Tale of the Nine-Tailed (2020)

This is a great fantasy thriller drama with a nice romantic storyline. The action scenes are fantastic and, for the most part, acting was done well. There could have been better chemistry between the leading couple but, overall, it was not too bad. The brothers Lee Yeon and Lee Rang’s story and interactions were the best part of this drama. Both actors did great bringing their characters to life. The supporting cast provided lots of funny moments to smooth the thriller moments in the drama and their storylines were interesting and engaging. The most baffled moment is Lee Rang’s unnecessary demise. In an effort to create a dramatic flair, the writer failed to take into consideration that Lee Yeon valued his brother’s life more than his own. It’s paradoxical to have to sacrifice a life for a life that has done the ultimate sacrifice to save his beloved. Although this drama brings about the theme of self sacrifice for a loved one, it is also a tale of obsession. It is disappointing that once one of the main characters reaches great character development and finds the true value of family, his life is seeing as less important and okay to be sacrificed to satisfy an underworld god’s greed and Nam Ji-A’s obsession. Now, the ending might seem confusing to some, but it is a very welcomed twist to the finale. The drama is entertaining, enjoy it!

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I'm not sure of what I've watched

Nothing new. It's okay, millions of drama exist so it's okay if something it's repetitive, I guess.

I don't like when these supernatural stuff is seen as "cool" "sexy" bla bla I mean, I can't explain it well but to me it's been pretty childish. It's not THAT bad but it's just tiring. At least to me.

I had to drop it because I couldn't take it anymore. The story was actually interesting but I got irritated every time for how the main characters are handled.

Completely uninterested about the main love story, it didn't make my heart race not even once. I'm more interested in the two brothers.

Maybe when I relax a bit I'll finish those 6 episodes but I had to take a break from the characters.

LITTLE SPOILER
When she told her two friends/collegues whatever they are about the Gumiho and what they were in their past life I don't know, it just became ridiculous to me. With that attitude like "I know everything, I'm cool, I'm about to make your mind blow" STOP PLEASE.

PS. The actors did a great job, it's not their fault. Something had to be fixed. I'll try to finish it and in case id fix this review.

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Twilight with foxes and snakes

Story: This is Twilight knock-off - supernatural beings, a fox and a snake (but both looking like hot human men of course) fight over a human woman below their league - but without a proper love triangle and with much older ML and FL which is the main problem. You can't have characters in their 30s behave like teenagers and expect that to work. The romance in this is beyond awful and drags the whole thing down. ML and FL have zero chemsitry, are very unlikable and their romantic montages are diabetes inducing and cringe. They worked OK when they weren't romantically linked (yet) but were more of Mulder and Scully in the earlier episodes. But the show rushed to make them a couple without a proper foundation and then proceeded to make their romantic scenes more and more inane and senseless. Cases in point: SPOILERS The couple takes a romantic getaway while ML's brother is lying in coma on the verge of death. They also take numerous dates in restaurants and amusement parks during a deadly outbreak. SPOILERS END

Not all is this bad which is why the show is so frustrating. The bromance between 2 fox brother is really compelling and should have been the main story, without romance preferably, or with romance as a side not focus. This is also the reason why first 9 episodes (some lagging in episodes 5 and 6 notwithstanding) are stronger than episodes 10-16. They are more focused on brothers and Ep 9, which is the best in show, brings their relationship to a satisfying closure. If only the show ended there.

Acting: ML and FL are awful. Maybe it's because they play characters who should be much younger than their age. The constant and nonsense vows to save one another as if no one else matters (his brother and friends, her parents and friends, people who were dying because of them) are tiresome but at least understandable for teen characters. Not so for 30somethings, one of them being a career woman who should know better.

I'm sorry LDW fans but he is just playing himself, always acting self-conscious "ain't I the hottest thing?" with repetitive smugness, pouting and one brow raising. I have a feeling that this was meant to be his Goblin where he was ML not SML like in Goblin. And indeed, the show panders to him so much, more than dramas usually pander to their MLs, that I'm positive that this is a vanity project. Not only that every character who isn't his got shafted in order to make his character always look cool, but SPOILERS the last episode is literally one long LDW praising reel. It even ruins secondary characters' wedding for they and guests are asked to praise LDW('s character) which takes attention away from them. SPOILERS END

Jo Bo Ah is both miscast and awful in this. She just doesn't cut it as someone who would have a Mountain God spend 600 years pining for her and who would get a teenage or barely out of his teens Snake God-posing-as-an-intern horny for her (especially when truly beautiful fox Yu Ri is right there). Also, there's no real difference between Ji Ah and Jia Ah Imugi. They both bulge their eyes a lot as if crazy, but I guess Jiah cries a lot while Jiah Imugi laughs a lot so that's the distinction.

The standout and the reason to watch this is Kim Bum. He is just terrific, giving a layered, believable performance that's much stronger than many awarded ones from more popular shows. Skip the romance and watch for Kim Bum is my advice.

The supporting cast runs circles around ML and FL despite having nothing to work with for all characters were massively underwritten. I honestly can't say a bad thing about about any of them for they did the job and made characters out of nothing and had a strong rapport. Also, Kim Yong-ji is so beautiful and likable, she would have been FL with Kim Bum as ML. Now that would sizzle.

OST: Amazing. Together with Kim Bum and supporting cast, it's the show's strongest link.

Rewatch Value: Low. Rewatch for Kim Bum. He gave a tremendous performance that deserves to be seen. Skip ML/FL drivel. It's really that bad and there are good romances in other dramas so why waste time on a terrible one?

Overall: Squandered potential, a drama that starts as X Files but ends up as Twilight and even butchers that premise. There is no reason to make the (much younger) villain horny for the heroine if there is no payoff. Though the noona romance tease is more interesting than vanilla crap with ML and FL and at least the young villain conveys that he wants to jump in the sack with FL. Something that is entirely absent from ML and FL interplay. They are too busy making vows to save each other and crying 5 times per episode than actually looking like they want each other. I know that dramas are super chaste but many actors know how to convey real desire unlike these two. They are all platitudes and no passion.

Also, too many characters that don't add up to anything. As enjoyable as they may be in a vacuum, about 50% of them had no consequence and no real role in the main conflict between the heroes (ML and FL) and the villain. And speaking of the latter, you cannot have an effective villain if you don't let him move the needle. He has to do something that raises stakes for the heroes and creates a serious setback for them. Instead, he was given nothing because it was mandated that ML had to be the smartest man in the room every time. Imagine Avengers: Endgame without Thanos winning in Infinity War. There would be no Endgame. You have to let the villain win, and win big, to have a big payoff. This drama has no payoff cause there were never stakes and there were never stakes cause ML was too cool, smart, always prevailed in every episode and thus killed any suspense and stakes that could have arisen from villain's actions. In short, drama without drama.

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Big mess with room for potential

First half of this review will be spoiler free, other half will contain spoilers.

I was so frustrated by this that it was the first drama that gave me the motivation to start writing a review. I seriously have no idea why this is the kind of drama that is being hyped and loved around the internet when there really is nothing good that comes out, except for Lee Rang, the second male lead played by Kim Bum.

To give it initial praise, Tale of the Nine Tailed managed to create the very complex and 3 dimensional character Rang who has a solid storyline and character development arc. Maybe if this drama was solely about him I would've given it at least a 7. But it's not like I'm saying Rang was an extraordinarily written character, it's just that he was the best out of everyone else here with some questionable personalities.

Starting with the male lead Lee Yeon, I just dislike him. I don't know what they're trying to make out of him, but he's just a cheesy narcissistic douchebag who cares more about his half orange parted hair than his own brother. Not only does that look on Lee Dongwook a turnoff, his personality is just as turnoff, reminding me of the next door "Kdramas to Avoid" aka Lee Gon from TKEM. To me, Yeon is just a selfish jerk who acts like he has too much on his plate atm with lack of development because the drama makes it out that he's been perfect from the beginning. LDW's acting was decent, but Yeon isn't.

Next is the absolute worst female character of 2020, Nam Jiah. There's an obvious fine line between being brave or recklessly stupid and she's definitely the latter. Okay fair she's trying to research more on urban legends because it's her job, okay she has a strong driving force which is to find her parents, bUT ITS DEFINITELY NOT OKAY TO COME IN A SUS LOOKIN PLACE THT OBV HAS MONSTERS IN IT WHILE UR EMPTY HANDED JUST CUZ UR FORSAKENLY CURIOUS. Please ma'am use your braincells and stay out. U. R . A. MORTAL. The ending of the first episode did not just went all impactful for it to be destroyed the next ep by some damsel in distress who never learns her goddamn lesson and does the same thing again to the point Yeon has to save her over and over again at like every other ep.

Jo Boah's acting was also ehh. This is my first time watching her so I may not be too sure, maybe this role doesn't suit her, but here she's a prime example of actors not knowing how to make use of their huge eyes and just stare out wide-eyed with no change in their facial expressions everytime they act. To add to her badly written character, the scriptwriter does a bad job at giving her lines. She talks like an old-timed philosopher using allusions in the same tone to evoke for pity effect from the male lead.

The chemistry is almost non-existent, and I seriously just don't know what they see in each other; it's just love that comes from the multiple savings needed. The second lead couple Yuri and Shinju was also not that interesting eventhough they still did better than the leads. It's one of those instances where two people just randomly decides they want to date each other. Yuri seems like she has potential to be a pretty interesting character, but Shinju was kind of plain. More like, every other side characters are just basic, useless, and only contribute as fillers.

The story is just everywhere. Well, plus point for spooky factors that actually scared me. But several scenes are just irrelevant. There was one arc in the beginnings about an imoogi island which purpose other than for leads to get closer was never really explained thus another loophole is formed. Some other events could've posed for more potential, but they dragged a lot of other things. Even the main imoogi conflict was the most boring.

Acting from villains are also quite cringe. Can't say Lee Taeri wasn't that convincing as imoogi, and they did tried their best to do whatever the script was telling them to, but again, the scriptwriter is horrible since there is really no need for them to talk so dramatically and cheesily that the dialogues just make me want to mute the audio. Say you want to say "I killed that man." The characters of TONT will say it like, "The blood of the wanderer has perished upon my hands." ...The world doesn't speak like that.

Petty complains: It was also hella laughable when they added random not that intense action scenes at the most absurd moments, and the way Yeon fights was so cheesy. The drama seems to want to go for that vampire vibes with the quick speed teleportation fighting and overall just makes it more cringe. Personally felt that color gradient was also quite disappointing, they relied on a lot of random light vibe-unmatching sky colors that made it cheesy. Tbh this drama is just full of unnecessary cheese.

Forcing out compliments, OSTs were good and hardcore to make up for the lack of intensity, especially "Blue Moon".

*****SPOILER ALERTS*****

I previously mentioned Jiah's driving force was to find her parents. That caused the biggest loophole. First of all they never explained why the villains even want to cause that accident. And then the whole drama's purpose to find the parents is suddenly lost after they were found cause right after that they only had the world's most awkward 10min reunion and then done they don't talk about it anymore. And that leaves a lot of questions. How are you going to adjust after 15 years missing? How are they going to get a job? What's going to happen? But no, they just decided to use the parents opportunity for Yeon to visit them and cause even more filler couple moments.

My biggest pet peeve with this drama is THE SELFISHNESS. Basically imoogi has the power to control people around him to be suicidal or just instantly kill whoever crosses paths with him and the only solution is to kill his other half in Jiah's body. What they could do is create a scenario where they're investigating on the mysterious deaths cause yes it's strange, but no. Every other human there acts like pawns who are just REPORTING 900 DEATHS A DAY and the rest of the main chars are calmmm. Am I seeing this correctly? If the leads even have the least amount of conscience, I know this sounds mean to say, but Jiah should just sacrifice herself. That's actually a solution mentioned by a side char, but the drama just made her out to be heartless and cruel. I mean she ain't wrong. Even if it's fiction, imagine if it occurs to you where you suddenly see people around you dying at once and there's a definitive solution but the only people who can stop this aren't doing their frikin job cause they wanna pROteCt tHeiR lOVe. Bruh at the least if you have figured out another method with no tragedy, just hurry up and get it done with already instead of just dating everyday like it's nobody's business. The drama doesn't even bother addressing that to depth cause apparently it's normal and sympathizeable for the leads.

Lastly, the ending was just stupid and unreasonable and beats the entire purpose of the messy conflict. They even tried to insert a samsung PPL. The entire scene was just too dramatized and cringe, and moreover lacked explanations.

Conclusion: Ew.

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My Favorite KDrama of All Time

This was one of the first KDramas I ever watched that wasn't a romcom and while is started slowly for me, I stuck it out and I'm SO glad I did.

This is where my obsession with Lee Dong Wook began. lol The female lead was nice, I have no complaints, she just didn't really stand out for me at all. Lee Rang (Kim Bum) however.... very different story. I had already seen him in Boys Over Flowers as that was my first drama ever, but I was super psyched to see him in this as well. And I only got even more excited when they mended broken bridges as family.

I also really loved Lee Tae Ri as Imugi and Hwang Hee as Goo Shin Joo. I haven't yet watched the prequel to the show as I want to binge it all at once!

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Came for Lee Dong Wook, Stayed for the Plot.

I genuinely cannot say enough good things about this drama! The main girl character is not a cry-baby, and has a good head on her shoulders. (I’m a huge fan of strong female leads who can take care of themselves. I do not mean to put any of the other female characters down, it’s just not my preference). Even the main villain is likable! Not a lot of kdramas make a lot of the antagonists complicated characters. A refreshing break from the typical, power and money hungry CEO. So far, all of the characters in this story have been extremely well written.

And the best part of this show,in my opinion, is the DIALOGUE !! The actors have such a great way of talking with each other and it just feels so natural. It’s not cringey at all, and even when translated into English, the jokes make me laugh.

Another good part is the chemistry between the two main leads. It’s actually crazy how well they suit each other. It’s not some cringey, miscommunication stuff, but real adults learning to love each other, and I think it’s just so beautiful.

The only bad thing I can point out is the effects and hair extensions? But that’s literally it... and it doesn’t distract me from the story at all.

In conclusion, this drama is 100% worth anyone’s time. Even if you’re not into fantasy or particularly romance, Tale of the Nine-Tailed has a perfect balance of both. With fantastic pacing and an interesting storyline, this is one of the few dramas I actually look forward to watch every single week

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21st Century Gumiho

I was waiting for this show since ages. And finally it arrived.
Daring female lead And 21st century Gumiho giving us a deadly combination.
I'm waiting for the upcoming episodes ♡♡

4/12/2020 I've completed this story.....

Never got a vibe like this. Especially the ending, it's CooL
❥❥❥❥❥
Rating : 5/5
Acting/Cast : ♡♡♡♡♡
Chemistry btw leads : ♡♡♡♡♡
Chemistry btw support : ♡♡♡♡♡
Product : ♡♡♡♡♡
Plot : ❥❥❥❥❥
BGM : ❥❥❥❥❥
Re-Watch Value : ❥❥❥❥❥

Never regrets watching this show, especially who loves ;
*fantasy *Gumiho *Melo/Rom *Thriller *Action

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Could be better if there was no romance

This show is good enough to watch if you are bored to death. If you are trying to kill your time and you have nothing to do in this world you can watch this show. So the female casting is really bad she had Just one job In which she fails miserably . She had 2 Personalities In her But when she switches to another personality nothing changes nothing at all. Her acting was still same her expression were still same her accent was also still same . When this drama started it was really promising but.........
the romance is also kinda lame. The male lead is really good and the actor who played his brother is also good but they can't save this drama. Other side characters are also good.

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Loved it

So far this drama is so fvking good. Like the plot, the actors, the story line. It's so addicting and I don't kno, it keeps you interested in it.

Edit : this drama was like a rollercoaster of emotions. It had action, comedy, a sweet romance and cute side characters. And that cute little kid and his relationship with Lee Rang was adorable. I can say I got way too attached to Lee Rang, so I was crying everytime something happened to him, especially when he sacrificed himself so Lee yeon can reincarnate, and then when lee yeon watched the message lee rang left for him, god these were two moments to which I cried too much. I really loved their bromance, I mean you could see throughout the drama how much they loved each other.
I got to love him more than the main leads, which doesn't happen too often. I loved the chemistry of the main leads, and their love story, a fox who waited many lives so he can try to save his love and this time he succeeds.
I like it way more when every character is well portraied, when everyone has their own stories and own problems, I think it makes the drama more complex and you can understand way easier why that character does what he does.
I think it's enough as a review.

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One of the standout features of "Tale of the Nine-Tailed" is its breathtaking visuals and seamless incorporation of CGI. The mythical realm and supernatural abilities are brought to life with impressive special effects, making the viewing experience visually enchanting. The attention to detail in the portrayal of gumiho lore and the integration of Korean mythology into the narrative contribute to the show's unique charm.

The character development in the series is commendable, particularly in the case of Lee Yeon. As a centuries-old mythical being, his journey of self-discovery and redemption adds emotional depth to the storyline. The supporting characters, including the mischievous Lee Rang (Kim Bum), Yeon's half-brother, and the mystical Imoogi (Lee Tae-ri), contribute to the complexity of the plot.

While the romance is a central element of the story, "Tale of the Nine-Tailed" doesn't shy away from exploring themes of betrayal, loyalty, and the consequences of one's actions.

However, the series occasionally struggles with maintaining a consistent tone, as it seamlessly transitions between lighthearted moments and intense, darker themes.

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MY FIRST DRAMA AND ONE OF THE TOPPERS IN MY LIST

This was my very first drama that watched.
if this drama was bad then I would have never gotten into K-dramas in general.
this drama is actually really good.
I am a huge fan of fantasy but realistic dramas and I gotta say this one really did impress me. tale of nine-tailed is one of a kind drama which hast one of the most impressive story and plot.it is different from any cliche love stories with a touch of action and suspense which would leave you moved.....
ACTING10/10
CAST10/10
STORY10/10
MUSIC10/10
I would definitely recommend this to anyone, a beginner /intermediate absolutely anyone can watch this and get carried away very easily

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in this drama it's have a deep heart touching meaning

TOTNT DRAMA ITS A MASTER PIECE YK IT WILL M AKES YOU CRY ACHES ON YOUR HEART MAKES YOU MISS YOUR BELOVED ONE YOUR LIFE IS ONLY ONE YOU DONT HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE TO LIVE THIS DRAMA WILL MAKE YOU REALIZED THAT HOW BLESSED YOU ARE YOU CAN HAVE LOVE FEEL LOVE LOVE ONE OUR LIFE IS VERY EXPENSIVE AND WHOM WE LOVE WE CAN GIVE UP ON OUR LIFE WITHOUT BLINKING YOU SHOULD WATCH IT BLV ME YOU WONT REGRET IT WILL MAKES YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH LOVE AGAIN
STAY BLESSED MAY GOD SHOWER YOU WITH LOTS OF LOVE AND HAPPINESS 0 :")

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