Gu Family Book

                                     

Episodes: 24 

I suppose most of you probably already watched this since it is pretty popular. However, if you haven't, this is definitely a must watch!  This drama brought a lot of feelings out and it sucked me into the story. It has a combination of humor, sadness, action, and it was also serious in some parts too. This was a beautiful and well-crafted drama series. I really hope that there is a second season of this. I feel like the producers might make a Gu Family Book 2 because the ending of the drama series seemed to lead on to something more.

         I started off watching this for fun. It started off with the parents and I didn't expect the love story between Mom and Dad to draw me in so quickly. Their relationship was so beautiful in its own way and I kept feeling these indescribable feelings about how their relationship and story could've been different. But its amazing how well they set everything to keep the audience intrigued. So let's get to the synopsis, shall we?

If you guys had followed dramagirlreview.tumblr.com, you will see the different pictures that I posted of the drama and how much I've watched. So some of the pictures are there. But I've put them in the synopsis also. 

Synopsis: 

           The story starts off with the parents. Yoon Seo Hwa is the daughter of a nobleman. Her father was unfairly accused of being a traitor and was killed. Her father was framed by a man named Jo Gwan Woong. Yoon Seo Hwa, her brother, Jung Yoon, and her maid Dam are sent to a gisaeng house. Yoon Seo Hwa was to work as a gisaeng. However, being born in a noble family, she refused to do so. She held on to her pride and dignity as a woman. She was stripped of her clothes and tied to a tree, without food or water, for several days. Gu Wol Ryung is a gumiho (also known as a nine-tailed fox). He is mythical creature and protects the forest. He watches Yoon Seo Hwa from a distance and wants to go free her from the tree. The monk that is friends with Wol Ryung told him not to interfere with human lives. He still plans on saving her but she was already taken inside from the tree. 

          Seohwa was taken inside the gisaeng house. After witnessing her brother being beaten almost to death, she agrees to be a gisaeng. They give her the gisaeng tattoo and do everything as planned. However, Yoon Seo Hwa faces the worst situation possible. The first person she is to "tend" to was Jo Gwan Woong, the man that had framed and killed her father. Jung Yoon, the brother, upon hearing this immediately asks the maid Dam to swap clothes with Seohwa. Dam agrees because she's a faithful and noble maid. Jung Yoon and Seohwa make their escape in the middle of the night. In the darkness, Jo Gwan Woong did not know it was Dam instead of Seohwa and raped her. Jung Yoon and Seohwa are in the forest and they split up to confuse the people chasing after them. Gwan Woong discovers that he was tricked and sends men to find Seo Hwa and to bring her back. 

            Wol Ryung notices something going on in the forest. Seohwa was about to commit suicide. However these blue lights appeared and in the moment, she dropped the hairpin she was going to use to stab herself, and faints right into  Wol Ryung's arms. Wol Ryung falls in love with her and protects her by using his powers. He brings Seohwa to where he lived (in this BEAUTIFUL cave) in the forest. Seohwa wakes up and over time she falls in love with Wol Ryung also because of his personality and the way he always tried to make her smile. She asked Wol  Ryung to find out what happened to her maid and her brother. Wol Ryung finds out that Dam had committed suicide and Jung Yoon was found and hanged. Wol Ryung, always wanting Seohwa to be happy, was unable to tell her the truth. He told her that they were able to run away and were safe and he never revealed that he was a gumiho. Wol Ryung and Seohwa get married. Wol Ryung decides to become a human in order to be with Seohwa forever. In order to become a human, he must live 100 days without showing his true form to a human and without taking a life (which means not eating meat in any form.) He must also help people when they ask for it. However, if he fails to do so, he will not become a human and will turn into a thousand-year demon. 

               Wol Ryung managed to do so for a long time. However, Gwan Woong's men find Seohwa in the forest and in order to protect her, he reveals his true form. Seohwa is horrified of what her husband is and leaves. She turns herself in and is shocked to hear that her brother and her maid are dead. In her anger, she leads the men to Wol Ryung's cave. He tells her that he truly loved her and asks why she did what she did. He gets killed by Dam Pyeong Joon, a righteous general, who killed only because he was told that there was a gumiho murdering innocent people. Seohwa then finds out that she is pregnant with  Wol Ryung's child and gives birth to a son. Her child wasn't a monster like she thought it was and she regretted betraying  Wol Ryung. She leaves the child in the monk friend's care and attempts to kill Jo Gwan Woong. However Seohwa was unable to kill him as Jo Gwan Woong was protected by soldiers and Seohwa was killed. This was the end of the parent's love story as it begins new with the baby boy. 

                                                             

             The monk, following Seohwa's wishes, was going to allow the baby to live with humans. Pretending that the infant had flowed with the river, the monk managed to convince the kind nobleman Park Mu Sol to adopt the boy. They name the boy Kang Chi and they decided to make Kang Chi the son of the Park Mu Sol's servant, Choi. Choi Kang Chi was raised as a part of the Park family and he brought a lot of good luck to Park Mu Sol. Lord Park adores him like his own son, his son Tae Seo treats Kang Chi as a brother, and his daughter, Chung Jo loves him even though she is to marry someone else. Lord Park's wife never really felt attached to him. Choi Kang Chi is said to bring good luck to Lord Park's family business (Hundred Year Inn) and is a good-hearted and loyal person. Choi Kang Chi also causes a lot of trouble at the same time. 

            Dam Yeo Wool, daughter of the general who had killed Wol Ryung, grows up to be a tomboy. She is beautiful but she is dressed as a boy. She walks around town with her friend (also a student under her father). Her friend, Gon, likes her. However she doesn't have feelings for him. Then she meets Kang Chi. She begins to feel something for him but for a while he thought that she was a boy. 

              However, Jo Gwan Woong returns to the village. He believed that Lord Park has hidden treasure inside the inn. Wanting power and wealth, he decides to take over the inn labeling Lord Park as a traitor also. Lord Park is killed to protect Kang Chi. Tae Seo, Lord Park's wife, and the servants are thrown into prison. Chung Jo is sent to the gisaeng house. It seems as though history is repeating itself. Chung Jo was reluctant to be a gisaeng also. Lord Park seeing how similar Chung Jo was to Seohwa also wants to sleep with Chung Jo. Chung Jo tries to do whatever possible to prevent that from happening. However, she is convinced by the head gisaeng, Chun Soo Ryun to survive by using her beauty and then gain revenge and power later on. With that, Chung Jo begins to train is a gisaeng before actually having "customers."  

            As guards started chasing after Kang Chi, Yeo Wool saves him. She remembers him from when they were little kids but he didn't as he thought Yeo Wool was a boy. During a fight, a soldier purposely slices the bracelet on Kang Chi's wrist. Jo Gwan Woong had believed that was where Kang Chi's power came from but instead it was to keep him in human form and to contain his powers. However with the bracelet gone,  Kang Chi turns into a gumiho. He refuses to accept the real him even though Yeo Wool is willing to help him. Even the girl that he loved, Chung Jo was scared of him. Yeo Wool was willing to accept him which managed to keep him in a human form even without the bracelet. The monk tells him his origins. 

            Choi Kang Chi had managed to break into the prison. He wanted to bring them all out but Lord Park's wife refused to leave and the servants refused to leave her side. So Kang Chi only took Tae Seo out of the prison and brought him to Dam Yeo Wool's home. When Tae Seo wakes up, the first thing he does is stab Kang Chi. Tae Seo had been brainwashed by Jo Gwan Woong's guard. However, Kang Chi is also a mythical creature and he manages to heal himself when they take the bracelet off. Unlike Seohwa, Yeo Wool is not frightened with the fact that Kang Chi is a mythical creature and stands by his side to protect and help him. Tae Seo begins to try to break the curse placed on him by the guard. 

            After many events, Kang Chi begins to stay at Dam Yeo Wool's father's school. He is trained physically and mentally to control his transformations. He is watched by Master Dam, Teacher Gong Dal, Gon, and Yeo Wool. However, they face more problems. Yeo Wool finds out that her father had killed Kang Chi's father and worried how Kang Chi would feel about this. They managed to overcome many problems and gained many friends and supporters. However, the unexpected happens, Wol Ryung is back. Only now he's the thousand year demon. He has no memories, he's evil, and the only way to defeat him is to be killed by his son. Then they find out that Seohwa didn't die then either. As the parents bring some problems, Wol Ryung begins to remember Seohwa. Seohwa, regretting that she had betrayed him, decides that she wants to save him from being a thousand year demon. She commits suicide for Wol Ryung to be back to normal and dies. Wol Ryung later on decided that he wanted to be where Seohwa is. With that over, Kang Chi and Yeo Wool face more problems dealing with their fate and Jo Gwan Woong's constant scheming. Kang Chi found out that if Yeo Wool continued to stay with him, her fate was that she'll die. He breaks up with her only to find out that she got kidnapped by Jo Gwan Woong's men. 

                They manage to find her and they go to confront Jo Gwan Woong to end his bad doings. However, Jo Gwan Woong had more schemes. He had his guard on the side with a rifle pointed at Kang Chi. Yeo Wool blocks the bullet. They take her home and they are told she only has a few days to live (as they weren't as advanced in medicine then). She dies and Kang Chi promises her that if they meet again, he'll recognize her first and love her first (since he didn't recognize her from when they were children since she was dressed as a boy). Instead of finding the Gu Family Book to turn into a human like he planned, he decided that he wanted to stay as a mythical creature and to be able to meet Yeo Wool again. A few hundred years later, in modern day, Kang Chi starts to find his friends who have reincarnated. And he sees Yeo Wool again, who doesn't remember him which made him keep to his promise of remembering and loving her first. 

GREAT DRAMA! Must watch!