REVIEW: The Ghost Bride [T-drama]
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Re-watch value: 0 out of 5 stars
Synopsis
*From DramaList*
Set in 1890, a young woman was forced to marry a dead man as a ghost bride in exchange to have her family's financial debt forgiven. Her attempt to escape the obligation was complicated by her discovery of a conspiracy that was much bigger and more mysterious than she ever thought she would be in.
Rambling
*beware of spoilers*
It’s been a little while since I last watched a T-drama—my last one was Triad Princess, another absurdly short drama that I quite enjoyed, actually.
The Ghost Bride is not bad. But I can’t turn around and say it’s amazing. It’s based on the southeast Asian afterlife mythologies or beliefs: burning effigies and paper money to send to your loved one in the afterlife; souls exist in this dreary purgatory; some souls turn evil; some souls are good and thus reincarnate; and others defy the natural order to “live on” in the afterlife without receiving judgement/punishment (i.e., what Tian Ching does). Oh, and the concept of a “ghost marriage.”
I hesitated starting this one because I thought the horror aspects would be lame and the romance nonexistent. I was right about one and not the other: the horror aspects weren’t lame at all (a sizeable Netflix budget helped with that), but the romance(s) was super undercooked.
At one point it almost seemed like Li Lan had three possible romantic interests: (a) Tian Bai, her childhood sweetheart who’s come back to town after 5 years at school in Hong Kong, (b) Er Lang, the 500-year-old heavenly guard intent on solving the mystery of who or what is supporting Tian Ching in the Netherworld, and (c) the villainous Tian Ching himself, who is played by an undeniably sexy dude. I don’t think any of the guys particularly fit. I didn’t root or ship any pairing; I thought each guy had too much going against him.
Tian Bai: Dealing with an arranged marriage, and his clingy fiancée is in town. He was a suspect in the murder of Tian Ching for a split second. He’s all mind over heart, duty to family over love.
Er Lang: A mischievous ass hole who tramples all over Li Lan whenever they cross paths on their own investigations. Doesn’t like to apologize for any wrong he’s done. Has a particular knack for needing to be rescued. He’s a wannabe Immortal, not really “baby daddy” material.
Tian Ching: He’s dead. And a fiend. I mean, he nearly killed Li Lan’s dad just to get her to agree to marry him.
The show turned into a Beauty and the Beast situation once Li Lan agrees to become Tian Ching’s bride and the devil unshackles her dad from whatever fatal disease was gripping him. I don’t think I liked it because an elaborate mansion hidden in plain sight on the tundra of the Netherworld seemed like total bull shit to me versus a magical castle in an enchanted forest…
Li Lan and Tian Ching
In the end, Tian Ching leaves the love rectangle, and all of their Sherlock and Watson in the Netherworld leaves Er Lang a strong player. Tian Bai gets out of his arranged marriage because, you know, his fiancée murdered Tiang Ching—her secret one-time lover—and put Li Lan in a coma. He proposes to Li Lan, she accepts, and then she becomes jaded by the wedding prep process. She opts to dump the sweet Tian Bai, leave each person in her life an explanation letter, and run off to fight demons or whatever with Er Lang.
All this to say, I don’t think the romance was done well at all in this show. I don’t think this show even really tried to craft a strong romance and give opportunities for some of these characters to beef up their chemistry. The most chemistry I saw was between Tian Bai and Li Lan before and just after the engagement reveal. There’s no skinship or kissing to speak of (well, I take that back. Tian Ching plants one on Li Lan in the Netherworld, although it’s not truly shown).
Li Lan with Tian Bai
Now, characters throughout the show seemed easily persuaded into believing in the existence of supernatural forces and heavenly beings living among us (like the character Er Lang). I think that was a little tough for me to get over. Many characters around Li Lan were informed about her vivid dreams featuring the recently deceased Tian Ching and his threats against her—which didn’t sound crazy to anyone, didn’t raise any alarms that maybe Li Lan needed a therapist or a straitjacket. Instead everyone was like Holy shit, what are we gonna do about this dude?? A bizarre thing, but I had to keep reminding myself that this show is set in 1890, and this culture isn’t mine.
There was a decent amount of buildup regarding the “judge” that Tian Ching bribed; it felt like a big twist was coming. When it was finally revealed that the random bro with green boots (I can’t make this up) turned out not to be the judge but it was another totally unknown lady character, I was left scratching my head. Why were Er Lang and Li Lan working toward finding this evidence and catching this person when the identity is literally a nobody?
I think the true villain was the mother who spoiled Tian Ching so rotten that she had to nourish his selfishness even after death. This bad momma trapped Li Lan and her poor family, so why does she get off scot-free? Even her speaking with Li Lan’s dad after the jig is up and everyone knows what’s going on—she was totally unsympathetic and unempathetic toward his plea to make it all stop and give his daughter back. Why she would cause another parent to go through the same loss that she went through it beyond me, but it is incredibly greedy. In the end, she played the victim card and almost made it seem like she was addicted to making her son happy and needed to quit feeding the beast.
All in all, if you’re looking for a high-budget period piece (with a bizarrely modern soundtrack) heavy on the mythology and light on the romance, it won’t take a medium to tell you to check this show out.
Did you see The Ghost Bride? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
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