6/10 is my rating. This is a 2020 South Korean romantic supernatural drama with 16, 60-75 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review.

Synopsis

At one time Lee Yeon (Lee Dong-wook) was a guardian mountain spirit but he fell in love with a human who was killed. In his grief he struck a bargain to live among humans in the city and hunt other supernaturals who broke the rules. In exchange for his service, his love was to be reincarnated although he did not know when or who she may be reincarnated as. In all of his Over 1000 years as a Gumiho, and during his long wait for his love to be reincarnated, Lee Yeon has seen many humans who resembled his lost love but has discovered they only look like her they are not her reincarnation. So when reporter Nam Ji-ah (Jo Bo-ah) recognizes Lee Yeon from an encounter as a child, Lee Yeon does not assume there is any special connection. But the two are connected not only through a tragedy in her past that may have taken the lives of her parents but even more so by the fact that Nam Ji-ah is the reincarnation of Ah-eum, the woman Lee yeon was waiting for. As Lee Yeon finds himself attracted to Ji ah he is confused as Ah eum had his fox beecd and her reincarnation should have had the bead as well. But Ji ah does not have the bead although so much about her is like Aheum. Others notice Ji ah’s similarity to Ah eum including Lee Rang (Kim Bum) who was jealous of his brother’s attention and the fact that he gave up his guardian role for love. And others from the past alsotake notice of Ji ah. The two fall in love allover again as Lee Yeon fulfills his current obligation as well as solving the mysterious events of the past.

Review

I waited to watch this because of mixed reviews. Recently there were some really positive reviews so I thought I would give it a try.  I think whether or not someone likes it would be influenced by how much of a purist they are.  If you take “Little Mermaid” as an example. The original story is not very uplifting.  Most renditions of it take some broad artistic license in telling the story and deviate a lot from that original story. With “Tale of the Nine Tailed Fox” they stick close to that lore, particularly at the end of the series.  I am not in love with the actual lore any more than I am a fan of the real “Little Mermaid” story.  I like the concept but don’t want to watch something that follows it as it does not have the best outcomes. The romance is okay. Their chemistry is fine but there wasn’t the slow build up. I would not watch this again and would only recommend it to those that are super fans of any of the main actors or that like stories that stick to a more pure form.  It has some sad moments but I wouldn’t characterize it as overall sad. I think it is very mediocre amd would have stopped watching it if I was not already half way through.

Spoilers

The love story was really 600 years before when he originally fell in love with her. We saw so little of that original story it was hard to buy him waiting 600 years for her.  Because his test was the “fox bead” being present or not it made me curious if all those others that looked like her might have been her reincarnated in earlier times.  It never addressed why those earlier people that looked like her were not her reincarnated when the test he was using was flawed.

 I liked his brother but it made no sense to me that he was doing evil things to his brother just because he felt abandoned by him. If you love someone so much you are hurt by them not paying attention to you why would you do things that could result in their demise.  I was glad he came around and the brothermance was one of the few good qualities of the show.  But I did not enjoy the first part of the show where he was simply being jealous and immature.

 You have this cool nine tailed fox that did some interesting things catching some of the bad supernaturals in the beginning but that was such a small part of the whole series.  Mostly it is him just pining after her.  Long scenes with the romantic music of them just gazing.  I got bored.  My daughter, who I was watching it with, was more bored than I was.  My boredom started after about episode eight and was not alleviated until about ½ way through the last episode. There just wasn’t that much happening. I found the serpent to be a boring super villain. The nine tailed fox wasn’t doing anything cool and it was just them fawning all over each other and stressing about her turning into a serpent.  She could have been reporting on all kinds of cool supernatural stuff and he could have been helping her.  But no.  Just more and more of just them living their life.  It was boring.

 What was up with grandma turning to stone? She turns herself to stone then he sacrifices himself and she just turns back? How? Why didn’t they talk about that more.  I mean I was glad she was back. I liked her even though she could be really cold.  But explain how that happened at least.

 So, in the end we go through several scenes thinking he is now human.  Oh woe is me I have to get a root canal.  Being a human is hard. But, surprise, at the very end we see he is still a fox.  What? How? I thought he died and was reincarnated. And part of all that was he was now human. But I read somewhere that the cast said if you understand the real story of the gumiho you get it. So I read it and apparently one way a fox can become human is to trick their love interest for three years into thinking there are human.  So that is what he was doing.  He was tricking her. But not very well because he slipped up about them having a daughter. But why would she trip on that anyway. He could have just been saying that.  I get they were sticking to the lore and all that but they did not explain that lore to the viewer. So, unless you knew to go read about that, it was just confusing. Why was he faking it?  And that doesn’t even make sense to me anyway. No more than bubbles with the Little Mermaid.  I didn’t like it.  It was silly.

 Why did the brother die?  I was just liking him. And what cold people.  So sad when Lee died but then the brother dies, they shed just a very few tears and then are like Lee is back. No big deal brother was sacrificed.  They made a big deal about him having a family but he didn’t.  They didn’t seem to care beyond just those few moments.  Life went on perfectly without him.  In fact it smoothed over all their newlywed troubles.  The little boy didn’t even seem to care his surrogate dad/brother was gone.  But don’t worry he is reincarnated as about a six or seven year old child.  Okay he looks like him but I thought you were convinced that all those other people that looked like main girl were not her.  So how do you know that little boy is him?  It was just stupid.  And how do they explain some are reincarnated as a newborn but some seem to appear at various ages.  Too weird.  Not buying it.  Not even in a mythological sense.

 I guess I am of the unpopular opinion that this just wasn’t very good.  Lots of potential with such cool characters (foxes and other immortals) but they just told a very boring love story.  I never like love stories where they get together too soon and that is what this felt like.  Okay. They are together. Let’s go home.  Oh she is going to turn into the serpent?  I don’t care.  You had your love story.  And the side love stories? Also pretty uninspired.

#TaleoftheNineTailed. #LeeDongWook #JoBoAh. #KimBum