I’m reposting @GB’s research notes on Korean urban legends, folk tales, and superstitions here for easy access. THANKS, @Growing_Beautifully!! 

I’ll add random gifs in a bit. @GB, if I missed a comment something, please tag it by replying to that comment, so I can find it.

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Notes on Urban Legends

After 2 episodes, I feel that this show is a meta show. It’s not a romantic story of a gumiho searching for his first love, and in the process meeting with creatures of the supernatural realm, rather this is the actual “Unveiling Urban Legends” show that we are watching. What show is doing is enabling us to explore and discover the many different myths in a non-documentary format, while at the same time, we are told the story of a gumiho who’s searching for his only love, and of a PD who’s searching for her parents.

Watched through this lens, it’s not surprising that we can list a whole bunch of the supernatural that show has introduced. The following are not based on any research, but on what is revealed in the first 2 episodes, and it’s rather a lot!!

Here are some of the urban legends/folklore that it’s been unveiling in just 2 episodes:
The creatures of myth, folklore and legend might be pretty common and might be living all around us without our recognising them. We are possibly surrounded by many beings from the supernatural realm who look and behave like us. Sometimes they make mistakes and cannot pass off as human, (like Lee Rang), but most of the time we do not observe if they are behaving as humans normally do or not. They may either mean us no harm, help us or harm us.

Dreams (or Nightmares) – there is a belief that some dreams might have been ‘sent’ to the dreamer by bulgasaris. Some dreams have meaning and can be interpreted. LY proclaimed that when more than 1 person had a nightmare, they were contagious nightmares. A dream of someone in mourning might be prophetic. A dream of teeth being lost might mean that someone would die. A dream of a dead person leading away a living person, might mean that the latter would die.

Bulgasaris – they are creatures who feed on nightmares and are revealed in their true form when they eat metal. They are able to move fast climbing walls and jumping across large spaces. Dreams can possibly be sent by them, according to this show when Ji Ah asks ” Are all the dreams from Bulgasaris, the legendary creatures, true?” LY replies that they cunningly mix truth with lies and wait for people to fall for them. The contagion of nightmares, we assume, was the result of having a bulgasari as a security guard in the TV Station. LY was able to control the bulgasari and keep him in the fridge!

Spirits of trees – they can be bound to a place by the prayers and wishes of humans and can only be freed by humans. They are not all knowing, depending on other spirits to give them news. There was also a totem or tree spirit in the form of the drunkard who kept Ji Ah from boarding the bus, was possibly sent to keep her alive. (Question: if sent, then by whom and why is Ji Ah so important?)

Shamanism – it is widely accepted still. Shamans may be able to withstand the memory wipe of gumihos. In this show, Shamans commune with spirits/(and the elements?) to obtain messages for the living.

Custom of Fishermen – if the dead are found at sea, they must be appeased or acknowledged so that they do not haunt the boat. The remains must be brought to shore and should be properly buried.

Sacrifices/Heads and Evil brought by a storm – this may not be what this show is going to say but is guesswork based on urban legend. There’s a belief that a project or new construction is made safe by human sacrifice. The head might be buried under the construction. Human sacrifice might take place from time to time for certain reasons. Is it a coincidence that the Korean War ended in 1953 and the first head was found in 1954? Also the tree Spirit said that she had been abandoned “since immediately after the end of the Korean War. Something evil came to the island riding a typhoon. But I couldn’t see it and I was too weak to stop it.”

Reincarnation – not only humans but even gumihos can reincarnate. This is assumed from LY’s telling the gumiho bride to be good in her next time (or next life). What a person becomes in his next life is random. He may not look the same or be of the same gender, even if he reincarnates as a human being. Conversely, many doppelgangers are not reincarnations of each other.

The Afterlife – has a bureaucracy of its own and 5 layers of it, set up by King Hades. Afterlife figures can have family relationships and get married as in King Hades is brother to Taluipa who ferrys the dead across the river to Hades, and Taluipa is married.
1) Grim reapers bring in the dead and brief them on their deaths
2) The dead go to the Afterlife Immigration to be briefed on the next steps
3) Afterlife judges will judge them on their sins.
4) We assume that good people get to reincarnate and evil ones go to the Underworld where they stay forever.

Gumihos – Gumihos shape shift and even in human form they can change shape to look like another human. They can be evil. LR killed people and controlled the fishermen and made them commit suicide. LR and Yoo Ri consider eating people. Eating humans is a ‘crime’, and some gumihos like LY are tasked with punishing the criminals. LY can recognise other mythical creatures. Lee Rang who was masquerading as Soo Young kept looking at the drunkard at the bus stop, but did not show any signs of recognising that he was a spirit.

A gumiho has a Fox Bead that can be given and retrieved from the spirit of a person (both living or) who dies. He mates for life and may follow rules on indebtedness which compels him to repay all debts.

Other Notes
General taboo : Creatures of the supernatural realm should not fall in love with humans.

The greatest criminal in this show is Lee Rang who leaves a trail of death in his wake in his effort to make his brother miserable. Knowing his brother’s weakness, he’ll try to harm A Eum or make her a game piece to force LY to make some impossible choice.

Lee Yeon should actually have despatched his brother long ago, but he dismissed him as having a ‘brother complex’ instead of recognising his evilness. The big conflict towards the end of the series might be the choice of destroying his brother (and possibly A Eum) or destroying himself. (Something in line with Goblin‘s dilemma). 😉

Either as a story with legends or vice versa, I’m finding it a fun, ‘educational’ watch.

 

*****

Hi @Phoenix, Thanks! Yes, that fox bead mystery is another one to put up on our mystery board. Your mention of it made me look it up. Here’s a blog entry with a Fox Bead story and another link to the Wikipedia article.

From these I gather that gumihos want to become human and one method (among a few!) might be to use the Fox Bead (which provides power to the gumiho) to obtain the spirits/energy of people. It could be given to a person and retrieved by the gumiho, but if swallowed by the human being, the bead might not be retrievable by the gumiho. Without the bead a gumiho could die.

http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/contents_view.htm?lang=e&menu_cate=culture&id=&board_seq=129322&page=17&board_code=akoreas_ani#:~:text=A%20fox%20with%20nine%20tails,turn%20into%20a%20human%20being.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumiho#:~:text=A%20kumiho%20(gumiho)%20(Korean,its%20Japanese%20and%20Chinese%20counterparts.

I wondered if the bead had been swallowed by the spirit of Lee Yeon’s first love (likely Ji Ah), and therefore was not easily retrievable. Since in folklore the fox bead gave humans knowledge and intelligence, this might actually explain Ji Ah’s being so smart and so quick to jump to the correct conclusions from so little data.

Anyway, this is just a theory of mine, so we’ll have to see if the show actually does explain to us if Ji Ah has the Fox Bead or how she got to be so smart.

The other point about her vanished parents … I felt that if they’d been eaten, there would have been a record of their deaths in the Afterlife Immigration Dept. In Episode 2, LY says there’s no record of them, and that therefore, they are alive.

I just realised the obvious reason why they were taken away – it was so that the fake gumiho parents could replace them. If we imagine that the fake parents did not get found out by Ji Ah, what would that have meant? It would have enabled 2 gumihos to live in disguise for 21 years, possibly eating lots of human livers along the way. However, they had targeted the wrong family, because it just so happened that Lee Yeon was bound to visit another first love look-alike to check if she had the Fox Bead. Therefore, they would have been killed for sure.

Then the other question is, why did they not kill the real parents? (And where have they been for 21 years?)

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Mysteries

Question: why was Ji Ah and her family targeted? – The street lights went out before their car was attacked, and the fake parents took the shape of the real parents even before approaching the car. It looked like it had been planned.

Question: what happened to her real parents? – They should have been found dead or injured but they had simply disappeared. If they’d been found, she might have left it alone and not even ended up as a PD of the ‘Unveiling Urban Legends’ show.

If the real parents had been ‘eaten’ by the fake parents, then their deaths should have been known to the Afterlife Immigration, but they were not found dead or alive. Why this is the case, is the mystery.

Question about the scene with her fake parents at home: was that really a case of her being at home with the fake parents or was that an alternative reality? In the end, Lee Yeon has returned her to the scene of the accident and watched her in secret to ensure that the she was safe with the police.

But it was as if time had stood still. The police were still there with the car not yet towed away. Did the whole episode of her being at home with her fake parents take place in her mind?

World Building

I like that this show takes trouble to fill us in on the lore of gumihos (and other supernatural beings)

We are told that “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.”

The long conversation with the little boy in the park and his exercising his ability to bring back the lost balloon for the little girl gives us information about Lee Yeon.

Boy : “Are you an alien?”
LY : “No”
Boy : “Then what are you?”
LY : “A Gumiho”
Boy : “Are you over 100 years old?”
LY : “Actually, I’m over 1,000.”
Boy : “What are you doing here though?”
LY : “Nothing other than waiting for someone.”
Boy : “Who?”
LY : “My first love.”
Boy : “Why?”
He looks at the little boy but answers: “Because a fox can only love one person til death.”
Boy : “My mum waits for the delivery man every day. She only has to wait for 2 days.”
LY : “Not for me even after 100 or 1,000 nights.”
Boy : “How are you coping with that?”
LY : “Not well.”
Boy : “Then what if I kept you company?”
LY : “No”
Boy : “Why not?”
LY : “Just look at you. I hate those with a runny nose.” (Boy tries to suck it all in) “Besides, humans die too early to properly have a friendship.” (Boy looks at him) “I’m saying that life is short, so try your best in life but know to let go when something’s too unbearable. it extends to people, love, and so on and so forth. Okay?” He goes.
“Okay!”

At the Afterlife Immigration Office the scroll that LY had signed confirms his identity and duties:
“I, Lee Yeon, former mountain spirit of Baekdudaegan, will punish those who disrupt the order between the Living Realm and the Afterlife in return for A Eum’s resurrection.”

Basically he’s a nice guy gumiho who has an affinity to humans and can be compassionate with them, but who’s ruthless with bad gumihos. He advises the Boy to let go, but he himself is stuck in a tabooed love relationship with a human who died. I figure that he does not allow himself to have short-lived human friends, but he does have his Vet assistant and beings in the Afterlife Immigration Department to chat with.

According to some gumiho code or characteristic, he would have to repay any debt and therefore hates to be beholden to anyone. This can be used against him. I wonder if his brother has the same code that he has to stick to.

I was amused by Lee Yeon’s blasé attitude of having to go to work to kill another gumiho, (all in a day’s work and so boring!) and of simply being fed up with his brother, when the stakes were actually life and death. He was more affronted that JA had the gall to leave him that note, manipulating him to come to her home, than he was interested in saving her from his brother. LOL.

 

*****

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)?

 

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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.