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32 Comments On “My Roommate is a Gumiho: Eps 5 & 6 Open Thread”
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The thread is now open for spoilers and laughters.
Gifs from kdramaxoxo’s tumblr.
Let’s enjoy the show!
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I wonder what is Dam’s type?
Thanks @pkml3. Gosh is it Wednesday already?
@Janey, at least I know that many of the leading men and second leads are my type LOL.
@Janey and @Growing Beautifully, I laughed in disbelief at that part. Maybe some men are just too good looking to seem relatable. Perhaps Dam just can’t imagine him as a bf? He fits what others describe as her criteria for a bf: good looking and kind; having a good personality. But Fox is hard to read due to his lack of human emotions.
She has mentioned several times that she is unattractive – that is what she believes. Perhaps once she starts to think that she is pretty or capable of attracting someone she will reconsider.
So we weren’t the only ones dazed by the Fermina Daza quote. Episode 5 felt like a bit of a filler episode as Dam confronts her growing feelings. The relationship between the friends is so well portrayed. It’s authentic and lovely. I keep thinking that the memory erasing powers of Sir (and Dam’s objection to erasing what might have been a happy memory) are going to be revisited in the future. For a minute this episode cast some doubt on Sir (no regrets and telling human/gumiho woman to butt out of the murder mystery). I suspect he knows something. How is Dam going to feel when she knows he could have removed the marble? He in his own way is using her similar to the bet by the university bad boys. I am really enjoying this drama but am fearful it will take a do do sol sol . . . turn at some point.
One of the most interesting Love Themes comes from Vangelis in the classic “Blade Runner” (1982). In the following link an user then called “Count Duckula” and now “David Mann” wrote something extraordinary:
“It’s amazing how perfectly he captured the aspect of new love that is rarely talked about: sadness. Usually that comes at the end of a relationship. Instead of conveying joyful discovery, or the rush of passion, as is typical, the melancholy sax blows wistful notes, like it’s mourning. Which reminds the listener that love isn’t just about warm tummies, but surrender. Surrender of individuality, and acceptance of the inherent vulnerability. Enemies can hurt you, but only someone you love can consume you utterly.”
Link to the Theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9KAqhbIZ7o
I get a scared Fox and a frightened Dam.
@FGB4877 Thanks for that poignant quotation. It’s true that media and we tend to focus on the lighter aspects of being in a love relationship, but the aspect of loving, sacrificial self-giving should be celebrated too.
I just made a quick watch of Episode 5, and saw that we get the emotional roller coaster of a journey in unchartered waters, with Dam falling in love with a much too ancient, supernatural being.
I liked that show chose to balance out how un-valued and rotten Dam felt over being worth a mere 100,000 Won bet, with how Fox assured her that she was special to him.
It’s a pity though that even Fox has to admit that he’s lying to her, that her honesty trumps his dishonesty, and that he too is treating her like an object… the container of his marble.
Our Lee Dam who can see through Seon Woo’s shadiness and call him out on it, will be quite devastated to find out that Fox whom she respects, is in a way, not much better.
To make everything more interesting with added tension, we seem to have a murderous gumiho (maybe) on the loose, so that 20 something-year old women like Dam now have their lives at stake. We already foresee that Fox who has remained standoffish from the human race for too long, will be forced to care for and protect humanity in the shape of one Lee Dam.
Just as we commented on the DAYS thread about the humanising of the supernatural being, so too I trust that love for an other, will enable Fox to become a more humane fox, before he becomes truly human.
@FBG4877, thank you for that link. The quote is really apt for episode 5. The video – my gosh, all I could think at first was: YES – 80’s shoulder pads and raccoon eye makeup. I haven’t seen that film since, well, the 80s.
@GB, the biting rather than stabbing makes me wonder if it’s a Tiger rather than a Gumiho who is on the loose. If so, would we get an epic battle between Fox and Tiger? Wait – I’m getting off on a tangent. It’s NOT a fantasy cdrama.
Yes, @GB, I agree with your thought that Dam will be devastated. Seon Woo won’t seem as shady if/when Dam finds out that Fox knew how to take the marble out. Someone (Cleo?) mentioned that Fox and Seon Woo look similar. I didn’t agree at all at the time, but in certain scenes Seon Woo looks like a less perfect, more understandable, more human version of Fox. There is something similar about their gaze. Clever casting, even if unintended.
At the end, Dam is sitting outside on the step, like a child who has been naughty and doesn’t want to come inside. She defended herself like a child as well. I did like that Fox didn’t try to rush her indoors, but covered her with his coat and asked her the reasons. He is good at asking the right questions instead of simply reacting. I wish as a parent I were more often like that.
@Fern, To own the truth, when Seon Woo first came on the scene, I was mixing him up with Fox. The scenes when he was staring at her or trying to put his arm around her, I was confused for some moments, thinking, why is Fox doing that. I finally realised that I found the 2 actors rather similar in some ways. General face shape and hair? Style of watching Dam? I don’t know. Now, of course after observing them for longer, I can recognise the actor at once.
What you say about perfect casting may be it … maybe it was intended? Maybe Seon Woo was meant to mirror Fox?
Poor Dam. Her drunken bouts of changeable mood swings were a foretaste of the changes she will keep facing in her push and pull with Fox. She’s going to be happy and unhappy, sure and uncertain, at peace and at war with Fox before the end of the series!
(ᗒᗊᗕ)
I would like to know why Seon Woo has scratches on his hand at about minute 57-58 in Ep. 5 when he is apologising to Dam for betting money on her. 🦊 Are we being trolled?
Also, if it’s a Gumiho who is killing the women, could he or she be shape-shifting to impersonate Woo Yeo?
Yes, 👏 to Dam’s moods being a preview of her time with Woo Yeo. She also said that it is how family behaves. So true. I like that her mother approves.
I was curious about the scratch too. Did it happen during the scuffle?
I’ve just finished episode 5. I’d like to amend my comment about Tiger’s sister earlier. The aeyego *cringe*
I commented that the Tiger and the Fox looked very similar just a slightly shorter version of one another and they were dressed similarly- they really could easily be cast as brothers. The hair of the Tiger seems a little different now and he occasionally dresses as a bad boy and our Fox gets the glowy lighting quite a bit.
Here are random thoughts on Episode 6. A lot happens and it was very funny.
One word: “Uncle” – hysterical
The bad blind date – that must be such a fun scene to screenwrite because there is so much material to work with irl – he was so awful and then in the end he accused Dam of being terrible! Narcissist! Good on Fox for tripping him on the way out.
We learned how the marble works and it involves erasing the human vessel’s memory. Dam won’t like that. (But, since he couldn’t work magic on Dam’s mom because of her “strong will” I wonder if he will be able to erase Dam’s memory when he gets his marble back?)
The Fox saying he has no regrets is him lying to himself. The backstory shows he was devastated when his lover died.
Dam’s mom mentions Dam’s father and his good taste or something like that. Looking forward to hearing the backstory and perhaps more about the ridiculous family slogan. “Live Life On Your Own!”
The tiger really likes Dam. He wants to become a better person for her.
Continued tension between Fox and lady fox/human.
@Fern – 100% agree. The face in the reflection on hood of car that looked like fox is a red herring. My money is also on a shapeshifting gumiho who has a grudge against Fox.
Yeah I only managed to skip watch Ep 6, but it was hilarious as @Good Twin says with that ‘samchoon/uncle’. LOL how one word can be used as a diss, rebellion, and show of great disfavour. At least she never uses aegyo.
Loved how she vacillates between samchoon and orishien as the mood takes her. She wasn’t able to admit more clearly that when he niece-zoned her, she could no longer boyfriend-zone him and that’s why she was mad.
I need to watch in more detail to try and figure out what Hyesun may be up to. She only saw Dam at her most awkward when telling her to behave according to a concept of friendly or cold, but Dam being herself was always the winning deal. Her BFF Jae Jin should have more confidence in her. For a friend who’s been around her for years, he’s terribly dense in reading her and the situations.
I recognised Jung So Min in her cameo. So we have a traumatic backstory for our Mr Fox. Does that make us commiserate with him and what he’s doing to Dam? It’s interesting that this show does not go the way of making the ex-girlfriend from the past to look like the current girl. So Fox’s fascination with Dam has nothing to do with his past love and is all because of who Dame is, just being herself.
I felt so sorry for the editor lady when Mr. Fox flat out refused to have a meal with her! And I feel double sorry for her because at the end of ep 6 she gets attacked, I hope she survives! A tragic character indeed.
I was fullout surprised to see Jung So Min in her cameo!! I really like her.
I still have a question: Why do these foxes put so much effort to become human? What’s so good about becoming human that they have to spend 1000 years to do it? Why can’t they just enjoy being a fox. Afterall, Hye sun says that after becoming human, there’s nothing special about it.
@Good Twin the bad blind date was so funny!! I laughed when he dipped in the meat in coke! This show has such brilliant cameos!
Because a fox is just an animal, a beast.
Human > fox
The fox desired to become a human, but he didn’t know that to become human was a long-drawn-out process. There were steps: gain virtues first (one tail), cultivate (or educate?) himself next (two tails), gain wisdom next (three tails), and so on….
It’s all in the first paragraph of my Eps 1 to 4 notes.
But yes, a gumiho has more supernatural powers than a human. But it seems like the humanity of human (whatever that consists of: love? compassion? empathy?) is infinitely preferable than all the supernatural powers of a gumiho combined.
@Packmule3 “…yes, a gumiho has more supernatural powers than a human. But it seems like the humanity of human (whatever that consists of: love? compassion? empathy?) is infinitely preferable than all the supernatural powers of a gumiho combined.” Says the humans creating the mythology and writing drama scripts. I, for one, would highly value being able to teleport. I wonder what aspect of my humanity I’d be willing to give up to gain that ability?
When I think of all the supernatural beings that are immortal or very long lived in Kdramas, they’re all wealthy and good looking, along with possessing special abilities. Goblin? Yup. Do Min Joon from My Love from the Star? Yup. Lee Yeon from Tale of the Nine Tailed? Yup. Doom? Yup. Sir and exFox fit well into this pantheon. I think it was funny but all-too-true when exFox said becoming human meant that her skin wasn’t as nice, she had to worry about gaining weight, etc. She gave up magic for that? Show me the people who are marketing to gumihos that being human is better than staying as they are: they are the ones with truly supernatural talent.
@Pm3 I missed your Ep1 -4 notes post, I went back to read it. Such good info there! I like the twist, that in the early episodes the scenes were edited so that we thought the Japanese soldier killed Mr. Fox’s wife/girlfriend, but now we know that it was actually his marble that killed her. That definitely compounds the guilt.
@welmaris The gumihos and supernatural beings do seem to have it all. Wealth, immortality, good looks. If they tried a bit harder, they could even go for world domination I think, since they can shape shift and have other abilities. But since it’s a drama made by human beings, all of them will want to be human, or be like humans.
I’m going to make a prediction as to who the perp is that is mauling female victims: I think it is the school chum of Player with whom he made the bet. That said, I am confused by all the lookalike college boys hanging around Dam, Player, Healthy Campus Club, etc. But having watched too many police procedurals in the past, I’ve come to suspect the criminal to be someone seemingly inconsequential to whom viewers were briefly introduced in the beginning of the show. That smarmy pal of Player is, if I remember correctly, not a Tiger because he was born early compared to the rest in that class. He also tried to hit on Dam and she shut him down. (This is what he claimed to the other boys, but I can’t recall the scene.) If he’s a gumiho, he may be targeting Dam because he senses the Fox Bead is in her.
Hello!
I agree with @GoodTwin about the shapeshifter. I have shared my thoughts at the previous thread too.
With Episode’s 7 preview I was certain. First of all, there are differences on their magic.
Mr. Fox when he does magic his eye turn out to be blue, the killer’s eyes turned red. So, Mr. Fox is not a killer, someone else is, impersonating him.
@Welmaris, I think that it is not someone from Dam’s enviroment, but from Mr. Fox’s. My bet was that Japanese soldier that killed his lover’s father, before we have seen the whole story.
In the beginning I thought that the soldier killed his lover, but at it seems that incident brought them together.
If someone was a supernatural being in Campus, Yang Hye-Sun could have spoted him / her. That’s my guess, so I think that the perpetrator is from their past.
From the preview, the perpetrator is coming across Dam as Mr. Fox and he says I found you. That means he was looking for something, maybe a weakness for Mr. Fox.
I knew you missed it, @TY. I was going to be irritated with you but decided to grade you with a C- for not doing your homework before commenting on my thread. 😈😈
@Packmule3 I’m really sorry if I’ve offended you. 🙇🏻♀️
You need to do worse to get me offended, @TY. I’m not a snowflake. ❄️❄️
I’ve begun watching Ep 6. She just got “niece-zoned.” Her back-handed compliments to her “Samcheon” about the coffee just bewildered him, like her ode to steamed egg.
Lol.This Mr Fox! He looks down on Hyejin for not knowing her idioms and figures of speech. But he’s actually worse because he doesn’t understand nuance and a woman’s mind. He’s only textbook smart. Being a scholar at Sungkyunkwan didn’t give him much advantage when it came to interpersonal relationships.
@pkml3 It struck me that Hye Jin was pretty savvy when it came to the dating advice. I expected her to be hopeless at it since she gave no evidence of having dated, but she seems to have picked up on the nuances of ‘relationship-ping’ and both the male and female mind.
Is the ex-fox name HyeSun or Hyejin? 😂 My iPad just auto-corrected me.
I can see HyeJin falling for the Bestie. He isn’t like all other guys who are instantly smitten with her. If he could, he’d run away from her. His attitude towards her peeves her, and shakes her confidence. But it’s all good bec she’ll work harder to earn his affections. The Bestie is such a nice guy.
I like the reverse trope: the “trophy” girlfriend working hard to win over the shy guy.
@pkml3, Sorry, her name is Yang Hye Sun (not Hye Jin) and the Bestie is Do Jae Jin.
Hmmm that will be some Nooooona romance alright. She’s old enough to be a remote ancestor LOL. He does admire her looks, but so far no sparks between them.
He’s a nice guy, but he should listen to the other bestie’s (Choi Su Kyong’s) advice, because he has some difficulty in reading what’s right for Lee Dam correctly.
Maybe that’s why Bestie Jae Jin (Bestie JJ) keeps getting struck out with girls. He does the textbook sweet, romantic things without thinking if it’s the right thing for the girl (i.e., what the girls wants).
This drama has interesting ideas and tips (or as Dan said, “kkul-tip”) on the dating scene for 20s in Korea.
Dear @Growing Beautifully and @packmule3,
Not having seen Jae Jin’s previous GFs, I can’t say whether he was punching. Instead, I had the feeling that Jae Jin may do the right things, but he is too needy and that can scare most girls off. He needs to slow down. As to him + Hye Sun… I don’t know. He would be her Cinderella, right? But they would certainly learn a lot from each other. (That scene in the cinema!) 😅😈
@Fern,
Yes, JJ said that his neediness turned off his girlfriends. That’s why during her Han date with Tiger Sunwoo, she made sure she waved goodbye at the bus stop…and he ignored her. Then she ordered him to text once he got home. 😂
But he isn’t needy with HS. He’s the opposite of needy. He does NOT need her (or her type) in his life because he has a goddess trauma. So maybe she’ll fall for him then.
The cinema scene was funny. What was his excuse again for leaving the theater? Tiger Sunbae said the show had no words. And that made me laugh bec it seemed like he was describing a children’s picture book — it’s all illustration, no words — when he was talking about an adult sex movie.
As for HS, her comment was typical. The tickets were expensive! They can’t just leave without getting their money’s worth.
I forgot that Jae-Jin described himself as needy.
JJ just asked HS if they should just go. I laughed because neither Fox nor ex-Fox found the scenes explicit, but the humans were embarrassed. That’s what I meant by the possibility of Jae-Jin learning from Hye-Sun if ever she decides to date him. She had already equated dating her with happiness for humans. Tiger obviously read the title but not any review; he thought it was a rom-com. 😂 I did that. In video rental days I once relied on the blurb put out by the local Blockbuster staff for Valentines Day selections. 😳😂
@pm3 thanks!
After reading everything, I still wish the foxes could have some self love and not have to go through grueling species change. Why be someone else/some other species when you can be you? I understand the drama world view that humans are superior, and humans have greater capacity for empathy, compassion, but I think humans also have greater capacity for evil and destruction.
If they didn’t have to feed the marble, tragedies could possibly have been avoided.
That being said, the most probable happy ending for this story is for ML to become human and live happily with FL.
It’s my first time seeing the actor playing Jaejin in drama and I really like his funny character and his eyes are cute too.
Hi @TY! Kim Do Wan who plays JaeJin was also in “Start Up”, also playing a funny character in the trio of SamSan Tech. The ex-Fox lady was also in “Start Up” but they did not have a love line there. It looks like there’s going to be one in this show.
No, TY.
The kdrama perspective that to be human is superior than anything IS the correct worldview.
Human >> animals >> plants
I’d rather have the evil of men (and women) than the evil of animals AND gods.
I won’t be able to understand bestiality since I’m not an animal.
And I won’t be able to comprehend the MAGNITUDE of evil a god could do given his/her absolute power. Compared to the destruction a wrathful and omnipotent god could do, human evil is limited. Think about that.
No eyes have seen, no ears have heard…