Television series
Tale of the Nine Tailed
A centuries-old fox spirit swaps immortality for civil service, tidying up the metaphysical messes ghosts and monsters leave in Seoul, while an old grudge with his cunning half-brother threatens to unravel everything. It's slow-burn romance stitched to genuine dread, gorgeous production, and a plot that keeps rewriting its own mythology. For fans of Korean fantasy that takes its folklore, and its heartbreak, seriously.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love Korean fantasy that mixes folklore, mischievous romance and a leading man who is more sly than heroic, with each case doubling as a small, sharp morality tale.
Skip it if you want a tight, serialized mystery that barrels forward; its monster-of-the-week rhythm and occasional goofy detours can feel loose, especially across a run of 28 episodes.
What it asks of you: Settle in for a long haul of roughly 74-minute episodes, where the lighter cases give way to a slower, more emotional build, and it rewards patience with your attention.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Hotel del Luna2019
A centuries-old woman runs a hotel exclusively for ghosts passing into the afterlife — same blend of episodic ghost mysteries, deep folklore, and a love story that outlasts lifetimes.
But Leans more comedic and visually opulent overall than Nine Tailed's darker, grittier supernatural crime elements.
My Girlfriend is a Gumiho2010
The gumiho myth played fully for romantic comedy rather than thriller — lighter, sillier, but built from the exact same nine-tailed-fox folklore that anchors Nine Tailed.
But Ten years older, broadly comic, and utterly without the horror or menace Nine Tailed traffics in.
Let's Fight Ghost2016
A ghost-hunting team solving supernatural cases episode by episode, with a slow-building central romance and a nice mix of scares, comedy, and unexpected warmth throughout.
But Smaller stakes, a campus setting, and a much lighter emotional register throughout than Nine Tailed.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Tale of the Nine Tailed
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
A Chinese Ghost Story1987
Long before Korean dramas turned fox spirits and ghost-brides into primetime romance, this film set the template — human and supernatural worlds bleeding into each other, love as the thing that survives death. Nine Tailed's ache for the underworld has this film's blood in it.
A dazzling, genre-defining fantasy-horror-romance about a scholar who falls for a woman bound to a demon underworld — wire-fu, practical effects, and real ache under all the spectacle.
But Its effects and pacing are unmistakably 80s Hong Kong cinema — theatrical and fast, nothing like Nine Tailed's slower prestige-drama polish.
More like this (7)
The Master's Sun2013
A woman who sees ghosts everywhere finds relief only near one man — moody, atmospheric, and packed with the kind of one-off ghost stories Nine Tailed does so well.
But More procedural ghost-of-the-week structure, with far less mythological world-building behind it than Nine Tailed offers.
The Legend of the Blue Sea2016
Swap the fox spirit for a mermaid, keep the tragic centuries-spanning love story and reincarnation plotting — same emotional engine, wrapped in a different myth entirely.
But Broader comedic tone throughout and a much slower midsection than Nine Tailed's tighter, thriller-paced storytelling.
Doom at Your Service2021
A weary immortal entity forced back among humans, a contract-bound romance, and a grim inevitability hanging over every sweet scene — similar melancholy to Nine Tailed's central love story.
But More claustrophobic two-hander drama, with less of the case-of-the-week supernatural structure Nine Tailed builds on.
Alchemy of Souls2022
A sprawling fantasy world of shamans, spirits, and body-swapped destinies, with the same commitment to intricate mythology and a long-game romance that Nine Tailed thrives on.
But Much longer and denser political plotting that asks for far more patience than Nine Tailed's tighter episodes.
A Korean Odyssey2017
Same screenwriting pedigree, another ancient being negotiating modern Seoul, monsters, and a stubborn human woman he can't quite let go of, no matter how hard he tries.
But Broader comedy and far more slapstick energy throughout than Nine Tailed's thriller-leaning, more serious tone.
Mushi-Shi2005
Both shows run on the same structural idea — a solitary supernatural civil servant moving between worlds, fixing problems ordinary people caused without meaning to. Mushishi just strips out the melodrama and turns the volume down to a whisper.
A wandering 'mushi' master travels rural Japan solving strange supernatural incidents no one else can explain — quiet, meditative, and gorgeously drawn, episode after episode.
But Nearly plotless by comparison, deliberately slow, and completely without romance or the urgent stakes Nine Tailed runs on.
Grimm2011
Take Nine Tailed's premise — an ancient being whose job is managing the mess folklore creatures leave in the modern world — and run it through American crime-procedural machinery instead of Korean melodrama. Same engine, wildly different costume.
A Portland cop discovers he's descended from monster hunters and starts working supernatural cases week to week — the same 'cosmic bureaucrat cleaning up folklore's messes' premise, played as American procedural.
But Broadly episodic, monster-of-the-week format with none of Nine Tailed's centuries-spanning tragic romance or mythological ambition.
People
Cast
Recommended by
School 2013, Red Sleeve, The King's Affection, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, Hotel del Luna, The Master's Sun, Hi bye, Mama!, Let's Fight Ghost, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, Doom at Your Service, A Korean Odyssey, Coffee Prince, Love in the Moonlight, My Roommate Is a Gumiho, One Spring Night, The Guest, Dazzling, Bulgasal: Immortal Souls, Red Sky, Splash Splash Love, The Painter of the Wind, When the Weather Is Fine, The Legend, A Gentleman's Dignity, Between Steps, Black, Extraordinary You, Mask, Encounter, A Good Day to Be a Dog, The Bride of Habaek 2017, Abyss, The Scholar Who Walks the Night, Run On, About Time, The Beauty Inside, Arang and the Magistrate, Melting Me Softly, Eerie, Something Just Like This, Nothing But Thirty, Chowder, Dead-End Job, Missing: The Other Side, A Love Other Than Yours, Tomorrow with You