The beginning is the closest Kdrama I've ever seen to a Xianxia Cdrama. It's starts off with the love story of Kang Chi's parents, but their accompanying love theme English choral music is dreadful! Thank God it's only for the first two episodes! Lee Seung-Gi just keeps going from strength to strength. He gives a magnetic performance that helps suspend your disbelief as the man is so charming & talented. Suzy Bae is very well cast as his leading plucky lady as they have incredible chemistry together, and it is a joy to watch their love unfold...especially that really long first kiss!!! Choi Jin-hyuk , plays his dad and in reality is only one year older than him! I wonder if he got a taste for playing supernatural roles through this, as he does seem to like them and well...he's really good at it and....ummmm....he looks smoking hot!!!
There are many memorable scenes & characters which make this drama so enjoyable. Despite the lightheartedness I actually find it to be quite a deep drama, in relation to how people react to the gumiho side of Kang Chi and you can put this into context in any modern hate crime and find solace from what they are saying.
The Turtle Ships & Admiral Yi are actually based on historical fact, which I found fascinating and a good intro into Korean history.
The Gu Family Book never actually makes an appearance and I wonder why it is actually the title, but it may just be a metaphor for love, as that's what keeps turning him back into his human form. Gu must stand for Gumiho, so it's their story which we are actually seeing that makes them human. As in the end when we see him in the future, he could have found the book in all those 422 yrs and kept it on standby for when he finally found Suzy, and then grown old with her. I have so many questions, but sadly no answers....there really should have been a Season 2 :(