[REVIEW] SBS TV series "My Girlfriend is Gumiho" - Finale Episode

Published on 2010/10/01 | Source

A scene from SBS TV series "My Girlfriend is Gumiho" [SBS]

In how many different ways could have "My Girlfriend is Gumiho" ended? If you agree to the fact that Dae-woong (played by Lee Seung-gi) and Miho (played by Shin Min-a) had to go through the excruciating process that they did to check whether their love is not an illusion, what comes after that is a question of choice. "My Girlfriend is Gumiho" is free from the logic and probabilities existent in the human world as long as Gumiho remains the main character who has supernatural abilities. And just like Miho and Dong-joo (played by No Min-woo) are in different situations, the rules of the world created in "My Girlfriend is Gumiho" had not been defined clearly either so the show had an infinite range of options to choose from even till the very end.

The choice that the Hong sisters made was to make the story convincing by having the old lady, who is the source of the legend of Gumiho, appear at the end of the show. And in that process, all the predictable endings appeared in order -- from when Miho disappears on the last day leaving behind Dae-woong, to the moment Dae-woong gets hit by a truck to check Miho's existence, to when Miho meets with Dae-woong again in the way that they had first met. Like so, to remain the only story where the love between a human being and a certain species works out, the ending to "My Girlfriend is Gumiho" repeats itself several times. But even if you agree to the happy ending of "My Girlfriend is Gumiho", you are not agreeing to 'the world where everything is possible' in "My Girlfriend is Gumiho but merely agreeing emotionally from the hope that Dae-woong and Miho, who showed 'real love, not an illusion', will not disappear and are living together happily. The Hong sisters had the chance to present a romantic story which overcomes obstacles in reality and moves between parodies and fantasy but it ran into limitations in terms of creating 'the world of the Hong sisters'.