The thread is now open for spoilers and happy endings. (There’d better be a happy ending.)
I want to see Dam and Pox, 20 years later, with kids. I can’t remember the last time I saw a kdrama finale with kids…was it that Lee Minho show, “The Legend of the Blue Sea”?
I think this will make a good family motto to replace the one her mother left for her and Dan.
I also want to see Hyesun with a doctorate degree in English Literature (hahaha), and JJ as a househusband.
@Agdr03, et al., if it’s a happy ending, I can do a rewatch on Friday. Usual time, @agdr03.
Let’s enjoy the show!
Kumawo! 🙇🏻♀️
Yes, I’d like some kids thanks. 🥰
I’m good for a rewatch same time on Friday. ☺️
Did you finish Legend of the Blue Sea? FL was pregnant at the ending. ☺️ For cdrama, Dr Cutie, FL was pregnant too. ☺️
Oh? I thought FL in Legend of the Blue Sea gave birth already. lol.
Okay, let’s have a rewatch on Friday *if there’s a happy ending.* If one of them dies, I’m out. 🙂
Well she probably gave birth the day after the ending as she was heavily pregnant at the ending 😂
I’m confident no one dies in this show.
I want to recommend a new cdrama to you but let me have lunch first.
Ok. Will wait for your rec.
Sorry. The cdrama that I’m currently watching is Truth Or Dare. @Fern and I have been following the drama. I just didn’t get around to her recommendation but we both like it. It’s Huang Jun Jie and Teresa Li. They are good together too. HJJ is still handsome. 😉 hehehe There’s 30 episodes but it’s an easy watch and funny too. 🙂
Watch the opening credits of Truth or Dare here, it’s pretty. ☺️ It’s on Viki too.
https://youtu.be/cNlGhfiwdOk
There’s this other one too called Unforgettable Love. I’m watching for the little boy but I’m familiar with the ML too. ☺️ Only 24 episodes.
https://youtu.be/W_dkhqxzsyY
I’ll try to join on Friday, Hope I’ll wake up.
@Agdr03 – Unforgettable Love looks cute. I like young kids in a drama, he looks adorable. And for shallow’s sake, there good kissing scenes from the intro. 😉
Thanks @pkml3. I vaguely recall that there was a sort of callback scene where the Because This Life is My First couple were shown with kids. But I cannot locate it, if it even exists LOL.
@Packmule3, the last episode of Secret Garden may be what you’re thinking about as far as seeing the lead couple with children.
https://www.viki.com/videos/93944v-secret-garden-finale-episode-20
Start at time mark 47:57 to see how “As time passed, the family grew.” Then jump to time mark 57:35 for a scene that all parents can identify with: the struggle to get children to go to sleep.
Kalispera!
I want a happy ending too! MRIAG is so sweet…
Let us enjoy the two last episodes!
What happen with the last mins ep 15 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Im so confuse, everyone was so happy but, why mr pox slowly dissapear from human world……
Damn. I thought tomorrow we will get to see happy wedding or at least proposal from mr pox to lee dam.
The whole ep 14 was fun, except 2 mins before it was end.
😭
@Lovebangwon Yes, that was a strange twist to Ep 15. It appeared that things were going well.
I also found the music choices in a couple of scenes incongruous or not sufficiently in the background (too obvious). I got distracted.
It was an episode of revelations.
So we finally get to hear what the issue was between the Sunbae Jung Seok and Soo Kyung, and I guess her long kept secret too. It’s the stuff of youth, which will pass with a laugh but they are making so much out of it! LOL.
We get to see the brother JJ always speaks about. And our OTP reveal what the other needs to know.
Good for a penultimate episode almost wrap up!
I am having Do Do Sol Sol flashbacks! If Fox disappears and returns 5 years later – this show is dead to me! 😂. I am expecting a happy ending but I now know that happy light tales can go very dark in kdramaland
@GoodTwin – I hear ya. I hate it when they call an audible at this stage in the game … else I’m kicking out all the roommates & foxes too.
Greeting from Toronto!
I have been a secret admirer who enjoy reading your posts since TKEM.
I still remember my first kdrama – Save the Last Dance for Me (2004) with Eugene, Ji Sung and Lee Bo Young. Have watched a lot since then and MRIAG is one of them that I’d keep and rewatch.
Just want to share a funny BTS…at 8:25…a director who’s so invested in Pox/Dam’s romance wouldn’t give us a sad ending, would he?
@GB 😭😭😭😭😭
I thought the last mins scene would be mr pox propose to her 😢 bcs he want a family, based on his wish after being human.
There is no need to make him dissapear like that. .
Esp hyesun alr explain how she became human.
I dont like typical story where the mystical character gone and appear at the end of drama. Where they are smilling each other 🤣 too cliche..old method.
Dear @GB, it seems that both “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” and “My Roommate is a Gumiho” are based on “The Little Mermaid” 😜
We will see if Mr. Fox have a soul, have to wait 200 years to go to Heaven, if he finds a good child he smiles and his waiting period shortens a day but if he finds a bad one he cries and adds 100 years to his judgement 😉 .
Thanks @haengbogm, that BTS was entertaining.
@Lovebangwon I suppose time-wise, we have still another 15 to 30 minutes where there could be a little angst before we wrap up with happily ever after in 30 minutes. I certainly hope there’s no long parting thingy. Yes, it’s a pity we can’t see the wedding yet and anticipate the start of their family life with screaming babies LOL.
@FGB, even Doom at Your Service had a bit of reference to The Little Mermaid, and the suggestion that either one or both of the protagonists might dissipate as bubbles.
Good grief, where did you get the logic rules of smiling and crying with the addition or subtraction of time? Was that in one of the Gumiho shows? No, this show which has been quite refreshing in it’s gumiho logic should stay clear of that ‘old’ logic.
I love JJ and HS but I want to give an MVP supporting actress award to the actress who plays Soo Kyung – her elastic face reminds me of Lucille Ball or Jim Carrey. Such a comedic talent!
Because we see Dam waking up in bed wearing the shirt Fox was wearing the night before, I suppose we are to assume they’ve done the deed, as Packmule3 might say. Dam says to herself, “Well, I don’t need to feel awkward. I’m an adult.” It makes for comedy to watch both Fox and Dam wrestle to keep their lust under control, but not acknowledging–trying to ignore–their stepped up physical intimacy seems futile in terms of relationship development. Why try to go backwards? Looking at it biologically, a human female is most fertile in her 20s (Dam is 22), and a human male’s fertility peaks in his 30s (Fox’s body has held at early 30s since he changed into human form). Dam and Fox are at the mercy of raging hormones. Are we really going to believe they’ll become more shy and reserved around each other after sex? That’s a Kdrama trope if I’ve ever seen one. In real life, such a couple probably couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
So we get an episode of Dam and Fox overthinking everything. I get frustrated with Dam’s friend Soo Kyeong sowing seeds of doubt in Dam’s mind, speaking as if she’s an expert, when SK herself has no personal experience with dating, etc. At her core, SK is an insecure person who overcompensates and projects her fears onto others. Dam doesn’t realize how toxic SK can be.
At least we got to see Hyeri’s command of funny facial expressions during the scenes where Dam’s trying to decide what lovey-dovey name to use for Fox in place of Sir, and her fierce face when she works up the courage to call him oppa. If Fox had seen her approach with that expression on her face, he would’ve assumed he was in deep trouble.
My favorite scene in Ep. 15 was when JJ and Hye Sun finally kissed. It seemed like their misunderstanding, confusion, talking things through, confession, tentative kiss, then making out happened organically despite the speed with which it all progressed. And the cameo appearance of award-winning-actor Oh Jung Se (our beloved Moon Sang Tae from It’s Okay to Not Be Okay) as JJ’s older brother was spot-on. We’ve heard so much about JJ’s older brothers, how they torment him when he comes home drunk, so to see JJ’s inconvenienced hyung depicted so perfectly by OJS was a treat. When he stamped his foot and ordered them to go to the alley, you’d think he was trying to scare off cats. And I wonder if the repeated closing of the house gate was in the script, or was a blooper that the kissing couple reacted to in character, making that scene even more believable.
Sir’s confession to Dam seemed very in character, and was touching:
“Dam-ah.” (His tone of voice took Dam out of her funk, and she turned to him with a look on her face that showed she expected him to say something important.) “I thought I wouldn’t mind quietly disappearing from this world. But you made me want to live. I have always found it uncomfortable being with someone but I like having you around. Seeing you hurt makes me angry, and going to pick you up when you get drunk doesn’t bother me at all. That’s right. This is me saying I love you.”
I, like other commenter above, was taken by surprise by the development in the final minutes of ep. 15. Sir is fading when he’s so close to becoming human? We got foreshadowing of this in his confession. But this is something new Writernim is throwing at us. Previously, we learned the options for Fox by the end of 1000 years were: 1) turn human, like Hye Sun; 2) turn into an evil spirit; or 3) be eliminated by the mountain spirit. Are we to think this fading is the doing of the mountain spirit? We’ve been shown that the mountain spirit cares for Fox and wants him to sucessfully transform into a human. Fox is very close to achieving that, and is on the right track, so what could be the mountain spirit’s motivation for this wrinkle? If the mountain spirit isn’t behind the fading, then Writernim has done us viewers a disservice by tossing in a random plot twist. To me, it feels like Writernim has cheated to extend the plot tension.
A show I watched a few weeks earlier, O! Master (Oh My Ladylord), had a plot that revolved around the fading away of the ML, but his fading was something that was central to the plot and not tossed in at the last of the show. We saw how first he, then the FL, wrestled with the fate he was facing, how they changed/grew because of it, and we learned exactly why it was happening. I didn’t care for the end of that show, but at least I felt the writer was being true to the story. I do not have the same feelings about MRIAG suddenly using this plot device.
I have hope that even if Fox loses his corporeal form, it will be part of his process of becoming human. He is, after all, still a gumiho shape-shifted into human form. To become truly human, he will need to go through metamorphosis. Hye Sun may have had an easier time of her physical change to human because she sped things along rather than shutting down, like Fox, following heartbreak. Again, Writernim hasn’t given us the understanding we need to interpret what is happening, so it seems random.
This has been, overall, a lighthearted show. We haven’t had to watch good pitted against evil except on superficial levels. Most of the plot action has been characters learning about themselves and learning how to relate better to others. We’ve laughed, smiled, felt mild anger, suffered through minor frustrations, felt a few tinges of fear, shed a few tears, but have not had to endure overwhelming negative emotions. If Writernim throws us into the angst pit and leaves us there to rot as the show wraps, I will think we’ve been trolled.
My dear @Welmaris,
You wrote everything I wanted to say!
I loved Mr. Fox’s love confession.
That “Dam-ah” reminds me so much “Dalmi-ya”, that It made my heart beat faster!
Still you are right. I didn’t like that dark ending, because it was not mentioned before. I feel that they stole something from this lighthearted show.
If Mr. Fox has to go through a metamorphosis, then I can understand it. Still, I didn’t like how they brought it up!
Howdy! I can’t believe we’re on the last episode. Time is flying! I liked episode 15, I thought it’s funny and I’ll take any scene with JKY as long as he’ll ask me too what would be my sweet nickname for him. 🥰😂
I think we’ll be fine for the ending. ☺️ Here’s JKY’s post.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRWBpmLr5CK/?utm_medium=copy_link
Dear @GB, that part is the sad ending of the original tale by Hans Christian Andersen 😉 . I am having a blast about Korean mystical animals borrowing lore from European literature 😀 .
I did read it ages ago when I was still a child, so I could be inacurate 😉 .
I really hope this show stays clear of those clichés, this show has been refreshing in its simplicity, maybe because Dam is so honest, direct and unequivocal in her answers that everything gets solved quickly and logically 😀 . If you look closely at this show it gives a roadmap about how to stand up against bullying, couple issues, family ones, etc.
This show has been one of the healthiest watches in a long time 😀 . Hope to see more work from this writer and director.
It’s good that Show has given us the expected cute ending, after the unexpected but ‘much needed by someone’ angst.
So we can rewatch this episode with light hearts!!
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I shudder at the coming together of Sun Woo’s sister and Dam’s brother, because of her personality. Dan is such a sweetheart, I’d rather he meets a nicer girl.
As expected we get lots of cute. And nice tie ups with ribbons, even for Soo Kyung. LOL her red thread of fate was a real thread.
Fox and Dam get their own red thread at last.
My only question is, is that blue marble of Hye Sun’s supposed to make memories disappear for JJ?
Other than that, it was good!
Ok! Rewatch tomorrow then. Thanks, GB!
Whoa, luckily Hye-Sun didn’t use her blue marble wish to wipe Dam’s memory. I thought it was kind of selfish for Woo-Yeo to ask Hye-Sun to use her wish for him “favor.” Glad she was able to use the wish for herself.
You’re welcome @pkml3.
@John L,… I hope that Hye Sun gave sweet JJ a choice and didn’t just use it on him without him knowing.
I feel it’s never good to have the power to wipe away memories. Events that we’ve learnt and grown from disappear, and we get left with weird gaping holes that bug us, or worse, depress us. We don’t know why we know something or feel a certain way when something triggers it. The pain of separation, though upsetting, is still preferable. It builds more resilience. Dam’s choice was right, to forego the forgetting. She chose to be faithful in memory and even in life, even if she never saw him again.
Hello everyone!
I didn’t like the tear part, but the conclusion was a happy one, even though it reminded us “The Tale Of The Nine Tailed”.
When Mr. Fox cried alone in that house, I felt for him.
I am glad that all the stories closed, except that forced arc with Dam’s brother and Tiger’s sister relationship.
I was happy about Ms. Ex-Fox and Jae Jin. I really liked them since Start Up, so I am glad we got to see them here in this pairing! They were so cute!
What a lovely story about relationships and how you can overcome destiny. People should choose their destiny and that is the theme of the series!
Hi there @Cleopatra.
I just told @agdr03 that this kdrama moves to the top of my list of gumiho shows. It ousted the iconic, “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” by the Hong sisters.
I haven’t been keeping up to date with this drama and had to catch up on 5 episodes today😅
I really enjoyed this, definitely top of my list of gumiho stories. It was refreshing to see a female lead who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, the couple communicated well and misunderstandings wasn’t dragged out for multiple episodes. Although, there were certain “huh” moments where I didn’t understand the writer’s intent, everything worked out well and there were no glaring plot holes for me. I do want to know why his marble cracked 🤔 Felt like I missed that. I kind of get the reason for his disappearance- Mr Fox had to realise he had something to live for.
I also wished the last episode covered more of their lives in the future. I wanted a wedding, children, birthdays and the works as alluded to by Mr Fox’s wishes. Oh well, at least we didn’t a long time jump and the only person who went aboard was the second male lead phew 😮💨
Speaking of SML, I liked Bae In Hyuk and look forward to watching him in future. Just not his currently airing drama, between this and Nevertheless there’s only so many dramas about university students & their love lives I can deal with at once 😂
Really liked the pairing of Jang Ki Yong and Hyeri, I was sceptical when I first saw trailers but they both pulled it off and seem like good friends irl. Also really liked the second couple, their relationship was cute with how they balanced each other out. Looking forward to Jang Ki Yong’s next drama with Song Hye Kyo!
Oh! I’m so satisfied with this show. I loved the funny scenes, the chemistry between Hyeri and JKY, JJ & Hyesun. I wasn’t too sure about Hyeri also before starting to watch this show but she and JKY nailed it – totally exceeded my expectations! They started great, got enough stories to get me going during the course of 16 episodes and the final wrapped up nicely. I will miss this Wed & Thur drama a lot as it has finished now.
Hello everyone..
I think many of you have written what I want to write. Overall, I am happy watching this drama. I have a good feeling while watching this, and like we’ve been discussed before there are many life lesson that will be good to learn especially for the youngsters.
1. I like Hye Ri’s performance here. Maybe because she played a character that stand out to me. I see many expression from her, starting from her iconic comical.
2. I think, Mr Fox is one of many rare male characters in kdrama nowadays. I’m glad that he is calm and he respect others too. Should be a good example for boys and girls of how a man should behave.
3. Kang Hanna and Kim Dowan were so cute here. I’m actually really curious about what Hyesun will do with that blue marble. A little hint from the production team should be great. But I can’t get any..
4. Also, more scenes of SooKyung and The Nice Sunbae would be interesting too. 😅
5. And for Tiger Sunbae sister, it would be great if Lee Dan could somehow tone down her act. Poor Dan, he seems flustered by her. But she didn’t care..😔
So, is there any recommendation for the ongoing drama that have the same vibe with this? I need to watch something light and make me feel good..
Thank you all.. 🌷🌷
Hi @Moonstar – same kind of storyline but shorter and with Tiger actor as ML, you can watch Kiss Goblin. Very light, heart fluttering and also with lessons on being human.
#3 – so nice to see Start Up actors hit it off excellently in this drama. Super like Hye-Jin ship and also wondering how the marble will be used. That’s their cliffhanger ending. LOL!
MRIAG is my first gumiho kdrama and I really like the flow of the story and the growth arc of the characters. Totally enjoyed it.
As I am wont to do after I finish a k-drama, I started re-watching MRIAG quickly, to get a better grasp of the plot arc (which I find easier to do when I watch everything straight through). In doing so, I noticed how striking the use of colors was in this show, particularly the color blue (a kind of foreshadowing of the blue marble). In fact, in the early scenes, when we see Mr. Fox in earlier times and elsewhere, there are blue orbs and/or blue lights placed here and there.
[I have been interested in the use of color in digital films since I watched the film, Amelie, and listened to the director’s commentary afterward about how they colorized each scene to make sure there was always green and/or red. (Here’s a short film someone made about color in Amelie, which is faster to watch than to listen to all the commentary on the DVD!: https://youtu.be/sTfxyyzW_EE).]
There are three main colors in MRIAG: blue, red, and yellow. Ms. Fox is often seen wearing yellow, and the characters in the beginning (when it’s fall), walk on a path that is lined with yellow-leaved trees. A shot overhead shows the yellow leaves covering the scene. I’m not sure if yellow stands for anything in this k-drama or if it’s just there as a contrast to the blue and red. (Of course R, Y, B are the three primary colors.)
I have only quickly re-watched the first five episodes (and I’ll probably stop here, because I’m ready for a new drama), but I thought these scenes/use of color were especially striking:
• In the first episode (41 seconds in), when Mr. Fox is shown in the Joseon era, his gat (traditional black hat) sports blue beads, and two at the bottom of the strand glimmer as bright blue orbs as he walks.
• In episode 1, as we transition to the modern day, traffic in Seoul is shown from overhead, first beaming a red stream of lights, then blue, as the camera pans to Mr. Fox, who is standing next to a restaurant window overlooking the city.
• In that same restaurant, the lights at the tables are all blue orbs.
• Mr. Fox’s sports car is red, Sun-Woo’s is blue.
• In the coffeeshop (episode 4, 1:10:54), when Mr. Fox is quoting Nietzsche and GGM, in the window behind the two of them, you see two strings of lights—a circle of red lights on the left (his side), a circle of blue lights on her/right side. When the camera pans to a shot of just Lee Dam, she also has an aura of blue lights behind her.
• In Mr. Fox’s house at night blue light pushes in, and lights the countertops. Of course, blue light could just be used in film to demonstrate nighttime, but this particular blue color seems equivalent to the blue light used elsewhere.
[to see screenshots of some of these examples, see: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WTA8VSBxzUCHWrkn8 ]
I’m sure there are more, but I’ll stop here. This is another example of all the craft that goes into even the lightest of Korean romance-dramas.
As a follow-up to the discussion about k-drama couples that end with the appearance of children in the final episode, the only one I can think of is “Fated to Love You.”
SPOILER
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In the last few minutes, the couple are shown with their twins. I dropped this drama pretty early on because I found its premise distasteful: their relationship begins accidentally due to what is essentially a date-rape drug. (And they get pregnant on their honeymoon, unintentionally, because they are given the same date-rape drug by the grandmother(!).
There are some last episode pregnancies in other k-dramas, like the already-mentioned LOTBS, as well as 1% of Something… Wasn’t there a discussion at one time that Crash Landing on You was supposed to end with a pregnancy but the ending was rewritten due to a potential lawsuit from a group that didn’t want NK to be shown in such a positive light?
@BethB, if my memory serves me correctly, there is a baby at the end of Because This Is My First Life, but it is secondary characters whose family is growing, not the main leads. So close, and yet so far…
@BethB, your commentary on use of color in MRIAG is excellent and enlightening. It is a good reminder to consider more than just camera angles.
Annyeong,
Just want to say i’ve enjoyed yet another humorous and romantic Kdrama with the BOD gang. it has been fun reading your commentaries and analysis and deep thoughts.
I’m happy with the ending… that the Mtn spirit was able to make Mr Fox’s wish come true with the help of Dam and Ms Fox and their minions haha – even though we experienced a bit of angst during Mr Fox’ Vanishing. Oh to be more than human, but to be humane. another reminder for us that no man is an island. it takes a village as they say. so beautiful to see Mr Fox in the act of loving, but also being loved. how we love to be loved. when Mr fox sacrificed his life and when Dam chose to not forget him even though she was heartbroken – a beautiful picture of humanity, of unconditional love.
i love the happy ending for all our love teams, not just our main leads. how nice of writernim to give every couple their own red string of fate. awwww. i didn’t want it to end – but we just have to imagine what their life could be… remaining to love even through some pain.
Thanks to this show, i am now reading LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA. and i’ve actually reached the part that mr fox quoted in the show. i actually liked his version more. haha.
until the next show… no goodbyes here at BOD island. xoxo
Hi @HK_Lady, it’s good to know that you’ve enjoyed this show with us!
I do like how this supernatural tale, more than some others, gets us to think again about what makes us truly human. We may instead be coveting gumiho’s magical abilities, while gumiho happily gives up all powers to become one of us. Yes indeed, the ability to sacrifice self for the good of others and to love unconditionally are the hallmarks of humanity.