A thousand-year-old fox spirit navigates modern city life while hunting his ancient nemesis
In short: Lee Yeon is a former mountain spirit turned urbanite, working for the Afterlife Immigration Office to keep supernatural threats at bay. When a fierce television producer discovers his secret, their intertwined pasts—spanning centuries of reincarnation, tragic sacrifice, and a malevolent earth dragon—threaten to consume their present-day lives.
The 2020 South Korean series Tale of the Nine Tailed centers on Lee Yeon, a gumiho—a mythical nine-tailed fox—who once guarded the Baekdu-daegan mountain range. After abdicating his position to facilitate the reincarnation of his first love, Ah-eum, he now operates in the modern world as a supernatural agent. His life becomes complicated when he encounters Nam Ji-ah, a producer who bears a striking resemblance to Ah-eum and whose parents vanished in a mysterious accident two decades prior.
Central to the narrative is the return of the Imoogi, an evil earth dragon seeking to claim Yeon’s body and Ji-ah’s heart. The Imoogi’s origins are rooted in ancient Silla, where he was born with deformities and sealed in a cave, eventually transforming into a serpent beast. His vendetta against Yeon is deeply personal, involving the manipulation of Taluipa, the Afterlife Immigration Office official who manages the list of dead souls, and the tragic corruption of her son, Bok-gil. The conflict forces an uneasy dynamic between Yeon and his estranged half-brother, Lee Rang, a gumiho who harbors a deep grudge against Yeon for abandoning him on the mountain centuries ago.
The series weaves together Korean folklore and urban legend, featuring figures like the Spirit of Darkness, who preys on victims' deepest fears, and the Snail Bride, a centuries-old widow who runs a restaurant frequented by the protagonists. As the plot unfolds, it is revealed that Ji-ah is indeed the reincarnation of Ah-eum, the daughter of a Joseon king who sacrificed herself to the Imoogi to protect her father. The show explores themes of destiny, the burden of immortality, and the complex bonds of family, as Yeon and Ji-ah fight to protect their love against a host of supernatural entities and the lingering shadows of their past lives.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Tale of the Nine Tailed
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