Tale of the Nine-Tailed (2020)

Not bad, but not that great either

I started Tale of the Nine-Tailed thinking I'd like it a lot because from what I'd seen, it looked like a mashup of Goblin and Legend of the Blue Sea, which are two of my favorite dramas. Sadly, TotNT is just a kinda average drama with some frustrating plot holes, and suffers from the "tell, not show" syndrome. The drama told us too much and didn't show us enough.

The Good:
1) Kim Bum as Lee Rang. I loved this bad boy. He was honestly the best character. He had his priorities straight. Too bad he died to save his love-struck and love-blinded brother. He deserved better.

2) Yu Ri and Shin Ju. They were the cutest couple. Way better than the main couple.

3) Lee Rang and Lee Yeon. The relationship between the brothers was more dynamic and interesting than the main couple's relationship.


The Average:
1) The music is ok. I don't plan on buying any of the OSTs, but there wasn't anything I particularly disliked about it.


The Bad:
1) The "tragic fate" between the two lovers Yeon and Ji Ah was cliche and not executed very well. The modern romance happened too fast, and their past lives backstory was told through too much exposition. Did we see why Ah Eum was taken out of the palace or why she wanted to kill her father? Nope, they only told us. How much of Yeon's and Ah Eum's romance did we really see? Maybe five minutes? Not enough to really care about it.

2) The missing parents story was wrapped up too quickly, and they adjusted to being missing for 20 years far too easily. They were pretty much caricatures, given so little actual development that I hardly believed that they were her real parents and not more fakes.

3) So many innocent people died while Yeon tried to figure out a way to save Ji Ah, that I was disgusted that they seemed only to care about saving her. In the words of Gatekeeper Granny, "How many lives do you think that thing will take away in three days? Who says their lives are less important than the one you're trying to save?" Near the end, I wished Ji Ah would just do the right thing and sacrifice herself, because then I might actually have some sympathy for the main couple.

4) Imugi would've been a much more interesting villain if we'd been shown more about his origins. Show that disfigured child in the pit of death, show his emergence as the white snake. Show his fury at being denied the position of mountain god when Yeon first took over. But instead, we were just told about it.

5) I hated that Lee Yeon's love for his brother was not as strong as Rang's love for him. Yeon only seemed to swoop in to save Rang when it would result in benefitting Ji Ah, or when he absolutely had to: such as when Rang was about to die because of his fox contract. But when Rang was once again on the brink of death after getting stabbed, Yeon didn't even try to save him. Why? He was too busy having a seaside date with Ji Ah and pretending to be a "normal" couple. It seemed like Yeon's love for Rang was inconsistent. On the other hand, Rang loved his brother without any ulterior motive. He just wanted his brother to live.

6) The ending was trite and didn't make sense within the story logic that had been established during the drama. Lee Yeon reincarnates as a grown adult? Lee Rang's reincarnation is a 10-year-old child who had to have been alive before Rang died? They seriously forced that happy ending.

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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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Overhyped, Below Expectation Drama

First of all the most positive things I can say about this drama is the acting of Kim Bum and Lee Dong Wool.
Now lets start the review:
The first 4 episodes are the best. You will love them, they will keep your curiosity and you will like be the characters (not all maybe). But after these, episode 5-6 are the most boring and really bad episodes, they are like filler to this drama. After these the ride for the enjoyment is up and down. Some episodes are good and some are bad.

The romance between the leads is best in the starting episodes then it becomes cringe. You will see yourself fast forwarding their scenes together. They have chemistry sometimes and sometimes there is none.

As for acting,
Lee Ding Wook is did a good job not great. This role suits him. He is cunning and humourous.
Bo Ah, Not a fan of her acting and never was. Her she did a good job in few episodes. But her acting is cringe sometimes. She is not suitable for the romance here or maybe the writing is poor.
Kim Bum, Never saw him before, this is my first drama of his. He is the shining star here. You are gonna love his acting.
Side Characters also did a very well job.

Overall it is not a bad drama. The writing could've been a lot better.

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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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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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