I thought this drama was worth watching, but I really don't think it met it's full potential. I thought it would be like Cruel City, but I didn't find the two shows at all similar. The tone of My Beautiful Bride was great, it was beautifully shot, there was some good acting, but overall I thought it fell short in the storytelling department and was not exemplary in any area.
Some highlights:
- I thought the chemistry and emotional intensity between the main couple was great. It's too bad they actually don't get to spend as much time together on screen as I would have liked.
- The fight scenes were on point. It's kind of just fun watching Kim Mu Yeol beat people up. The fight scenes are really well shot and plentiful.
- I didn't care too much for any of the other side characters but really liked Jo Han Chul as Park Joon Bum. He really made you feel for Joon Bum even though he's really sleazy.
Some low points:
- My main beef with the show was that the plot ended up getting really repetitive. At a certain point it felt like Mario was trying to save the Princess... once Mario defeats the bad guys and gets to the castle, the princess gets moved (by some reason or another) to another castle, and then it starts all of over again. I have no issues with the damsel in distress trope, but I just got really tired of it by the tenth time it happened.
- Cha Yoon-Mi was an awful and sort of a stupid character. I haven't seen anything else Lee Shi Young has been in so I don't know if her role was a poorly written or if she is a bad actor, but Yoon-Mi was billed to be a badass cop and she came off as whiny, mopey, and honestly not very good at her job.
- The story gets overly complicated and introduces a lot of stories without finishing them. We never get to fully understand the ulterior motivations of characters like Do Hyun's mom or Lee Jin Sook. Also Joo Yung's mom is missing during some pretty crucial points in the story. Why? I can only assume so that we can make room for more of Do Hyun fighting bad guys and Chairman Kang eating meat. Both of which are, admittedly, very entertaining.
In summary, i really enjoyed the love story between Do Hyun and Joo Yung, but the present day story of the show is pretty repetitive and a little disappointing.
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