Line #56 Series/MyGirlfriendIsANineTailedFox


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gf_6256.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:250: Mi Ho and Dae Woong]]
3
4	''My Girlfriend Is a Nine-Tailed Fox'' is a 2010 KoreanDrama written by Creator/TheHongSisters about, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a guy whose girlfriend is a nine-tailed fox]].
5
6	Dae Woong is a rather irresponsible film school student who basically lives by mooching off his rich grandfather. After being tricked into freeing the Gumiho [nine-tailed fox] from a painting where she was bound for 500 years, Dae Woong falls down a cliff in a panic and mortally injures himself. The Gumiho saves his life by giving him her fox's bead, and so now, Dae Woong is stuck doing everything she asks or he will die from having the bead removed.
7
8	Of course, this doesn't stop him from trying to find ways to get rid of the fox ("Mi Ho"). Too bad she's fallen in love with him and won't go away.
9
10	Not to be confused with the 2021 drama ''Series/MyRoommateIsAGumiho'', though you can probably guess [[AsianFoxSpirit what they have in common]].
11	----
12	!!''My Girlfriend Is a Nine-Tailed Fox'' provides examples of:
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15	* ArtImitatesArt: Min Sook takes a header off a gym balcony. Director Ban dashes across the gym floor and catches her, and they wind up in a pose exactly the same as the iconic ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' poster--which happens to be hanging on a wall directly behind them.
16	* ArtInitiatesLife: How Dae Woong frees Mi Ho from the painting.
17	* AsianFoxSpirit: Mi Ho is the nine-tailed fox of the series' title. Specifically, she's a gumiho, a fox spirit from Korean folklore.
18	* AudienceSurrogate: Dae Woong can't believe that [[spoiler:he and Mi Ho go from [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne only one can live]] to separate-to-survive]].
19	* AutoTune: Many of the pop songs in the show use this.
20	* BackStory: Dong Joo has lived for centuries hunting non-humans, [[spoiler: including Gil Dal, his past love who looks exactly like Mi Ho.]]
21	* BaitAndSwitch: In an otherwise sad scene, Dae Woong and Mi Ho meet [[spoiler: after their breakup. Mi Ho gives Dae Woong an invitation to her wedding, which he promptly returns, saying he doesn't need it.]] Turns out she gave him a makeup voucher.
22	* BetaCouple: Dae Woong's Director Ban and Aunt Min Sook
23	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Hye In. She even pulls a WoundedGazelleGambit, dropping a drink on her dress.
24	* BoyMeetsGhoul
25	* BrutalHonesty: Dong Joo doesn't lie to Mi Ho; he even tells her that he hadn't told her [[FalseReassurance the whole truth]].
26	* CallARabbitASmeerp[=/=]TheNicknamer: Mi Ho calls Dae Woong "Woong," Dong Joo "[[BigBrotherMentor Teacher]]," the Chicken Lady "[[TheFashionista Fashionista]]," and her favorite soda "[[CallARabbitASmeerp bubbly water]]"--among other things.
27	* {{Callback}}:
28	** Because she no longer has her fox bead, Mi Ho tells Dae Woong that she's afraid of large bodies of water. So where does he take her to abandon her? A boat.
29	** When it [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshower rains while the sun is shining]], it's called 여우비 in Korean, lit. "fox rain." Mi Ho says that's because somewhere a fox is crying. After Dae Woong abandons Mi Ho on a boat, he's caught in a sunshower.
30	* TheCameo
31	** UEE as an art student
32	** Park Shin Hye as [[Series/YouAreBeautiful Go Mi Nyeo]].
33	** [[Music/FTIsland Lee Hong Ki]] as [[Series/YouAreBeautiful Jeremy]].
34	** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Su_Geun Lee Su Geun]] as a quirky cop. (Extra points for working on ''1 Night 2 Days'' with Lee Seung Gi who plays Dae Woong.)
35	* CatapultNightmare
36	* CellPhonesAreUseless: {{Subverted}}. At the temple, Dae Woong's having bad phone reception, though his main problem stems from the fact that he doesn't have his own phone and therefore doesn't have anyone's numbers.
37	* ClingyJealousGirl: Mi Ho, to a degree.
38	* ContrivedCoincidence
39	* CouldSayItBut: To summarize Dae Woong, "I won't say it but I spent all night taking care of you while you were sick."
40	* CreatorThumbprint: Once again Creator/TheHongSisters' hero is [[Series/YouAreBeautiful afraid of pigs]].
41	* CringeComedy:
42	** Mi Ho encounters a toilet for the first time -- and decides that it must be a well. And that she's thirsty.
43	** When Aunt Min Sook meets Dir. Ban Doo Hong for the first time, they're alone in the elevator. [[ToiletHumour And then someone farts]].
44	** Dir. Ban's pee is enough to collapse a wall.
45	---> '''Dir. Ban:''' It wasn't even pee I was holding! It was normal pee.
46	* CutApart
47	* DeathsHourglass
48	* DecemberDecemberRomance: Director Ban[=/=]Aunt Min Sook
49	* DistractedByTheSexy: The villagers can't pay attention to their work when Mi Ho walks by.
50	* DrivenByEnvy: Hye In
51	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Mi Ho's constant references to "eating" Dae Woong
52	* EpunymousTitle: Gumiho = nine-tailed fox. The show's name can be translated as "My girlfriend is a nine-tailed fox" or "My girlfriend is gumiho." Also, the main character is called Gu Mi Ho for most of the drama.
53	* ExactWords:
54	** "If I'm not with that girl, I'll die!" sounds like a love-addled teenager's confession, but Dae Woong actually needs Mi Ho's fox bead to live.
55	** This is also PlayedForComedy in another scene, when he climbs a rope to get away from Mi-Ho and he gets a cellphone call (which due to it falling to the ground, is intercepted by her). The grandpa asks "Where's Dae Woong?" and she says, "He's on top of me."
56	* FirstNameBasis: Dir. Ban's daughter Sun Nyeo calls him by his first name, which leads to Aunt Min Sook mistaking Sun Nyeo for Dir. Ban's [[ParentalIncest lover]].
57	* {{Gasshole}}: Aunt Min Sook has a habit of passing gas when she is nervous or worried. In fact, she and Dir. Ban Doo Hong first met when he took the blame for her passing gas in the elevator.
58	* HeroicVow : Dae Woong and Mi Ho to each other - "I will protect you."
59	* IJustWantToBeNormal[=/=]WhoWantsToLiveForever: Mi Ho (a gumiho) just wants to be human and will go on any lengths to ensure that she will get it.
60	* IdenticalGrandson: [[spoiler: Mi Ho is not Gil Dal, Dong Joo's past love, but the show hints at a possible relation.]]
61	%% * ImagineSpot
62	%% * ImmortalImmaturity
63	* ImprovisedUmbrella: Dae Woong in the first episode gets out of a truck in the rain and holds up a leaf umbrella.
64	* InTouchWithHisFeminineSide: Dae Woong pays awful attention to his skin and hair.
65	* InnocentInnuendo: Mi Ho tells Dae Woong that she has given him something very precious (her bead) and he should take responsibility. Naturally, his friends overhear and make sexual assumptions.
66	%% * InterSpeciesRomance
67	* JustFriends: Byung Soo and Sun Nyeo - although Byung Soo would like a [[RelationshipUpgrade Relationship Upgrade]]
68	* KubrickStare: Mi Ho can be pretty creepy.
69	* {{Leitmotif}}: Both Mi-Ho, Dong Joo, and Ban have one. Mi-Ho has "Fox Rain", so it gets played all the time, but the others' leitmotifs can take some time listening before noticing.
70	* LifeEnergy: Mi Ho's bead, which heals Dae Woong and makes him invincible.
71	* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Dae Woong's aunt and grandpa. Lampshaded when he says he's just living with Mi-Ho for awhile rather than planning to get married (and gets slapped for his trouble).
72	* LostInTranslation:
73	** Mi Ho calls Hye In "akpul", which basically means "cyber attacks" / "malicious trolling." The "Heavens Subbing Squad" translation makes Mi Ho call Hye In "The Hater."
74	** When Mi Ho is mad at Dong Joo, whom she calls "teacher," she calls him "dog teacher." This is a pun on his job (he's a vet) and the Korean way of adding "dog" to a word to make it a curse.
75	* LovableCoward: Dae Woong, in the first two acts of the series.
76	* MagicalGirlfriend: Arguably, Mi Ho is one, but Dae Woong thinks of her more as a curse than anything else.
77	* ManicPixieDreamGirl
78	* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Ban catches Aunt Min Sook in midair, look at the poster. It's a ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' picture of Scarlett being held the same way.
79	* MeaningfulName:
80	** Gu Mi Ho is a... Gumiho. To be fair, Dae Woong came up with it on the spur of the moment as part of a rather weak fib.
81	** The "구" (Gu) in gumiho is the number "nine." Later in the show, when Dae Woong is asking how many tails Mi Ho has, he says, "What's your [[{{Callback}} last name]]?"
82	* MissedHimByThatMuch:
83	* MultipleTailedBeast: Gumiho is a nine-tailed fox spirit.
84	* NiceGuy: Dae Woong knows most of his friends are using him for his money, yet remains kind to them.
85	* OurMonstersAreDifferent: Our [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumiho Gumihoes]] Are Different: In most legends, the nine-tailed fox [gumiho] is a shape-shifting fox who seduces men and eats their livers. [[GenreSavvy Mi Ho]] [[ExploitedTrope exploits]] this trope to get Dae Woong to do what she wants. In fact episode one reveals that the belief that gumiho kill men and eat their livers, not to mention that they need to eat 100 livers to become human, was born of malicious rumors spread by the women living around the temple who didn't want to let any of their sons marry Mi Ho, even if that meant she would stop being distracting to all the other men (the goddess Mi Ho was a servant of wanting to marry her off properly). With no potential spouse showing up, the goddess had to cut all nine of Mi Ho's tails off so she couldn't come back to the human world and seduce men.
86	* RomanticFalseLead: Hye In.
87	* RedPillBluePill: Red Vial, Blue Vial: Dong Joo gives the choice to Mi Ho.
88	* RetrauxFlashback: When Aunt Min Sook thinks back to all the times she has had her heart broken, each flashback is accompanied by a popular love song from the era while the characters are shown in appropriate dress.
89	* RevealShot: After Dae Woong steals his grandpa's fish and runs into traffic, we cut to the hospital where Grandpa is begging the doctor to save him ... then we see Dae Woong with just a band-aid on his head. Grandpa has been pleading for the fish's life!
90	* RunawayFiance: In Mi Ho's backstory, her fiance was afraid of the rumours that she would eat his liver, so he bails out.
91	%% * SealedBadassInACan: Mi Ho.
92	%% * ShapeShiftingLover: Mi Ho is one to Dae Woong.
93	* ShoutOut:
94	** Dae Woong tells Mi Ho that they can be friends, even though they're not the same species. In fact, if ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' can do it, so can they! He even teaches her the E.T. handshake.
95	** After hearing the gist of ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid'' (with [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 the Disney adaptation]]'s ending), Mi Ho vows to become Literature/TheLittleMermaid -- until Sun Nyeo asks if that means Mi Ho wants to die.
96	* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Multiple, because Mi Ho is so unearthly beautiful that men couldn't work when she was present:
97	** Which led to all the women clamoring to have her locked away.
98	** The mens' wives came up with the tale of the Gumiho (Korean for nine-tailed fox) eating peoples' livers as a way to become human so that everyone would avoid her.
99	* ThatCameOutWrong:
100	--> ''Grandpa calls Dae Woong and Mi Ho picks up.''\
101	'''Grandpa''': Where's Dae Woong!\
102	'''Mi Ho''': Dae Woong?\
103	''Dae Woong grunts and breathes heavily.''\
104	'''Mi Ho''': He's on top of me.\
105	''She forgets to mention that he's actually a few feet in the air, hanging on to a rope and trying to escape.''
106	* ThatLiarLies:
107	--> '''Mi Ho:''' You must be a liar.
108	* ToiletHumour: With a bit of CringeComedy: When Aunt Min Sook meets Dir. Ban Doo Hong for the first time, they're alone in the elevator. And then someone farts.
109	* TookALevelInBadass: Dae Woong [[spoiler:who, despite rejecting any responsibility in the first two acts, would rather die than let Mi Ho die by the third act.]]
110	* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: One brings Mi Ho and Dae Woong together at the end.
111	* VillainousBreakdown: Dong Joo believes humans are selfish, [[spoiler:but cowardly Dae Woong teaches him otherwise.]]
112	* VillainousCrush: Dong Joo, [[spoiler:a gumiho hunter, is in love with a gumiho, who looks exactly like his past love]].
113	* WireFu: InUniverse. Director Ban uses Wire Fu for his action scenes, but after he sees Mi Ho's ability to do all that leaping without Wire Fu, he wants to cast her in his movie.
114	* {{Yandere}}: {{Double Subver\|sion}}ted. Mi Ho, at the start of the series, acts like a ClingyJealousGirl who is possibly willing to kill her beloved (though not with a weapon) if the romance goes south. But then, the plot flashbacks to their first meeting, and explains that this is largely an act to scare Dae Woong into staying close to her and protecting her bead. Later on though, she probably would be willing to kill the competition for Dae.

Context Series / MyGirlfriendIsANineTailedFox