8.8 /10 1 Votes
8.2/10 IMDb Also known as The Great Doctor Starring Lee Min-hoKim Hee-sun Original language(s) Korean | 90% AsianWiki 4.7/5 DramaFever Written by Song Ji-na Country of origin South Korea Director Kim Jong-hak | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Directed by Kim Jong-hakShin Yong-hwi Awards DramaFever Awards for Best Couple Genres Fantasy, Sageuk, Romance Film, Medical drama Cast Lee Min‑ho, Kim Hee‑sun, Lee Joon‑gi, Sung Hoon, Park Se‑young | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faith (Hangul: 신의; Hanja: 信義; RR: Sin-ui; also known as The Great Doctor) is a 2012 South Korean television drama broadcast by SBS from August 13, 2012, to October 30, 2012, on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 for 24 episodes. It is about a modern-day plastic surgeon (Kim Hee-sun), who is kidnapped and travels back in time to the Goryeo period, 700 years in the past. There, she falls in love with her kidnapper, a warrior who is the leader of the royal guard (Lee Min-ho).
Contents
- Title
- Plot
- Main characters
- Supporting characters
- Music
- Ratings
- International broadcast
- Legal troubles
- References
Title
The title Sin-ui, can mean faith, as in belief in justice. The Hanja 神醫 means Divine Doctor, but in Hangul it also means divine healer or great doctor.
Plot
After King Gongmin of Goryeo marries the Yuan princess Noguk, they return to Goryeo. On the way they are attacked and the queen is fatally injured. According to the advice of his royal advisor, the king orders royal bodyguard Choi Young to pass through a mystical portal ("heaven's gate") and find the "heaven's doctor". Choi Young travels to the future and brings back Yoo Eun-soo, a modern-day doctor from Seoul, who saves the queen's life. He makes a promise that he will return her to her world, but the scheming royal advisor persuades King Gongmin to force Eun-soo to stay as she can be useful to him.
As Eun-soo accustoms herself to her new surroundings, gradually she and Choi Young fall in love with each other. But problems arise as others become fascinated with her as the "Heaven's doctor", and Eun-soo becomes a pawn in the political power plays between King Gongmin, the Yuan overlords, the sociopathic nobleman Ki-chul and Prince Deok-seung, King Gongmin's uncle. Constantly risking his life, Choi Young thwarts numerous attempts by Ki-chul and Deok-seung to kidnap and possess Eun-soo, which almost resulted in the death of the king and queen.
Choi Young brings Eun-soo to the portal before it closes so that she can travel back and bid farewell to her loved ones and join Choi Young permanently. Ki-chul attacked them and Choi Young suffers a life-threatening wound. Ki-chul then drags Eun-soo to the portal, and Eun-Soo enters it hoping to save him by gathering medical supplies from the future. When she passes through the portal again, she finds herself in an era a hundred years before Choi Young's time. There, she spends a few years waiting for the portal to open again, while leaving hints for her future self. One day, "heaven's gate" opens again and Eun-soo enters, only to find herself again back in modern-day Seoul. She re-enters the portal and travels to the time period five years after she left Choi Young, a time during which he has brilliantly won a number of military battles and reclaimed lands of Goryeo. Finally, she and Choi Young reunite.
Main characters
Supporting characters
Music
The drama's theme song, "Carry On", was sung by K-pop singer, Ali and was released on August 21, 2012. The song entered the iTunes Top 100 charts between 2014 and 2015 in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Sri Lanka; the latter being the country where it reached its highest position, number 8.
Ratings
Sources: TNmS Media Korea, AGB Nielsen Korea
International broadcast
Due to the pan-Asian popularity of lead actor Lee Min-ho, Faith was sold to 6 Asian countries including Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, with 90% of the total pre-sales amount of ₩4 billion coming from Japan.
The series began airing in Japan on December 15, 2012, on smartphone channel NOTTV. It also aired on cable channel KNTV from March 9 to May 28, 2013.
It aired in Malaysia on ONE TV ASIA, followed by 8TV in Mandarin and later NTV7 under the title: The Great Doctor.
It began airing in Vietnam on October 15, 2014, on VTV3
In the Philippines, it is currently available on ABS-CBNmobile's iWanTV! app since October 20, 2014 during the Lee Min-ho Festival. The series was originally supposed to air on TV in 2013, but was later cancelled. However, due to the request of the fans, it eventually premiered on December 8, 2014, on ABS-CBN. The series ended on the said network last January 30, 2015.
It begain airing in Thailand on Workpoint TV beginning September 29, 2014.
It began airing in Iran on January 17, 2015, on IRIB Namayesh TV network.
It is currently available in the United States on the Hulu and DramaFever services.
Legal troubles
During its run, Faith received viewership ratings around the 10% range, which was a hit as other Korean dramas recorded lower single-digit ratings. However, taking into account its high budget, in terms of profit Faith was considered the biggest television flop of 2012.
Several months after the drama had ended, members of the Faith cast and crew filed a lawsuit in February 2013 against director and producer Kim Jong-hak over unpaid wages amounting to ₩640 million (US$572,800), under the charge that he had misappropriated ₩7 billion for personal use. Furthermore, Kim was accused of double-contracting Faith's soundtrack rights (to two separate companies), in addition to a separate ongoing litigation filed by a construction company that had built the sets for Kim's previous series The Legend for unpaid building costs of ₩265 million. In May 2013, Kim was placed under investigation for fraud and embezzlement, and he was issued an overseas travel ban; he denied the allegations. On July 23, 2013, the 61-year-old director was found dead in a small rented room in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province. In an apparent suicide by asphyxiation, police officials said Kim had duct taped the doorways and windows, and half-burned charcoal briquettes were found near his body. There were no signs of forced entry, as Kim's body didn't have any external injuries. Kim left behind a four-page suicide note apologizing to his family. Writer Song Ji-na, and actors Kim Hee-sun, Lee Min-ho, Ryu Deok-hwan, and Park Se-young came to grieve at Kim's wake.