Unnursvana
Iceland
This drama is all about the characters and their relationships, how the grow as a human being and so on. The real heart of it all is Yeo Woon and Baek Dong Soo’s friendship (or more depending how you read into it).Their relationship is the core of the drama and what makes it quite addiction to watch I must say. There is a lot of bromance, a whole lot of angst, some pretty people in pretty period clothes and some fun action and sword fighting scenes. There are some cutting of limbs and blood so maybe it isn’t for people who don’t like that or find that triggering but I honestly didn’t find it so bad. If anything I found it a bit too over the top and comical at times.
The angst is a blessing and a cure, as it can be a bit frustrating and repetitive, but the way Yoo Seung Ho does it is so good and even if you don’t agree with Yeo Woon or what he is doing or saying (no one is destined to be evil my boy) you can totally empathies with it, but I also think it’s because Yoo Seung Ho did such a good job with the character. He made the drama what it was! He is the angst in this drama and this drama is very heavy on the angst.
And I think that’s the case for a lot of the characters in the story, it’s the actors that make you like them, not the writing, which doesn’t do that good of a job (especially for the minor characters and the main female lead) to draw these characters out or give them consistent motivations. Some of them were as interesting as a dry brick wall, especially if the actor playing that characters wasn’t up to par.
There is a nice contrast and parallels between Dong Soo and Yeo Woon, and you can also see similar things in their relationship with each of their mentors, the Sky Lord and the Sword Saint. And it that aspect, and the angst, I think the writing did do a good job, while it severely lacked in others. I find it hard to comment on the political maneuvering and the intrigue, because this is an edited version of an old review I did back in the day and back then I did not really care or pay attention to these things as I did now. But it never really stood out to me, in my memory, for being super fun or that interesting to watch.
But I also don’t think it tried super hard with that. I think it was just suppose to be a fun action drama, with some lovable characters, and you just need to sprinkle in some politics for some extra tension in the story. It’s there but it’s never super heavy ether. And it sort of succeeded at that. It was just fun, for the most part; Angsty, but entertaining.
The story did start to drag a bit towards the end, and it did that classic kdrama thing (which isn’t as much of a thing anymore) where it got extended and the writers just had to find new angst and new things to fill in that hole that was created, which didn’t help it at all. It might have made the finale the way it became, which I will say has left some scars, so I don’t go into spoilers. Did I eat upp all that angst and all the drama and tears and whatnot that the writer did through at me though? well yes… I did. I just wanted to see more of Yeo Woon and Baek Dong Soo.
Yet, despite some flaws in the writing I can’t help but note how incredibly hooked I was watching this, how much fun I had and how many emotions I felt while watching this show. It made me the Yoo Seung Ho fangirl that I am today. I will always give Warrior Baek Dong Soo credit for that and for just taking me on a journey that I never got tired of the whole way through. It was also the start of my love and interest in sageuk dramas. It’s such a starting point for me. And I think it might be a good starting point for other people. Because it’s not super complex or super deep, and it’s mainly just about the friendship between these two dudes, and I don’t think it was trying to be anything other than that in the end.
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I am a big fan of when a story or a show can turn a cliché or a story you think you have seen so many times and make something new with it. Because even if this drama is just a high-school story at its core, with a really cliché love story in the background, there was just something fresh about it. It offered a different perspective on this type of story, different angle, which I just enjoyed so much.
There was this warmth that came with it. It was sweet, cozy feeling that was always there, it was light and fun throughout it all, no matter what clichés and troubles were thrown towards our main characters. And that is in large parts thanks to the characters that we followed throughout this whole story. They really made it their own. Cozy and sweet are the words I would without doubt use to describe this drama. Like a quiet summer evening just before the air started to cool and the world just seems to stand still for a moment. That was sort of the feeling this drama evoked in me.
Eun Dan Oh is just such a gem. I love her so. She is so true to herself. She is such a determined and cool character, and you feel so much for her and her quest to get to be herself. She just wants to live and be herself and be happy. Her shine was never diminished to focus on any love triangle or the boy’s story while she just floats on by until they need her. No, Dan Oh is absolutely the main character here, just like she is the main character in her life. She is this show's center through and through.
Meanwhile, all those clichéd things I would expect from a show like this one; the love triangles with these typical characters that came with that, the poor girl, the rich boys, the annoying mothers-in-law, that was all in the background. It moved the story along, but it was not the center focus. And I thought that take on it was such a brilliant thing. And how the character we were focusing on went in and out of the comic story while having their own emotions and views, and their own story aside from all that was so well done.
And by having a rather typical romantic story where you can almost see where it's going before it starts, if you've watched kdrama (or read shoujo mangas) in the background you could both avoid following it in the main story, as well as the play around with it to suit the main story and take advantage of it in a rather original way. And I think that made the drama so enjoyable to watch. Because this was something a bit classic that you knew, yet it was not totally what you knew. There was something different and new about it. And the characters were so wonderful and so vivid. They were allowed to step outside the box that was given to them or the ones we have come to expect from this type of story in a way.
Because the characters that Dan Oh meets and forms a friendship with can also avoid some of these clichés that you expect. The boys who would normally have been cast as the second leads against the coldhearted boy with a sad backstory who warms up to the world when the poor girl shakes his world a bit. They are the ones who are in the lead role here, except with a much greater personality and I just thought that was so neat. I enjoyed it so much. This drama was just so sweet, but not sickly sweet.
There were times when I thought it was getting a bit repetitive and there are certain things that did drag on for some time. But those dragged out and repetitive moments almost felt so typical to a story like this that I thought it might be done deliberately. The world in the drama is quite well thought out in my opinion.
There were times where I could see where the drama was heading but that never really got on my nerves. You could always see the authors intent for it. I was also just enjoying myself so much that I just let the drama carry me with it. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this drama. I let it consume me for three and a half days, and I am not usually a binge-watcher. But I just could not stop watching it.
I found it so sweet and cozy and fun. I loved the relationship of the main couple, I loved the friendship between the characters, I loved our main characters and her search for herself and her freedom and the freedom of those around her. I cried so much over the last two episodes, mainly because I just loved these characters so damn much and something about the story just moved me. And it has been a while since a kdrama has done that. And this is somehow not a story I expected to cry over, because it actually always managed to be rather light and fun even if the stakes were raised a bit.
At its core this is a very ordinary high school drama about love and friendship and finding yourself. The drama just does a lot of things really well. It is not perfect, but it is so sweet and with a huge heart behind it that makes you fall in love with it and it takes you on a journey. And it is just so nice to watch a story, or read a story that you know quite well, is a bit of a cliché but that you know you can enjoy if done well, and it is done really well. With a slightly new touch. And that is what this drama is.
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I have to admit that I did not expect to find a new drama that would hook me this much this soon after Rebel Hong Gil Dong. And I didn‘t really expect much from this drama at all, because it sounded very confusing based on the synopsis. And the first episode was kinda confusing as well.
The drama is only 12 episodes so the story is really compact and it does not really stray away from the main story. There are not a lot of side-stories in this drama. Or non that take us away from the main story, as in there are not many filler scenes. They used their time really well and they cowered their ground pretty well with these 12 episodes. Everything that is shows to us serve some purpose and moves the story along the story in a way.
Each episode is divided into two parts, so the first half-hour is dedicated to the 2017 part of drama, and then the second half is in 2037. And each part ends in some exciting way, or on a cliffhanger, so you have to continue watching to get some answers. And drama was very keeping you at the edge of your seat.
At first I found this leap between different years, especially when each part ended on a very exciting note, a bit annoying. Especially when I had more fun watching what was happening in 2017. But later, the 2037 part started giving me all the answers, and these two parts started connecting a bit more that I became utterly hooked on this drama.
All I can really complain about is how many women were missing in this drama. And sure, Han Jung Yeon (and Byul) played a leading role, and it was such a great, interesting role that you really rooted for. She was great. And then Park Min Young and one other one, who was Human B’s assistant, were great supporting roles that brought something to the story.
But what I mean is that there were not a lot of women in the background of the show. I would have liked to see more women have more responsibility. Because you saw too much of men in such places, running around as body-guards, scientist or police-officers, but very few women. And that’s not something I want to see in 2037.
That didn’t really ruin the drama for me, since I was very hooked on the fast-paced story that took place during these 12 episodes. It was just kinda annoying seeing mainly dudes running around.
Even if the show uses a lot of elements that you can find in a lot of other sci-fi shows, this show really manages to be its own story. It didn’t go overboard with the tropes, as I could not really figure out where the story was going. It kept me on my toes.
It kept me guessing. There was always something happening that I did not expect and made me feel excited about the next episode. And I just had a lot of fun watching it and I felt like they did a really good job, from the writing to the acting, in making this a damn good sci-fi drama.
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The story of Miho (Gumiho) and her earnest quest to become human really got to me, as well as the tone and the humor of the story. I was hooked from episode one. The story and the characters were quirky and intriguing and I just couldn’t get enough and that feeling sort of stayed there or just grew even more as I continued to watch the drama.
It was pretty solid in the acting and the writing department, the leads were really likeable and it was just very cute and fun to watch. I had such a good time with it, it felt breezy, with some fun fantasy elements thrown in there, and some fluff; which is honestly what I require from a rom-com such as this. I don’t think it dragged too much. Some might say it’s far fetched, I think it fitted with the fantasy elements of the story.
I even liked the comic-relief characters, which doesn’t always happen. They do tend to annoy me and just be in the way of the main story or the main couple and sometimes I just get bored with it, but I think the Hong sisters usually do a good job writing them as quite the likeable characters with their own story that you can get invested it, while also making them fit well into the main story.
The problem on the other hand are often the second leads, which they use more as props to add tension to the plot, or as obstacles to the main couple. They aren’t that well developed and one of the few negatives I will give this drama.
I really liked the humor here, which doesn’t surprise me since I also really liked You’re Beautiful and My Girl. The humor that the Hong sisters use just clicks with me, I guess. There were some good laugh out loud moments for me (and as someone who rarely laughs out loud that’s something), and even when the drama goes a bit more dramatic toward the end, there are always some cute, heartfelt or chuckle worthy scenes in every episode
The main couple was super cute, the chemistry there was off the charts, and I quite liked the journey they had about learning to be become more human together, since Dae Woong’s grandpa refers to Dae Woong as non-human at one point because he is lazy and always up-to-no-good and he really matures throughout the series and Miho learns how to be human and what that is like, as she is a mythological creature. She is one of my favorite kdrama heroines.
I am not too familiar with the Gumiho myth, but I also feel like they handled the fantasy elements or how they corporates it into the story without it being over the top, too bizarre or creepy (I’m looking at you, Twilight), even if she is what 500 years older than him.
My Girlfriend is a Gumiho sort of just manages to do all of that for me, so I am very happy with it. It really tucked at my heartstrings, it was cute and fun and had some heart and humor, and overall I just enjoyed my time watching it. I even watched some of it even when it wasn’t completely subbed, on Viki, just because I couldn’t get enough of it and I just wanted to watch it sooner rather than later. I even watched it again a few years ago and I still bawled my eyes out when it ended, because I just loved it and the characters so much.
The Hong sisters haven’t always delivered such amazing show for me after the holy trinity that is My Girl, You’re Beautiful and then My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, but when they are good they are goooood.
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