When Jang Ki-yong’s character gazes longingly at a woman, he’s not appraising her looks. Instead he’s weighing how well she might serve as an energy source. In the iQIYI original Korean drama My Roommate Is A Gumiho, Jang plays a mythical creature known as a gumiho or nine-tailed fox. He’s a creature that needs to harvest the energy of humans to become fully human. 

For those not familiar with the Korean mythological creature, gumihos draw in human energy by placing a special marble into the mouth of a victim and then drawing it back. Most gumihos are vicious and taking back the marble can involve the removal of some human organs. Jang’s character Shin Woo-yeo has no problem finding victims since both male and female gumihos transform into bewitchingly attractive humans. It’s impossible to resist their allure and gumihos find it hard to resist devouring human energy. 

Jang plays the jaded 999-year-old gumiho with flashes of humor, well-timed sighs and the occasional half-hearted bittersweet smile. He is picky about the kind of energy he devours and therefore it is taking centuries for him to gather enough. He has seduced women since the Joseon Era, yet despite how easily they fall for his charms, he’s bored and lonely.

That is until he encounters Lee Dam, played by Lee Hyeri. She’s a likable and unsophisticated college student who can’t even imagine his dark and vicious world. Despite her sunny can-do personality and his dark fate, their destinies quickly become tangled. Minutes after their initial meeting an accident forces Woo-yeo to expel the gumiho bead. Lee Dam accidentally swallows it. 

Woo-yeo needs to get the marble back, and since he’s a nicer kind of gumiho, he hopes to do so without killing her. Until he figures out a way, he says they must live together. It’s a classic k-drama rom com trope. Two people who have no reason to like each other are forced to live together and eventually fall in love. Except in this case, living with Woo-yeo is the stuff of horror films, not rom coms. Lee Dam is less worried about falling in love than she is about losing some essential organs. She can’t forget the scary stories she’s heard about gumihos and is naturally frightened by blood splatters and the way Woo-yeo creeps mysteriously around the garden in the moonlight.

Woo-yeo assures her that he is not the scary kind of gumiho and she has nothing to worry about. Unless, that is, they can’t safely remove the marble within a year. After that she will die. Either way a chance encounter with this handsome stranger is likely to shorten her life.

Both actors seem to be having fun with their campy horror romance, especially when Lee Hyeri tackles her situation with plucky resolve. This year Jang can also be seen in the film Sweet and Sour and in an upcoming drama Now We Are Breaking Up co-starring Song Hye-kyo. Lee, a former member of the k-pop group Girls Day, had a breakthrough acting role in the nostalgic drama Reply 1988. This year she can also be seen in the drama When Flowers Bloom I Think of The Moon. Their co-stars in this drama include Kang Han-na and Bae In-hyuk.