
One more worth special mention was a small side character in the series; Jin Geon (and briefly, his twin Mo Myeong). The actor who played them was uncredited (at least in the case of all my search results) but I'm about 99% sure he's Korean actor Kim Tae Hwan 김태환 who starred in the 2016 Chinese drama My Amazing Boyfriend [我的奇妙男友] (a corny comedy, kinda creepy, but sorta cute and fairly steamy story about an actress and an immortal, which was loosely based on the Korean cult hit drama My Love From The Star).
Writing and directing:
The Bride Of The Water God was supposedly loosely based on a manhwa of the same name, but I read quite a bit of commentary by people who had read the manhwa and said the drama turned out nothing like the manhwa after all. I also saw comments that all involved in the making of Water God deliberately avoided all things Goblin until Water God was complete so as not to taint Water God either way (knowing that the series name would make people compare it to Goblin and wanting to deter that). I have not personally confirmed either of these rumors: I have neither read the manhwa nor seen where the cast and crew were vowing to hold off on watching Goblin. *If anyone knows where I can find/read the manhwa online or has a link to confirm or refute the rumor about them not watching Goblin, please leave it in the comments and I will try to follow up and edit at a later date.*
The writing did seem to have some holes and weak points. Most noteworthy was in an early episode they had So Ah passing out repeatedly in sequence over the same thing: finding out an old friend of hers was actually an earthbound deity. This was right after she went like a week without sleep and hearing voices but managed to function (for the most part) normally, AND finally accepting that Habaek was indeed a deity himself, making the repeated passing out over her old friend's identity all the more unbelievable and absurd. If she had seemed to be equally emotionally weak through all that happened to her, this wouldn't have been so eye-rolling, but throughout the series we find So Ah to be a resilient character and this particular comedy gimmick is unbecoming.
Aside from that, I think most of the parts that didn't really make sense could later be explained. Maybe not explained WELL, but at least explained-ish.
How is The Bride Of The Water God like or unlike Goblin?
Similarities? Well it's got deities in it, and one of them falls in love with a human who was born specifically to help him. That's about it for the similarities.
In Bride Of The Water God, the gods live in parallel worlds based on the elements, and there are some on Earth as caretakers of sorts, but for the most part the gods stay in their own worlds and don't care about humanity except as far as they require the worlds to be in balance so they can continue to live without really caring about humanity. In Goblin, the purpose of the divine beings is to manage humanity so the supernatural beings are doing specific jobs relating to that, such as the Grim Reapers managing souls after their death and the old/young deity mentioning creating new souls and the goblin acting as a sort of guardian/benefactor of down-on-their-luck humans.
In Water God, the supernatural powers seem more like something out of an Avengers movie, so you're watching it and your brain is reminding you the whole time that what you're watching is pretend and just for kicks. Also the main character is devoid of his powers the whole time, leaving him and the two servants under his protection vulnerable to multiple other supernatural beings, some of whom do not wish them well. The supernatural powers in Goblin seem to be portrayed in a way where you can take them more seriously as though they were real, and the goblin himself does retain his powers, as do the other supernatural good guys.
In Water God, the comedy is mediochre to mild and is based on the characters being shocked or embarrassed. The strength of the series isn't in it's comedy; it is in the tenderness and love Habaek increasingly feels for So Ah and watching the character learn to deal with these feelings. In Goblin, the entire drama is an emotional tug of war; one minute you are gasping for air between fits of hysterical laughter at the witty banter, and the next minute you are using half a roll of toilet paper to deal with the effects of the extreme emotions provoked.
Happy Ending Factor?
Does The Bride Of The Water God wind up with a happy ending? Yes and no. I'd give it 8 out of 10 for happy ending points.
(SPOILER SECTION! SKIP to Final Summary if you don't want to know how it ends!)
It seems that So Ah may not get a happy ending with her father (no surprise: I pretty much expected that the whole series), but she gets to live out the rest of her life with Habaek on Earth. They left it totally unexplained as to how she's going to grow old and die beside an ageless deity, or how he'll go on as king of Water World after losing his soulmate when she does eventually age and die. The ending could have been more satisfactory, but at least it wasn't like one of them died right off or they had to live apart for the remainder of their lives.
Final Summary:
Bride Of The Water God may be getting a bad rap because those who clicked over to watch it just came from Goblin and expected it to be the same kinda thing. They experienced a similar effect to if you were to watch BBC's Sherlock and then tried watching the live action Nancy Drew movie with expectations it would be the same thing. One is a boutique cheesecake and the other is a donut: both can be delicious but if you eat a donut expecting a cheesecake you're not gonna be happy. The Bride Of The Water God was no Goblin, but it was Bavarian-Cream-Filled-Donut Good. If you give this show a go, check your cheesecake expectations at the door and let it pleasantly surprise you! :)
Check out the The Bride Of Habaek OST on Spotify!
(Above links based on US availability. Dramas may not be available on certain sites for certain countries. It depends who acquired the license for a specific drama for your country and who did not. Drama may be available on Netflix in your country but not even show up in mine, so check there if you have a Netflix acct. Ditto for Viki- may be available in your country but not mine. Click HERE for a list of legal Kdrama streaming sites and what countries they work in.)
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