"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!!