Striking an addictive bait with confidence, Tale of the Nine Tailed introduced a fictional K-Drama world that makes viewers go all-in to explore.
Featuring characters that are interestingly sketched, their growing connection is in the horizon for upcoming chapters of Tale of the Nine Tailed.
In all honesty, how Lee Dong Wook suits up to another supernatural character, is something I am looking forward to the series. And it looks like the writer has taken a lot of time to make sure that every shade of his character is appealing.
Equipped with chic fashion sense, the cultured fox wields a powerful umbrella reminiscent of the enigmatic charm of Kenshin Himura. *wink His penchant for ice cream and transparent decision to confirm his unearthly nature to curious human are also quite adorable
Likewise, Kim Bum who owns that trademark bad-boy-you’d-love-to-fall-in-love-with swag, looks motivated to deviate from the recent bromance trend in K-Dramaland. His bickering moments with Lee Dong Wook preludes to looming iconic showdowns between them.
Mixing a smart heroine. played by Jo Bo Ah, and a lively supporting characters; the drama’s premiere definitely knew the right button to push for its presence to be felt by the audience.
Charting 5.8% and 5.6% nationwide viewership score on its first two episodes, it achieved the highest-episode premiere for Wednesday-Thursday slot of tvN this season.
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | Mid-Series | 09 – 12 | 13 & 14 | 15 | Finale
abbyinhallyuland watches Tale of the Nine Tailed on iQIYI
Tale of the Nine Tailed Opening Week Story
Working as a passionate producing director of a show that specializes in supernatural stories, Nam Ji Ah (Jo Bo Ah) is an orphan after losing her parents in a road accident when she was young.
She survived an attack from mystic evil foxes through the help of Lee Yeon (Lee Dong Wook), an ex-mountain deity who has since settled in the world of mortal. Cutting a deal for his first love’s rebirth, he has since been working as a punisher to wayward foxes.
Fated encounters after 25 years
Forced to get up and suit up to his human-protector role, Lee Yeon goes to a wedding ceremony to catch a female gumiho about to marry a mortal. Pleading to at least attend the ceremony, the bride-gumiho broke her promise resulting to a chaotic subduing by Lee Yeon.
At the same wedding hall, Ji Ah also drop by to send well-wishes to an acquaintance. She and her junior at work, overheard the ruckus about the missing bride.
Right up to the alley of her show, her interest is even more piqued when she found traces of fox fur as confirmed by Vet Shin-joo (Hwang Hee). He is also a gumiho and a close friend of Lee Yeon.
Lee Fox Brothers
Another fox mingling with the mortals is Lee Rang (Kim Bum), younger brother of Lee Yeon who harbors resentment towards him. Apparently, Yeon’s denouncement of his deity stature left irreversible emotional damage to him.
Their strained relationship often leads to fox-fight with Rang’s favorite hobby happened to be causing trouble to his brother. He is often in the company of Yu-ri (Kim Yong Ji), who has taken over the body of a rich lady from a chaebol family.
His latest provocation though nags on Yeon even when he denies it. That is because any remote news of the possibility of Ah-eum being reborn is his life’s purpose.
Yeou Gogae Bus Accident
When Ji-ah probes on the vanished bride, she was not aware that Lee Rang lured her to cause trouble to her brother. If not for another spirit fox disguised as old drunkard, she would have been in trouble. However, Ji-ah sees the image of Lee Yeon whom she’s suspecting to have connection to the unexplained incident.
Unknown to her, Lee Rang shape-shifted to his older brother’s image. After eating all the bus passengers while pretending to be a high school girl, he continues his pretention and ploys to attack Ji-ah when she offered a shelter.
But smart Ji-ah has an uncanny ability to see through minute details. She alarmed Lee Yeon through a note of her situation and he came in time to save her again and rambles with his headstrong brother.
Ji Ah’s Discovery
Unknown to the two fighting brothers, Ji-ah has furtively captured the ruckus they caused in her place. Armed with a USB of its recording, she confirmed her deductions by freefalling from the balcony of Lee Yeon’s penthouse. Activating his power, Lee Yeon caught her up before she hits the ground, but he failed to foresee the brave woman injecting a tranquilizer on him.
When he wakes up, he obliged a chat with the dauntless PD who asked for his help on his quest to find her parents. Using the video recording as a leverage, she failed to win his cooperation with request. So, she dipped the USB inside the teacup and demands the fox rule of always paying back to trap him into agreeing.
Lee Yeon’s Mission
A regular employee at the “office of afterlife”, Lee Yeon frequently whines to Taluipa (Kim Jung Nan) about his thousand-years of waiting for his bride to be reincarnated. In episode 2, his brief love story was narrated. The girl he loved, A-eum looks exactly like Ji-ah. However, over the years, he has met women who wears the same face as Ah-eum, but they did not possess the fox bead that he gave her.
After Lee Rang dropped a hint of his cherished first love to have been reincarnated, he visited Taluipa to scoop if its true. She warns him that meeting her will change the course of his life again, but he is determined to be reunited to her regardless of her age and gender.
He also learns that Ji-ah’s parents are not registered to have crossed the afterlife.
A visit to a cryptic island
Dedicated to unearth the mystery of her parents’ death, Ji-ah go the extra mile to probe about the discovered skull in an island. Lee Yeon tags along because of another taunt from his younger brother.
Staying at a room provided by the daughter of the discovered dead local, Ji-ah struggled to get information from the island dwellers. They then seek help in the mountains where they meet the mountain spirit who also implied a strange change in the village. She also tells Ji-ah that she has a connection to the island and gives a direction to go Northeast.
Arriving at a cave following the mountain spirit’s tip, Ji-ah figures it was the same cave of her parents’ photograph and wonders why they visited the island. At night, Lee Yeon gazes on Ji-ah and whips his magic, but did not get the result he was trying to achieve.
The next day, when Ji-ah tries to talk to another local, the unruly man hurt her shoulder and was rescued by Lee Yeon. Giving her a quick mountain herb treatment, Ji-ah complains that she feels hot. Lee Yeon is also surprised to see a mark showing on her skin.
Suddenly, she motions to choke him and declares to be the one he has been waiting for. She also questioned why Lee Yeon killed her.
Tale of the Nine Tailed Opening Week Peak Points + Musings
Tale of the Nine Tailed has dropped quite a bomb with its widely-projected plot. There’s a lot to explore in its metaphysical premise. At the same time, I can’t help but anticipate more of the characters’ back stories.
Spinning the romantic tale of a gumiho and a woman bound by mutual love and promise easily attracts anyone who craves romance stories. The amazing news is how its lively tone cushions the tragic backstory and future story the characters of Lee Yeon and Ji Ah have to confront.
Kim Bum sketched as the troublemaker villain has been made more interesting and less creepy by how his cheerful demeanor. He’s like your notorious nephew who always gets away with his small ruckus because of his adorable smiles.
What to look forward to?
What happened to the Lee family after Yeon’s decision to give his all to his one great love will surely be discussed in the future episodes. Likewise, unearthing the mystery about Ji-ah’s parents death or vanishing is also one of the plot bends to anticipate.
Fantasy-romance Korean dramas have taken quite a surge over the years because its conflicts do not warrant detailed explanations. It can always bank on “magical fix” if plot direction goes awry. So, I hope the series will sustain its promising opening week.
Taking the same feel of the other popular drama where Lee Dong Wook played a popular grim reaper role, what makes Tale of the Nine Tailed stand out so far is how its male leads are more limned in a significantly active tone.
Aside from the regular banters that lead to scuffles, the Lee brothers have blended to human population well. Even their emotions and line of think resemble mortals.
My primary question to the plot is why Lee Rang wreaks havoc and gets away with it. It seems like the fox world has punishers like Lee Yeon, why is he not being restricted? His abuse of his shape-shifting ability is also hinting to cause some headaches for Lee Yeon and the story. Will there be a redeeming moment for him?
Then, I’m also curious to peel the subsequent super power parade of the gumiho characters in the series. The references on fox’s nature are also signaling more elements from Korean folklore that might be featured in the series.
All arrows point to Ji-ah as the woman Lee Yeon has been waiting, for over a thousand years. Was her parents’ vanishing connected to the hinted connection of her fate to Lee Yeon? If their hard-fought love story won’t go an easy route, at least let’s hope for a satisfying closure.
Tale of the Nine Tailed airs every Wednesday and Thursday on tvN.
Opening Week Rating: 
Photos: tvN
Streaming Site: iQIYI
