Tale of Gumiho Ends with a Whimper Ruining the Great Start and a Fabulous Second Male Lead
Man, the last four episodes of tvN Wed-Thurs drama Tale of Gumiho (Tale of the Nine-tailed) has been as bad as the first two episodes were great. The drama started going downhill after episode 6 when it was clear the two leads had zero romantic onscreen chemistry no matter how angsty the backstory written, and the big bad was just this smiling douche with motivations that don’t resonate and actions that fall flat on intensity. The drama averaged around 5% ratings and the last episode got 5.785% so it’s higher than predecessor Flower of Evil took in but I think people must have been bored and wanted to keep watching to understand WHY all of it was happening. That’s my motivation, I figured if I didn’t get the backstory of the Imoogi that would bother me, and in the end I didn’t get anything meaningful. The ending was fine if you like dumb happy ones that make no sense, and Goblin fits that bill too but the first 15.5 episodes of Goblin were phenomenal so it gets a pass but Gumiho sucked for the majority of its run. The best part was Kim Bum‘s second male lead Lee Rang, such a hurt little boy who still does the right thing, and in the end he got the ending that leaves a mark.
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Hahahaha… oh man. I dropped this way back. Dramas start off great, go to the dogs in the middle, then usually can’t even stick a good ending. It must be a curse. Same thing happened with that Do Do Sol Sol drama – one of the most WTF endings I ever saw.
do do no no had the worst kdrama ending I watched this year. Im not generally a violent person but I wanted to be violent towards LJW character’s Jun.
I didn’t drop this drama because I really like the relationship of the brothers, they carried the entire show for me, and I also liked the interaction between puppy and Lee rang as well. Tbh I would shop the LEE brothers together if they weren’t related haha Vet and the Russian fox annoyed me in the latter half of the drama. But yes, this drama was so-so.
Oh I wish it was the FL that get sacrifice not rang. I hate it.
Me too. I haven’t got this feeling for such a long time. How is that she’s okay with others sacrificed for her? Writer just made her character selfish in the end.
Dropped this way early. I didnt feel the chemistry thus could not understand why the heck it all was happening.
Even with Kim Bum being so good i just didnt get the point of this drama. Sad that it all came crashing down but after the flimsy narrative and zero chemistry i kinda expectes this.
Won’t be watching it so what happened to the 2nd ML? Just that Ms Koala keeps talking about him.
Thank you.
From Erika’s comment above, I assume he died.
Lee Rang dies, he sacrifices his life to bring back his brother Lee Yeon. It was deemed a life of equal value to trade because by then Rang had found happiness and his family so he no longer thought his life sucked and didn’t care of he lived or died.
What makes this even more tragic is that they did all they could to make sure this drama this drama was a hit and it fell flat. 3 photoshoots to sell the OTP. A variety show appearance. They made it air 30 mins earlier than Flower of Evil and previous dramas in that slot.
Whats mindboggling though is that Lee Dong Wook and Jo Bo Ah have amazing chemistry offscreen but all that fizzled away when they act?. Or maybe its the story or directing? I cant put my finger on it. It cant be that they didnt act well, Jo Bo Ah had chemistry with Park Hae Jin prior to this drama, Lee Dong Wook and Yoo In Na also have sizzling chemistry so I dont understand.Kim Bum was great.
I think even though this drama had consistently good ratings throughout its run. Its going to fade away like Record of Youth. No afterdrama buzz.
I’m probably going to get shot for saying this but Jo Boa was miscast. The couple was no visual match, had no chemistry and there’s a great height difference between them so their scenes together were awkward. As the main protagonist is the male gumiho, they should have chosen a different female lead, because the plot relies heavily on the believability of the love the fox had for his bride. Not surprised that Kim Bum rocked his role, YouTube is full of clips of scenes Kim Bum with his older bro LDW, or Kim Bum and the Russian Fox; and less about the main romantic pair in the drama. That says a lot. I cut my losses and dropped the drama at ep. 6, so I’m not surprised at the crappy ending. And I got a kick out of the clips based on Lee Rang cause after 16 hours, what I really wanted to learn was how Lee Rang ended up. Rumor has it that Bummie will be shooting a spin-off ‘Tales of the Gumiho, The Untold Story’. Don’t know how true that is, though.
I’d take the bullet for you, bud. Couldn’t agree more with your sentiments. Dropped it too so this is based on what I watched. JB cries well but I found her overall acting a bit one-note (same wide eyes, open mouth in every scene). LDW sometimes came off like he was trying too hard to be this cool badass who gives zero f**ks. And I’d also put some of the blame on the writing and directing. This drama, like some others, could have been so much more. I’m not sure a spinoff is necessary though.
I don’t think Jo Boa was miscast, she was pretty good as imoogi or as a reporter.
The lack of chemistry doesn’t repose on her alone. I think it was more the writting. Their couple didn’t have any strong bases. The past story was lacking.
Agreed! What a coincidence because I stopped at Episode 6 also. The promotions were also over the top and a little too try hard. At some point it was becoming a chore to watch this so I just looked for clips of Kim Bum. This was a great comeback role for him that I’m sure will lead to male lead roles. Looking forward to that!
I literally stuck around for everything that was not related to the OTP’s romance. Heck, Jo Boa was great when she wasn’t with Lee Dong Wook – this point in particular is really sad, because the story could have been amazing if they casted someone else. Anyhow, I’m in love with Lee Rang and Yuri and I think they will get more opportunities in the future. This is sounding like Start Up where the second lead is gaining more attention.
What I really didn’t get was the last scene. Like I thought he was human? Wasn’t that his last wish??? Why is he a gumiho again? The scene just felt recklessly tacked on.
The story was nonsensical, the only interesting characters (Imoogi, Rang) didnt have expansion on their storylines, and lives were sacrificed for a boring vanilla romance that had zero chemistry.
It got to the point that my sister and I were yelling at JiAh to just die. The whole pandemic storyline was also extremely poor taste.
Literally anyone else couldve been the lead (Imoogi as a Good Omens type antichrist, Lee Yeon and Lee Rang’s historical storyline, the Moon Bear and the historical village) and it would’ve a much more interesting drama.
JiAh and Yeon sucked.
I didn’t buy the romance. They should have taken it off. Like bro, you’re a thousand year old god who literally watched a 6 yr old girl grow up then proceed to fall for her. I had to drop it there. They made a good pair of partners in crime though. They should have just focused on familial love – redeeming the relationship between the two brothers and reconnecting the FL with her parents. The romance was not necessary. I didn’t care for their happily ever after but I was broken hearted for Lee Rang. DoDoSolSolLaLaSol was the opposite. The leads had crazy chemistry but I didn’t care about the rest of the cast. They managed to give everyone a decent ending except for the main couple…
Agreed. I was way more invested in the Lee brothers storyline and wish they made them the two main leads. It would have been more interesting and different. I am also really tired of the thousand year old god and the human girl that grows up and reincarnated (a la Goblin). I wish there was more creativity to that.
Lee Taeri did a great job as Imoogi. Something was off in the ML and FL chemistry but their acting was fine to me. I actually enjoyed ep 15 and 16.