Tale of the Nine Tailed (Initial Thoughts)

I added Tale of the Nine Tailed to my watchlist fairly long ago, back when it was in the pre-production stage. With worldwide production halts due to COVID-19, I fully expected this series to not even be released this year but to my utter surprise, it dropped in October and finished airing early this month. Starring Jo Bo-ah (My Strange Hero, Forest) as female lead NAM JI-AH and Lee Dong-wook (Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, Touch Your Heart) as male lead LEE YEON, this fantasy romance drama is sure to intrigue audiences and honestly, it's been a while since I've dabbled in dramas of this genre. Let's dive in.

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)

Most people will remember Lee Dong-wook as the beloved Grim Reaper from Guardian: The Lonely and Great God and this drama marks his return to the small screen as another supernatural being whose fate is tied to that of a normal woman, with their connection dating back centuries. Funnily enough, there's a reference to his previous role, with him commenting on how a TV show messed up the style of a Grim Reaper and how he knows many of them. Nice chuckle-inducing moment for those familiar with his previous dramas. Anyway, enough on that. His current character of Lee Yeon is a gumiho, a powerful nine-tailed fox spirit from Korean legend, and was formerly the guardian of Baekdudaegan (a mountain region). In order to bring the woman he loved back to life, Lee Yeon has given up his godly position and has spent centuries under the employment of the death goddess Taluipa, who tasks him to kill supernatural entities who bring harm to humans. 

Along his journeys, Lee Yeon ends up saving a young Ji-ah in 1999, whose parents were killed in a freak car accident at Yeou Gogae (Fox Ridge) and who's currently trapped in her room as two strange supernatural beings who're impersonating her parents try to get her. It's made known to us at this point in the drama that Lee Yeon thinks Ji-ah is his lover Ah-eum's reincarnation, who we don't know much about yet, although he decides against it and simply teleports her away from danger but not before charming her into forgetting him (or so he thinks). Fast forward to the present day where Ji-ah is a TV producer for "Unveiling Urban Legends", a show that focuses on urban myths and legends. As fate would have it, she ends up meeting Lee Yeon again, as they end up at the same venue but for different weddings. Lee Yeon has just completed another of Taluipa's tasks, having killed another gumiho at her own wedding, and we get a slight taste of his powers. Apart from being superhumanly strong and fast, he demonstrates hypnotic powers (like what he did to a young Ji-ah) and wields a mystical sword disguised as an umbrella.

As it turns out, Ji-ah still remembers Lee Yeon and after investigating the wedding he crashed, she goes on the hunt for him, resolving to find out more about her mysterious saviour. She ends up meeting a man who tells her to head back to Yeou Gogae to find Lee Yeon but that's just a ruse, as he's revealed to actually be our second male lead LEE RANG [Kim Bum (Boys Over Flowers, Mrs. Cop 2)] in disguise. With him is his loyal accomplice and fellow gumiho Yu-ri (Kim Yong-ji) and they scheme to chase down Ji-ah and eat her. Lee Rang almost succeeds in eating Ji-ah, even infiltrating her house in disguise but Lee Yeon shows up and saves her again, albeit not knowing about the situation beforehand. He reveals that Lee Rang is his younger half-brother and they fight in Ji-ah's house, with the whole altercation caught on camera. Lee Rang ends up leaving after threatening to kill Ji-ah if Lee Yeon doesn't find something by the end of the month. We don't know what that something is yet but we'll surely find this out soon. Just before he leaves, Lee Yeon attempts to hypnotise Ji-ah again and tells her to forget whatever just happened. 

Of course, when Lee Yeon heads home he finds out that Ji-ah recorded the entire fight and has somehow snuck into his house, being completely unaffected by his hypnotism. A flashback shows us that a young Ji-ah's memories weren't wiped by Lee Yeon, which is why she remembers his face. In an attempt to prove that he's not human, Ji-ah lures him out to the balcony with the original copy of the video and before he can reach her, she yeets herself off the ledge with full confidence that Lee Yeon will save her. As K-drama law will dictate it, he does exactly that, showcasing his gumiho prowess, vulpine eyes glowing golden. As they safely land on the ground floor, Ji-ah is elated to have finally found her saviour from 21 years ago and the episode ends with her injecting him in the neck with a sedative. 

Frankly, I'm quite amazed with Ji-ah's deductive skills and fearlessness. Even as a child, she figured out that the people in her house weren't actually her parents and in the present day, she not only deduced that Lee Rang had infiltrated her house in disguise but also outsmarted Lee Yeon and figured out his identity too. It's nice to have a strong female lead set up in episode 1 and while she's not a detective, I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of this amazing skill of hers as we progress through the drama. I think she'll present an interesting foil to Lee Yeon as well because his cocky attitude is totally matched by her dauntless bravery and I think their relationship will become a huge selling point for the series.

Something else I found intriguing about this drama is the mythology weaved into it. Apart from the multiple gumihos that we've seen just in the first episode alone, this mystical world also includes the Snail Bride (Kim Soo-jin), being the owner of a restaurant that Lee Yeon frequents, as well as totem spirits, specifically Yeou Gogae's (Woo Hyun), who inadvertently saves Ji-ah from a bus accident. It's very interesting to see all these supernatural legends in a drama and I'm hoping there'll be more as the drama goes on. Gumihos aren't new additions to K-dramas, having been the focus of at least three in the past. While the general public will think of gumihos as beautiful women, which was the case with My Girlfriend is a Gumiho or Grudge: The Revolt of Gumiho, this wouldn't be the first time we see a male gumiho, with Lee Seung-gi having portrayed a half-gumiho in Gu Family Book. At the start of this drama, we get a voiceover telling us that a 100-year old fox either transforms into a beautiful woman or a man with relations to one and of course, Lee Yeon is the latter. In terms of the general foundation of the drama, it's indeed quite similar to Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, and the gumihos' powers are indeed very reminiscent of what we saw from the Goblin. 

While we haven't gotten much backstory from any of the characters in the drama, through inference I'm going to assume that Lee Rang and Yu-ri are the ones who killed Ji-ah's parents and impersonated them, which is why when they're trying to break down the door and get to her, we hear yipping foxes in the background. On the topic of Lee Rang, I feel like many viewers have a soft spot for him and I guess I'll figure out why as I continue watching. I'm also very curious to delve into the relationship between the gumiho half-brothers and what Lee Yeon is searching for. These kinds of fantasy/mystical dramas primarily set in a modern era are a guilty pleasure of mine and this drama should be no different, with the first episode having completely grabbed my attention. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the rest of this series and I hope you'll join me as we uncover the Tale of the Nine Tailed.