Camaraderie and chemistry is the goal for the production team of upcoming tvN drama adaptation of popular manhwa Bride of the Water God. The cast and crew is setting out this week for Kyunggido to embark on a bonding retreat much like the ones that college students go on with their organizations or new employees attend for orientation. Looks like the production is serious about building closeness among the cast and crew in hopes that it will translate onscreen with the drama chemistry and cohesiveness. Smart move, especially with a cast filled with so many acting wild cards. The leads are Nam Joo Hyuk and Shin Se Kyung playing the Water God and Bride, with Krystal and Gong Myung as the supporting leads also playing god characters. Im Joo Hwan has also joined the cast playing a human character.
The male lead should be Im Joo Hwan, who is really underrated. He can definitely outact all of these newbies. Even Shin Se Kyung is a very bland actress. It just look like it’s gonna be an epic fail, much like Scarlet Heart.
Lol! That was my thought! Im Joo Hwan should have been cast as the lead. I mean he has embarked on a manhwa turned live in the past with Tamra Island. Lol plus i believe shin se kyung and nam joo hyuk just don’t look good together. She looks like his older sister!
Moon Lovers is not a failure though. People are just so shortsighted. Korea is just a small market compared to what Moon Lovers have captured. In Japan itself, it has been broadcasted in three different media and now it’s aggressive bluray/DVD release. Not to mention the 70% rating in the SG, Malaysia & Indonesia, Taiwan which it was number 1 for many weeks plus the potential all other countries in which it is in the process of being broadcasted. Even in DramaFever, how many dramas have consistently held number 1 in that portal. Though unlike big actors who enjoy royalty payouts to all releases, but at least they can have a drama that propel them to International stardom.
If this drama can attrack International audience then the better opportunity for them. What is the point of having highly rated drama when popularity only last for weeks. One best example is Jang Bori which hits almost 50% but did it contributed well to the actors’ career on the long run basis… I don’t think it did so.
Quality drama is more important than rating. Moon Lovers got Nam Joo Hyuk two lead roles in row.
Even doctors that is not exclusive on dramafever gets more views than moonlovers????
Idk.but if u watched bbjx,you will understand why some people said that moonlovers is a failure
Comparison to BBJX is a useless. Two different types of film making. One was very old fashioned and slow, and Moon Lovers is sophisticated and fast moving. Both have different interpretations and taken in different perspective. But to me, Moon Lovers is more artistic & poetic. It doesn’t the typical kdrama approach but very Korean to the core. However, if you like the typical shallow cheesy romcom then I could understand your dislike to this drama. But believe me, fast forward to 10 years, you would be surprised that those cheesy romcom that you like now would become too corny…even after 5 years depending of which period of your life are you in right now.
I have never heard of China version before and only watch it out curiousity recently, so it must have been marketed in the Chinese community only. While it’s successful in China which is not surprising as it’s their own drama but Moon Lovers being an import which have been broadcasted to two media (Youku & Mango TV)in Mainland China isn’t bad. Which high rated Kdrama has achieved that? Maybe just DOST? UF, well it didn’t rate that well in Korea.
Re Doctors having more views in dramafever.. give me the link as I am very interested to see it myself.
@KOEN
BBJX was 1000x better than ML even if BBJX was ’only’ a 2011 drama. Far better acting and more coherent story. And it was extremely popular in Mainland China and in the Chinese speaking areas. Liu Shi Shi solidified her name in the C-ent industry with that drama. ML overseas popularity was huge and that was probably their intention, hence the cast was filled with idol actors. Lee Jun Ki gave a solid performance but no way was Moon Lovers as a drama better than BBJX, despite all the modern technology and high budget.
And Doctors viewers are more on the mature side and much, much quieter than those tweens on internet that like to bash anything that is competing with their fave. You probably saw a lot of bashing against Doctors by BM, UF and even W fans as they were airing at the same period of time, but out of all those dramas Doctors was the most popular both domestically and overseas ratings wise. Internet communities may have streamed those other dramas more but Doctors still beat them lol.
Even if you look at the sites like Dramafever or Viki, you could clearly see that Doctors beat ML. And lmao at those people who said that IU delivered better in ML than PSH in Doctors when there was a k-netz comments translation that said that IU is awkward to watch. When unnir is bashed then it’s easier to bash some other unrelated actress (who almost always happen to be PSH for some odd reason) to make your ego feel better.
@Gilgit Moon Lovers has a very coherent story. That is for sure. But it is not your typical Korean drama that spoon feed everything. That was the beauty of this drama and what made it better than its c-counterpart and even in any korean dramas. It didn’t take the viewers for an airhead. The way each and every single episode are executed and how they show the parallel connections of scenes in one episode to the other episodes in the drama, was brilliant.
Regarding IU acting. Yes she is not as mature actor as Lee Joon Gi and Kang Hanuel but you have to understand the main character of this drama is Wang So. Unlike in the Chinese drama, the main story was about the girl and how fit in and live in the kingdom. However in Korean drama, it’s about Wang So and his becoming the king of Goryeo. Hae Soo importance is her influence to the princes and Wang So as he reign Goryeo. The portrayal of Wang So was masterpiece. Kang Haneul’s performance was excellent, definitely his talent is beyond his years. Performances of these two main actors were by far better than it’s c-counterpart.
For IU, I admire her courage to take up such a big role. While senior actors(actress) were in just playing it self mode e.g. Jun Ji Hyun for her role LOTBS & SHK in DOTS. Their roles don’t require that much acting talent much less for veteran actors. I am not bashing JJH & SHK, I am just explaining how brave IU was for taking such challenging role than playing it safe by choosing less complex characters. Anyhow her performance may not be as comparable to LJG & KHN, but she did a fantastic job nevertheless.
Well I don’t understand your reason of saying ML was bad because PSH was bashed. Doctor? YOu got to be kidding me. It’s typical Korean drama. We have already seen that kind of drama so many times before. About PSH performance, it was definitely better compared to her performance in her previous drama.
To get back to NJH, Moon Lovers gave him two main roles already.
haha reading this comment and other comments, this sounds like hardcore fans of Scarlet vs ordinary viewers.
as someone who didnt finish watching scarlet, i understand the sentiment of the others.
scarlet failed in rating and didnt even bring the actors some potential awards such as excellent actor/actress etc. But most of popularity awards.
but internationally, scarlet was popular because of the ‘big’ names such as LJK, IU and BaekHyun Exo etc.
“quality is more important than rating” but then, if their quality was good, they would get best awards. look at I have a lover, it got low rating yet the actor got an excellent award.
well, talking about NJH, hmm.. he’s under YG ent. I love his acting in Weightlifting fairy with his fellow YG family, but then, the rating says otherwise. Now, TVN casts him for this role. If he can do a high rating, good for him and his career. but if not… hmm… who knows, probably he can be like Lee dong wook. Casting for the 2nd lead in a SUPER HIT drama.
rating is important for actors and crew. look at Kim Soo Hyun, his salary is one of the highest among actors, why??? cuz he brought hit rating in every drama he was in. So… are you sure, rating isnt important???
@KOEN you seriously compare IU to JJH and SHK who brought back daesang home??????? WOW… daebak. lols. okay… If she was that amazing, she could bring 50% rating. Heol. No doubt.
@KOEN I do applaud IU for taking a challenge, that is true. But no one can deny that the original BBJX had a better overall actin and more coherent story. If you liked ML more than BBJX then that’s fine too. I have watched both of them and my opinion is that BBJX is better than ML. It’s great that ML got international popularity, at least for the sake of the cast and crew. My main issue with some ML fans are that they are sometimes a bit overly delusional about Moon Lover’s greatness and like to put down other dramas and actresses…
I believe it is due to fierce competition in the industry that the production of qualify of drama has stagnated or even deteriorated.
I love Korean drama and have been watching for a decade now. I love Korean dramas though there are few that I don’t like. While I enjoyed flashbacks, nice OST’s & I don’t really mind musical score because I rarely find good ones until I watched Moon Lovers. I am actually thankful to the negativity towards this drama because that was the reason I was able to watch it. Thankfully.. I found this drama. I usually use fast forward when I watch kdrama because I know even if you skip scenes you will pick up the story anyway. Even if you skip episodes, you will still able to pick. Not ML though. YOu have to watch every single scene, listen to every dialogue as every scene and dialogue is important. I must say this drama was intelligently done.
I wonder why there too much negativity and even domestically it was already a failure before the filming started.
Re. SHK & JJH comparison. I only admire IU’s courage for taking complex and more challenging role. I didn’t say she was better than those senior actors. I was just saying those senior actor were playing safe by selecting less challenging roles and only chose to act with famous actors.
Rating dictates pay. Yes that is true. But I believe more established actors have lesser pay per episode but they get better or higher royalty percentage. Therefore, international demands is more advantageous.
As I have said if you love those typical cheesy rom-com or makjang drama, well I can’t blame you.
I believe it’s about time for K-ENT to step up their game and improve the quality of dramas they are producing.
Going back to the rating part, ‘Rating’ is not that relevant in this digital world. Those TV stations just don’t want to admit that TV viewing is becoming obsolete for advance countries such as Korea. It would only be more relevant to less developed countries esp. those with poor internet connections. Even then those TV index are prone to manipulation.
from indonesia
it just get talked because of the korean low rating, in fact is 90% agree it’s a cheap one from the chinese one and not worthy of accomplishment
@Yui High ratings and drama awards are not the guarantee of a good TV series. Especially those in SK = it’s all based on looks and who’s the most popular person in industry at that right moment. SK is obssesed by good looks and beauty standards and it looked like PSH got the award because she made a good work to loose lots of weight. There were better performances out there, but got unrecognised. When there is something out of traditional formula people start to complain and loose fast interest in it. There is always a sensation needed behind the scenes and there was a coffe truck support competition last year, I keep wondering what it will be the this year…
IU made a solid performance, people are just jelaouse.
@lost not even a fan of PSH but i think she was better than iu. I liked IU so much in Producer, but in scarlet, hmm… The actors that impressed me were ONLY kang ha neul and leejungki.
Okay, for some ppl rating isnt important but in fact, your eonni oppa actor and crew are looking forward to rating. They do promise this and that FOR THR SAKE OF RATING.
Quality? If scarlet has that quality, it would win like I HAVE A LOVER. But scarlet failed in acting. Only two actors acted properly.
I have nothing against scarlet. I have a lot of dramas that i quit watching halfway. Even a high rating like legend of blue sea. Even i agree that JJH wont get daesang. Even it got high rating it wasnt a buzz like Goblin did. The same goes to doctors. It got high rating but not really a hit, like Park Bogum’s drama (i didnt finish watching it too).
So basically scarlet was just another drama i quit watching. But you guys, fans of scarlet are kinda too much. If someone said it’s failed, sure, it’s a fail. Dont talk about quality since they havent bring excellent awards. when you say quality, prove it. While some other said failed, rating showed it. No excellent awards. That park bogum’s drama brought many awards.l including excellent award. You’re gonna say that bcuz of bogum? Remember the reply curse??? Everyone criticize him bcuz of that curse but then that drama got viewers attention. He broke the curse. So lets accept it. If you thibk it’s a good drama, you dont need to bash other dramas or actors. You just can tell ‘scarlet for me is the best. Thanks’. Thats it.
Cheers.
How in the world Scarlet Heart is an epic fail? It gave Nam Joo Hyuk 2 lead roles in a rom.
What is the point of super high rating if it leaves no lasting impression. Jang Bori for instance which hit almost 50% in rating. Popularity lasted only for weeks.
Moon Lovers is more successful overseas. In Japan alone, it’s been broadcasted to three different media already plus the massive bluray/DVD release. I will only site one as the lists would be long.
Quality is more important than rating as it attracks more audience. International market bring in more cash than domestic.
And also domestically, Moon Lovers have reached number on TV index plus many weeks on CPI.
FYI, ML didnt give NJH weightlifting. He got casted in July, way before ML air.
@lost and found
You’re absolutely delusional. WTF no one wins because they lose weight?? There are serious cases of popular people winning awards for acting, like Suzy once won MBC best actress award, even she was confused, or Kim Soo Hyun winning daesang for Producers. But what the hell… Doctors was relatively low budget sleeper hit, a summer hit that created a girl crush syndrome and it’s popular lines and clips were really popular, and this was all thanks to the actors. Heck, SBS didn’t even bother to promote Doctors as much as it did with ML. PSH deserved her award 100%, she earned it by working hard and yielding results.
Typical idol actress fans always come and bash actual actresses. At least the other commenter didn’t bash senior actresses acting, rather their choice of roles. You sound more ’jelaouse’ btw
So underwhelmed about shin se kyung who can give zero emotion while playing romantic character. Half of the time in her dramas I end up feeling suffocated since it’s so hard to connect to her character. Sigh there are so many talented actresses, out of them all they had to go with her?
Watch A Tree With Deep Roots and then say something about her acting. She was really great in that and Six Flying Dragons. If you watch her scenes with Han Suk Kyu, you wouldn’t say that she is a hopeless and underwhelming actress. She just needs a stron partner to bring out her strengths. In A Tree With Deep Roots, Jang Hyuk was actually weaker. And excuse me, Nam Joo Hyuk is exponentially worse than Shin Se Kyung. She will show as much chemistry as her partner and script allows her. Girl Who Sees Smells had great chemistry with PYC (you can think about this guy whatever you want, but that drama was before the scandal) and of course, her chemistry was really good with HSK, better than with JH in ATWDR.
Agreed. I really dont understand why people are still judging Shin Se Kyung with reference to her previous work some 5 years ago. I hv watched Six Flying Dragons last year, i really like her acting. Good luck to her!
Nothing personal but Shin se kyung has zero emotion while acting, Krystal is worse , Nam joo hyuk was good in WFairy… and Im Joo Hwan is a very good actor and it makes me sad to see him always left behind. He was so good in “Oh my Ghostess” and others works. But who knows ! we will see.
All I can say it is a great shame That Im Joo Hwan is only given a supporting role and not even a second lead. He is a very good actor and very underrated. Loved him in Uncontrollably Fond, Oh My Ghostess and others. He will definitely out act all these newbies!
What chemistry, when Half the cast is either famous for turning in poor performance if the role doesn’t suit him/her or non-existent emoting capability. What a mess!
what a combination of bland performers.if the script is written well and directed well, we may actually see improvement in their acting so fingers crossed.
So why do they need to bond if they are all professionals? Actors should be able to portray their characters according to script. This is the first time I’ve heard of this kind. Typically an overseas trip would suffice. Don’t they have a trip planned to Vietnam. I think an actors workshop would be more beneficial so they learn techniques to effectively act out their role.
You must be a newbie in the film industry scenes then. In major Hollywood, heck even in Bollywood, productions, director and producers send their cast to workshops and allow them to spend more time together even in the simplest manner such as bowling or hiking, etc. Do you really think they just do a script reading and go filming, one-two takes, some editing and -bam- broadcast? It definitely doesn’t go like that.
Hats off to filming crew and actors/actresses, especially in the live shooting productions because they go to high extremes, where the cast and crew only get 2 hours of sleep a day.
I can’t say anything before watching. Lets see.
There is some horrible ad attached to this site which keeps me from accessing it.
After watching Six flying Dragons, i am confident about Se kyung’s good performance. Keep up the good work! V much looking forward to.
Yeah, I also loved her in Girl who sees smells and I love Nam Joo Hyuk too. He was awesome in Weighlifting Fairy, I cannot understand why people insist that he is not talented, if he was really bad in previous projects, then he has been working very hard and improved quickly, which is something to praise.
I am optimistic since they have Misaeng’s writer and wish them success. I hope they will shut up all the critics later 🙂 It is a good sign that they are doing this pre-drama reatreat, it seems that they are taking it seriously.
Yes…..wish them both good luck n success!!
whenever SSK name comes up a lot of ppl who have never been to an acting school or participated in anything remotely connected to production have a lot of negative things to say. and although kdrama are defined as telenovela in all academic papers and aimed at a demographic group that is considered cultivated (look up ‘cultivated theory’ and ‘kdrama’) in social studies. everyone can have an opinion. so lets look at it systematically
SSK character always have comeback retorts and always the one to correct the male character and not the other way around which is the normative in kdrama
she gets very long Monologues again very rare in kdrama for female
so when a production wants a strong smart female that can pull long monologues they pic SSK which in itself the best reason for any women to watch
today is Women’s day and yet the future seem so bleak for women and it saddens me more than anything
These complainers (crybabies and oppar worshipers) only want the female lead to kiss, hug and profess their eternal and passionate love their oppars correctly. One ’frigid’ scene, and they are marked as no chemistry having dead fishes lol. No matter how strong and independent, intelligent, eloquent and no-nonsense having female characters they are, they’ll always get hated if their love for oppar wasn’t passionate enough lol.
And people who complain excessively about SSK’s acting obviously haven’t seen A Tree With Deep Roots or Six Flying Dragons. And quite frankly, she is the strongest link with Im Joo Hwan in this drama.
although her characters are always logical and sensible and i actually started liking her after watching ‘When a man loves’
in SFD she had so many monologues, i was so surprised and happy that a female character was getting so many lines to say at once and that her character was a leader instead of a follower
Righht.
why are they worry with ssk,while njh acting more questionable.
Even in wfkbj,he couldnt angry.
I agree absolutely. Shin Se Kyung’s roles were normally far more complexed than other nice girl roles which were typically offered to other girls of the similar age. People who criticized her only judge her ability to act based on her previous works, of which at the time of filming, she was just 22 or 23. Besides, i personally quite like her acting in Deep Rooted Tree. Even Fashion King wasnt that bad too. To be fair to Shin Se Kyung, please watch her most recent works like Six Flying Dragons before passing amy unbiased judgmemt.
Hmm, this is new or does TVN do this from time to time? I wonder if they are doing this out of desperation or necessity because the cast haven’t gelled well in script readings.
this is in fact the proper procedure of drama production bf filming they have something similar to improvisation class, where everyone sit in a circle with only chairs and scripts. and the actors reenact the scene from script. in kdrama land where no one really cares how they act and its ‘live’ filming they dont go according to procedure,
which is very obvious in the outcome of most kdrama,
which again no one cares as long as the female is silly and the male is glorified.
wow thats like a treat vacation before even filing begins. wonder what kind of budget tVn has. im all for it if it does generate good chemistry. SSK is the type that takes some warming up to. She felt vy isolated in Fashion King. She was ok in I can see scents. Her best was 6 flying dragons. I hope she can push her boundaries more. I hope NJH is more accessible like in WF, he wasnt that great in previous projects. I’ve always wanted more IJH, for me hes lead material but unfortunately if him, Kang ha neul and kim seul gi are only available to us in second lead roles in drama- have to take it s it is- whatever doses we’ve been given
I am sad that Im Joo Hwan got the second role lead again. He is so underrated… What the heck with Korean directors and producers that they keep underestimating his acting potentials.
this drama will flop for sure th lead sux acting will turn view off.
This thing about Im Joo Hwan is a reality which actors in their 30s must face unless you are among the top. It has nothing to do with acting ability. I have watched countless of shows whereby supporting or secondary actors perform better than the leads.
Looking at the casting, it’s obvious that this drama is targeted at the younger audience. I doubt Im Joo Hwan himself expect to be the lead but he still went for it for reasons only known to him.
Sometimes, an older actor wants to be in a youth drama perhaps to gain fans from that segment. Look at Lee Jun Ki, he gained young fans through Moon Lovers. Despite his fans complaining about him carrying the show, I think he went into it with his eyes open. He wanted to get back the hallyu fame he once had and he successfully achieved it. Maybe not in Korea but overseas.
For me, endless statement is useless. No need to continue A is better than B and on and on, if you love it then see it, if you don’t then leave it. That simple.
I love Scarlet to death, Doctor just okay and you can predict where it would end. I watched them all. Read a comment on you tube, many international fans hardly move on when Scarlet ended. I’m also one of those. I’ve been KDrama viewers since 2004. And so far only 2 dramas that got me hard to move one. Cheese In The Trap and Scarlet Heart Ryeo. You can say what ever you want, but that doesnt change the fact thet SHR is underrated in their home country, but well received internationally. Period !!!
Two of them have something in common is messy ending.
After reading all those comments it really feels like SH fans are such sore losers and they are still drumming on about it. It’s the past. For me personally, there is no denial I am a PSH fan but I don’t hate IU. Love her voice. However, she ain’t no actress. I just wish South Korea let the actresses do the acting and the singers/idols stick to their singing and dancing. A few rare natural talented ones can cross the line but not many.
No need to say such a harsh words. Have you done something with their lives to labeled them as a loser ?! Everyone have their own preference. I watch drama to entertain my self, not to stressed me out. Idols also want to try acting. They got the offered, they tried it out and nothing’s wrong with that. Some got success and some got failure. That is normal in life, not everything you do bring good result. But at least, we should respect their hard work.