Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter: Episode 1
by LollyPip
I’m a sucker for out-of-control silliness, so I had high hopes for Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter based on the teasers. Thankfully, it’s every bit as wacky as I’d hoped, and I mean that in the best possible way! But woven throughout the absurd humor is a thread of heartfelt earnestness that promises to tug at our heartstrings. So as long as the show manages to strike the right balance, I think we’re in for something pretty magical.
EPISODE 1 RECAP
One day several hundred years ago, a group of beautiful fairies came down from Heaven to bathe in an enchanting spring in the forest. One of the fairies realized that her winged dress had gone missing, preventing her from returning to heaven with her friends.
Suddenly, the fairy sees a woodcutter nearby, and we get a very fast montage of him carrying her away from the spring and marrying her. They seemed very much in love, and had two children together. One day, the woodcutter left for a trip, leaving behind a charm embroidered with a butterfly.
In the present, a man who looks very like the fairy’s husband wakes from a little nap in his psychiatrist’s office, roused by the sound of his doctor on the phone. DR. LEE throws things at him until he gets up, and he whines that the medicine she prescribes for his insomnia isn’t working.
The man, JUNG YI-HYUN (Yoon Hyun-min), leaves the office grumpy, with nothing stronger than a bottle of melatonin and an admonition to rest during his Chuseok holiday. He senses something strange as he leaves, but he doesn’t spot the person that’s recording him with a wrist-mounted camera.
Yi-hyun heads home and settles in to listen to some relaxing music with a cup of coffee. A repetitive trill has him stomping to the door to open it with an annoyed “HEY,” surprising his roommate and teaching assistant, KIM GEUM (Seo Ji-hoon), who forgot his key and the door’s passcode. Again.
Geum wants Yi-hyun to go home with him for the holiday, and he cheerfully refuses to take no for an answer. He starts packing for Yi-hyun, who finally relents if only to keep Geum’s grubby mitts off his underwear, insisting that he’s only going because Geum won’t leave him alone about it (though he’s busted by the bottle of whiskey he’s already bought for Geum’s mother).
Three hours outside of the city, Yi-hyun is sleeping so hard in the car that he’s snoring. He wakes with a powerful craving for coffee and requests they stop when he sees an old wooden sign advertising a coffee shop nearby. After passing a creepy village decorated with totem poles, they stop at the Fairy Cafe, which is empty except for a tiny old woman (Go Doo-shim) behind the counter.
Yi-hyun gives the flower in the old woman’s hair the hairy eyeball (there’s a Korean saying that crazy people put flowers in their hair) as she asks them what kind of coffee they want. According to the sign, the coffees have weird names like Deer’s Tears and No Princess, and the guys start to look a little freaked out.
Suddenly, a hand taps Yi-hyun on the shoulder, making him and Geum scream. Behind them are another couple of odd-looking people, an ajumma and a man with long hair, who tell them with annoyance to take their time, it’s fine, they’re just tired and in pain but they can totally wait forever.
Geum decides that the Black Water coffee sounds the least silly and orders it, and the weirdos behind them gasp that they’re certainly brave. Yi-hyun wants to change his order, and a cat flies out of nowhere to land on the counter right in front of Geum. It sits up like a dog and meows at Geum as the flower barista starts to make their coffee.
While they wait for their drinks, Yi-hyun and Geum agree that this place is super weird, and the people are even weirder. Yi-hyun keeps griping, completely missing Geum’s hints that the flower barista is coming with their coffee.
She serves it in bowls, and Geum is impressed with the delicious aroma, but Yi-hyun whines that there’s a fly in his coffee. The flower barista plucks the fly from the coffee, blows on it to dry its wings, and hands Yi-hyun back his bowl. He’s disgusted, but she reassures him that the fly will be fine. LOL!
When they finally leave, Yi-hyun can’t stop grousing about the bizarre cafe and its inhabitants, but Geum is more concerned with the fact that the road seems to be taking them in circles. To make matters worse, there’s no phone or GPS signal, so after going ’round and ’round for a while, they stop to regroup.
They spot a pile of painted rocks that looks familiar, so they hike up the stone walkway beside it. Geum thinks they might be near his house, and as they hike, he notices the full moon rising. He tells Yi-hyun that his mother says a full moon means ghosts and spirits will visit the human realm, which does nothing to improve Yi-hyun’s mood.
A bit further along, they come across a beautiful hidden spring. The flower barista is there, and Geum wants to ask her for directions, but Yi-hyun notices that she’s preparing to bathe in the water. They turn their backs, but Yi-hyun takes a peek… and instead of the elderly flower barista, he sees what appears to be a young woman stepping into the spring.
Geum trips on a rock, alerting the bathing woman. She turns, revealing that she’s not only young, but she’s also incredibly beautiful. She runs at the guys, glowering furiously, then uses a rock to catapult herself high into the air.
As she comes down, she chops Geum in the neck with her hand, his head whacks into Yi-hyun’s, and both guys go down unconscious. Belatedly, the young woman recognizes them and wonders what to do.
When Yi-hyun wakes up some time later, he and Geum are sitting the car again. At first Yi-hyun thinks Geum is dead, but he’s just sleeping in an odd position due to his injured neck. And even stranger, the tower of painted rocks by the path has now toppled over into a heap.
The guys eventually get themselves to Geum’s mother’s home, and Geum can’t stop thinking about the pretty young woman from the spring. Musing on how an old woman turned young, and how they woke up in the car, he’s decided that the woman must be a gumiho (a fabled nine-tailed fox that seduces men and eats their livers).
Yi-hyun growls that he was calling her a fairy earlier, and he jokes in annoyance that Geum must also have grim reapers and goblins living in his neighborhood, HA. Being an intellectual, Yi-hyun launches into an unnecessarily detailed explanation of the phenomenon of mass hallucination.
Lucky for Geum, they’re soon called to dinner, which ends Yi-hyun’s confusing lecture. Geum’s mother goes on and on about the bottle of whiskey Yi-hyun brought for her, and she decides to get up right then to put it on the shelf with the rest of her prized liquors. Yi-hyun tries to get her to sit and let him do it, but he ends up pulling her ajumma pants off, WHOOPS.
After the kerfuffle settles, the guys follow Geum’s mom to the village’s Chuseok celebration, where Mom’s friends ask if the pretty lady with Geum is his wife (Mom: “That’s his male professor…”). Well, Yi-hyun is pretty. It’s obvious that Geum’s mother has been inflating his accomplishments in the big city, since the villagers think he’s going to be a professor soon, but Yi-hyun doesn’t rat him out.
Yi-hyun is distracted by a villager selling corn dogs, and Geum spots the beautiful woman from the spring a distance away. Both of them see her a few minutes later, and Yi-hyun goes over to ask what she did to them this afternoon. She pretends she has no idea what they’re talking about, which upsets Yi-hyun, but Geum just politely apologizes for interrupting her bath.
Yi-hyun asks why she was an old lady when they first met her, accusing her of drugging them, and that makes her angry. She whirls on him to snap, “You only believe what you see. What a shame,” but he demands to know the truth.
A man she calls MASTER GU (Ahn Gil-kang) comes over to tell the guys not to gang up on FAIRY SEON OK-NAM (Moon Chae-won), but Yi-hyun retorts that she’s the one who attacked them. His wild gesturing with his corn dog flings ketchup all over Master Gu’s shirt, which Master Gu interprets as an act of war.
He brandishes a fist at Yi-hyun, who hoots that Master Gu doesn’t look one bit scary. Master Gu swings at him, but Geum steps in and takes the punch. Ok-nam tells them all to stop, and when she touches Geum to see if he’s okay, he jumps like he’s been electrocuted. Yi-hyun leads Geum away, but Geum turns back to watch Ok-nam go, wondering if it’s the full moon that makes her shadow look as if it’s dancing.
The guys head back to Geum’s mom’s house and start drinking, which just makes Yi-hyun more belligerent as he challenges Master Gu to come punch him if he dares. He slurs that he hates Geum and the people from his hometown, just before passing out. Classy, dude.
Still at the celebration, Master Gu brags to the two weirdos from the coffee shop, Fairy Oh and Park Shin-seon, about his “fight” with the weasels who were bothering Ok-nam. He tells them to let him know if anyone bothers them, but Shin-seon stage whispers that nobody has “bothered” Fairy Oh in three hundred years, ha.
Master Gu asks what she wished for, and Fairy Oh says she wished for the same thing as always — to find the woodcutter who stole her winged dress. Oh, did the same thing happen to her? Shin-seon sighs that she and Ok-nam are awfully persistent, but Fairy Oh just pulls out a plastic recorder to serenade the moon.
In the morning, Yi-hyun is gobsmacked that he slept through the night for the first time in ages. Geum asks if he wants coffee, and by the time his mom has breakfast ready, they’re back at the Fairy Cafe.
The flower barista meets them at the door to tell them that the cafe is closed for Chuseok, but she invites them in for coffee anyway. She tasks Yi-hyun with grinding the beans while Geum pets the ginger cat that’s already found his lap.
After viciously grinding the coffee like it owes him money, Yi-hyun asks the flower barista if the toilet is the old-fashioned squatting kind, but she just tells him to see for himself. The bathroom is a wonderland full of flowering plants, and Yi-hyun decides it’s good enough to use.
As he does, the extremely loud sound of his urination seems familiar to the flower barista. She remembers hearing that exact sound every morning, six hundred and ninety-nine years ago, but she decides that she must be imagining things since she can barely remember her husband’s face anymore.
Both Yi-hyun and Geum are a little mesmerized as they watch the flower barista make their coffee, and the delicious taste of it conjures actual butterflies to flutter around them. She shows them her coffee bush and tells them that she roasted its beans just this morning.
Geum bounces over to help her water her plants, but he’s taken aback when she’s suddenly young again. All Yi-hyun sees is Geum blushing in front of the flower barista. He looks down to see the cat drinking his coffee and he yells at it, calling it by name.
Startled, the flower barista asks how Yi-hyun knows the cat’s name when she’s never told him. She also wants to know how he found the spring yesterday, and Yi-hyun counters with a question about how she transformed in front of their eyes.
She takes the flower from her hair and holds it out to him, suddenly young again. She thinks of her prayers to send her husband back to Earth, and to let her recognize him when she finds him. She narrates that a human’s life goes by in a flash, and that she was stranded on Earth when she lost her winged dress, so she’s been waiting for her husband to be reincarnated.
She runs to her room to get the clothes that her husband used to wear, belatedly realizing that she hasn’t washed them in nearly seven centuries. She takes them back to the main room anyway, only to find that the guys are gone.
The cat explodes in a burst of sparkling light and becomes a young girl, JEOM-SOON (Kang Mi-na). Jeom-soon glances at a large egg sitting on a sideboard, and she shrieks, “MOM!! Oppa is coming out, the egg is cracked!”
As they drive full-speed back to Seoul, Yi-hyun declares that Ok-nam must be a gumiho. He says that there’s no scientific explanation for her, or the huge egg that cracked when Geum barely even touched it. HA, no wonder they ran away.
The egg is currently a source of intense interest, surrounded by Ok-nam, Master Gu, Fairy Oh, and Shin-seon. Ok-nam tells them about Yi-hyun’s familiarly strong urine stream and the way he knew Jeom-soon’s name without being told, and how he even showed up at the Fairy Falls, which not just anyone can find.
Fairy Oh reminds Ok-nam that two men came to the falls, which creates a problem. Shin-seon tells Master Gu that he should transform into a pigeon again and go look for them, teasing him since he’s apparently very bad at flying. Ok-nam says that she’s the only one who can solve this mystery, which is a relief to the others, who get nervous at the idea of visiting the big city.
Unfortunately, Ok-nam has no clue where to start looking, until Fairy Oh says that she saw a parking sticker for Yiwon University on Geum’s car.
Inside, Jeom-soon types intently on her laptop, her tail, fur, and whiskers popping out as she writes a steamy story about a young master watching his muscular servant chopping wood. Ok-nam accuses her of having lustful thoughts again, chastising her daughter for letting her tiger features show. She tells Jeom-soon to pack, because, “I may have found your father.”
A vendor at a coffee kiosk on the Yiwon University campus refuses to sell coffee to customers unless they bring their own cups, to save the environment. The customer insults her coffee as she walks away, and with a quick gesture by the coffee vendor, suddenly a huge rock appears in front of the customer and trips her.
Ok-nam, in her elderly guise, arrives with Jeom-soon in cat form. She gives the vendor, a minor deity named JO BONG-DAE (comedienne Ahn Young-mi), a note from Master Gu. It explains who Ok-nam is and says to take good care of her, so Bong-dae gives the “cute tiger” a sausage and asks what Ok-nam is doing in the city.
Before she can explain, Ok-nam spots Yi-hyun approaching with Dr. Lee, so she hides. Yi-hyun is telling Dr. Lee that he saw something that can’t be explained scientifically, something like a ghost or a gumiho. Dr. Lee says logically that environmental phenomena can distort the human imagination, but when Yi-hyun tells her he saw an old woman become young, she laughs that that’s just her department dean after a round of skin treatments, HA.
They stop at Bong-dae’s kiosk for coffee, and Bong-dae and Dr. Lee have a quick Alpha Female Glare-off, which Dr. Lee loses. Bong-dae is obviously flirting with Yi-hyun, speaking banmal and bending over to show off her tush, and when he tells her honestly that her coffee is terrible (but cheap!), she just laughs heartily.
A tiny leaf falls into his cup, and when he sees it, he thinks it’s a moth and screams bloody murder. LOL, he’s such a priss! Bong-dae looks around, and we see Ok-nam crouched on the roof of her kiosk, having dropped the leaf into his coffee in a fit of jealousy, hee.
Jeom-soon thinks that her mom should just go up to Yi-hyun and tell him she’s his wife. They continue spying on Yi-hyun and Dr. Lee, who wonders if Yi-hyun’s insomnia caused him to see things. Yi-hyun tells her that actually, he slept pretty well after drinking Ok-nam’s coffee.
In flashback, we see Ok-nam and her woodcutter walking under the falling cherry blossoms. He stops to ask if she’s tired and offer her a ride on his pack. She chirps that her husband is the best, but he says humbly that she’s the best for marrying a lowly woodcutter like him.
After hearing Ok-nam’s sad story, Bong-dae feels sorry for her, but she reminds her and Jeom-soon that their kind isn’t allowed to get involved in the human realm. She says that even if Yi-hyun is her reincarnated husband, he’s probably completely different after seven centuries. She warns Ok-nam that if she intrudes in his life, the order management department in her realm might get involved.
Ok-nam thanks Bong-dae for the advice and offers to make her a cup of coffee. Bong-dae scoffs that there won’t be any difference in the flavor, but Ok-nam’s technique is all about creating harmony, which has an almost magical result.
From the look on Bong-dae’s face, the flavor of the coffee is a deeply mystical experience, and she hires Ok-nam on the spot. She even offers her a place to stay if she needs one, but Ok-nam tells her that she already has a place in mind.
At home, Geum babies his plants, even giving them cute little pep talks if they’re wilting. Hungry, he decides to go out for ramyun. Yi-hyun is still obsessed with Ok-nam, to the point that just the sight of his coffee mug irritates him.
Outside, Ok-nam sits and wonders why she can’t see the stars in the city. She uses a wooden wand she borrowed from Master Gu to perform an incantation which calls down a flock of pigeons to cover her as she lies down to sleep.
Geum is stunned to witness the spell and the blanket of pigeons, and he carefully approaches to ask why she’s sleeping out in the cold. She says that the place she’d planned to stay is gone, but she’s fine with the help of her animal friends, and he looks down to see Jeom-soon in her cat form happily rubbing her face on his ankle.
He invites them to stay in his room at Yi-hyun’s place, saying that he can sleep downstairs. Ok-nam is reluctant, but Geum takes her bag and gives her a giant grin, so she agrees to stay for just one night.
Inside, she picks up a plant that looks nearly dead, and Geum’s eyes widen to see her looking young and beautiful again. The plant revives, turning lush and green as he watches, and even sprouts a few pink flowers.
The effort seems to tire Ok-nam, who goes back to her elderly guise. Confused and a little worried, Geum asks hesitantly if Ok-nam is a gumiho. She tells him honestly, “I’m a fairy,” gracing him with a lovely smile.
COMMENTS
The original story of the fairy and the woodcutter is a tragic one — a woodcutter tricks a fairy into marrying him by stealing her clothing then “rescuing” her, but he must keep his trickery a secret until they have three children. After they have their second child, the woodcutter decides to come clean, and the fairy takes her winged clothing and her children and returns to Heaven. The woodcutter finds a way to go to Heaven to rejoin his family, but after a while he misses his mother. The fairy gives him a winged horse to go visit her, with the condition that he doesn’t get off the horse at any point during his trip. But he spills his mother’s hot porridge on the horse’s back, it rears and he falls off, and the horse flies back to Heaven, separating the woodcutter from his family forever.
Despite the story’s sad ending, I was really hoping for a show that’s just over-the-top wacky and fun, and so far, Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter is exactly what I’m looking for. There are fairies, gods, and magical creatures all over the place, which tells me that on the one hand, the lore will probably be a hot mess, but on the other hand, it’s going to be tons of fun because you never know what could happen. I love the oddball characters and the magical world that exists alongside the human world. So far the story already deviates from the original, with the fairy being stranded on Earth without her husband instead of in Heaven, but I still expect to see other story components cropping up — I just hope we’re not in for another tragic ending!
I was surprised to see exactly who Ok-nam’s husband was in the first minute of the episode, because maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but I could have sworn this would be a “who’s the husband” drama. But it’s fun anyway, because Yi-hyun is such a bizarre person, claiming to be so scientific and logical but wigging out at the least little leaf or bug. And I enjoy the differences in how Yi-hyun and Geum react to their glimpses of magic, with Yi-hyun desperately trying to find a scientific explanation while Geum is much more willing to just go with it.
Yoon Hyun-min has been a favorite of mine since Witch’s Romance, and while I think he’s equally as good in serious roles as he is in funny ones, the tone of Mama Fairy is right smack in the middle of his comedic wheelhouse, which makes me excited to see more. He’s so annoyingly prissy and negative, yet still somehow adorable, and I can’t wait for Ok-nam to turn his entire world on its axis. I’m equally charmed by Moon Chae-won and Go Doo-shim sharing the role of Ok-nam, and I have no problem seeing them both as different visual aspects of the same fairy. We still haven’t been told exactly why the guys see Ok-nam sometimes as the flower barista and sometimes as the beautiful young fairy, but it seems to be a combination of the fact that they caught her bathing, and her level of energy at the time. Whatever it is, I’m completely enchanted, and I can’t wait to learn more!
RELATED POSTS
- Premiere Watch: Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter, Happy to Die
- Accepting the unexplainable in tvN’s Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter
- The coffee-brewing Fairy in search of her reincarnated Woodcutter
- Moon Chae-won sparkles in teaser for Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter
- Yoon Hyun-min up to romance fairy barista Kang So-ra
Tags: featured2, first episodes, Go Du-shim, Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter, Moon Chae-won, Seo Ji-hoon, Yoon Hyun-min
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1 spazmo
November 8, 2018 at 8:09 PM
i like the sweet premise of this story! it's kooky, fantastical and fun... i hope it doesn't have a sad ending -- i'm super needing something light and fun, and i'm hoping this one is the cure...
: )
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2 Nessa (Bebe) 🌹
November 8, 2018 at 8:55 PM
Moon Chae Won is so pretty. No fair!!! lol jkjk I actually love her :) I like modern stories with bits of magic and fantastical elements in the mix, and it could definitely be a winner if done right (a la YFAS), so I can't wait to see what's in store for us in that aspect, but with this cast and Go Doo Shim as the sunbae of the cast, I know that no matter what direction the story and whacky fantastical elements turn, that there definitely be a lot of heart put into the acting of the characters :) I've seen Yoon Hyun Min do sort-of a whacky/comedic role from the first half of "Falling For Soon Jung" until his character did a 180 in the latter half of that drama, so I'm interested to see if his character here will call for him to go full-on comedic and whacky or if, like 90% of dramas, things will take a more serious turn in the latter half of this drama and will have our characters turn more serious/dark.... We shall see!!!
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3 Lord Cobol (Kdramas, like water, flow downhill)
November 8, 2018 at 9:33 PM
Supposed to be 3 kids eventually.... Cat-girl is one, the egg is probably one, and I suppose Geum is the reincarnation of the third. Meanwhile, story seems to be painting the husband as a good guy (or at least better than in the original tale), so the baddie who stole the clothes may be the one with the wrist-cam (?)
And if two fairies had their wings stolen, is there some sort of crime ring? Serial wing-stealing evil chaebol?
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Ek Ladhki Thi
November 8, 2018 at 10:22 PM
If Geum is the incarnation of the third child, then this whole love line is creepy af.
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bbongs
November 8, 2018 at 11:56 PM
No, Oknam only have two children, Jeomsoon and Jeomdol (the egg)
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Aurore
November 9, 2018 at 1:29 AM
In webtoon, Ok Nam has only 2 children
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Kat
November 9, 2018 at 5:27 AM
Does the egg eventually turn into something? I'm curious. The cat is cute.
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aaa
November 9, 2018 at 7:56 PM
ok
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Napkiin
November 9, 2018 at 6:39 PM
In the webtoon, Geum is actually the husband. Not sure if this drama will follow webtoon ending plot
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panshel
November 10, 2018 at 12:03 AM
I read this spoiler on YouTube that the cat talks to her father, but this drama looks like it changed the husband since they clearly showed Yi Hyun's face in the flashbacks.
If Geum is the husband, Seo Ji Hoon is seriously miscast. I have always thought Seo Ji Hoon looks older than his age but not 1986-old.
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sooyi
November 10, 2018 at 5:37 AM
I think it's a trick used by the scriptwriter because the fairy said she can't remember her husband's face and if I'm not wrong, the flashbacks were from the point of view of Professor Jung, not the fairy.
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sooyi
November 10, 2018 at 5:41 AM
And yeah I feel like Seo Jihoon is miscast in terms of age because his character is supposed to be a Ph.D student but Seo Jihoon looks like a college freshman.
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Napkiin
November 10, 2018 at 1:54 PM
Oh I know! Geum looked so much older in the webtoon, Geum in the drama looks like a college freshman haha
I kind of think Geum in this drama won't be the husband, because Yoon Yi Hyun is more of a male lead actor than Seo Ji Hoon as of now. I can't really see Seo Ji Hoon being the male lead
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sooyi
November 12, 2018 at 1:49 AM
I'm kind of torn because I like Seo Jihoon but I pictured Lee Taehwan in the role age-wise and his acting is not that bad :C
panshel
November 12, 2018 at 9:21 PM
@sooyi Lee Tae Hwan is only two years older than Seo Ji Hoon. I know people think Lee Tae Hwan looks older than his age, but after the debacle that was Hyung in What's Wrong With Secretary Kim, I wish Lee Tae Hwan would stick to age-appropriate roles.
sooyi
November 14, 2018 at 1:49 AM
@panshel I think Lee Taehwan can play characters in their mid or late twenties but thirties is too far-fetched.
4 capt_blackdog is dirty but pretty
November 8, 2018 at 10:09 PM
And for me, even though I don't shy away from fantasy elements in dramas, this one's a bit too wacky. So far I'm sticking for sweet sweet Geum, the bashful grandma fairy and the lewd tiger daughter.
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latebloomer
November 9, 2018 at 5:48 AM
The grandma fairy is adorable and so is Geum. I felt like Yoon Hyun-min's acting was too over the top, and I'm not sure I'll stick with the drama because of that. Especially opposite the serene grandma fairy, he comes across as an overly excitable idiot, not scientific or rational at all.
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5 Kokare
November 8, 2018 at 10:18 PM
I don’t know why but more than Moon Chae Won, I am enamored by Go Doo Shim. Her class and her beauty is just amazing in the way she portrays the fairy. She is just simply magical.
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6 Ek Ladhki Thi
November 8, 2018 at 10:26 PM
Mayhaps I've been spoiled by the leads in two of the romcoms I'm currently watching (Lee Soo-yeon and Cha Woo-hyun), but I find Yi-hyun very off-putting and annoying. His voice is shrill and his histrionics get on my nerves. I'm watching this though because I'm curious about how the story will play out and for now I'm willing to put up with Yi-hyun. Needless to say, I already have second lead syndrome because Geum is a sweetie who can read creepy CGI cat's mind and thinks Go Doo-shim is gorgeous (which she is honestly).
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john
November 9, 2018 at 7:47 PM
His voice is shrill and his histrionics After 5 minutes, my wife said, “nope” and away it went.
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Elle
November 9, 2018 at 10:45 PM
I liked Yoon Hyun-min in Tunnel but he's definitely overacting here. I'm not averse to zany, OTT characters (Waikiki is filled with them) but here YHM sticks out like a sore thumb and is quite grating. I'll give this until episode 4 since I was really looking forward to a new fantasy drama.
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7 Peony
November 8, 2018 at 10:48 PM
Am I the only one who's a bit disappointed with master Gu not being a Gumiho?😜
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8 fogcity
November 8, 2018 at 11:00 PM
I already like the second male lead better. He's a sweet guy and he looks a little bit like Park Hyung Sik. The male lead reminds me of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory--he's a scientist and he's super fussy. I like how the show is super light so far. Also, the girl who plays the boss at the coffee truck looks distractingly like Constance Wu from "Fresh off the Boat"...
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9 Fatcat007 (Kitty 💜)
November 9, 2018 at 12:04 AM
Seems super fun. I'll hang around, thanks to Lollypip recapping 💕💕💕
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Ek Ladhki Thi
November 9, 2018 at 12:13 AM
Is your username from Epiphany?
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Fatcat007 (Kitty 💜)
November 9, 2018 at 2:58 AM
Yes ^^
Do you listen to BTS or just Epiphany?
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Ek Ladhki Thi
November 9, 2018 at 7:57 AM
Just Seokjin. I'm more into EXO's music but I really like Seokjin's voice.
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Fatcat007 (Kitty 💜)
November 9, 2018 at 8:11 AM
OMG! That's great 😃 I find fewer people who appreciate his voice & he's my UB so... ^^
I'm glad you like his voice, you have excellent taste hehe 👍
If I may ask, have you listened to his other Jin solo & covers or just this one?
Ek Ladhki Thi
November 9, 2018 at 8:46 AM
I've listened to Awake as well. I discovered his voice through Truth Untold, which I discovered while watching Produce 48. I do appreciate Seokjin, he reminds me of my UB Junmyeon (Suho) and I've heard they are somewhat alike. There's even some moments when they look alike (?) But yeah, I won't consider myself a stan but if he released a solo album I'd definitely buy it to support him.
Fatcat007 (Kitty 💜)
November 9, 2018 at 8:11 PM
Oooh you've listened to the best ones ^^
Haha no need to be a Stan, just appreciating his voice is good enough.
That's so nice of you to support his solo album possibility T.T
One last rec before I go:
https://youtu.be/Aoom_2e4AqA
Do listen to this cover. :)
10 K-Charlie
November 9, 2018 at 12:15 AM
I've already posted this, but here seems much more appropriate. I've now watched the 2nd, and am in love even more.
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Have watched the first ep of Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter, and will be watching the 2nd tonight. I'm really loving it so far. I thought it would be annoying at first and really not my thing, but it grows on you very quickly thanks to its quirky streak and a big bucketful of charm. The leads are great with Yoon Hyun Min and Seo Ji Hoon playing off each other brilliantly and I should say that I am slightly in love with Moon Chae Won, but that's not to forget that Go Doo Shim does an equally lovely job as her older-appearing self. Kang Mi Na has an amazing role as the feisty tiger with lewd thoughts, and I have to give mention to Ahn Young Mi in a great support role. Lots of charmingly cheesy (but fitting and effective) special effects too.
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11 Kurama
November 9, 2018 at 12:24 AM
I thought that this drama was based on korean webtoon that changed the story where the husband is not a jerk...
For it was a little bit hard to stay in the moment with all those switches of body.
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12 momosa
November 9, 2018 at 12:24 AM
Thanks Lollypip for the recap.
Perhaps I wasn't paying full attention but 15mins or so into the story, I was checking if I started midway instead of the beginning.
What's the relation between the two besides being co-worker? Why is professor following teaching assistant to see his mother? Can fairy age when the rest doesn't including the daughter? I'm beginning to suspect the editing is done by the same person who did 100 Days Prince, oh no. Yoon HM & Moon CW are a dream pairing, please be good.
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13 Eries be the Light
November 9, 2018 at 2:10 AM
Seriously, this story has been made in many version at my country, and that's make me still considering how I will watch this version. But still, thank for the recap. Moon Chae Woon so beautiful and Yoon Hyun Min always slay like usually.
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14 frabbycrabsis loves KBS Drama Specials
November 9, 2018 at 4:34 AM
CGI CAT
CGI PIGEONS
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panshel
November 10, 2018 at 12:17 AM
The pigeons blanket was the stuff of nightmares. Mary Poppins turned Alfred Hitchcock. The diseases, gag.
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15 kiara
November 9, 2018 at 6:03 AM
It's good to see Moon Chae-won back in her element!
I'm not sold on the two male leads yet. Maybe I'm used to seeing her with the likes of Park Hae-il, Kim Mu-yeol and more established actors.
Thank you @lollypip for recapping another series so soon <3.
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16 Alessar
November 9, 2018 at 6:26 AM
This show is a breath of fresh air! I really enjoyed it, the cat girl's yaoi novel almost had me on the floor in stitches. (I hope we keep seeing more of it too. Any tiny bit of gay content that worms its way onto K-TV is a tiny step forward, even if it's just this.)
I do suspect there's some very dark undercurrent going on though based on Yoon Hyun-Min's character's nightmares. I wouldn't be shocked if it turns out Mama Fairy was exiled to earth by the other fairies who played a trick on her and hid her robe; and I wouldn't be shocked if it turns out the hubby vanished one day because they came back and eliminated him.
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sooyi
November 10, 2018 at 5:45 AM
I feel the webtoon author is pretty progressive because she does explore LGBT themes in the webtoon, even though she doesn't delve into them deeply.
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LT is Irresistibly Indifferent and reminded of the slow march of death
November 30, 2018 at 6:12 PM
Even if she's a supernatural creature, seeing a female character being sexually aroused (and at yaoi at that) just about blew my mind. I know we're a long way from allowing Korean female leads to have anything approaching a normal sexuality but this at least was throwing us a bone.
...no pun intended...
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17 faire
November 9, 2018 at 7:41 AM
i really wanted to like this but i can't stand the male lead :/ guess i'll pass
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sooyi
November 10, 2018 at 5:46 AM
Male lead doesn't always equal to main love interest.
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faire
November 12, 2018 at 12:53 AM
well even if he ends up not being the main love interest he has screentime and i can't just skip every scene he is in so..
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18 Mich
November 9, 2018 at 8:22 AM
i've been waiting for this drama for MONTHS and i'm sooo excited it's finally out :)) and yes - it's good so far! great to see YHM back in a bit of a comedic role, MCW is so elegant... and hello Seo Ji-hoon ;) (or Geummie - think i'll call him that haha) can't wait for the next!
here are some locations we've tracked down on KDL! https://koreandramaland.com/jobs/?search_keywords=%22mama+fairy+and+the+woodcutter%22&submit=
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19 WishfulToki
November 9, 2018 at 8:37 AM
I tried the first two episodes. Nope. The overall weirdness is too much for me. Weird CGI, weird people/fairies, weird transitions from cute to horror fantasy. Gonna sit this one out, sadly because I like MCW. If I hear good things later I’ll be back beanies! *waves*
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Mich
November 9, 2018 at 9:00 AM
aww >.< hope to see you back soon!!
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20 larelle79
November 9, 2018 at 11:20 AM
I liked it. It is just a colorful show and is what it is. I will stick with it.
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21 Nyz
November 9, 2018 at 9:46 PM
This drama pleases me much, it is so refreshing and funny; the theme and the actors portrayals are just exactly what Ive been expecting from this drama.
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22 sooyi
November 10, 2018 at 5:33 AM
I'm surprised by the pacing of the show because the events in the drama episode took a few webtoon chapters.
Oh yeah the pigeon blanket. It's as absurd in drawing as in real life 😂
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23 haruloves
November 10, 2018 at 11:28 PM
I like the whimsical aspect of the show. Also Happy to see MCW in another drama.
As pf this episode, I like the second lead better than the lead. I also find it careless of Seono to be so obvious with fairy powers. I have yet to watch the second episode so hopefully ot gets better.
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24 agoodheart
November 11, 2018 at 7:59 AM
Moon Chae-won and Go Doo-shim are wonderful. I hope Geum is the husband. Otherwise, major second-lead syndrome on the making now.
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25 MikeyD signed up
November 17, 2018 at 9:15 PM
I get the impression that this series was given to Go Doo-shim as a reward for her role as the mother in 'My Ajusshi'. Normally a K-drama heroine wouldn't switch between an ajumma character and a pretty young woman randomly. I recall her other role opposite IU in 'You're the best Lee Soon-shin' from 2013 where she basically carried the weight of the whole drama on her shoulders.
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26 PakalanaPikake
November 21, 2018 at 5:15 PM
Thanks for your recap, @lollypip. I haven't seen the webtoon. I did read JavaBeans's article on the fairy tale, and can see that the drama differs from the original material, thank goodness.
http://www.dramabeans.com/2010/08/pop-culture-the-fairy-and-the-woodcutter/
I'm reminded of HWAYUGI, which also had reworked elements of folklore in it.
Ko Du-shim brings a lovely, dignified aura to her role, and I hope we get to see a lot of her. Moon Chae-won exudes the same vibe. Instead of one actress in a dual role, its dual actresses playing a single part.
Yoon Hyun-min's professor is pretty bonkers in this episode, but I'll stick around and hope that he settles down. Seo Ji-hoon's speaking with plants and animals is very sweet. But he looks awfully young to be a teaching assistant.
The fact that there are two fairies whose clothing was stolen at different times is a twist I hadn't anticipated.
The CGI doesn't bother me. In fact, I found the cat's eyes to be very expressive, and I really liked the tiger. While a live-pigeon blanket is clever, I'm grossed out at the sanitation aspects. Bird lice and worse. Ewww. I personally would not want a down comforter on the wing to roost on me, no matter how warm the birds' tootsies might be on a cold night.
Headshrinker Lee makes me mighty suspicious. I can't help but wonder who she was in a past incarnation. And I'm creeped out by her stalkerish attitude towards patient Jung Yi-hyun.
That deer that led the woodcutter to the swimming hole is also pegging my spider-sense. Is there a connection with the coffee on the menu named "Deer's Tears"? Methinks the deer is a clothes-filching shape-shifter.
LOL at the reference to court artist Shin Yun-bok from Moon Chae-won's earlier drama, PAINTER OF THE WIND. It's in the scene in the fairy coffee shop after Geum and Prof. Jung skedaddle back to Seoul, leaving stranded fairies Oh and Sun Ok-nam, Prof. Gu, and Mountain God Park mulling over Ok-nam's identification of her reincarnated husband via his bathroom sounds, instant recognition of Jeom-soon in her feline form, and his arrival at Fairy Falls.
Here's hoping the show remains light and fluffy, without being too slapstick.
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27 LT is Irresistibly Indifferent and reminded of the slow march of death
November 30, 2018 at 6:15 PM
If anything, I felt the weirdness in this was not quite weird enough. The music was telling me it was super weird and whacky but it wasn't really. I felt the second half was stronger though and I like the idea of these mountain spirits being exposed to the big city. It's kind of like the clash of superstition and modernity that's going on in Yi-hyun right now. And for once, the uptight man and Earthy woman thing isn't annoying me, maybe because the uptight man's strong adherence to logic is causing him to challenge and rethink his assumptions.
Unlike others, I found Geum boring and You-hyun far more interesting. But then I'm a sucker for men who are logical rather than emotional (maybe because in real life they're the other way around).
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