My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (Gumiho = Nine-tailed fox) is the latest drama penned by the famous Hong sisters (Hong Mi Ran, Hong Jeong Eun) who also created hits like My Girl and Delightful Girl Chun Hyang. Their work just prior to My Girlfriend is a Gumiho was the series You're Beautiful, which didn't exactly get high viewership ratings officially but was hugely popular.
My Girlfriend is a Gumiho is a 16-episode series that gives a creative bend to the myth involving a creature in korean folklore called Gumiho or literally translated as nine-tailed fox. Set in a modern world, it is a story of a 500-year old Gumiho who was released after being trapped in a picture. It manipulated a human by the name of Cha Dae Woong to draw nine tails on an old picture thus broke the spell and subsequently freed it to once again roaming the world in its human form, a bewitchingly beautiful woman. Cha Dae Woong was a spoilt rich kid who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. After realizing that he had brought disaster upon himself, he tried his best to please the Gumiho in order to stay alive (according to folklore, Gumiho eats human liver).
The Gumiho was chased by a Gumiho-hunter, another non-human being, but was spared the killing after the hunter saw its human form, which had an uncanny resemblance to his old lover, whom he killed more than 1000 years ago. Through its interaction with humans, mainly Cha Dae Woong, Gumiho slowly grew a desire to become human. Gumiho-hunter told Gumiho that it was possible if a human being was willing to keep and take care of Gumiho's magical bead for 100 days, so Gumiho tricked Cha Dae Woong into keeping its bead inside his body. Cha Dae Woong, despite not knowing the real reason, was more than willing to the task. As an aspiring action movie star, Dae Woong needs the power of the magical bead to completely heal from a fatal fall so that he could proceed with filming his first ever action movie. What both of them didn't know was that at the end of the 100 days, only one would survive and lived on.
But many things could happen in 100 days. The Gumiho grew fonder of the human, and the human became less and less scared of Gumiho, even to a point that he sometimes thought the scary fox was actually quite cute!
As often the trademark of the Hong sisters, the drama was filled with hilarious situations and unexpected turns of events that kept you entertained. It wasn't exactly a solid writing, but the idea and the story itself were interesting enough to keep you going (personally I think their best work to date is Hong Gil Dong, and Fantasy Couple comes in second). In most cases, they managed to avoid cliché, or gave some twists to it, thus spared us viewers the necessity for head-banging against the wall. However, their portrayal of the relationship between Dae Woong's aunt and the action movie director was sometimes bordering on lame and over the top. But if I wasn't so keen on wanting the story to move on so I could know what's going to happen to the main couple, I probably wouldn't mind so much. A little annoyed. Maybe. Oh, well.
Shin Min-ah (The Devil) as Gumiho was perfect; appearance-wise she nailed it. Lee Seung Gi in his second leading role after the success of Brilliant Legacy was not so bad himself. Even though sometimes their acting seemed a little awkward, I couldn't quite tell whether it was intentional or otherwise. Nevertheless, I have not much complain about the overall cast.
In short, another entertaining series from the Hong sisters. If you are a fan of their previous works, you probably will like this one too. And the main characters Gumiho-Cha Dae Woong are just too cute for words. The actors have enough chemistry to make them a believable couple. Plus point, the OST is nice. It tugs at your heartstrings, whether you understand the lyrics or not. The drama series is far from flawless, but it is still one of those dramas that I would want to recommend to my brothers, and perhaps rewatch it with them while I'm at it.
My Girlfriend is a Gumiho is a 16-episode series that gives a creative bend to the myth involving a creature in korean folklore called Gumiho or literally translated as nine-tailed fox. Set in a modern world, it is a story of a 500-year old Gumiho who was released after being trapped in a picture. It manipulated a human by the name of Cha Dae Woong to draw nine tails on an old picture thus broke the spell and subsequently freed it to once again roaming the world in its human form, a bewitchingly beautiful woman. Cha Dae Woong was a spoilt rich kid who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. After realizing that he had brought disaster upon himself, he tried his best to please the Gumiho in order to stay alive (according to folklore, Gumiho eats human liver).
The Gumiho was chased by a Gumiho-hunter, another non-human being, but was spared the killing after the hunter saw its human form, which had an uncanny resemblance to his old lover, whom he killed more than 1000 years ago. Through its interaction with humans, mainly Cha Dae Woong, Gumiho slowly grew a desire to become human. Gumiho-hunter told Gumiho that it was possible if a human being was willing to keep and take care of Gumiho's magical bead for 100 days, so Gumiho tricked Cha Dae Woong into keeping its bead inside his body. Cha Dae Woong, despite not knowing the real reason, was more than willing to the task. As an aspiring action movie star, Dae Woong needs the power of the magical bead to completely heal from a fatal fall so that he could proceed with filming his first ever action movie. What both of them didn't know was that at the end of the 100 days, only one would survive and lived on.
But many things could happen in 100 days. The Gumiho grew fonder of the human, and the human became less and less scared of Gumiho, even to a point that he sometimes thought the scary fox was actually quite cute!
As often the trademark of the Hong sisters, the drama was filled with hilarious situations and unexpected turns of events that kept you entertained. It wasn't exactly a solid writing, but the idea and the story itself were interesting enough to keep you going (personally I think their best work to date is Hong Gil Dong, and Fantasy Couple comes in second). In most cases, they managed to avoid cliché, or gave some twists to it, thus spared us viewers the necessity for head-banging against the wall. However, their portrayal of the relationship between Dae Woong's aunt and the action movie director was sometimes bordering on lame and over the top. But if I wasn't so keen on wanting the story to move on so I could know what's going to happen to the main couple, I probably wouldn't mind so much. A little annoyed. Maybe. Oh, well.
Shin Min-ah (The Devil) as Gumiho was perfect; appearance-wise she nailed it. Lee Seung Gi in his second leading role after the success of Brilliant Legacy was not so bad himself. Even though sometimes their acting seemed a little awkward, I couldn't quite tell whether it was intentional or otherwise. Nevertheless, I have not much complain about the overall cast.
In short, another entertaining series from the Hong sisters. If you are a fan of their previous works, you probably will like this one too. And the main characters Gumiho-Cha Dae Woong are just too cute for words. The actors have enough chemistry to make them a believable couple. Plus point, the OST is nice. It tugs at your heartstrings, whether you understand the lyrics or not. The drama series is far from flawless, but it is still one of those dramas that I would want to recommend to my brothers, and perhaps rewatch it with them while I'm at it.
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