Tale Of The Nine-Tailed (also known as Tale Of Gumiho) — the much-anticipated K-drama starring Lee Dong-Wook, Jo Bo-Ah, and Kim Bum — has officially arrived in Viu last weekend and it’s looking pretty interesting so far. Dropping two episodes per week, the drama already let us in on some curious details.
Some of our earlier predictions (like Lee Yeon and Ji-Ah’s fate being tied together thus Ji-Ah’s reason for being an urban legend TV producer) have hit just right. So we're curious to know if we're actually on the nose on this series. Here are our other Tale Of The Nine-Tailed plot predictions. Are your guesses the same as ours?
Ji-Ah is really A-Eum’s reincarnation
In as early as the first two episodes of Tale Of The Nine-Tailed, we immediately learnt that Lee Yeon voluntarily cast himself on the human world to await the reincarnation of his one true love, the human girl A-Eum. After she met an untimely death (which Lee Yeon described as someone “stealing her life”), he wished for her to be reincarnated and left her a fox bead, which will let him know if it’s her soul no matter what form, face or lifetime it is. Lee Yeon mentioned that he has met many people bearing a similar face with A-Eum over the years but they never carried the fox bead, much to his disappointment.
What’s interesting about this is even if Ji-Ah also doesn’t carry the fox bead when Lee Yeon tested her, it seems like she’s susceptible to some of his magic. That, along with her looks and her personality (unwavering, passionate, smart, and kind) are much like A-Eum's. Lee Yeon already claimed that it doesn’t matter if A-Eum’s reincarnation is “a boy, a girl, ugly or beautiful” as long as he can find her, but given his long wait of 600 years, it would be nice to meet her again with the same face, don’t you think?
Ji-Ah’s parents (or one of them) are actually mythical creatures too
On to our next plot prediction. It seems like aside from nine-tailed foxes, this K-drama will also introduce a lot of Asian mythical creatures and superstitions. Referencing our previous prediction, one possible explanation as to why Ji-Ah is immune to some of Lee Yeon’s magic is that her parents (or one of them) suppressed the fox bead to protect her. We already learnt that mythic creatures are almost everywhere in the human world and while some of them are chaotic, others actually just want to blend in. Who knows? Maybe the reason why Ji-Ah’s parents disappeared in the night of the accident 21 years ago without a record in the Registry of the Dead is that they’re actually hiding to protect her again.
A-Eum asked Lee Rang to kill her
Lee Yeon himself said that his love affair with A-Eum was one of the biggest scandals in ‘the mountains’ (a.k.a. his former domain as a mountain spirit) at the time. This is because his kind is not meant to fall in love with humans. So A-Eum's sudden death is nothing short of suspicious. By the looks of Lee Yeon's current relationship with his devious brother, Lee Rang, it’s only fitting to suspect Lee Rang as the one who caused A-Eum’s death. But what if — plot twist — A-Eum actually asked Lee Rang to kill her to avoid causing Lee Yeon any more trouble?
Okay, hear out this prediction. In a confrontation between Lee Rang and Lee Yeon in the second episode, we found out that Lee Rang’s wrath against Lee Yeon was caused by feelings of abandonment after the latter decided to banish himself in the human world to wait for A-Eum’s reincarnation. It was the first moment we’ve seen Lee Rang lose his cool, indicating that Lee Yeon’s decision is enough to throw him off the edge. But what if his anger roots from his broken pact with A-Eum?
We already know that antagonists also get their backstories in K-dramas so we definitely would love to see how this reveal will play off in the end, if ever. After all, Lee Rang is also one of the nine-tailed foxes the title refers to and his tale must also be told, right?
Lee Yeon will choose to return to the mountains by mid-series to protect Ji-Ah
If you’re a huge K-drama fanatic, then you know that the time to take out the tissues is around episodes 11 to 13. These episodes often provide most of the tearjerking scenes. For Tale Of The Nine-Tailed, it’s possible that the twist will be Lee Yeon choosing to abandon his place in the human world to save Ji-Ah, whether or not she is A-Eum's reincarnation — a complete 180-degree from his pledge at the beginning of the series.
It was made clear that Lee Yeon can choose to end his time in the human world. We’re guessing that mid-series, he will finally find out if Ji-Ah really is A-Eum or not, possibly because of Lee Rang. At this point, we're sure that he's already fallen in love with her regardless of the truth, which puts her life into a bigger risk. Hitting this realisation, Lee Yeon will end up choosing to abandon her instead.
Maybe it’s around this time that his magic will work on her, too, and he’ll make her forget him while he’s at it. It’s definitely cliché for sure, but since we’re suckers for heart-wrenching moments that reinforce a defying-all-odds storyline, we’re definitely all for this development (as long as they see each other again, of course!).
The drama will end with Lee Yeon meeting Ji-Ah/A-Eum in a different lifetime
In the earlier episodes, Lee Yeon was so adamant about finding the fox bead from women who look like A-Eum that he actually missed out on chances of falling in love with her (or a possible reincarnation of her) all over again in those lifetimes. We can definitely see that after taking his chances with Ji-Ah, he will finally end his fixation on the idea of the 'old A-Eum' and just let himself fall in love with her reincarnations in the future. It redefines his philosophy that “foxes can only fall in love with one person in their lifetime” in a way that he falls in love with A-Eum’s soul over and over again rather than just the ‘identity’ he once knew her as. Quite confusing, but we know you got it!
Make sure you also watch out for these other titles arriving on Netflix this month.
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