A Noiva de Habaek (2017)

The Water God Saves a Drowning Woman ♥️ For Romance Lovers Only °VG°

Here's a show about how the anchor is pulled up from a generations-long curse & Nam Joo-hyuk is put in his proper place.

BoH is one of my guilty pleasures. The term “guilty pleasure” is overused & misused. Most commonly it's thrown in b/c we're embarrassed about what we like or we're throwing cover over something we've enjoyed for fear of being mocked. For a GP to actually be a GP, there must be something to feel guilty about, meaning it has to be a show that is more than alittle flawed, but we just like it. Any fair assessment has to be a combo of technical competence & how it touches the♥️. Critics often focus more on the technical b/c that is measurable, while matters of the♥️ are subjective. How the receiver takes them matters as much as how the messenger sends them out. We have to be vulnerable to admit what our♥️ likes, & that makes it scary. BoH has lots of flaws - so many logical problems, so many missed opportunities, & if one steps back & really thinks about So-ah’s story, it's so So SO SAD! But I've already watched it twice & I'm sure I'll watch it again, b/c I'm a bit of a romance junkie, & BoH gotz goodz. I'll take a flawed show in which the director can give me the flutters, merely by showing closeups of the actors’ hands, over Citizen Kane 6 days a week. I'll watch CK on the 7th. Technically excellent shows give me a thrill, but left-brain thrills are just trills compared to right-brain dopamine. Anyway, romance junkies! You'll love this one! Everyone else - probably not.

BoH is comfy & soothing while being surprisingly sensual at times. Based on the Kmanga, Bride of the Water God, it's a tale of the future king of the heavenly realms who must come to earth & complete tasks in order to ascend to the throne. Habaek (Nam Joo-hyuk from Start-Up-8) is that future king. So-ah (Shin Se-kyung Rookie Historian-7.5) is a psychiatrist who has no peace in her life. Nothing has ever gone right. She is drowning in debt and, well.... forget romance! She doesn't have the time or energy for that. Unbeknownst to So-ah, things are even worse: Her family is sworn to serve the heavenly realms whenever needed. Habaek somehow lost his powers when he descended, so he is going to need a lot of help… But So-ah is a mess! Even more worse, b/c she's from a line of divine servants, she's a god magnet.

House cleaning 1st. Besides the logical problems & missed opportunities, there was no follow-thru on many ideas. They dropped things here & there that initially made a splash, & then they let them sink to the bottom, forgotten. Habaek's powers, or lack of, are inconsistently handled. There are ill defined rules of the game, a thing too common in Kdramas. Not only does it get confusing, but it feels like they are cheating by making stuff up as they go. Before setting sail, they should clearly define the fantastical world depicted & stick to the parameters that they've set down. After 16+ hours of content, couldn't they have allowed a little more time for a thorough wrap up? We don't know what happened with most of the characters, & I would have liked a peek at what the coming days & years would look like. This is also too common and always yields discontent. It adds up to mandatory deductions. From a craft standpoint, BoH is at level 5~6 but as a romance it's a 7~8.

So-ah is in a submerged cage. She's drowning. Her altruistic father never had time for the family. Only child?!? Their house was always full of needy orphans. Ultimately, dad left on another goodwill mission & never returned. Her assistant recalls how evil she was as a child. From her perspective, she’s the victim. To dad, everyone else was more important than she. (It's a reminder that our perspectives often aren't the full story). Her dream is Vanuatu - a beautiful sea ~ sand ~ wine & song ~ she wants the life of a god. Her reality, though, is prison. Her clinic is in a lower income area with bars on the windows. She literally lives behind bars. She's floundering in the dissonance between how she's compelled to live & how she wants to live ~ she's human.

Habaek begins as demanding & dismissive. It's amusing that he calls her his servant, but he always ends up helping her. As he acclimates to life on earth, it becomes clear that something dark is afoot. He & So-ah must wade through perils to right wrongs before all of creation goes under. In the background other gods are making trouble & complicating things; most have no respect for So-ah. One person that does respect So-ah is Shin Hoo-ye. He likes everything about So-ah, which makes Habaek gradually more irritated & determined to show his own worth, even w/o his powers. The oft overdone ♥️⚠ makes a little more sense here given who So-ah is.

They ain't subtle. Like in The Terminator, clothes don't survive world-transference, so Nam Joo-hyuk is in the buff at the start. Rap music beats as he walks to So-ah like a model (though I can't say what he's modeling - The scene isn't a tad overdone, though; he's worthy of it). The director was able to make simple scenes sizzle with moments that practically steam up the lens with their sensuality. At times, just a touch is enough. Shots of hands moving slowly until the tips of their fingers separate are just beautiful. The soundtrack complements it all superbly. Glass Bridge, by Savina & Drones, made the romantic scenes flow deeper & stronger, like a wave washing over & the only way to escape the power is to drop under. I've got Glass Bridge & Savina & Drones on a variety of playlists. Ty, BoH.

One thing that is not lacking in BoH is the acting. Nam Joo-hyuk is fine, though I'm not sure if anyone cares about his acting. He plays Habaek who sits atop the world with no equals. He's never had to give anyone else a thought, so he has quite a bit of growing to do. Shin Sae Kyeong plays Yoon So-ah. I've seen her in Rookie Historian(7.5) & Run On(7- but the 2ndary couple’s ♥️ is a 9). She has an acerbic wit & authoritative air that lends to her playing a mother-lover in these shows. I like her, but I'm not partial to the mother-lover in a romance. Here she's gasping for air & she's fantastic. The superb actor, Im Joo Hwan, is Shin Hoo-ye. I'm a fan since Oh My Ghost(10). Just don't watch him in The Spies Who Loved Me(4) b/c it's awful. Krystal Jung is the petulant Mu-ra. She's got the best drop-dead stare - quite natural for a spoiled god. She's great in the hilarious Crazy Love(7.8) & even better in Sweet & Sour(7) and of course, she stars in the legendary Heirs(7.3). Gong Myung is Bi Ryum, another spoiled god. He's got a beautiful baby face. I'm currently watching him in Be Melodramatic, which is outstanding. I'd say skip Revolutionary Love(5.7) - not worth the ⏲ & his character is one of the worst things in RL.

Viki-9.2; MDL 7.4; Awiki 87; IMDB 6.9. BoH ‘s ratings are all over. Director Kim Byung-Soo doesn't have any duds. His low water mark, Bubble Gum @6.3, is his only feature rated under 7 on IMDB. Nine: 9 Times Time Travel is the high mark at 8.1. The very popular A Korean Odyssey(7) is the only other work of his that I've seen, & it's pretty much the same story. The “issues” made me crazy, yet I loved the show anyway. Both of these shows are too sloppy to appeal to anyone but a romant-i-phile. Mr. Kim's name in the credits is a draw for me, & to be honest, I would probably enjoy watching Nam Joo-hyuk in any show, good or bad.

Mr. Kim works in excellent shots & imagery. Hou-ye is also behind bars. His office is cave-dark & coldly industrial, with bar imagery on either end. It's a metaphor for his earlier life. Somebody goes through a window & the movement of the broken glass is beautiful, like it's water circling round them. Gorgeous. While there are not many action scenes, the stunts during the parking garage scene are excellent. In a scene or two, their clothes form ☯ as they embrace. There's reverses. In eps1&9 they kiss, & the scenes switch which one of them has closed eyes. In ep13 they both close their eyes.

There's laughter & warmth. Koreans & food - even when there's gods that don't get hungry they can't help having them go out to eat anyway. Why does Asian entertainment always feature eating while Hollywood starves us? The result is that their stuff has more warmth. Role reversal shopping is pretty funny. He has no clothes, so off to the fitting room scene they go. What's funnier is that tight-fisted So-ah buys him a suit that doesn't fit right. You get what you pay for, So-ah;))! The police want to know if there's anyone who might want to kill her? Her assistant immediately responds by giving names, Misters A-L, & blah blah blah, “I can't count them with my fingers…” She's utterly shocked. She had no idea.

They do go below the surface briefly. Instead of just one villain, everybody did wrong. Everyone has to live with regrets. Much of the angst in the show could be traced to a father's lack of love or attention. There's beautiful moments such as this poem about two people in love, as when you're in love even dandelions look beautiful & bright: ‘The dandelions beneath the telephone pole swayed brightly. I've come to believe that there is no such thing as coincidence in love. I've come to trust that the universe calculates even the littlest things, such as the winged stroke of a butterfly, in order to make two people fall in love.’

The name So-ah means: Beautiful waters. Drowning. Her whole life she's been drowning. The beautiful water god saves her. He turns her horror to honor & love.


〰️QUOTES〰️

The ones who smile during hardships are the winners. The ones who endure it are lesser. The ones who cry are losers.

It's in our language. We put action first in our sentences, while they put nouns first.


〰 ✏ IMHO
Directing 6.7
Writing 6
Acting 7.8
Romance 7.6
Flutters 7.8
Art 7.5
Action 5
Sound & music 9
Ending 6.5

LEVELS
Tears 7
Thought provocation 5
Snores 0

Age 15+ for mild sexual content

Re-📺watch? GP

🎬6.7 📝6 🎭7.8 💓7.6 🦋7.8 🎨7.5 ⚡5 🎵9 😭7 🤔5 💤0 🔚6.5

Leia Mais

What a Draaaggg!!! (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

The plot of this drama had the potential to be great, but the progress was so slow. It took me about four days to watch this drama when I'd usually binge a sixteen episode K-drama in a day or a day and a half at most.
There really wasn't any spark that had me binging this drama. It was good but not enough to have me being frantic about the next episode.
And I really hated the ending. He's gonna stay with her until she dies???!!! Seriously??? They only have a happy ending for like 40...maybe 50 years?? And is he gonna want to stay with her knowing that he's gonna have to watch her die in the end? I thought for sure that they'd figure out a way to be together for the rest of their lives. Either the god became human and lived with her as a mortal or she'd get immortality and live with him forever. Like I said before, crappy ending.

Leia Mais

If you're looking for something pointless tbh.

Let me start by saying I am not a professional critic or anything I'm just a random girl saying what's on my mind so do with that what you will.
Now let's begin.

How the whole show gonna be them falling in love(and obviously side conflicts) but scared because of the limited time they have together before he has to leave ONLY FOR THE PROBLEM TO BE RESOLVED IN THE LAST 2 MINUTES OF THE SHOW. They were really crying and throwing up about being separated just for that one guy to come and be like, "Oh Nah never mind it's fine you can stay" Like dude what was the point. WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT????? The only reason I kept watching was for the side character love story I stan them.

Each to their own though I suppose, watch it or don't.

Leia Mais

This got me out of a drama watching slump.
It wasn't perfect but I'm just gonna list my initial thoughts after finishing it and then come back and edit it later.
Warning it's just a jumble of my thoughts right now:

Did not like the end. Thought it fell short!
I wish we had seen more of the Gods world, and like their powers. We saw a small glimpse but not enough.
I loved the FL and ML
I know people hated on the FL and sometimes I get she was far from perfect (e.g. she was terrible to those orphans her dad looked after when she was younger, and was a bad friend to that nurse guy who worked for her), but she was realistic and she did show character development. I think they portrayed their characters really well. They do grow on you as the drama goes on. But I do get why some people think the ML should have maybe been played by an older actor. He didn't really give off powerful mythical God vibes right? And I think part of that may be because we didn't really get to see much of his power that was spoken about so much. And he looks young. But I loved his acting still! I've seen some really bad male actors who have the visuals but don't have the acting talent, but not this guy, you could really see the emotions in his eyes! I loved seeing their connection grow. And I loved how much they both grew as the drama went on, and like what he was willing to sacrifice for her at the end, that was beautiful and sad.
I actually enjoyed the plot, I mean it was lacking a bit but I do have to add I love this genre, and I've read loads of books and seen dramas of a similar nature. So for me, I really enjoyed it even though the ending fell short, along with a few other moments.
I hated Mura! She was so annoying!
At first I hated Biryeom too but he really grew on me, especially as time went on, and we realised his anger was justified in a sense because his close friend died and he had only gone to do the ML a favour probably also related to his love of Mura and her love of Habaek, but then it also wasn't because the guy who killed him was a child at the time, and had been locked up and thought he was protecting his only "friend". And I loved how much he loved Mura, but I hate how he didn't call her out on her serious character flaws. I loved her loyalty to Habaek and was rooting for her a bit, but then she just became petty and selfish, and she was so happy to see FL and ML relationship have problems, she became kind of toxic. I do get how she didn't want him to get hurt again and was jealous because she loved him, but he never led her on, and FL proved how she wasn't like Nakbin and she was still horrible to her. Not to mention Biryeom loved her and treated her way better than Habaek did, and was there for her so long and I don't get how she just didn't see it.

Leia Mais

First I have read the manhwa, just not all of it. It did not effect the viewing. What effected me the most would be past dramas of people from another world coming to the modern day. This one is just not as good as those.
I had a really hard time watching Yoon So Ah. Nothing about the actress but I just hate the role. I found her over acting taking everything away from the show. Its fine in the middle but the start and the end is just bad. I had I hard time understanding her actions.
I had a hard time with him coming back- We all know it is going to hurt them more as he has to go back. I just did not feel their love at all until the last few ep. I needed to see more of them loving each other first and more of him in his world without her.
The plot would be good but they added horrible ideas to fluff it up. Weird aggressive kiss to give "grace" or something- i don't see the point as nothing horrible happend to him so why give it so hard lol The part with her dad- we all know how that is going to end. So why put it like that lol
Product placement was horrible- so distracting.
Also- I loved his first look with that hair and then after that I missed it, It went so well with his vib and they throw it away. Personaly I think they used his body to try to get viewers- They show all of it right away...and then the bath bits... AND then she starts fantasizing about his sweaty shirt. Tell me girls if you'v seen his whole body why would him in a shirt be special now lol I would only recommend this for someone that needs a body show LOL

Leia Mais

For My Own Opinion , This Drama Was Totally Perfect & Super Awesome For Me Personally ... (I Just A Simple Person & Watch Any Drama That Pass By Saw It And Just Watch It With Put 100Percent My Focus And All Feeling Inside While Watching) ... I Saw Alot Of Comment On This Drama Have Bad & Have Good ... Well I No Need To Mention it Cause Guess What I Watching Drama Only For Enjoy Myself And Understanding The Full Points Of The Drama With My Feeling Whenever The Screen Show Up ... No Need Go To Judge Or Comment Something Bad Or Whatever Else On The Drama You Watch That Makes No Points ... The Whole Things That Make A One Perfect Complete Drama Is Not Easier Then You Same As Us Whatcher Think ... It's A Long Process And Done Alot Of Afford Inside To Give Us Watch Nicely ... We Should Really Be Gladful For It ... For Me This Drama Show Like Fantasy About Gods And All Those Emotions That Been Show Inside That Really Make Me Fall In Love With This Drama ... And It's Should Deserves More Support, Love And Likes For It. And Don't Forger About The Actors And Actress Also Did A Very Great Job On Acting Really Need To Congrats Them And Have A Big Thumbs Up ... I Feel Very Thankful And Blessed To Whole Of This <3

Leia Mais

The storyline was on POINT, applauding the writer(s)! Even though there was not a lot of martial arts in this project but it was still worth watching. This a drama series the whole family can watch. The main cast did phenomenally and the supporting cast was amazing. Nam Joo Hyuk is truly a God and whoa another great kisser! His acting abilities were very good and now I will have to see more of him. I looked at most of the ratings on this one and can't understand why this is not rated any higher than it is. Oh well, hopefully, my 10 will boost it up. Even Shin Se Kyung did an awesome job. I will have to see more of her as well. The romance chemistry was there on both main leads since this had more than two main leads, I'm talking about NJK and SSK. The full team "The Bride of Haebak" I will kotow3x's with respect!

Leia Mais

This drama had overall a very mellow feeling about itself, that is the word I think describes it the best. The plot was straightforward and not complicated, generally paced rather slowly. The first episodes started off more comical and dramatic at the same time which was a fun contrast but later on these characteristics were fading as the plot was progressing. Surprisingly, the last episodes were suddenly packed with information which felt rushed compared to the slow pace of the majority of episodes.

The little turns in the plot gave a lot of time for characters to interact and I liked the way the main ones especially were portrayed - they felt realistic and flawed and each had their aims to realise; the acting was also on point. The comedy showed mostly in the first episodes felt like not done on purpose - the comedy resulted in editing and the way the scenes were filmed. Actually, throughout the whole drama I admired the way the camera was playing with angles, they were creative and impressing.

I must say the drama was nice to watch - the cinematography was fun and the gods ensemble were dressed in stunning clothes. It definitely wasn't a plot-focused drama, but I enjoyed watching it and I would recommend it as a form of relaxation.

Leia Mais

Although the plot is a little confusing and the story doesn't make really scense the acting was Magical and was really worth the time to watch it! I found great chemistry between the lead characters too!
I've read many negative comments and reviews about the acting of the heroine and I totally disagree. She was amazing and her acting was unbelievably realistic! About the male lead I am going to say two words: pure perfection! The rest were also amazing in acting!
The only thing that caused this drama low rates was the plot, because it didn't help the characters to amaze you
But I recommend it! You won't be excited about the plot but the couple is really cute and fitting! They deserve to be watched! They acted perfectly! It was really touching!
All the characters are really attractive combined with amazing acting skills!

Leia Mais