My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho: Episode 1
by javabeans | August 11, 2010 | 138 Comments
Annnnnd we have a winner! What a cute first episode to start off what looks to become an entertaining, zippy ride.
Both leads are adorable, but more than that, the story is fresh and innovative. It takes some familiar elements and mixes them with creations that are pure Hong Sisters Original
CHARACTERS
CHA DAE-WOONG (Lee Seung-gi) is in his early twenties and dreams of being a movie actor — an action star, specifically. He’s still a university student, but in his immature way of thinking, he feels he’s about to get his big break and would rather quit school and start his career. He’s a big man on campus and he plays the part to the hilt, which is helped by the fact that he comes from a rich background, and therefore does not lack for sycophantic followers.
Then there’s the gumiho (a mythical shape-shifting fox with nine tails), who comes to be called GU MI-HO (Shin Mina). She isn’t given a name to start with, so for all intents and purposes, her name is now Mi-ho. Personality-wise, she is friendly, curious, and very frank in a way that is very 4-D (fourth-dimensional, which is to say eccentric in a cute way). We’ll get into her origins a bit later.
EUN HYE-IN (Park Su-jin) is Dae-woong’s school sunbae and his crush. We haven’t seen much of her and she seems sweet and friendly, but her character description indicates a sly streak. (It’s an interesting reversal to make the gumiho the candid one and the sweetheart the fox-like one.)
KIM BYUNG-SOO (Kim Ho-chang) and BAN SUN-NYEO (Hyo-min) are Dae-woong’s schoolmates and sidekicks. Sun-nyeo’s father runs the action school that Dae-woong attends, and she nurses a pretty enormous crush on Dae-woong, in that dreamy starry-eyed way. Byung-soo, meanwhile, seems to like her but she remains oblivious. It’s a classic triangle rife with angst possibilities, but this drama will probably play it for comedy. Thankfully. (Side note: Sun-nyeo means fairy. Perhaps some mythological details will work their way into her character. Or not.)
Orphaned at a young age, Dae-woong was raised by his aunt and grandfather, the latter of whom now has to deal with the results of indulging the boy: Dae-woong is impetuous and a bit cocky, although he’s also good-natured and charming. He’s always getting into scrapes, and Grandpa tries to lay down the law in the only way that works — with his bank account.
Last but not least, we have PARK DONG-JOO (Noh Min-woo), a mysterious man who is tracking down the gumiho.
EPISODE 1 RECAP
Gu Mi-ho waits patiently outside the school campus, looking lovely and chipper, and as soon as she spots Cha Dae-woong, she waves and calls out enthusiastically. Far from being glad to see his girlfriend, he immediately whirls around, trying to ignore her as he fakes a phone call and starts walking the other way.
Being a supernatural being has its perks, however, and speed is one of them. Mi-ho comes at him from the opposite direction, and despite the sunny innocence with which she accepts his excuse that he didn’t see her, I’m pretty sure she’s sharper than she looks. She says with complete earnestness, “Well I’m sure if you didn’t want to die, you wouldn’t have lied and pretended to not hear me, right?” It’s not a true threat to kill him, but it IS the trump card she holds in this relationship, which she doesn’t scruple to use when it suits her. I love this about her.
