Lee Dong-wook hopes to win hearts with another mystical role

From left: Actors Lee Dong-wook, Jo Bo-ah and Kim Bum during the online media conference for the new fantasy series “Tale of the Nine Tailed,” Wednesday. Courtesy of tvN

By Lee Gyu-lee

It is almost four years since actor Lee Dong-wook made a big impression with his role as the grim reaper in tvN's hit series “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God.”

Now, he has taken another mystical figure role as a “gumiho” ― the nine-tailed fox ― to top his previous performance in the new series “Tale of the Nine Tailed.”??

Director Kang Shin-hyo. Courtesy of tvN

“I did feel pressured to make changes to portray this mystical figure in a different way than I did in 'Guardian,'” the actor, 38, said during an online media conference for the series on Wednesday.

“So I took the time to come up with different looks … I'll be trying my best to replace that image of the grim reaper with this new role as gumiho.”

The fantasy action romance, directed by?Kang Shin-hyo, revolves around gumiho Lee Yeon, who comes to the world to hunt monsters, and a gutsy mystery show producer Nam Ji-a (Jo Bo-ah).?

Nam believes a supernatural creature killed her parents, so she spends her life tracing the truth of their deaths. Lee Yeon gets on her radar, leading her to investigate his identity.?

The tvN series began Wednesday with a 5.8 percent viewership rating. This was the highest among the primetime Wednesday-Thursday series ― JTBC's “Personal Life,” KBS's “Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol,” and MBC's “When I Was The Most Beautiful.”

The first episode showed Lee and Nam's encounter, which ended in a cliff-hanger. The realistic computer graphics of the supernatural figures and tense action scenes helped to escalate the chilling, intense storyline that is sprinkled with comedy.

Lee Yeon, left, played by Lee Dong-wook, and Nam Ji-a (Jo Bo-ah) are the two main characters in “Tale of the Nine Tailed” on tvN.Courtesy of tvN

Actor Kim Bum is making a small-screen return with this series, about four years after the thriller series “Mrs. Cop 2.” He plays the most dangerous gumiho, Lee Rang, who is a half-brother of Lee Yeon.

Kim expressed excitement about his first role since his discharge from military service.?

“The characters Lee Yeon and Lee Rang felt very unique and attractive,” he said. “So I really wanted to do well with this role. I researched and watched documentaries to study the moves that foxes make and practice them.”?

Gumiho has been portrayed in Korean TV dramas before, as the myth often refers to a fox disguised as a woman, seducing men to eat their livers.?

Kang said he wanted to challenge this notion by portraying the gumiho as a male.?

“There has been a lot of Marvel hero action films recently,” he said. “So, I thought of narrating these topics with Korean traditional elements. Not only the gender's different but also gumihos in this series will have different characteristics than the previous portrayals.”