The thread is now open for comments, analyses, rants and raves.
Gifs from last week’s episodes.
Ahhh. So that was Zombie from “Zombie Detective” was doing with air freshener.
Watch him do that eyebrow trick a hundred times in this drama.
The umbrella homage
And this is me when I’m looking for a good drama to watch. lol
Enjoy the show!
Burning question-Will there be a run on mint chocolate chip ice cream in Korea?
Ladies, I don’t know if this is a “global” phenomenom, but WatchAsian seems to be down. Do you know of free streaming site alternatives?.
I was hoping to watch Episode 3 but alas, it probably will be other day (or in another site).
Thanks in advance!!!
You can try Fastdrama.me or Dramacool.movie.
I’m having a hard time getting interested in this drama. It seems to start in the middle without any character development. Episode 3 is confusing and I have yet to figure out everyone’s motives. It is not particularly exciting or suspenseful – more like a cartoon.
I will wait – it has to get better. Watch Zombie Detective for now.
Mr. Tom, I have a soft spot for Gumihos… you could blame it on Gu Mi Ho (Shin Min-Ah’s character in “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” back in 2010 =D ). So far I am enjoying the creepy vibe. I am still waiting -maybe in vain- for Ms. Jo Bo Ah to show her funny bone (her character in “Surpluss Princess” was really good).
Anyways, even if WatchAsian came back and I am right now around minute 25 it is pretty great to have some other possible sources, so Many Thanks!!! =D
Thanks @pkml3!
@FGB4877 I managed to get it only on 1 server on Dramanice.video There are 2 servers listed, please try the 2nd one.
Sorry to be a downer but even in episode 3 I don’t care about this drama at all. I’m feeling frustrated that I feel this way. Lee Dong Wook looks amazing though, there’s no chemistry between the two leads at all, and I’m the only person who dislikes Kim Bum as the weird antagonist/villain. Just nope.
I did a quick watch of Ep 3. @TomJW I know what you mean about starting in the middle. Episode 2 ending is continues from the middle of Episode 3.
What we are seeing in the start of Ep 3 is the part we were not shown in Ep 2, before it leapt to the ending scene of Ji Ah suddenly manifesting a different personality and identity.
I don’t know if I’ll expect much in the way of character development in this show. It’s more plot driven and possibly more intent on unveiling more mythical creatures than on giving us rounded characters. That being said, however, we still got to know more backstory about why Lee Rang hates his brother. It’s crazy, though, that he hates him enough to be prepared to go to the Underworld with his brother.
I find that watching this show through the lens of letting it unveil the next urban legend or mythical creature makes it interesting. It’s execution is not as good as some other shows, but not all bad, and it’s obvious that some characters are meant to be caricatures. Once we know what to expect, it’s watchable. Of course if it gets annoying, I may drop it too.
I was amused to see that my suggestion that the human heads were part of ritual sacrifice actually came to pass. This seems to be connected to the shaman’s service to the Imoogi or something similar.
We also get introduced to another mythical creature, the giant serpent Imoogi. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it’s not necessarily evil, and sightings of it were supposed to bring good luck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_dragon
Besides the Imoogi, other urban legends that surfaced were:
The nature of curses – One had to give a blood sacrifice to call forth evil upon ones’ enemies. Possibly aided and abetted by an evil gumiho, the curses had real repercussions and caused death.
Reviving a dead mythical Beast – A sacrificial victim (female) had to be offered, and her blood sprinkled on the place where the Beast was ‘buried’. From the previews, I wonder if it will resurrect as an infant.
Cannibalism – Not a palatable subject, show touched on it briefly. It was perhaps raised in order to give a motive for curses as comeuppance for those who dared to practise it.
Gumino Lore – When a Gumiho breaks the taboo of killing a human being, it has to be punished, even if the Gumiho is Lee Yeon.
A circle made of “evening primroses that grew on the flesh and blood of corpses” creates a boundary which gumihos cannot surmount.
Gumihos cannot see much in the dark? Lee Yeon summoned fireflies to light his way and lead him to the Shaman.
Never give to or accept anything from an evil gumiho, one will constantly owe them something and they will exact it.
Possession – Ji Ah’s consciousness was briefly overtaken by some other personality within her that seems to have been the spirit of the dead Imoogi.
In the conversation between Lee Rang and the Shaman, the latter said that ‘Prior to entering the wench’s (Ah Eum’s) body, the Imoogi entrusted the family of shamans a portion of his body.
Since Ji Ah seems to be possessed by the Imoogi, that means that she really is the reincarnation of Ah Eum.
Thanks @GB for putting it all together for us. Really appreciate it. 👍🏻
Yes I think the Imoogi is a baby now and is kept by that man who saved Lee Rang after he got killed by Yeon years ago. So Ji Ah is definitely Ah Eum.
After watching episode 3&4 I’m still onboard with watching it. I still find it interesting and I think it’s more learning the mythical creatures and the other world rather than the romantic side of it. 😊
@agdr03 I’m glad you’re still on board with this show. I wonder at times if I’m just talking to myself here LOL.
I’m liking the dishing out of all kinds of urban legends and the attempt (with sufficient success) in weaving a tale around them.
(๑◔‿◔๑)
I hope the ASCII art I chose make nice and not naughty faces LOL. Goodness knows what they turn out to be! (✿◠‿◠)
Don’t worries, @ GB. If you must know, the views thread is actually neck and neck with the views on Dodosolsollalasol Ep 4 thread.
So people are lurking around for your posts, and a few of them I blocked from posting (because I’m a big bad meanie). 🙂
Dear @GB, I love how you weaved those points together. Thanks also for the recommendation of going to the second dramanice server. A small detail that I didn’t like is that the dead fisherman’s daughter is supposed to be limping as a price for her curse, yet in her scenes after that she walks normally. I guess that was a little blunder that can’t be adressed due to time constrains.
On the other hand I loved how he finally found her to be his reincarnated lover when he ditched the idea that she was not an old ideal but just a person he liked and didn’t want to let down. He had to detach from that old idea to find the correct person.
Thus far I am having a good time with this Drama. It has a creepy vibe yet there is an undercurrent of cheekness I like. I am still waiting for Jo Bo Ah’s humor to kick in.
Changing subjects I still don’t feel Go Ara’s drama thus far. I couldn’t get pass of her wedding fiasco scene. Maybe other time.
Hope to read all of you soon!!! =D
I follow both dramas (and more actually).I’m old and playing catch-up. I love fantasy so Nine Tails is right up there for me. Korean folklore is new to me and I love the animal/human connections. I also enjoy a good reincarnation story so this does the truck for me. I am so happy you’ve given us this thread to follow. And I also am happy to see lots of strong women characters- absolutely love the Gumiho administrative office personnel-seriously great comic relief coupled with plot enhancement-nicrly done. And finally, I appreciate foxy men….
@pkml3 @FGB4877 @Old American Lady
Thanks @pkml3 for assuring me that I’m not just posting into a void. I’m always grateful for a place to share my thoughts, like throwing a message in a bottle, into the sea of life.
@FGB4877 – That’s a good catch about the lack of limp in the daughter Pyung Hee. A plothole and mistake in directing.
I like your idea of how she ‘became’ the right reincarnation of his gf when he stopped trying to fit her into the mould of the past love.
It was on that bridge with knives flying about him that he decided that it didn’t matter who she was, the pain of her dying would exceed the pain of all the stabs/cuts he was getting, and he seemed to have a conversation with her (plus a vision of flashbacks of them together) to stay alive until he got to her …
This coincided with her realising that although she’d always managed alone before, she was this time waiting for him. There seemed to have been a moment when she called his name, and when she had the flashbacks to the times he saved her, then she snapped back to the present and her predicament. I wondered if she had also caught a glimpse of how he was being sliced while trying to get to her, but I believe that when he addressed her from the bridge, she had heard him.
I’d like to believe that, that synchronisation of flashbacks and desires got LY off that bridge in time to break her fall.
I also like how the tear she shed dropped seemingly onto him, but entered instead into a mystical Fox pool, that activated the Fox Bead and woke him. And the reason I say that they seemed to have shared a mystical conversation in that moment before the fall is because his next words were: “I also waited for you.”
About the Go Ara show, I’m also having problems even wanting to start it. I’ll just give it a miss for now.
@Old American Lady – I’m with you on liking the Korean folklore and how they incorporate animal/human connections. Even if the show’s plot tanks, I’d have garnered a list of myths and legends.
I won’t leave you on this one @GB ☺️ Sorry I’m only responding now. Hectic Saturday because my nephew turned 1. He is such a cutie!
Anyway I liked the tear that opened up Ji Ah’s fox beard too. I thought that was a nice touch and yeah the fact that Yeon said that even if she’s not the one he’s waiting for he can’t let her die. 😊
I was slowly closing my eyes with the scenes of the ghost children incase their face change or something 😂 Lucky it didn’t.
Episode 3 and 4 Ad Hoc Notes
Problems in adequacy of logic, etc
So we get to see more backstory of the brothers, and it’s their story that I find the most engaging. I believe I’d like to have seen more of their youth. The problem in not giving us enough to understand them with, is that we, the viewers, find it hard to be interested in their angst and actions. The same goes for the LY-JA connection.
We are told in Episode 1 “When a fox turns 100, it can turn into a beautiful woman or become a man who has relations with one. However, a fox of 1,000 years receives the sky’s blessing and becomes a celestial fox. Its abilities mach that of a powerful shaman which allows it to see what are miles ahead.”
I’m gathering that LY became the mountain spirit not because he performed any deeds of honour or acclaim, but simply because he lived over 1,000 years. I also gather that in the role of mountain spirit, he was supposed to keep the human, animal, plant and ‘spirit’ life of the mountains safe. The moment he defected to take care of himself ie selfishly went after a dead Ji Ah and left the mountain, humans got angry that their wishes were not granted and started burning the mountain (most inadequate reason for killing all wildlife!!!).
So far we are shown that LR looked up to his brother, maybe more as if he were a parent, rather than a sibling, and was attached to him. For some reason he thought his brother had disappeared because he might have died (when his brother appeared to kill him, his exclamation of joy was that his brother was alive).
LR, grieving over the deaths of creatures he’d cared for, and the loss of his brother, took matters into his own hands and killed the humans. This part is understandable.
However, less understandable is the very cruel and unfair way of the Afterlife ‘gods’ judgement. Of all possible gumihos, his own beloved brother is the one chosen to mete out the punishment. Maybe it was a punishment meted out to LY as well, to use him as the weapon of execution? (it is not clear). I’d say that their bad brotherly relationship had 80% to do with the gods’ heartless decision to use LY to kill LR.
While I understand that LR considers LY treacherous for turning on him, what is tiresome is that Lee Rang is portrayed as stuck in petulant kid mode, basically seeking attention by killing more humans. Misbehaving because he can, and teaching Yoo Ri to do the same. And the weight of the crimes and the punishment meted out is grossly diminished by the attitude of LY who also treats his brother as a spoilt brat who grew up tiresome.
The lopsided lack of accountability
Why is LR allowed to kill and egg on Yoo Ri to misbehave? If LY is tasked to keep gumihos in check, who endanger humans, then humans must have some value to the Afterlife ‘gods’, in which case there should be a host of ‘law enforcers’ preventing gumihos from killing humans. So far there is only 1 LY doing this job.
There is also the great disparity in how the Afterlife gods treat the brothers. No one hounds LR for all the unjustifiable murders he commits, but LY is punished immediately for 1 killing where the human was guilty of murder, and had outlived her normal life (or something like that).
Law enforcement plothole – People die on the island in the weirdest way, and one of them says that he’ll report it. Ji Ah reports it to her own people too, but no one from the mainland turns up to investigate.
Pyung Hee, whose curses kill the fishermen is totally let off the hook. We see LR approaching her, but not how she figures out what those fishermen did to her father. We are to guess that possibly the Shaman had divined it from the sea.
From the little we are shown, it seems she had only suspected what had happened, but had gone ahead to take LR’s offer and cursed the fishermen anyway. The question is what LR got in exchange from her, and whether she aided in the rebirth of the Imoogi. This is partly explained by Ji Ah who makes her usual leap of deduction when speaking to LR that the fishermen’s deaths were a fireworks show that distracted them from his real motives.
The OK Parts
Show is moving the OTP plot and giving us more info on JA. It has finally confirmed that JA is Ah Eum, which is good. IE it’s good that show did not try to stretch it out interminably.
In the post above to @FGB4877 about how Ah Eum is revealed in Ji Ah – It was only when both LY and JA admitted a connection with the other, regardless of whom they were, that they could ‘find’ each other: which speaks of all relationships actually.
Show seems to have also shown how Ah Eum died. We noticed that the scales of the Imoogi appeared under JA’s skin. From what the Shaman said, the Imoogi left a part of itself with the villagers so that not all of it was destroyed. In the attack upon Ah Eum in which she died, it’s likely that the Imoogi had taken possession of her, (Ah Eum’s neck also seemed to have some dark scales on it), and LY had killed Imoogi by running his sword through Ah Eum. It seems that Imoogi had left a bit of itself in her spirit that reincarnated.
Of note is what the possessed JA says : “You should have let me go. … Our ill-fated relationship would have ended if you hadn’t stopped the boat from crossing the Samdo River.” – This could mean that the reason Imoogi was able to return was because LY had insisted that AhEum be reincarnated.
At this stage, LY still did not see Ah Eum in JA. He was probably still looking for the Fox Bead. Possessed JA says: “You really don’t know anything, Lee Yeon.” Then the scales disappear and JA is back to herself.
We find out that Ji Ah had been lured to the island by news of the ‘head’ so that she could be the sacrifice. The Shaman tells her that she was a very special child.
The shaman had told her: “Just like you, your mum, came voluntarily to this island. Ever since she became pregnant, she had the same dream every night. You tricked your mum while you were in her womb.” – I’d guess that it was the Imoogi bit inside JA that was luring the mum through the dreams to visit the island, possibly so that in this time in 2020, she would be back to be the long awaited sacrifice, that would revive Imoogi.
He’s one already??? Time flies! I remember you sharing the news here that your sister gave birth already.
Adding to the list of Mythical Beings and Urban Legends
Ghosts – they attach themselves to some people. JA might have been more susceptible since she was already a target of supernatural gumihos and had been on the creepy island. Ghosts would imitate humans but would do something the opposite way from live people and so get found out. The ghosts of the children wanted JA’s body for some reason.
Evil from the Sea – This theme I’ve become familiar with through the creepy show, The Guest. There’s a belief that some evil spirit(s) comes from across the waters or from within. It or they come to take possession of places or persons who are open to them or welcoming, and even those who aren’t.
Gwimunbang – I believe it might literally mean ‘Deaf Room’. The bamboo poles lined up like a path to welcome the evil spirit was a gateway of some kind. The show subs had it as the gate that lets evil in and out … or “a gate through which ghosts come and go, and it is a direction in which the energy of yin and yang changes.” (https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=https://tr-cam.com/video/H__fLmB27k8/gwimunbang-gwisini-deunadeuneun-munilaneun-tteusinde-eumyang-yin-yang-ui-giuni-byeonhaneun-bangwida.html&prev=search&pto=aue)
Ghost Day and Offerings – East Asians have a Ghost Day or Month in which the spirits of the dead emerge from the Underworld and hang around on Earth. They are appeased by offerings of food and other ‘articles’ (paper version of some articles are usually burnt).
The beheadings took place on the Ghost Day of the lunar calendar (Lunar 15 July) in the years, 1954, 1961, 1979, and 1987. This is the day that the door to the Underworld opens and spirits come back to earth. The shaman called the beheadings precious sacrifices. And on the same lunar date in 2020, the ritual was about to be repeated, but this time with the added intervention of evil LR.
Even without Ji Ah as sacrifice, we still see that a baby, with a yellow eye, swaddled weirdly and covered in talismans pops up near the sea in LR’s arms. I’m guessing it’s Imoogi reborn in ‘human’ form. I had sort of expected it nearer the well where the sacrifices were offered, though.
Urban Legend of Disappearing Communities – We may have heard of other unsolved mysteries about whole groups of people disappearing: “There is North Carolina’s infamous lost colony of Roanoke, the Angikuni Lake legend in Canada, supposedly a whole village in Ireland, the legend of the Marie Celeste, and even Australia’s apocryphal Picnic at Hanging Rock.” (https://supchina.com/2018/07/11/china-unsolved-the-village-that-vanished/)
Our kdrama version here had the villagers disappear overnight. We last see them surrounding the well which was associated with the Imoogi, and ritual sacrifice. Might they have given themselves as sacrifices in the well, (to replace Ji Ah)?
@ GB, do you want me to open a thread just for your companion guide to Urban Legends? It will make it easy for others to find.
Congrats @agdr03 and to your sister too of course!! No worries about not commenting much. I just jot down points if they present themselves and unload them here like verbal diarrhea LOL.
The scenes I couldn’t watch with wide open eyes were all the ones where people got cut. All those whizzing blades (yeah… thoughts of Blade Man came to me at that time) and blades stabbed into LY and sticking out of him, were too much for me!!! I had to force myself to re-watch to catch the flashback thoughts.
As long as show keeps giving us enough nuggets of info about the characters and remains relatively consistent and constant in plot movement, I can keep watching this.
Thank you kindly, @pkml3. Yes please. That will make it easy for me to find too!! ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
Okey-dokey. Will open a thread later after this rewatch of ours, I’ll transfer whatever you’ve written on the other threads over there. 🙂
Much thanks in advance @pkml3. Happy re-watch!!
Verbal diarrhoea! Word for the day @GB 😂👍🏻 I’m liking your ASCII emoji. 😉
Thanks Queen for the thread for Urban Legends! That’ll help with reading it again, there’s so many already. ☺️
Yes! Raphael is 1! I did say the news here! Wow! That went quick! Thank you ladies! 😘
Heh @agadr03. I have to be careful of the ASCII faces. Seems the Lenny face has some naughty connotations although I use it innocently.
୧(﹒︠ᴗ﹒︡)୨ Anyway, I’m happy for you and Raphael. I’m especially happy today also because one of the children we’ve been catechising, got baptised this morning. It took so many years before his father agreed. We are all over the moon about it!
ヽ(⌐■_■)ノ♪♬ Here we are looking cool and dancing for joy!
@GB, congratulations on your student’s baptism! 🎉🥰 That’s faith for you and perseverance. God bless you and your student and her Dad! ☺️
Don’t worry about the ASCII having some naughty connotations because I wouldn’t have a clue. 😂 I’m innocent too when it comes to seeing those so just post away. If it triggers something I’ll let you know. 😆
Hello everyone!
I think it was a very touching scene where they found each other.
Mostly, because he was holding dear to his memories of his first love and not letting anyone else (human) to be near him. So, that applies to all the girls he met during the years that had the same face with AE.
I believe that AE was reincarnating all along, but as he couldn’t let go of the ideal love he had with AE, he couldn’t find her before. As for EA /JA maybe she was looking for LY as well, but she didn’t even know it.
When he found out JA though, things started to change because JA reminded him of EA but she was different from her at the same time. Hence his curiosity towards JA. As for JA, I think that her personal quest of finding her parents, made her strong. She is a sharp lady and takes no bull**it from anyone.
The more time, they spend together, that lead them to lower their defences.
The building up of their emotional revelation is the most teaching.
When you let your guard down, and allow you heart to be open, then your set limits are surpassed. Thus, making them free from their “blindness” and ready to find the one you are truly looking for.