Sunday, August 9, 2015

Faith or The Great Doctor - 2012



Faith or The Great Doctor is a Korean Drama series that aired in August 2012.  It was not a very big hit but seems to have acquired quite a cult following now.

It starred Lee Min Ho as Choi Young and Kim Hee Seon as Yoo Eun Soo.

The story goes as follows.  It is close to 1350 AD. King Gongmin is on his way to Goryeo (Korea) with his queen Noguk.  King Gongmin has been held hostage in China ever since he was a child.  He is now married to the Chinese Princess.  He is expected to rule over Korea as a vassal of Chinese King.
Queen Noguk and King Gongmin
He is accompanied by Choi Young, a Captain in the army. Choi Young and his men are responsible for the safe return of the King.  On the way, they are attacked by some bandits.  Fearing further attacks, Choi Young takes refuge in an inn and seeks to defend his king. 

As expected by Choi Young, the bandits return in a larger number.  He tries to drive them off and almost succeeds.  He is not able to prevent an attack on the Queen who gets her neck slashed


Royal Doctor
The Royal Doctor, Jang Bin, is at hand.  According to him the slash on the Queen's neck will prove fatal in time.  He cannot do much for such injuries.  The issue is complicated as the Queen is also a Chinese Princess.  It is quite likely that the King will face the wrath of the Chinese monarchy if she dies.

Jo Il Shin, the King's caretaker since his childhood, talks about a holy place nearby.  In ancient times, there was a great doctor called Hwa Ta who disappeared into a pool of light.  He has faith that anyone who steps into the pool of light can bring back Hwa Ta.  Choi Young volunteers to step into the pool of light.

He finds himself in an unknown world.  There are high-rise buildings and bright lights everywhere.  The portal he stepped into has actually brought him to current day Seoul.  He seeks directions from a passing monk.  He is directed to a Doctors Conference going on close by.  He walks into the conference and is taken for a dressed up actor from a film shoot.

He runs into a lecture being conducted by Dr. Yoo Eun Soo.  When being chased by the security guards, he takes the redhead doctor hostage.  He forces the doctor to demonstrate her skills on stitching up a cut similar to the one the Queen has suffered. He picks up some things that he deems necessary for the doctor and carries her back into King Gongmin's time.

The reluctant doctor does not understand what is going on.  She thinks there has been an accident on a film set and they want her to stitch up the patient so there would not be a scandal.

Soon she realises where she is.  With a sinking heart, she learns that a return will not be immediately possible.

 An injured Queen is not his biggest worry, King Gongmin finds.  There is the Chinese Empress' brother, Ki Cheol, who controls the purse and the army of Goryeo and is in no hurry to relinquish it.  He also possesses super powers and is a formidable enemy.

He is flanked by his pledged brother and sister. Eum Ja can blast people's insides by playing his flute, while his sister, Hwa Soo In can invoke fire and burn people.

She is a Dolores Umbridge sort of a character, who smiles and says witty things while casually hurting people.

In the middle of all the court intrigues and danger, Choi Young and Yoo Eun Soo fall in love with each other.  Their love is not easy.  She is thought to have come from Heaven, and is keen on returning to her time.  Choi Young cannot follow her, he is tied to his king.  The more she stays on in his world, the more embroiled she becomes in the intrigues of the times.

Ki Cheol is very interested in the Heaven Doctor and wants to go to Heaven along with her.  He holds some evidence regarding the original Hwa Ta. When the relics of Hwa Ta are put before Yoo Eun Soo, she goes into a deep shock. Why does the original Hwa Ta write in Hangul, the script she is familiar with?

Will the love between Choi Young and Yoo Eun Soo ever be allowed to flower?  Who was Hwa Ta? Will Yoo Eun Soo ever go back to Seoul? Will the King Gongmin survive the various conspiracies against his regime?

The series are spread over 24 episodes of one hour each.  They are available on youtube with English subtitles at the moment, which is not the best way to watch them, but I do not know how to procure a proper DVD here in India.  

Almost all the episodes are very gripping and often end with a cliffhanger.  The plot is meticulously worked out.  There are elements of fantasy in this historical drama. It combines romance and action in an equal measure as well.

The acting is very well good all around.  I instantly crushed on the gorgeous Lee Min Ho.  I found the Royal Doctor played by Philip Lee very cute.  The flute playing villain Eum Ja played by Sung Hoon is good eye candy as well.  The ladies are equally good looking.  You can depend on K-drama for providing cute and good looking actors always.

The Lady of the Court played by Kim Mi Kyung reminded me very strongly of Lalita Pawar.



Although this is a historical drama, the series does not go overboard with too many costume changes. 

 Lee Min Ho has three makeovers in the series and wears the same clothes most of the time. 


 Kim Hee Soon is also dressed mostly in blue and white as befits a doctor.  

The other characters also stick to uniform dressing.  It is less distracting and is easy to recognise a character based on the dress.

The sets are all old Palaces and open fields which is very apt.  The palaces and living areas are very well depicted.  I am not an expert on the era, so I cannot vouch for its authenticity, yet nothing rankles.

I do not understand Korean, but I found that even in intoning the dialogues a lot of meaning is conveyed.  It is easy to recognise a playful, angry, worried, tearful voice and get the drift about the goings on,  Then there are the subtitles to help you de-code the situation.

This was my first K-Drama but it is not going to be the last.  Happy viewing to me!



12 comments:

  1. I am currently watching another K-drama (Winter Sonata; really nice, about a girl who falls in love with a classmate in high school - and then loses him when he dies in a car crash. Ten years later, just as she's about to get engaged to her childhood friend, she ends up working on a project for a man who looks exactly like her long-dead boyfriend). Once Winter Sonata is over, though, I will watch Faith! It sounds (and looks) fabulous, and Lee Min Ho is an all-time favourite of mine. If you like him too, I would recommend City Hunter - he looks gorgeous in that, and it's a good drama, if somewhat violent in places. He came into the limelight for Boys Over Flowers, which is also a likeable high school drama, but pretty stretched out in places.

    And, if you like the time travel motif, do watch Queen In Hyun's Man. About a Joseon era scholar who is caught up in court intrigue, and is given - by a servant who loves him - a special talisman to guard his life. What he doesn't realise is that the talisman saves him, just as he's about to be killed, by transporting him to the 21st century.



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  2. I haven't watched any of the Korean television series, despite hearing good things about them. For one, I don't know which ones to watch. :) This sounds good. I hope it is available on YouTube; I shall certainly take a look! Thanks, Ava.

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  3. I saw a bit of Winter Sonata with Helga in Thailand, Madhu. But she said it was too long to be seen in the few days that I was there. So we wound up seeing Faith. I have seen a few episodes of City Hunter, but as they were not available, I gave up.

    The scene in a canal market that comes very early in City Hunter was filmed very close to Ratchaburi where Helga lives.

    I am watching Boys over Flowers now, but have halted it because I have a read a book urgently. After which I will continue. Helga has sent me a DVD of a series about time travel too. I need to get a look at it.

    Thanks for the tips!

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  4. Anu, these are available on Youtube, all 24 of them. They are so addictive. Do try!

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  5. If you want City Hunter, Ava, I can bring you a copy when I visit Chandigarh in November! And Winter Sonata isn't too long, actually - just 20 episodes. I tend to steer clear of the long ones because I just don't have the time to watch them. And they're so addictive! :-(

    Anu: My suggestions would be: The Secret Garden, Sungkyunkwan Scandal (a historical), The Moon That Embraces the Sun (also historical), You Who Came From the Stars (sci-fi), Queen In Hyun's Man (time travel), City Hunter, Miss Korea, and Winter Sonata - so far. Second rung, not great but still good, would be Coffee Prince, My Girl, Boys Over Flowers, and Lie to Me. The ones I didn't like were My Princess and The King 2 Hearts. Hong Gil-Dong was a very good drama, but I hated the end.

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  6. Aiyyo! Madhu, I don't even have a Hindi channel on my TV because I know first hand how addictive some TV serials can get (even when they deteriorate mid-way to a sob-fest). Now, you're giving me a whole bunch of Korean serials to look for! I'm scared to even start. :) WDIGTT??

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  7. Anu, once you get addicted, you will wish all other people in your life would just vanish someplace and the day had 48 hours.

    The Secret Garden I would love to watch for Philip Lee. He was in Faith as the Royal Doctor.

    I would love a proper copy of City Hunter, thank you very much, Madhu.

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  8. "I would love a proper copy of City Hunter, thank you very much, Madhu." I'll try to remember! (Better still, I'll put a reminder on my phone).

    Phillip Lee doesn't have a huge role in The Secret Garden, but it's good enough. I did like his character a lot (in fact, the knowledge that he is in Faith too has spurred me on to watch it ASAP!) The Secret Garden, even otherwise, is a good series.

    Anu: Every couple of months or so, I do all my movie-watching for the next several blog posts, so that then I can leave myself enough time to watch a K Drama series, 2-3 episodes a day, at a stretch for a week or so. Like Ava says, one wishes the rest of one's life would vanish. My cooking and cleaning and social interactions do tend to fall off a bit during a K Drama binge, but I try to pace myself!

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  9. Goody! Time to go looking for The Secret Garden now.

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  10. I actually should have come back and commented on this after I finished watching Faith early last week. Enjoyed it thoroughly (and yes, besides Lee Min Ho, I too thought both Phillip Lee as well as Bang Sung Hoon - who played the flute-playing assassin - looked great! Also Park Yoon Jae, whom I then went looking for an Google to see what he looks like without the trappings of Prince Deuk Heong: very good in his clean-shaven avatar:

    [URL=http://imageshack.com/f/5t42918529938283011747229j][IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/209/42918529938283011747229.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

    I have found another K-drama which I now want to watch ASAP: Hyde, Jekyll, Me. It has Hyun Bin in a double role as a schizophrenic whose two personalities (which are very different from each other) fall in love with the same girl. I'm curious.

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  11. Argh. Sorry that image didn't show up (I intended to embed it, but the HTML seems to have gone phut). Here's a page devoted to some of his photos, and I think he looks pretty yummy in some of these!

    http://www.korea-fans.com/forum/konu-park-yoon-jae-48149-50980-51116.html?page=2

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  12. I watched a series featuring Sung Hoon called Noble, my Love. It was very short. 20 episodes of 15 mins each. I polished it off in 2 days. It was sweet, not the top bracket. Sung Hoon is swoon worthy, what a bod! He needs to be cast in an A-list drama.

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