K-drama My Roommate Is a Gumiho: fantasy romcom ticks the boxes, and not much else
- Jang Ki-yong plays Shin Woo-yeo, the gumiho of the title – a nine-tailed fox from Korean folklore who is 999 years old and wants to finally become human
- Lingering hugs and long stares by the romantic leads have been the order of the day so far, but the show has yet to provide a strong narrative hook
It’s not a completely novel mix, as we’ve seen it done before in My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, but the twist here is that the gumiho, or nine-tailed fox, a legendary creature found in Korean folklore which usually takes on female form, is a man.
The man in question is Shin Woo-yeo (Jang Ki-yong), a 999-year-old gumiho who has lived through the ages by absorbing women’s energy by seducing them and collecting it in a bead. Yet Woo-yeo, who in the present age is a dashing professor, longs to become a real human.
Enter university student Lee Dam (Lee Hye-ri, or simply as Hyeri). She is trying to escort her drunk friend home one evening when he runs right into a fancy sports car belonging to none other than Woo-yeo. He lets them off, but as Dam tries to drag her friend away she trips and accidentally hits Woo-yeo in the stomach, making him cough up a special bead, which she inadvertently swallows.
Dam wakes up in Woo-yeo’s swanky home, where he explains that he’s a gumiho and that he needs to retrieve his bead from her. He proposes that she stay there while he figures out how to do it. She laughs off his statement, only for Woo-yeo to turn into a majestic white nine-tailed fox.