Kim Hye-yoon Reinvents the Gumiho Myth With a Rule-Breaking New K-Drama Heroine

The Gumiho We've Never Seen Before

Every K-drama fan knows the Gumiho formula by heart. Mysterious. Beautiful. Immortal—but desperate to become human. Fall in love with the male lead, suffer endlessly, and eventually give up everything for humanity. It’s a trope we’ve watched evolve for years, and honestly, it was starting to feel inevitable.

Then Kim Hye-yoon said no.

In Human From Today, Kim Hye-yoon plays Eun-ho, a 900-plus-year-old Gumiho who flat-out refuses to become human. Not secretly. Not eventually. She wants nothing to do with it. And that single choice flips the entire mythology on its head.

The MZ Gumiho Is Here and She's Chaotic

Writers Park Chan-young and Jo A-young started with a surprisingly simple question: why do all Gumihos want to become human? And once you hear it, you can’t unthink it.

"Why do all the legendary Gumihos in stories want to become human when they're already so powerful and immortal?"

Eun-ho is the answer. She’s selfish, impulsive, and unapologetically self-serving—but in a way that feels modern rather than cruel. She grants wishes humans can’t achieve on their own, and she charges for it. She enjoys eternal youth, beauty, and freedom, living entirely by her own rules. The writers call her a ‘little devil’ character—but one with an unexpected edge.

The Contradiction That Makes Her Fascinating

What stops Eun-ho from becoming a villain is the contradiction at her core. Despite her selfish instincts, a quiet kindness keeps surfacing—sometimes against her will. The writers describe it as a constant internal conflict, where her innate goodness prevents her from crossing a point of no return.

Park Chan-young summed it up perfectly: her charm comes from acting like she doesn’t care, while her humanity keeps revealing itself anyway. Eun-ho isn’t pretending to be kind. She’s actively resisting it—and losing.

How Kim Hye-yoon Is Bringing This to Life

Playing a character who’s lived for over nine centuries isn’t about flashy powers—it’s about presence. Kim Hye-yoon explained that she focused heavily on voice and tone. Eun-ho speaks with mature rhythms, commanding confidence, and subtle condescension, using even casual filler words to establish control.

"I use mature tones and commanding voices to show how she manipulates situations around her."

The result isn’t aggression or cruelty. It’s effortless authority—the kind that comes from someone who’s seen centuries of human behavior and knows exactly how to push the right buttons.

The Plot That Brings It All Together

Eun-ho’s carefully controlled existence is disrupted when she meets Kang Si-yeol, a top soccer star played by Romon. One unexpected incident ties their fates together, transforming mutual disdain into something far messier. The drama describes itself as a “chaotic life-saving fantasy romance,” and that description feels unusually accurate.

After more than a year and eight months away from the screen since Sell Your Haunted House, Kim Hye-yoon’s return in such a subversive role feels deliberate. Pairing her with Romon—who gained massive attention after All of Us Are Dead—has already sent fan communities into overdrive.

Why This Actually Matters

The Gumiho myth has appeared so often in K-dramas that it risked becoming background noise. What Human From Today proves is that repetition doesn’t mean exhaustion—it just means perspective matters.

Instead of forcing Eun-ho to become “civilized,” the drama celebrates her independence and her right to choose her own existence. That’s a surprisingly progressive message, wrapped in fantasy romance and sharp humor.

The Verdict

Human From Today premieres on January 16 at 9:50 PM on SBS, and the groundwork is already solid. A familiar myth told from an unfamiliar angle. A female lead who refuses the expected character arc. And a performance built on confidence rather than sacrifice.

The CG concerns some viewers raised? If the character work delivers like this, it won’t matter. Eun-ho isn’t here to follow rules—and that’s exactly why this Gumiho feels different.