> A riveting, gripping folklore-inspired love story .. Story was not bad, but lack of couple chemistry I guess?

A gumhio story is nothing new for K-Dramas. Likewise this feels like a mix of **Gu Family Book** and **A Korean Odessey** with both good and bad choices.

Tale of the Nine-Tailed started with a very good plot and the first episode was incredible, however, over the course of the episodes the story went downhill. I expected a lot more from this story, I thought they were going to innovate, but in the end it ended up being one more generic fantasy drama with terrible special effects and a main couple that despite having chemistry in the kissing scenes, did not convince during the most emotional scenes .

PLOT
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The plot... let's be honest, it's a hot mess. It's coherent enough to understand and enjoy, simple enough that you've seen this story a thousand and one times already, but if you think about it too long, it starts to fall apart.

[spoiler]
Just take the very first scene where NJA's parents go missing. We understand that attack to have been orchestrated by Imugi's minion KHR, but who was it that actually attacked them? Who was it that LY saved NJA from that night?
That seems a bit silly - they could have taken them at any point after Imugi was revived to the same effect. With Imugi's illusions we've seen that he can get whatever he wants whenever he wants it. It just feels unnecessary.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but we never got closure on why NJA's parents visited that island where the Imugi ritual was performed, did we?
They never even get an explanation for where they were or why they were there all that time.

[/spoiler]
Anyway. My point is that there are a lot of holes in the story, and even more bad choices. It didn't make me hate the show but as I saw more of them, I started to realize that this wasn't the drama I hoped it would be.

Another point that I found very negative in the story was the ending and when I say this I am not referring to the fact that a certain character has sacrificed himself, as I already expected it, but rather because of the many holes and lack of explanation that this ending had .
[spoiler]
LY is supposed to be reincarnated except is brought back as himself but human. An adult. How does that make sense? Why did they not explain that?
-LR being reincarnated as a 10-year-old boy... when he died a few months ago? Does that make sense? No. Nothing does, apparently.
-That very end - so is he not a human after all? Is he lying? I get that maybe he can still use his special sword umbrella but why did his eyes change? Is he still a fox? WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT?
[/spoiler]

CAST
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Lee Dong Wook and Kim Bum smashed it. Not to forget Kim Bum's comeback! ( Last prominent role he did was a decade back in That Winter , that Wind Blows)

The drama's strengths lie in its production, its cast, and some of its characters. Some, not all.... The brothers Lee Yeon and Lee Rang were hands down the most well thought out part of the story as both characters had a lot of depth to them, and their actors had a lot of chemistry on set. From the very beginning, LR's grudge is made clear and we're given context to their very strained relationship. As the story leaves more pieces for us to put together, we come to understand his character a lot more. Better yet, their relationship and LR's character as a whole have by far the most growth out of the whole cast. Even, I as someone who didn't care for LR in early episodes, grew to appreciate his role in the story.

The rest of the cast, for the most part, was a compliment to their chemistry. Ki Yoo Ri and Gu Shin Ju did a fantastic job portraying the slow-developing second couple and, honestly, their chemistry was a lot more compelling than the main pair. They're fun, they're cute, and the more you see them together, the better they look together.

The Gatekeeper couple was such a treat, too, in a different way. Watching them fight and bicker and then, eventually, come together again, was so nice.

For me, the main problem and the reason I was never 100% onboard was Nam Ji Ah's character. I found her very likable and refreshing in the first few episodes ; she seemed intelligent, level-headed and charming unlike most FLs but that started to taper off around episode 4 or 5 where I started to find her grating as she becomes a damsel in distress slowly. The actress's acting was passable, but a lot of times it didn't feel genuine. Her motivation was clear in the beginning - to find her parents - [spoiler] but as soon as they were back, the story forgot about them unless it needed a hostage or a funny little couple scene between NJA and LY. [/spoiler]; this character who in the beginning we were shown was strong-willed, motivated, and could take care of herself was now in constant need of rescuing. And I mean constant. She was practically helpless throughout most of the story. [spoiler] In episode 13 she even fell victim to the 'woman fainting because stress' trope. There were also many scenes where she had to 'play the villain' so to speak and act as Imugi, which... was a choice. She didn't make for a great villain.[/spoiler]

Lee Tae Ri was an odd choice to play the villain. It's not that he's a bad actor, but he doesn't really have a threatening or large presence. He made Imugi's level of threat seem kinda silly, honestly, so I never felt like there was any real tension when he was on screen.



VERDICT
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Overall a nice piece and good story that is worth watching but I don't enjoy the couple that much! Long story short, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a consistently-good-throughout fantasy drama ; despite its own set of plot holes and lack of closure ; without the stupid "male lead gets cancer," or "leads have a misunderstanding" sort of draggy drama tropes.


The story was tight from start to finish and it would make for a wonderful binge watch. However, this is definitely not a groundbreaking drama but something passable in 2020 due to lack of many dramas during WUHAN19.