"My friend Mi Ho, a cute Gumiho..."- A My Girlfriend is a Gumiho Review

Originalname:	내 여자친구는 구미호 | Nae Yeochineun Gumiho
Also known as:	My Girlfriend Is A Nine-Tailed Fox
Release Date:	11. August - 30. September 2010
Director:	Boo Sung Chul
Writer:	Hong Mi Ran, Hong Jeong Eun
Cast:	Lee Seung Gi, Shin Min Ah, No Min Woo, Park Soo Jin

Plot

At the very beginning of this drama we get introduced to Dae Woong and his dazzling, beautiful girlfriend Mi Ho. Yet he is afraid her, we’ll soon get to know why…

So we figure out that she’s a nine-tailed fox (Gumiho) and that Dae Woong was the one who freed her from a picture she got banned in. He got scared of her and ran away, falling down a cliff and breaking a lot of bones. To save him Mi Ho gives him her bead, so it can heal him.

In the next morning Dae Woong tries to get rid of her because he thinks she’s insane.  He manages to do so by saying; if she really is a Gumiho she should just follow him. She tells him that she’ll find him, take the bead out of him and kill him. Dae Woong gets into the bus without thinking much about her threat.

But they meet again in the Action Schools gym and as promised she shows him her nine tails and takes the bead. Dae Woong falls into a coma, when she decides that she won’t kill him yet and gives it back to him.

In the mean time we get to know our third main character - Park Dong Joo. He gets called by the monk from the temple, where the Gumiho was banned. Park Dong Joo is actually a goblin, but to can live with the humans he is hidden as a vet. When he sees that the Gumiho isn’t in the picture, the chasing starts. When he meets Mi Ho for the first time, she reminds him of Kil Dal, a love interest he had a long time ago. But she asked him to kill her in order to save the life of her beloved human. And this is what he does.

After the first disappearance of Mi Ho, she gets to know that there’s a way to become human. So since Dae Woong wants her bead back, because he isn’t yet fully healed and in order to play in the action movie he’s participating in, he needs to. So both agree on a love contract: He would get the bead for hundred days and she would be his girlfriend during that time. Which is what Dong Joo told her to do, leaving out a little detail. When the bead absorbs all of the human chi within Dae Woong, he dies.

So, while Dae Woong and Mi Ho keep up that couple game, with Dae Woong slowly realising that he actually really likes Mi Ho, Dong Joo, being now good friends with Mi Ho, tries to prepare her for Dae Woongs death.

So, after a lot of meat - I mean – time, Eun Hye In (who does appear in the previous episodes as Dae Woongs Noona and love interest but is just plain unnerving to talk about) finds out that Mi Ho is a Gumiho and forces her to be her stunt double in order to get the role she always wanted. But being afraid of Mi Ho and angry at Dae Woong, because he doesn’t realise in which danger he has brought himself, she kisses him. This causes Mi Ho to run wild and nearly attacking her, if Dae Woong wouldn’t have stepped in. However, she loses her ring in the process.

Mi Ho, being afraid of herself, thinks that Eun Hye In is right with her being a monster. So the Gumiho thinks the only way to become a human is to be independent from Dae Woong. She starts to work so she can buy her own food. This starts to scare Dae Woong since he really began to like her. He thinks her behaviour is the result of he has lost her couple ring which she gave him to look after. So he searches for the ring. But for the moment he can’t find it, so he tries to cheer Mi Ho up with going somewhere she likes or with beef. But she rejects his offers kindly. On the day when her fake human identity, which Dong Joo created for her, has her birthday, after the birthday party with Dong Joo she goes to the place she always wanted to go with Dae Woong. Coincidently, Dae Woong is also there and has finally found the ring. He tells her, in very drama manner, not to go and then they fall into each other’s arms. In the evening, she tells him everything and he sings a song for her and kisses her afterwards. He tells her that he’s in love with her and she finally tells him that she’ll become human.

But their luck can’t hold long, as Mi Ho discovers that Dae Woong must die in order for her to become human. So she tries to kill herself with Dong Joos dagger. Of course Dong Joo can’t let that happen, since he already lost his first love like that. He tells Eun Hye In that Dae Woong will die when the 100 days are over, hoping that he’ll want to break all bonds with Mi Ho, so he and Mi Ho can go to Japan and never return again.

But Dae Woong manages to return in time and tells her to take the bead away from him right now. So, on the 50^th day, she takes out the bead. Nobody knows what’ll happen now.

But as she continuous dying, though Dong Joo telling Dae Woong that this is bad, he makes the decision, which Dong Joo told him to do, he breaks up with her. (Seriously, why do they even keep listening to this guy!!)

After returning from his shooting in China, he finds Mi Ho, who’s preparing  to get married to Dong Joo, and after he stalked her awhile, she shows him that her tails are still disappearing, meaning that she’s still dying. So his sacrifice was useless in the end. He tells her that she should give him the bead so they can finish what they started. To which she agrees.

Dong Joo eventually finds out that she had never planned to live with him as half human, but to die instead. She asks him to return the bead to Dae Woong so that he’ll have his full lifespan back, which he does. But he has a change of heart afterwards and tells Dae Woong, why she gave the bead to him.

At the airport, where Dong Joo and Mi Ho wait the plane to Japan, Dong Joo finally made the decision to let her go. Dae Woong arrives in the right moment (AGAIN!) and the embrace each other and go home, leaving Dong Joo alone.

At the last day, Dae Woong and Mi Ho try to revive some happy memories, but everything they want to do, they can’t, because it is tomorrow. Like watching the fountain or meeting their friends. This is the first time where we can see that Mi Ho really doesn’t want to die. However, they have some happy time with the fireworks and end up in the Action Schools Gym. Where Dae Woong tells her, that he’s more afraid of her dying, then he was back at that time when she showed him her tails. She closes his eyes and tells him to think of it as a dream and disappears.

Some time passes and we see Dae Woong became a famous actor what he always wanted. He gives interviews because of his movie debut and also autographs. At once Dong Joo appears and tells him that Mi Ho can come back “when the sky goes crazy”. It happens that on this day there will be a solar eclipse - the sky is going crazy. At the time when the moon is covering the sun, Dae Woong gets a phone call. It’s Mi Ho. He runs through the whole area searching for her. When the moon is uncovering the sun, the call ends. Resigned, Dae Woong sits on the stair. But then he sees her. She’s standing in her white dress at the bottom of the stairs and smile at him. He runs towards her and embraces her.

In the evening they’re on the balcony, celebrating her return. But Dae Woong is curious if she is human or a Gumiho. She reveals that she has still one tail left. So that means she is a fox.

Conclusion

We love this drama. It has comedy, it has romance, it has tragedy and above all: it has drama. It’s like they looked up the word “drama” in the dictionary and blew it up into this huge Drama. And the finale was just great. It was a constant rollercoaster of feelings. I cried two times and I never cried two times in an episode before. What was really clever, they turned the whole main and second love interest thing. The second love interest makes a character development too and the main love interest seems more generous.
I also think the Drama was sponsored by a meat factory because meat had a big part in it. You really want to eat meat when you’re watching the Drama. With that said, let’s go to the actors.

Lee Seung Ki who played Dae Woong was great. Actually, I never loved the main love interest, but I could really feel for him here. It did make the whole love triangle more plausible. You may ask why he was great, it’s because he played well. At the beginning Dae Woong was a spoiled brat. But he grew through his love for Mi Ho. And this whole aspect was portrayed very well. There were also some very funny scenes in which he imagines how he could escape from Mi Ho when they are at the gym the first time. When he imagines it, it seemed very easy and very cool, but as soon as he tried it, it didn’t work that well. And Mi Ho was only standing in the middle of the gym and staring at him.

Shin Min Ah played Mi Ho. She is soo cute (insert auntie voice here). I also liked her very much. She was able to act as a child who experiences a whole new word. But she could also act well when the child decided to grew up and become more independent. Her character seemed also to mature through love and she also did that portrayal very well. The absolute cutest scene with her was when she was in the park with Dae Woong and she shouted: “I like you so, so, so, so, so, so, so much!” Or when she ate meat, she danced because of happiness.

No Min Woo played Dong Joo. He’s hot! The eye candy of the Drama! And he played the role of the second love interest very well. Even though, as I stated in the beginning, it wasn’t the very typical second love interest character. I liked how you could never know what he was thinking at the moment. And just at the end you realised that he truly did love her. His backstory is never fully explained and that is very sad. I’m sure they could’ve put it in somewhere. You really feel sorry for him since he loses the woman he loves a second time. But I really like how the Sam Shin Grandmother asks him: “What is better: ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘Thank you’?” And from the look of his face, he would choose ‘Thank you’, which means, that he had a better relationship with her this time.

And now for something totally out of the plot: IT HAS JEREMY FROM A.N.JELL (You’re beautiful) IN IT!!!! You see him in the last episode when Eun Hye In is working with him. She wants to ask him out and practises the moves Mi Ho has taught her. This pairing is totally weird…

Anyway, since I guess you’re still reading this boring extremely long review, that does the Drama no justice: What are you doing? Go watch it!!

“The brightest star…”- A You’re Beautiful Review

Originalname:	미남이시네요 | Minamyisinyeoyo
Also known as:	He's Beautiful!/ A.N.Jell
Release Date:	7. October - 26. November 2009
Director:	Hong Sung Chang
Writer:	Hong Jeong Eun, Hong Mi Ran
Cast:	Park Shin Hye, Jang Geun Suk, Lee Hong Ki, Jung Yong Hwa, Uee

Plot

Our story starts in a convent, where the nun-in-training Go Mi Nyeo lives and works to serve The Lord. She’s preparing to go to Vatican City to become a real nun and she also has a twin brother called Go Min Nam. He wants to become a famous singer because he wants to find their mom.

One day he gets the chance to become a member of the popular boyband A.N.JELL. But unfortunately he stuck in America because of a plastic surgery gone wrong.

And that’s when Go Mi Nyeo steps in. Go Min Nam’s manager asks her to be her brother’s double for a month and so she enters the glamorous life of a boyband member as a man.

The boyband contains stubborn Tae Kyung, gentle Shin Woo and last but not least funny Jeremy. The other members were mostly fine with the fact of someone else joining them, but Tae Kyung needed some persuation. But Go Mi Nyeo can sing like an angel so everything is fine at first.

In the first night however she gets drunk at her welcome party and Shin Woo accidently hugging her discovers she’s in fact a girl. Go Mi Nyeo being drunk decides that it’s time to reach out for the stars. That goes wrong and she falls on Tae Kyung and ends up kissing him. Since she’s drunk that kiss end very gross…(Believe me; you don’t want to know.)

As you already know our bandleader doesn’t like Go Mi Nyeo very much. So he wants her immediately out when he discovers that she’s a girl. (How he discovers it is so hilarious!) Their talk is overheard by Jeremy, who now thinks Go Mi Nyeo is gay. Anyway, she manages to stay within the band because… well, that’s a long story which involves a truck and epic manly running.

The story goes on and we get to know Yoo He Yi, who basically is our everyday bitch (nice in front of the world but a horrible person inside). Tae Kyung learns of this very quickly and finds himself in a fake relationship with her to protect Go Mi Nyeos identity.

Go Mi Nyeo, however, finds herself more and more falling in love with Tae Kyung and on the other hand Shin Woo falls more and more for Go Mi Nyeo. Yoo He Yi falls for Tae Kyung, who can’t arrange his feelings towards Go Mi Nyeo. (Dear god! Of course he loves her!!) And Jeremy starts also falling for Go Mi Nyeo.  So we have like a love- quintet…

So eventually the other group members get to know that Go Mi Nyeo is a girl. And especially Jeremy is relieved. (“Yess! I’m not gay!”)

Well, afterwards they keep hiding her identity to the outside, but for Go Mi Nyeo  the pressure not to reveal her feelings to Tae Kyung has highly increased. Although everybody thinks she felt in love with Shin Woo, except himself.

After a lot “who will she choose”- moments and sentence “I like you” which came out of Tae Kyung, the day of Go Min Nams return comes nearer. To settle the switch right, A.N.JELL goes to Japan to make some vacations. Shin Woo tries here a last time to win Go Mi Nyeo’s heart but he knows that her heart belongs to Tae Kyung. So we have even more drama ahead us as the boyband bids their last farewell to Go Mi Nyeo (She’ going to stay in Japan for awhile) without Tae Kyung, who left earlier.

Everything goes smoothly as they meet Go Min Nam at the right time on the airport, when they get back.

So we skip some time and we get to know that Tae Kyung and Yoo He Yi broke up and that Go Min Nam is interested in her. Also Go Mi Nyeo has left them a message, that she was fine. Tae Kyung gets angry and goes to search for her. She was found by the manager and because off an incident Go Mi Nyeo has to play again her brother for one day. At dinner with A.N.JELL the members find out that it is the sister and not the brother. She gets drunk again and in the next morning she gets an invitation and a ticket for the evening’s concert of A.N.JELL.

In the evening Tae Kyung finds out that she’s in the concert hall. So he knows it’s his last chance to see her before she leaves for Africa. He sings a song which was written by her dead father and after that it follows a very dramatic speech, but he can’t find her because the stage lights are too bright. So Shin Woo, being the white knight once again, tells the guys to turn off the stage lights and put the audience light on instead. So Tae Kyung finds her and embraces her. The drama ends on the balcony of the bands dorm with both of them talking and gazing to the stars.

Conclusion

My sister and me loved that drama although there were some things that were just silly or pretty much terrifying. For example I don’t know why she chose Tae Kyung and not Shin Woo or Jeremy. I mean, he was trying to kill her. And I think actually he was never nice to her. He always ordered her around. Actually, the only nice thing, he ever said to her, was: “I like you”.

Let’s talk a little bit about Shin Woo. He is such a Prince Charming. Like I said before, he’s the white knight. He’s always there to lend his shoulders when Go Mi Nyeo cries because of Tae Kyung. But he sadly didn’t get much character development. Even when he wants to be a bad boy, he can’t. He remains to be good and gentle.  And that will really piss you off. You just think: “How much of a masochist can one be!!” He tried it like a billion times, he even says it in Japan when he hugs her and she again refuses him, that he’s used to it since she abandoned him so many times.

Jeremy is by far my favourite character. I even started the drama because I knew Hong Ki was playing him. He was so adorable trying not to fall in love with Go Mi Nyeo. He was the comic relieve character and he even cheered Go Mi Nyeo up more than anyone else in the group. But sadly that seemed to be his only purpose. So when he suddenly got serious because of his love to Go Mi Nyeo, he got back to happy too fast. (And that was not because of Hong Ki acting skills. They’re good.) So the audience could only guess how heartbroken he was. (I would suggest very heartbroken.) As soon as this episode ended we didn’t see much of him anymore. He totally got lost in the writing. I would’ve loved to see him more.

Go Mi Nyeo is the character of the good girl. So she’s just the girl you want to fall in love with. She’s so cute and innocent. It’s hard to believe that she has a brother who wants to become a famous singer. Sometime because of the way she behaves (doesn’t know the Korean idols at the moment, doesn’t know about astronomy, etc.) I asked myself “Is she from this century?” The Becoming-A-Nun- Excuse doesn’t count. I know some who studied Theology to become a priest and they know such things like who are on the top of the music charts and so on. And besides, sometimes she acted really cruel if you consider the way she talks with Shin Woo. You can literary imagine how she rips out his heart and dances Flamenco on it and this again and again and again. Did she really not know about how to act at opposite gender’s present? We know from the episodes she attended a mixed gender school together with her brother.

So, in the end this was, like I said before, this was a very amusing ride through Asian Drama. All the clichés were there so were all the faults. Does it make a bad drama? NEVER! It was great if you like Asian Drama. In the end it felt really complete. They didn’t do any twists that felt out of the plot.
The actors were surprisingly good. I want to point out Yong Hwa who played Shin Woo. This was his debut as an actor and he did very well. Another good performance was given by Uee who played Yoo He Yi. You really hated her character and that isn’t as easy as it sounds. (trust me, I know it)

There isn’t much left to say except: Go see it! Trust me, you’ll find something to enjoy.

See you soon at my next review!!