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| Photo of the drama’s poster from the official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
Recent K-drama Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 (구미호뎐 1938, tvN, 2023), the follow-up to 2020’s Tale of the Nine Tailed, transports the drama’s hero, gumiho and former mountain god Lee Yeon, to the past, where he must defeat various enemies in order to make it back to the present day and reunite with his true love. The time travel device is a clever way to tell another story about Lee Yeon with more flexibility than would have been possible in a direct continuation of the original series. It also has the effect of connecting Lee Yeon more to the community in which he lives, through the choice of 1938 as the setting. Let us look at the ways the time travel device makes Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 a successful sequel.
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| Half-brothers Lee Yeon (right, played by Lee Dong-wook) and Lee Rang (left, played by Kim Bum) return for this sequel, in which they must repair their relationship once again. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
The original series focused on Lee Yeon’s centuries-long search for his first love Yi Ah-eum, now reincarnated as television show producer Nam Ji-ah (played by Jo Bo-ah), and his attempts to repair his relationship with his younger half-brother Lee Rang, from whom he has become estranged. Because of the time travel premise, the sequel can focus again on Lee Yeon and Lee Rang’s relationship. The familiarity of the two brothers going through the process of mending their relationship again under new circumstances helps to immediately draw viewers into the story (without being inaccessible to new viewers), and the fact that Lee Yeon and returning viewers already know what will happen to the characters in the future does not detract from the story’s appeal. Rather, it adds emotional weight to the story, because those who have seen the original series know that Lee Yeon never stopped loving and missing his brother during all the years they were estranged, so being able to travel to the past and spend more time with him is a precious gift. Also, although we don’t know how Lee Yeon’s actions during his time travel will have affected the timeline when he eventually returns to his own time, giving him a chance to repair his relationship with his brother in 1938 rather than in 2020 gives viewers the hope that they would have gained 80 more years of being on good terms with each other.
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| The story shows some scenes from Lee Yeon’s childhood (right, played here by Lee Jae-joon), introducing his best friends Ryu Hong-ju (left, played as a child by Park Ye-rin) and Cheon Mu-young (centre, played as a child by Lee Kyung-hoon). Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
As mentioned above, Lee Yeon’s romance with his true love Yi Ah-eum/Nam Ji-ah was the main plot of the original series, so there can be no loveline for him in 1938. Instead, the writers developed a different plotline to fill an equivalent space. They presented two new characters connected to Lee Yeon: his fellow supernatural creatures who trained to become mountain gods alongside him. The trio were inseparable as children and vowed to always have each other’s backs, but circumstances led to the breakdown of their friendship. The time travel device allows Lee Yeon to repair his relationship with these two best friends, magnifying the sense that this trip to the past is his chance to do over and to do better than he did the first time.
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| When Lee Yeon arrives in 1938, he finds that there is an active resistance movement against Japanese colonial rule, in which both human and supernatural characters have chosen to participate. From left, the Snail Bride Bok Hye-ja (played by Kim Soo-jin), Go Shin-joo (played by Hwang Hee), Sunwoo Eun-ho (played by Kim Yong-ji) and Hyun Ui-ong (played by Ahn Kil-gang). Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
The same applies to Lee Yeon’s participation in the historical events of 1938, a period during which Korea was struggling for its independence from the Japanese Occupation. According to the story, having sunk into despair at the possibility of ever reuniting with his lost love, he was not in the right frame of mind to get involved in these events the first time around. It is not his intention to become involved during his time travel, either, because he has other jobs to do before the window for returning to his own time closes. But after learning of the brave mortals risking their lives to take part in the resistance movement, and seeing that his fellow supernatural creatures are also being drawn into the conflict, he joins forces with the resistance movement for one important battle where his contribution can make a difference. This connects Lee Yeon to his community again.
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| The first time around in 1938, Lee Yeon was in no condition to participate in the struggles going on around him. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
Whereas in the original series, the battle he needed to win was a personal one, this time, he is part of a broader struggle. He neither started, nor finishes, nor leads the fight against colonialism, but he joins his fellow Koreans, both human and supernatural, in opposing the evil forces (which, in this story, are also both human and supernatural) that wish to eradicate Koreans and their culture from their homeland. As he reconnects with his community, he brings other characters back into it as well, including his brother Lee Rang, who finally manages to assert his identity as a gumiho and manifest his power after a lifetime of feeling like he’s not good enough, and the Lee Yeon from 1938, who is now ready to get involved.
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| Because of the work of present-day Lee Yeon, 1938 Lee Yeon and his two best friends are ready to join forces again to fight evil and protect the land and its people. Kim So-yeon (left) plays Ryu Hong-ju; Ryu Kyung-soo (right) plays Cheon Mu-young. Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
Sequels usually follow the original story chronologically, and take place in a world that has been changed through the events of the original. Making a sequel that sends the hero from that post-original world back to the past where none of the events of the original have happened yet is an uncommon choice, but it works successfully in Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938, because it allows the hero to do things over, and to do better this time, thanks to the personal growth he achieved through the events of the original. Through the events of the sequel, Lee Yeon continues to grow as a person and as a hero, which will leave viewers hoping for another comeback.
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| Viewers will be checking the tv schedules hoping for more tales of the nine tailed. A brief post-credits scene in the final episode of Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 gives us reason to hope! Photo from the drama’s official website (tvN), reproduced under Fair Dealing for educational purposes. |
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