Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter: Episode 1 Live Recap

We are picking this one up! I have not been following all the pre-airing fair, so I am pretty much coming in to this one blank. I know the original fairy tale story and that the twist in this one is that she has been waiting for her husband to be reincarnated for hundreds of years which finally happens in 2018. But another twist is that there are two men her reincarnated husband could possibly be, or something like that?

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Character Chart: Mama Fairy Shorthand

How we do this: We update the post around every 10 minutes. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later depending on the scene. There will be typos which we have fantasies of fixing once the episode finishes airing. Also, there might be lovely updates at the bottom, so check back in!

Recap Countdown: Starting at ~11:00am CST!…Check twitter for updates!

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KOREAN DRAMA MAMA FAIRY AND THE WOODCUTTER: EPISODE 1 LIVE RECAP
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#1
OPENING
A long long time ago there was a very kind and good woodcutter. One day he was chopping wood on the mountain and a deer came…

That day I was taking a bath with eunnies.

Oknam – Strange…where are my flying clothes. Are you leaving me here!

Sisters – It is lunchtime, take your time finding your clothes.

Montage of the woodcutter finding her and then having babies with him.

Cut to the present time, Yi-hyun is sleeping on the job, but he looks comfortable so it all looks good. Another woman, Ham-sook is on the phone and throws something at him. He gets up and tells her that he cant sleep at home so at least let him sleep there. It looks like this is definitely her office, not his. She tells him to just be quiet and leave, though she wonders why the drug does not work on him.

She gives him melatonin to help him sleep and tells him to sleep and keep having that dream, okay? He leaves and walks out in the hallway. But he feels someone watching him so he turns around several times. however, the person disappears each time.

Yi-hyun just continues leaving and gets to his home. He casually gets comfortable and washes up a bit. He is a very clean and tidy person that only uses a towel one time and throws it away. He sits at his desk and relaxes with a cup, but then a beep beep is heard at the door so he angrily goes to answer it.

it is Kim Geum, who is happy to let himself in as he calls Yi-hyun, professor. He tells him that he did not pack yet? It is not the time to listen to Bethoven now. But Yihyun just tells him that it is not Bethoveen, it is Mozart. They argue about going home for Chuseok and how he has to come to his home (Kim Geun’s home). Yi-hyun is not that into it.

Geum tells him that he told his mother that Yi-hyun make single malt whiskey for her. YH tells Geum that he is crazy, his mother should be the one to preapre a gift for him, not the other way around. But Geym just tells him to pack it and come to his place. However, Yi-hyun notices that Geum touched his things with his hand. Do yo know how dirty your hands are!

Cue annoyance as YGeum starts to unpack all of Yi-hyuns things. Cut to Yi-hyun packing all his underwear in zip lock bags and then packing them. they are finally able to leave with Yi-hyun telling Geum that he can drive even though he is a genius that can’t remember an 8 number code to his house.

On the way, Yi-hyun starts to fall asleep and tells Geum that he needs a coffee. They turn left and go up a street to find a coffee place. On the way they pass totem poles (Korea has totem poles everywhere in the countryside). Geum thinks they are creepy.

They joke a bit about the totem poles and then et to a cafe. Geum hops out with Yi-hyun as they look curiously at this coffee shop. They wonder if it is really a coffee shop. The shop says, fairy tea shop. They go inside and see a halmoni who asks what they would want to drink. This halmoni is Sun Ok-nam.
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#2
She asks them what they would want. But her writing is very old writing style with how to pronounce American words and everything (the spelling on English/American-English words has changed since then). On the menu are:

Menu:
Deer tears – caramel almond taste, nutty
Birds Breakfast – Deep body taste, heavy roasted sesame aroma
Princess Noh – flowery and lively taste and smell, bright taste
Moonlighte Elegance – Special smell and sweet
Dark Water – dark taste

Geum wonders what professor they should drink, it all looks so strange. Yi-hyun tells them that he told them they should leave. two people touch their backs so they turn with a start. The people tell him that they can wait, take your time, even though i have no collagen in my knee. Take your time.

They apologize and asks for the dark water drink. Oknam tells them that they have no fear, youngsters. But then they ask if they can have the first one. A cat jumps in from no where and stands on it’s hind legs.

Cut to the two men waiting and wondering why this is so strange. How is thee a coffee shop this high in the mountains. And the menu is so embarrassing! i was blushing. What is this Noh Princess? It was so difficult. Grandma Ok-nam get to them and gives them their drink. They think it is so good of a smell. But then it seems strange.

Yi-hyun tells them that there is a fly in his drink. Ok-nam picks it up while wondering why he is there, she can dry him and let him fly away. YH thinks that his tea is so dirty now with her finger in his coffee. She tells him that her finger is the cleanest thing in the whole world and coffee with bugs is the best tasking tea. But she tells him that she can make another one.

Later on, they both leave. Yi-hyun wonders how she can say that her fingers are the cleanest thing in the world? geun tells him that it tasted good though. But he wonders what is wrong with the street, they keep driving around the same spot. YH checks his phone, but it does not have a signal due to the mountain perhaps? they wonder if that is the case and get out of their car.

They think about asking the town people but then see a stone tower, like a praying tower. It has a white painted line along it. They think they can follow this path to some place where they can ask someone something and head up the steps.
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#3
But they are out of breath when they get to the top. Geun thinks he has seen this before but he has never been lost in the mountains. His home is somewhere around there. Yi-hyun thinks that he can’t even remember his door number. Geun tells him that his mother always told him about all the ghosts that come from the land of death on Full moon day, so we might see a lot of ghosts. They keep walking.

Finally Geum asks him if he hears the sound of water. they keep walking until they get to a stream whee they see a small waterfall. Then they see the halmoni walking to the creek. (Lol, the young guy might be the deer that led the woodcutter to the creek). The young kid tells Yi-hyun that they should not be there, turn your head!

But Yi-hyun tells him that they should wait. They look at the woman who took off her outer clothing and all of a sudden turned into a younger woman! They both look at her and knock something over. She turns around and stares at them. Then she hops up and flies to them then Karate chops them both. They fall to the ground unconcious.

But then she recognizes that these are the guys from the cafe. Oh no, this is big trouble.

Yi-hyun wakes up in the car suddenly. he pants several times and sees Geum sleeping next to him, but he thinks he is dead. Geum wakes up and wonders what happened, did I go to sleep? Ah, my neck, my neck….professor, my neck. What? Are we in our car? Was this a dream? Our seats changed?

Yi-hyun looks out the car window and sees that the rocks collapsed.

Back at home (or somewhere). Geun sits mesmerized at the thought of young Ok-nam. Yi-hyun goes up to him and snaps him out of his thoughts. Are you still thinking about that? Geum says he is and thinks that the woman might be a Gumiho (9 talied Fox) or Dokkebi (goblin)! Or like the Grim reaper! Geum thinks that they all live there. (including zombies, lol). He thinks it all makes sense to have a 9 tailed fox in Gerung mountains (this mountain is famous for super natural things).

But Yi-hyun tells him, as a professor, hallucinations can happen, we can explain it. there are a lot of cases about it. All the hallucinations can be caused b lots of things not just eyesight. But theh ajumma comes out and starts talking to them. This is Geun’s mother who is a very country lady who drinks a lot of whiskey. She has so much whiskey at her place and points out all the spots where she keeps all the different types of whiskey.

She tells Yi-hyun that she will put her whiskey there, but Yi-hyun tells her that he can do it. However, he accidentally pulls her pants off which makes her roll over to where all the food falls on the floor. geun tries to help but his neck is all sorts of hurt so he can’t really move in any direction.

Later on, Umma walks with her son and the professor up a hill with lanterns. She talks to some other ajummas about her son the scholar and his professor and all that. they all go into the lantern full moon festival in the city. Yi-hyun starts to make fun of Geum about all the great things that his mom told the country people. But it is playful.
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#4
Geun sees Ok-nam walking with her lantern there. She walks with the other people in a line as they all walk somewhere together. But Yi-hyun and Geum stop her and tells her that she should know them, we passed out after you hit us. She says that she does not know what they are talking about. But Yi-hyun tells her that she neck chopped them! Right Geum!

Geum just tells her that they are sorry to bother her. Yi-hyun tells Ok-nam that seh put something in their drink! But Ok-nam just talks like she is from the Joseon Dynasty and tells her that they must be mistaken. Another man, Teach Goo, comes up and asks what is going on! Why are you doing this to this weak woman!

Yi-hyun is all like, how dare you call her a weak woman? We are the victims herer! But he accidentally sprays ketchup from his corndog on him. He decides it is best to leave. But Teacher Goo asks him why he did that, are you challenging me? Do you want to taste my fist? geum tries to say that it was an accident. But he is pushed out of the way. This halabogi is about to fight Yi-hyun, but Geum gets in the way and gets hit instead.

Ok-nam asks him if he is okay, he says he is though it looks like he was actually hurt. the old man tells Yi-hyun that he could have eaten rice cake with his gums today, pick another place where I wont see you. Yi-hyun holds his temper and tells Geum that they should walk off. Geum reluctantly does.

VO – Because of the full moon, I saw her shadow, but it was almost like it was flying away.

they both walk off and go eat at home as they think. Yi-hyun drunkenly asks, what? I eat rice cake with my gums! Hey Geum are you listening to me? I hate everyone in this town! *passes out*

Cut to the old man, teacher Goo, talkinf to the two other people from the cafe, Park and Oh, they are all gods. Oh asks him if he was fighting, is this blood? Goo says that a gigalo was around Ok-nam so he had to show him who’s boss. they tell Goo that he can transform into a dove, that is only why he is alive. Goo tells her to tell him when someone is hitting on her, he will be aggressive then as well. But Park says that she never had anyone hit on her for 300 hundred years. Oh is all like, do you want to get hit?
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#5
The three of them walk away. Goo asks what their wish was this year. OOh says she wants to find the woodcutter who stole their clothing. Goo tells her that she and Oknam are the same. Park is the mountain god so he lived there forever.

Oh says that she will play the Adagio for the moon. She starts to play a recorder pipe. the other two gods start to walk faster.

MORNING
Yi-hyun wakes up and discovers that he slept without medicine. He is amazed. It is the first time he slept this deeply. Geum tells him it is great that the medicine worked on him. But Yi-hyun says it was just melatonin and he didn’t even take any. Geum is happy that he slept well anyway. Perhaps they can have a morning coffee.

Geum’s mother calls to them to eat breakfast, I made this food for you! But they are not there when she opens up. She thinks they must have drank all night long. They actually drank the whiskey that they brought for her (lol). Meanwhile, Yi-hyun and Geum go to the cafe and asks for coffee. Grandmother Ok-nam is there and says that the place is closed for Chuseok, but she is roasting beans so come in.

She grinds them all by hand and asks them to sit and grind them for her. Yi-hyun starts to grind them up unenthusiastically and then gives the fully ground beans to her. He also asks for a bathroom key. he goes to the bathroom that is decorated with so many plants and flowers. He wonders what is going on but relieves himself anyway.

However, Ok-nam kind of hears him, it looks like it is familiar. She thinks this is the same sound she heard everyday so many years ago. But is he the same person? No, it coulnd’t be.

Cut to the old woman making perfect coffee for them by hand. She makes it in a super handmade way that hipsters would love. The two men look very impressed. Theya sk her if she grows her own coffee tree? She says that she does. She goes outside to water it. geum runs out to help her but as she turns around, she is young. Ok-nam tells him that it is okay, she can do it. However she still looks young to Yi-hyun.

But Yi-hyun jumps when he sees the cat and calls its name. Ok-nam comes in and asks how he knows the name? I never told you. Yi-hyun thinks that he isn’t sure, he just new it. Halmoni Ok-nam asks how he came to the water fall yesterday? Yi-hyun starts to remember and says that she was the one in the water fall! She starts to remove a flower from her hair and becomes young again.

Yi-hyun wonders….you….

Cut back to Ok-nam wishing to the gods that her husband can be sent one more time.

VO – Please let me recognize him again. Human life is so short, not like our gods. They are just born and die so quickly. I did not find my flying clothes and am trapped in the gravity of the human world. I watied for him to be born again.

She cries in the cafe shop. Yi-hyun asks her if she is crying? She tells him to wait there a little bit and then runs off to another room where she pulls out her husbands old clothes.

Flashback to Yi-hyun wearing the old clothing.
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#6
She picks up, but they stink. She thinks, ah, I did not wash it for hundreds of years. She still gets up to see Yi-hyun though, but he is gone.

Her cat comes out though and turns into Jeom-soon. there is an egg also but the egg has cracked! jeom-soon yells, Umma, the egg cracked!

In the car, the two men rush away and talk about the egg that was so big! It was like a dinosaur egg. What else could it be besides a gumiho?

Flashback to Geum touching the egg and it cracking right away. In the car, they really think that she must be a 9 tailed fox.

Cut to the gods all together talking about what happened. So…you checked how his pee sounds? Oh says it wasn’t checking, just guessing. park wonders what a guess is, did you check it out not? Oh says the evidence is in her heart! She did not check it! You mountain god, stop following girls and study Korean.

They bicker a bit about Park following women around. He says that he did not!

Ok-nam starts talking and says that she thinks she should find him. Even without that pee sound, he knows Jeom-soon’s name and he found his way to the fairy waterfall where people can’t just go to. But two people came….~. Park wonders if she is going to find him herself? then he tells Goo to go with her. He can turn into dove after all. Goo says that flying is super easy, I just use my wings.

But the other gods laugh and says that they only saw him walking. Ok-nam says that she has to go there on her own and find him, so don’t worry. Goo tells her that he never dated anyone, but she used to be married. Oh thinks that people living in the mountain go crazy all the time. Park asks if the war ended yet? Oh is all like, are you talking about the Korean War? ….sigh….why are you so dumb? It ended a long time ago.

Ok-nam tells them to not fight, I will be back soon.

Park heard that Seoul is so big, how can you find your husband? Fairy Oh says that she saw it. She flushes a bit. Flashback to them seeing a car and wondering if it is a car or a tank, it looks so cool.

VO – A servant was chopping wood and showed his tight muscles. The boy looking at him got all sweaty.

Jeom-soon is typing this story at the computer, her whiskers and tail comes out. Her mother catches her and asks her if she is thinking something sexy? Whenever you do that you get your nails and whiskers and tail. You are showing your tigerness. JS tells her that she is not doing it! You don’t know anything mom. But her whiskers come out again.

Ok-nam just glosses over it all and tells her that they have to leave, I found your father. She smiles as JS wonders, my father?
——-dramamilk.com——-
#7
Cut to a spot in Seoul. There is a red haired woman who has a coffee shop, but she won’t sell to people who don’t have their own container. The girls who go up to her place think that she is a crazy woman. This crazy woman is actually the house god so she throws a rock at them with her mind and laughs. She is also a game head and plays it a lot on her phone.

Ok-nam shows up to Babeans cafe, the house gods cafe. Goo wrote her a letter about Ok-nam showing up. So Ok-nam introduces herself and her daughter who is in the sahpe of a cat. She hops onto the counter. Bong-dae asks what is up. that is when Yi-hyun shows up in the distance walking with Ham-sook.

Ok-nam hides.

Yi-hyun asks her if there was ever anything that she could not prove even though she used all her scientific methods? Like ghosts and 9-tailed foxes? ham-sook thinks, ah…super natural experiences? Yeah, that could happen. It depends on the environment and all that, did you see ghosts?

Yi-hyun says that it wasnt’ a ghost, an old woman became young again. Ham-sook is all like, that happened with a woman in my department. She had all the laser treatments in the world and became so young. Yi-hyun is all like, nevermind.

ham-sook curses and then follows him to the cafe. Bong-dae makes thema coffee and asks him how it tastes. He says it tastes good because it is cheap, but it does not taste good. BD laughs and tells him he’s funny. But then a leaf falls into his cup which makes him freak out and run away. So Dirty!

Ok-nam is the one that put the leaf there. She is on the roof with her daughter. The daughter tells her that she should not stalk him, the polcie might come. Just tell him that you are his wife. But Ok-nam just keeps snooping with her binoculars.
——-dramamilk.com——-
#8
Ham-sook and Yi-hyun start to talk about hallucinations do to not sleeping. they joke about love confessions where Ham tells him F-you in a joking yet serious way. Yi-hyun wonders why he slept so well and thinks that it was because of a coffee that he drank. He had no nightmares and didn’t deam of a ghost choking him or a plant talking to him. He slept well. What did it have to do with that woman? (Who is that woman).

Flashback to the woodcutter and the fairy walking amidst the plum blossoms.

Woodcutter – When we have the plum blossom snow, I climb the hill with my lover.

They walk on a trail, but she walks behind him.

Woodcutter – she is so pretty when I turn around to look at her.

He walks up to her and asks if she is tired. Then he goes to give her a piggy back ride.

Woodcutter – The flowers fly with the spring wind, so there is no reason to envy the spring because the flowers go away.

Fairy – My husband is the best.

Woodcutter – No, you are the best because you married this woodcutter that owns nothing.

VO – We don’t even say….ugh, I don’t know.

At the coffee shop, Bong-dae tells them that gods should not bother with earth time. Even if he is your husband, he is a different person now. The gods won’t just let you mess with his life. I know a fairy that got punished for that. Jeom-soon happily drinks one of the yogurts and becomes a cat again.

BD ends up letting Ok-nam make her a coffee. Ok-nam makes the coffee for BD in the old fashioned way that she does and explains all the reasoning behind it. (In Korea, fairies are usually servants to the bigger gods, so that is why the House god uses banmal to her). The fairy tells the caffeine to wake up, the House god actually sees the caffeine wake up. She us pretty stunned and mutters….decanting.

Ok-nam puts the drink in front of her and asks her to drink it. Bong-dae drinks it and has another worldy experience. THIS IS HARMONY WITH HEAVEN. YOU – PASS. YOU CAN COME TO MY CAFE TOMORROW!

Ok-nam asks for a place to stay. The House God tells her okay and let me know if you need help with anything *almost passes out*.

Meanwhile, Geum talks to one of his flowers that is having a hard time growing. He tells his flower that he worried about him. Don’t think about what butterflies say, you are proportional, it isn’t all about the height, you will find a butterfly thta loves you. Then he goes to one of his pet bugs and talks to him for awhile. But he also thinks that he is hungry as well.

Yi-hyun calls up to him and tells him that they have rice. But geum thinks that he wants ramen so he goes out. Cue shirtless scene as Yi-hyun looks at his tumbler, fresh from the shower, and wonders what Ok-nam is.

Ok-nam is sitting outside somewhre with her cat daughter and wonders how the human world can change so much. There are no stars in Seoul as well. She thinks her human husband prbably lost his memory as well. But this stick should come in handy. She calls a lot of birds to her with this stick. Dozens of birds show up and cover her like a blanket. Geum actually sees this happen and walks up to her hesitantly.

He says, excuse me….barista halmoni?

She wakes up and all the birds fly away. He tells her that she can’t sleep like this, if you do then your mouth will turn. She tells him that she is okay, she has animal friends. The place she knew dissapeared. he tells her, until you find a place, would you like to stay at my place? I can stay at Professor Jung’s place!

he happily grabs her things. She is hesitant about it, but follows him home. She says that she can stay one night. He apologizes for the place being so dirty. But then she changes into a young woman again as she makes the flower come back to life and flower. Then seh turns back into a halmoni.

Geum asks her what she did, it was almost dying. Then he asks….maybe….I don’t beleive it but…are you a gumiho? Wait! No! I shouldn’t have asked you! Forget about it!

She gives him his plant and tells him that she is sonyo (a fairy).

Fade Out
——-dramamilk.com——-

COMMENTS
Okay, not too sure about this show. It is definitely cute and has a clueless charm about it. But it is also so low budget. The CG is so bad. Not Hwayugi level bad, but perhaps it could get that way as time passes. The cat is all CG and looks like it. The dove might be CG as well, but the dove does look better. The bad CG doesn’t take away from the storyline, though.

The storyline is very simple right now which isn’t really a good or bad thing, it just is. I can forgive all the simpleness of the storyline to get us to the real story which is the fairy getting the woodcutter to remember his past life. The fun god storylines thrown in here and there make it fun to sit through, but only just.

I kind of have the same feeling I had with Terius Behind Me while watching this show in that I couldn’t really make out what it was at first. I ended up liking Terius a lot for it’s ridiculousness so I might like this show as well. Sticking with it!

PREVIEW
Ok – I am going to make coffee here starting today
YH – Why are you following me?
JS – You are not a god but you can read animals?
KG – You need wifi right?
JS – I am not causing you trouble right?
BD – Some fairies wait for their husbands for 699 years, like you, but we have a rumor that he has never dated anyone.
ON – What? he never dated anyone?
YH – There is something going on.
ON – I wish my husband remembers me soon.
YH – Why does she look like that to me?

EPILOGUE
Caption – Jung Yi-young in wonderland. The day he met the God trio
YH – Something is suspicious here.

There is a cat at their place in the mountains. YH tells Geun that something is so surhear. He sees a pigeon and tells geun to look at that pigeon! It chuckled at us!

The top Image is by /8/Board/View" rel="noopener" target="_blank">tvN and edited using PicMonkey.

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