*[This review might contain some SPOILERS of my own inside perception, reader description is advised]*
It could almost resemble the old saying, Et Venit, Vidit, Vicit (I’ve come, saw, and conquer)
Only there is no victory with the progressing story of this drama to the very dreadful end.

As much as I love Lee Dong Wook acting, from the beginning I’ve been interested in this drama mainly because of Kim Bum and I admit that he was the sole reason I stayed and enjoyed the drama for most part.
To be honest, I am relieved to see that this wasn’t the whole two brothers in love with a woman, but rather one being a fool in love and the other craving for the love of his brother.

The plot was messy, and the sub plots as well.
There were many details forgotten or dragged down along the road. The villain and the split up were mostly cringy and could be properly executed if the goals or the clash they intended to do seemed believable, and yet that wasn’t the case. A villain or antagonist must have a presence, and as much as TaeRi is a promising good young actor and I’ve seen him in other roles, the role of Imoogi here was strange and passive aggressive with a massive and unnecessary killing spree.
Well that could be avoided if JiAh and Lee Yeon accepted their fate and it was mainly their fault the creature come back in the first place.

I’ve preferred 1000x the plot of the brothers bromance than the so called fated love story of the fox and the human.
The main characters present love story seemed forced, and the whole dramatic cliché of fighting against fate by defying everyone around them including powerful forces and risking thousands of lives amid the way.
It was completely selfish in many ways.

They were to blame, for the whole of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which has brought a calamity to the world.
And Yeon was selfish for holding on for his love for her for centuries because he was heartbroken by losing her and yet condemning and calling his younger brother, Rang a brat with a 600 year old tantrum, when he was always the spoiled one in the first place. I mean we do see that a lot along the series, the fact that after centuries he still has a servant and a friend in ShinJoo who does most work for Yeon, so it seems. At least its commendable that Rang is independent.
Yeon over that span of time was never truly alone and yet completely obsessed with finding her to the point of neglecting the bond he had started with his brother centuries ago.

Many can defend otherwise but despite protecting Lee Rang many times, he was also the cause of his pain and I have to admit he didn’t knew his brother at all and he never took the time to do so, to try and love him and understand him. To him, Rang was still the scared little boy he once knew, or perhaps it was what Yeon wanted to keep in mind, and not the way the other had turned out.
But how could he ever perceive what Rang was going through if he never once truly looked at his brother and tried to atone their severed bond or fix the misunderstandings among them?

“It’s strange. I can’t remember how the Azaleas tasted back then.
I wish we could go back to those days. There were Azaleas everywhere.”

The symbolic use of the Azalea flower was well thought, the Azalea symbolizes, remembering your home with fondness and wishing to return it, and we get a glimpse of that for Rang’s wish to return to old times and his disdain for the Azalea’s he once loved to taste. It also symbolizes, taking care of yourself and your family, temperance, a fragile and yet developing passion, elegance, abundance of wealth, beauty, and intelligence. Despite being an overwhelming positive plant, Azaleas still have a dark side due to the association with death threats.

That was what annoyed me the most. Because if Rang was always blamed for crimes and taking lives in the past, and those he had to take because of his unbreakable bond with that cunning man, then why didn’t Yeon be blamed for the thousand of lives he and JiAh cost along the whole drama? It probably surpassed Rang’s wrongdoings and yet it was discarded with a few harsh words to get some sense into a desperate foolish fox in love with a shell of a past lover in JiAh.

If was preferable that JiAh would meet her fate, although unfair and heartbreaking, if her foolish decisions and actions hadn’t cost the fox bead she initially had, and allow her body to be a vessel for the Imoogi, several lives wouldn’t be lost in the first place. Just what did she possessed to make two overly powerful beings, that could embody the Yin Yang with their opposite forces to be interested in her, love her or even want her? Is beyond me. I’ve found her bland, and for the most part annoying and reckless.

Her disdain for Rang wasn’t at all justified, sure he initially acted like a jerk and he mostly hated or better yet resented her, but it was for the most part because he was jealous. Jealous of the woman who stole his brother from him and cause his world to be turned upside down. In a glimpse of a moment he had finally a peaceful existence with his brother and dog in the fair grounds of a holy Mountain and because of the so-called fated love, everything went to shambles, and burned to the ground. He lost his role model, and his best friend, and the fields that he learned to love and could have grown to be kind disappeared from his sight. I’ve found more justified the hate YooRi carried for Yeon because of her need to protect her savior.

To me Rang was the best character in the whole series, the antagonist whom we can’t help but to fall in love and cherish even with his bratty and somehow wrong attitudes. Still he had the best development through everything, and his good deeds helped more than one soul in there. It was to show just how warm hearted he was despite keeping the cold mask to protect himself. He was a lost boy who didn’t entirely grew up, his need to be acknowledge and his yearning to be loved by his only brother was what led him to the route of perdition.

And it was Yeon’s act of mercy with the sword that condemned him all those centuries ago.
Overall Rang felt like the most genuine and bashful in his needs and sayings, because his purpose never changed. He was silently desperate to be freed from the deal that made him trapped even if it meant that death was his only option, at least that’s what I consider for his persistence on annoying Yeon to the point of the other could kill him. Although I doubt that would happen.

Maybe because Rang’s lifespan was at it’s end or perhaps he had even surpassed it, since he was a half breed fox, but if it meant to die then I am only guessing it would be preferable to die by loving hands. The detail on how his life was cutting short was forgotten in the plot and honestly not many characters cared for it or even wondered on why he had been alive for so long, they probably assumed he was taking innocent lives in order to prolong his existence.
Again, these characters only assume without asking, and they only see what they want to see.
He carried the plot on his shoulders at some point, because when it comes to Yeon and JiAh it all seemed like an annoying endless loop of old/new weird endless love story with loads of mint choco.

I preferred the relationship and bond Rang had with YooRi, the one he saved and raised in a way like a little sister or a daughter even, because let’s face it their love wasn’t romantic at all. And the fact that he even got reunited with his pet dog in another form and took him over, under his wing when knowing the kid’s background. Even when he claimed to dislike children or even dogs, he was kind, like a tsundere. Rang showed kindness in the little details and warmest actions.

“You could never pass by an injured dog ever since you were young.
And I wondered why you had changed so much.
But you haven’t changed at all.
You haven’t changed one bit.”

Yeon’s words describe Rang perfectly.

Rang grew up to be an adult, but he had the insecurities and the need for love like a neglected child. Where can we find a sort of antagonist who at the wail of a helpless creature such as a dog being beaten, would not only stop and save it, but also care to send the poor soul to a vet?
How can we call him an antagonist when he opened his house and heart to a helpless and tortured wild fox and to an abused child, whom he spent his money for like it was nothing?

There’s a quote from a character of a book series I like, that goes, “There are three kinds of family. Those we are born to, those who are born to us, and those we let into our hearts”, I think Rang found his true family by letting people into his caring and aching heart.

And that’s what made me angry, sad, and bittersweet about his ending.

Because the minute he allowed himself to feel that ounce of happiness in his hollow life, finally finding a purpose and a family amid his losses, it was the minute Rang’s life seemed worthy enough to be taken for the sake of bringing his brother back and have him reincarnated.

“Yes, he’s the most precious thing in your life. Your brother.”

Now that was to be expected, from the beginning, given his endless love and devotion for his older brother, we knew something like this was bound to happen sooner or later.
It does not upset me that he chose to sacrifice himself for his brother, he was selfless enough to do it. He once had no purpose in his life because he never gave a chance into his heart to allow it to love and be loved out of fear of being abandoned, yet the moment he did, he was now compelled to loose it all.

How unfair is that?

What upsets me the most is that his happiness was short-lived, and his goodbye was even shorter and almost denied. He wasn’t able to do so properly, or given the opportunity to embrace those he loved, his made-up loving family. In mere minutes his existence was erased without leaving a trace behind other than those he saved, and his cellphone on the ground.
JiAh could just as well save her crocodile tears right there. He sacrificed himself for the sake of her and his older brother, and it cost YooRi, SooOh (Geomdoong) and ShinJoo a huge loss.
And it’s in these moments that followed that truly wrecked everything for me.

“It looks like you’ve found yourself a family. Now you’re cherishing your life.”

It’s not fair that now that he did, he won’t spend his final moments with them.
I wonder if this was premeditated, or if it was a coincidence, but given the mystical plot I highly doubt that this wasn’t entirely fabricated.
I mean Granny Taluipa, the Gatekeeper herself had once said that reincarnation is unpredictable in many varieties, both in time spans and appearances. But for all we know about this particular thematic, is that once you reincarnate you start a new life, and the memories eventually fade away within time. It’s the start of a brand-new existence, a rebirth so to say.

So, why with all this in mind, did Yeon showed up intact in his original form?

With the same appearance and memories but deeming to be human now.
I mean, did they do a magic trick there, or could it be that the many calls Granny did to save Yeon, made that miracle happen?
It was told that if someone falls into the Samdo River it can’t be granted the power of reincarnation.
Yeon fell there to prevent that, to seal the Imoogi and save his lover and the world, and all that.
Or was perhaps that fortune teller, the Final Judge who made this happen?
Could he possibly control the perception of time and make Yeon return to the present like he had never left, and to concede for one to exist without fully going through the passage of time?

It creates theories that not even I have answers to.

The final message Rang left on his phone for Yeon, felt way more heartbreaking than the one Yeon made when he was about to face his final moments, because he lacked the guts to show his true feelings in there, when Rang never failed to deliver them throughout the series.

“Still… Still, if we can, let’s meet again.” the heartbreaking smile amid the tears as he finally calls Yeon, “Hyung” in such a longing way, it’s what get us and truly tore our aching hearts.

Despite his so-called hate for his brother, it’s undeniable how much he loved Yeon and admired him enough to be this selfless. Pity that it took 600 years and that loss for Yeon to crumble down crying hard for losing his younger brother whom he seldom tried to protect in his own ways.

To say it was a happy ending is far from it.

Sure, Rang ends up happy but his final appearance or rather his reincarnated version embodies all the doubts that keep harboring out in our fickle minds.
More than his mother’s love, I think he changed that role to Yeon, because he was the one who truly showed him benevolence, kindness, and a warm fraternal love. So, I assume that Rang would prefer his brotherly love rather than being born without any memories of his past live and the man he had lost centuries doting on. And the messed up part here is the time loop, because either they didn’t told the right amount of time that passed or simply did not care for that, since all of a sudden a 10 year old or something Rang childhood version encounters Yeon and it serves to reassure the elder that Rang has found happiness in human form.

But that is what makes me doubtful is just why did Rang sacrificed himself and hoped for Yeon to be granted the possibility of reincarnation, which was why Rang sacrificed himself in the first place, if Yeon shows up in his original form while keeping all the memories completely intact?

The brothers meet again however it’s for a brief and single moment and that’s it.

Is Yeon lying about being human? But what for? How can he lie to all other mythical beings such as the Gatekeeper, and her husband who practically “raised” him since the loss of their only son? Why lie to JiAh or ShinJoo? And could he possibly be human with some leftover powers of his glory days? Because after an ordeal of facing the terrifying truths about being human being a struggle he shows at the very end that he still has his powers and glowing amber fox eyes.

All I have to say foxes are cunning. Yeon was a full-fledged fox spirit. So maybe he does lie.

Rang was partially half-human, despite his hatred of the race, he couldn’t deny his humanity and maybe that’s what made him more altruistic and to love as passionately like he did. Allowing him to drown in his own misery and pain while struggling with his turmoil of emotions.
He was ever the emotional one, while Yeon was blinded by what he considered to be love and apparently an obsession over a girl that intruded in his holy territory and changed his purpose and existence, while affecting other parties too.
In the end I believe Granny Taluipa was right all along.
By their foolish decisions many people died, and many suffered losses.
It’s not a selfless love story of 600 years and many reincarnations. But a romantic massacre.

Overall, almost every character played their role and purpose, some better than others through the inconsistency of the plot.
The acting is superb, everyone dots on Lee DongWook but I also highly praise Kim Bum for giving life to such an iconic character as Lee Rang.

The OST is okay, not too over the top or really memorable.
The thing I can praise is that unlike most dramas it included some instrumental melodies, and of most there by the composer Hong DaeSung, the melody Parting at the River of the Three Crossings is my favorite. As for the song I liked most, I’ll be There, by Shownu from MonstaX.

I might re-watch again someday, because once we come back to something of the past, we find in the nostalgy certain details that we missed in the first place. But mostly if I ever watch again its solely because of Rang despite knowing his route in the plot, his character grew on me in ways that I can’t even explain.

There are rare characters who are deemed unforgettable and Rang is certainly one of those.

I am sorry for the particular SPOILERS I might have included along this HUGE review, but despite everything I do recommend watching this series, because who knows?
Perhaps you might end up having a favorite character too or create more theories different than mine. And appreciate the symbolic value that this drama presents.

I also do recommend watching the sideline story called, “Tale of the Nine Tailed: An Unfinished Story” which is solely 3 episodes of Rang’s adventures before and after the events of the main series. The first episode mostly about the Azaleas and his longing, the second is about YooRi and their odd and yet lovely connection, and the third is about SooOh his long lost Geomdoongie.

Thank you to whoever will read this review, hopefully it will help others to appease their minds or even share theories too.
I focused too much on the main characters here rather than the whole plot because other wise this would be longer and with more spoilers that’s for sure, just bare in mind that like every series it has it’s flaws but it also has it’s qualities. And it’s not based on a sole review that you are bound to not give a chance to watch something that can change your perception of things, because not every review, vision or opinion is the same, and yours shouldn’t be either.

Just buckle your seatbelts and enjoy the crazy ride (o゜▽゜)o☆