Shinui

Faith is a series that makes you think. Many different, interesting characters. They are looking for their Faith. Someone finds, like the General and the Heavenly Doctor, someone loses - like the brother of the empress. Many wise thoughts, beautiful fight scenes. Talented cast.

The characters, the dialogues and some situations are brilliant. And the main couple is one of my most favourites af all times. Their moments together are heart melting even if they just kiss once. And the OST is beatiful. Maybe it has some plot flaws and repetitive situations but the story in general is very interesting mixing historical characters and events with a bit of fantasy. There is also a great time paradox. Worth watching more than once because at second view you catch more details (specially when you have to read subtitles that pass fast)

A plastic surgeon from modern Korea Yoo Eun-soo played by Kim Hee-Seon is kidnapped by Choi Young played by Lee Min-Ho and taken back 700 years through a time portal. Min-Ho is a fearless general and the reason he kidnaps her is to save the queens life as she has been injured by a sword blade. She then ends up being pressured into staying in that time period and many factions within the royal court try to get her to side with them as she is thought to come from heaven and given the name heavens doctor. It is a well acted series with a good premise and there is plenty of action and romance. It has probably a bit too much history and could have definitely been shorter but my main frustration with the show were the Villains. They all had special powers but they could also murder at will with no consequences until the final few episodes.

Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) was a long movie - over 15 hours long. The Thornbirds, Roots and other early TV mini-series were long movies broken into consecutive episodes. I love a mini-series as a melodrama that tells a story in the long movie format, as opposed to those that tell different stories in the same setting (like Grey's Anatomy, Mad Men and to a lesser extent Damages, Breaking Bad, and Revenge that change the story at times while keeping to a general story). In this regard, I have discovered some gems in the South Korean TV mini-series of recent years.

The basic melodrama is the oft repeated formula: Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy gets Girl Back. This me recur in the same story. Human relations can be complex even if only the boy and girl are involved, but this complexity increases as more people are involved. If personality dynamics are properly depicted in a valid manner, and if the production is skillful, powerful emotions can be evoked in the viewer. In this way we can live many lifetimes through movies, in our one lifetime - greatly enriching our incarnate experience. These South Korean productions (seen on Netflix streaming) are first class with excellent production and direction, some terrific casting and acting (particularly from some of the females who give some matchless world class performances), brilliant musical accompaniment, and staging. What makes these so good is the way they skillfully evoke deep emotion in the viewer. South Korean movie making is superb - world class.

However, the following caveats must be considered by the USA viewer. They are subtitled and some people hate this. The South Korean cultural norms, values and sanctions may sometimes seems silly or old fashioned to the USA viewer. The families are close knit and decisions by an individual may be subject to family approval. Social distance is maintained where formal speech is used, and personal speech forms are reserved for close friends or family. There is a strong work ethic and community cooperation/unity - sometimes reminiscence of a old Frank Capra film.

Most importantly, in order for the sometimes complicated sub-plots to work, people fail to communicate with each other as might be expected, keeping many in the dark as to what others are doing, and this leads to misunderstandings and error judgments of some people, that sometimes seem to be unlikely by USA cultural standards. The viewer may wonder at times why good but trusting people are so easily manipulated and deceived by bad and selfish people, but con artists do often succeed (just look at politicians for example). However this poetic license of improbability is needed to develop the story - just accept it as occurring even though unlikely at times. Taking these factors into account Will help you become involved and emotionally engrossed. It was hard t for me to quit watching at times so I binged watched.

I would rank these as follows but tastes differ and your rankings might not agree: 1 - 4 (hard to say which is best)

Shining Inheritance

When a Man Loves

That Winter, The Wind Blows

Secret garden

5. Five Fingers

6. The Scent of a Woman

7. The Great Queen Seondeok

8. A Hundred Years Inheritance

9. Lie To me

10. Roof Top Prince

11. Dr. Jin

12. The Great Doctor

Like Rooftop Prince and Dr. Jin, The Great Doctor has a fantasy premise - a warrior General experiences time travel from the past to the present day and then back to his past. Then a political struggle and suspenseful turns is a background for romantic melodrama, with some fantasy aspects thrown into the mix. Time travel is rare but has been reported by reputable people. See J. Randles book, Time Slips, for more on this. Accept the fantasy and enjoy the fun.

I have come to appreciate the emotions good Korean actors can emit in a scene. This series is so very well done, I'm hoping it continues. I found it on Netflix {I'm not trying to sell Netflix), and was thinking it probably is an adolescent series. It isn't that simple. The subtitles are obviously done by an inexperienced translator, which sometimes is irritating, but also can be very interesting for a native English-speaker. The language the translator uses is very contemporary, using terms like "punk" etc., but I imagined from the get-go that there was a meeting of the staff to decide if using contemporary language would add or detract from the series. I believe they made the right decision in one sense because viewers (and most likely they are as adolescent viewers as me, it's true} can get caught up in the exchanges between actors, Min-ho Lee {Choi Young, the general, and Hee-seon Kim {Yoo Eun-Soo, the good doctor} as the love tension between them evolves, and there are some hilarious moments with these two as they struggle to hide their growing love from both themselves and one another. But I'm so curious about the archaic language that I might be missing because that language has always reflected the complex and brutal formality of the ancient cultures of the Asian societies. It's so very Shakespearean in his characters' consistent struggle to find one another in a feudal age where honor is everything to a male. But even with their use of contemporary Korean, I realize at this very instant, the power lies in a mixture of archaic expression with the contemporary "kids", "punks", etc., showing the exquisite complexity that one simple word can carry in the politics of the mind in a chess game or Go. As the first reviewer has said, it is very obvious the director tightens the series very sublimely as it progresses, moving nicely to much deeper themes than simply a love story or drama. I've been privileged to have seen some of the top actors of the series in other major films, and the impetus created by the story-lines and stylistic methodology compels the viewer to keep watching for the next episodes.

I'm amazed by the Korean theatre. It is very well established, and this series makes that obvious. The result makes for scholarly study of such a phenomenon as well as an enjoyable and even emotional/spiritual experience even if it is adolescent at its core. Perhaps I'm simply a 65 year old baby looking at my past remembering in my own melancholy some of the finer things in my life. As a former film maker though, I cannot help but want this show to continue to evolve. So does it matter that perhaps it is a little adolescent while covering a sublime set of universal themes? there's so much more I would like to say here, but I guess I will have to write an essay about it. No room here.