Faith

 신의 (信義) / Shinui / The Great Doctor (神醫)

2012 24-episode Korean Period Drama that starred Lee Min ho as Choi Young, Kim Hee sun as Yoo Eun soo, Yoo Oh sung as Gi Chul, Lee Philip as Jang Bin, Kim Soo yun as Deo Gi, Sung Hoon as Chun Eum ja, Shin Eun jung as Hwa Soo in, Jo In pyo as Goo Yang gak (Yang Sa), Choi Suk jin as Ki Won, Kim Mi kyung as Court lady Choi, and Hwang Woo yun as Ja Woon - to name a few.

Let me start by saying this is the 3rd time I've watched this drama since its release a few years ago - thus the 5 sparkling rosebud vases.

And, if anyone wants to argue with me about my dislike of Heirs, let them join in a face/off between that drama and this one first.

This is how and when Lee Min ho shines; as bright as the brightest star in all of Korea and beyond - even to Hollywood - which isn't saying much, but I'm sure a lot of you out there think that Hollywood is the greatest to ever come along and again, I'd have to disagree. It USED to be that way, but not anymore, and when people freak out over guys like Justin Bieber and Ryan Gossling ... well ... all I can say is I don't even want to waste my breath or time arguing.

Lee Min ho as Choi young

Everyone and their uncle already know what this one was all about, so I'll spare the details and sum it all up by saying it's about a young, gorgeous warrior with two things on his mind: sleep and being a warrior.

He's assigned to protect the king, of course, and the king's new bride from Yuan (China), when something goes wrong and in order to save this woman, warrior Choi luckily discovers a way to travel through time. He ends up in modern-day Seoul and tracks down a flighty plastic surgeon, dragging her back to his time and demanding she save the queen.

Before that, though, he gets into a tussle with the police and ends up stealing one of their bullet-proof shields, which doesn't disappear or disintegrate as he travels back in time, but whatever.

Polymers may have actually existed back then ... you never know.

It added some humor to the show, okay?

The second thing about this drama was the cast, which included Lee Philip and Kim Mi kyung!

Lee Philip as Jang bin

Kim Mi Kyung as Court lady Choi

Now, he might be showing his age a little, but in my book Lee Philip is still one fine looking dude and it'll be awhile before I get tired of seeing his fine face, hearing his sexy voice, and ogling his exceptional frame.

As for Madam Kim, well, she's always going to be up there with the list of greats and will likely never grow weary of entertaining the masses, right?

Philip's character played the court physician, and he spent a lot of time getting to know Yoo Eun soo, the modern-day plastic surgeon thrust into an ancient world and made to do a lot of unsavory bidding as much as she was able to walk alongside our stalwart warrior and try her best to win his stalwart heart.

Kim Hee sun as Yoo Eun soo

Despite what others had to say about her in blogs and at aznv.tv, surprise, surprise! I disagree wholeheartedly with their opinions. This woman blew me away with her acting and made me like her regardless of whatever else it is she's done or said to upset the masses.

She's beautiful and talented, and she reminded me in a way of Grace Adler (Debra Messing) from Will & Grace.

Anyway, next come the baddies; the menacing types who always arrive right on time in any period drama and attempt rather successfully at first to undo, unwind, and unload all the good being done and get away with it for a majority of the show.

Jo In Pyo as Goo Yang Gak (Yang Sa)

Shin Eun Jung as Hwa Soo In

Sung Hoon as Chun Eum Ja

My, my, my.

I even thought the old guy was nice to look at! He's the master-mind of the bad gang and possesses super-powers and an angry heart. 

His sister is very beautiful and did a great job portraying an evil woman with an evil heart who possesses the power of fire to lure and destroy men. 

Then there is our amazingly handsome baby boy with a great head of hair and an obedient heart. He possesses the power of music, or a one-note, which he extracts from his weapon of choice: the flute. The one-note has the ability to destroy the internal workings of the human body.

All three did great acting jobs, were entirely convincing in their roles, and added the right amount of flavor to the show. Their costumes, aside from the king and queen, were the best, too.

Did I mention the fact that our hero, Choi Yong, also has special powers? His arm is electrified, which runs straight to his sword, given to him by a great king. This comes in handy in battle against others with special powers - so the playing field evens out instead of being unfair.

Reason three why this was so great: the costumes, the scenery, and even the set decoration. It was simply marvelous and helped to ease the soul instead of making us sit through a lot of strife, grayness, and dismal that usually occurs when a writer and then producer send us back in time.

Treachery, deceit, and nefarious schemes always abound in a period drama - especially those from Korea - and it still amazes me how the writers take fact and twist it enough times to make fantasy seem factual, but whatever. It seems to work, so that's fine.

Reason four why Faith is a fiver for me is Lee Min ho.

Yep, that's right! I said Lee Min ho. Thinking about it some more, I've come to realize that this show has a lot to do with my unfavorable opinion of his work in The Heirs. After seeing him in Faith, and in Boys Over Flowers, it came as quite a disappointment to see the way he acted in The Heirs.

It was his chance to shine; to really step up to the plate and make a name for himself and he didn't.

In Boys, I thought he was funny, commanding, and intriguing enough to want to see more. In Faith, I started to fall in love and came to realize just what it was that had everyone else so mesmerized. Then I watched Heirs, what the rest of the world watched, and with as much dizzying anticipation, too.

What a let-down.

I know he's done more than just these three shows, and I already watched some, will watch others.

He's handsome, I agree. He's talented, too. He's got the goods, to include height, the face, the body, and the smile.

His eyes captivate the soul, and with a little work, he'd make one hell of a true lover in a modern-day or period drama if he learns how to use those eyes of his to draw out what any hetero- female wants in a man like him.

Not even the guy on the left could scene-steal or hold a candle to our Warrior Choi in Faith, though.

Who stole everyone's heart in The Heirs? Eh? It wasn't Min ho-sshi but his angry counterpart, that's who.

Like I said, he blew it for whatever reason, and I'll chalk it up to his having been either burned out or uninterested in the script and let it go at that.

Reason Five why I loved Faith so much: chemistry.

Lee Min ho's Warrior Choi and Kim Hee sun's Yoo Eun soo had great chemistry even if she does and did look a few years older than him. So what. I don't care about things like that unless it's an old, gray-haired fart trying to get with a high school girl, and then GAG.

Even the budding love story that grew between King and Queen and their onscreen performances together were like-able and believable. It was cute, too, the way she behaved both behind his back trying to help, and in his presence, standing up for her heart while making him figure it all out on his own.

There'll always be the constant reluctance to go with ones own heart in these shows, both period and modern, which annoys the heck out of me but there's nothing I can do to change that fact or make it go away, so ...

Warrior Choi spent too much time avoiding the inevitable, and even if there was a reason for it, it is still irritating to have to sit through night after night.

Okay, so that's my review of Faith. (Actually, my review of why I didn't like The Heirs - lol)

Here are a few extra images of the hot guy with the cool weapon.

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A Man's Story / The Slingshot

남자이야기 / Namja I Yaki

2009 20-episode KBS drama that was loaded with great actors from the top all the way down to bit-parters.

It's been awhile since I last watched, so I re-watched for this post but didn't have to go clean through all 20 episodes in order to remember what it was about, what went down, and how it ended, or how great this story and the portrayal of each character turned out to be start to finish.

As a matter of fact, since I started up the blog again, this story remained at the back of my mind the whole time. I still think about certain scenes on occasion, too.

It might be Park Yong ha's spirit channeling. Who knows.

While I was still in college, instead of watching the latest shows a week at a time, or as they were uploaded for us foreign viewers, I decided it would be better to delve a bit deeper into the resumes of some of my favorite actors. In this case, I wanted to see more of Lee Philip after watching A Secret Garden.

For likely obvious reasons, this drama was a winner for me because it had ZERO to do with love using the stale Cinderella plot.

Yong ha's Kim Shin was the younger brother of a profitable dumpling factory, Ahn Nae sang as Kim Wook, and he was a slacker for an undisclosed reason after having graduated high school, college, and his stint in the army.

A reporter visits the factory and returns to the studio to broadcast an unfavorable review that leads to the demise of the factory and the death of Kim Shin's brother.

Kim Shin enters the broadcast station with a crossbow and bursts in on the newscast, demanding that the anchor read his grievances on the air.

The PD shuts down the broadcast, though, and poor, upset Kim Shin ends up behind bars.

This is where he meets our quirky, autistic cell mate, Park Ki woong as Ahn Kyung tae.

Kyung tae is a genius, and he can't communicate unless he's plugged in.

While serving his time, Kim Shin gets to know a gang boss and his minions - which becomes an eventual help to him in the outside world after his release.

His girlfriend is another of those rare Korean beauties who deserves the title beauty. She exudes sex in an Aphrodite way without having to try. At the beginning, when she is frumpy while working at the factory and discouraged having to hunt down her slacker lover in game rooms after hours, and later when she ends up at the top of the success ladder, Park Si yeon as Seo Kyung ah was and is naturally sexy, beautiful, and alluring.

Kim Shin keeps trying to get her to leave him at the start of this drama, but he does it in as haphazard a way as he lived. It didn't work, either, because Kyung ah loved him as frustrating and annoying as it had to have been for her.

While Kim Shin is incarcerated, she decides to take him up on his earlier offer to sell herself to the highest bidder, and she ends up at this ritzy ~club~ that caters to the wealthiest men.

Enter Kim Kang woo as Chae Do woo, the arch nemesis in this thriller of sorts.

Do woo grew up in the lap of luxury, but his parents and their weird lifestyles had a profound effect on this kid's psyche.

His mother was bedridden while his father got drunk and brought home women.

One day young Do woo visits his mother in her room, and she is having an episode.

The boy does something that wasn't entirely inexplicable as much as it was inexcusable.

His father called him names that were best directed at himself, but it was a necessary catalyst in order for this story to grow up and blossom into the action-packed thriller that it turned out to be.

He also has a younger sister with a medical condition similar to the one their mother had, but Do woo takes good care of her - well - he does or seems to be doing that until a bit later in the show, when things become apparent in a twisted, creepy sort of way.

He also meets and falls instantly for Kyung ah, though I was never, quite sure if she was still on Kim Shin's side and doing what she was doing as a help or because she had decided to give up on the loafer to catch a bigger, more lucrative fish.

The ending shed light on that topic, but I don't want to post any spoilers.

The ending also led us to believe there would be a sequel, but sadly our handsome and extremely talented Park Yong ha is gone now. Sadder to say, I can think of a few candidates to replace him if a sequel actually does take shape, but it would have been complete and worthwhile had Yong ha stuck around just a little while longer.

Personally, I am more inclined to believe that some of these 'purported' suicides are actually the result of a lethal mix of narcotics and alcohol. Innocently mixed due to stress, lack of sleep, or a bit, too much of one over the other.

A few whiskey's before bed followed by a sleeping pill or three, or the doctor prescribed dosage that is a bit too much at the time.

Do woo's younger sister, Han Yeo woon as Chae Eun soo, has a special hiding place inside the mansion where she goes to listen in on private conversations between her wealthy father and his staff.

She keeps a diary of these conversations, and then she goes out and tries to help whomever it was that her father's company just harmed.

This is how she meets and befriends Kim Shin.

After Kim Shin is released from prison, he and Kyung tae stay at this totally cool bar and work to execute their scheme to get back at the bad guys.

Lee Moon shik as Park Moon ho, the bar owner, is an ex con himself, so he knows even more people who can help Kim Shin with his plans.

In the meantime, though, the outskirts neighborhood where his sister in law and her two, young daughters are forced to have to live is slated for demolition by the same powerhouse that Kim Shin is trying to destroy.

Which means Kim Shin is building an army of supporters while the bad guys are getting away with 'murder' (literally and figuratively).

They kick up enough dust to thwart and discourage Kim Shin and his followers, but it is never enough from a Korean perspective to stop them from continuing with their plans to make wrongs right.

Kim Shin goes from being useless and drifting through life to taking up a worthy cause, helping other people, and learning how to outsmart his enemies.

His biggest enemy is Do woo and Do woo's father, Jang Hang sun as President Chae.

Didn't I tell you that every, freakin' star in this drama is absolutely and completely awesome?

I loved them all, and Jang Hang sun is one of my FAVORITE hal-abeoji's.

Kim Shin's older brother is currently starring in The Golden Rainbow, though I don't know how much more of that agonizing drama I can take, but whatever.

Kang woo's deranged Do woo was brilliantly played, and the simple fact that Park Si yeon's Kyung ah left me guessing right up to the end proves how clever she is at her craft.

Even the dapper, overly casual regardless of the situation Lee Philip's character managed to steal every scene he showed up in.

But then we can't forget the dogged detective on the case of the murdered mayor, either.

Kim Mi kyung as Detective Kim will always be one of my favorite actresses of all time.
She's brilliant, too, and classy, and believable, and the type of person I'd give just about anything to have as a friend because without having ever met her, I can just imagine how much of her real self is portrayed through each of her characters.

I mean, even as the deaf-mute mother in Heirs, her familiar, sarcastic wit still managed to make its way to the startled ears of the rich woman she served as a maid.

She's cool for rising so high in the stardom category without needing a plastic face, tons of make-up/photoshop, and a hooker wardrobe to get noticed.

She is the epitome of what every KPop chick right now will be dying to be in about twenty years.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I absolutely LOVED how she handled Philip Lee's Do Jae myung, too. She had him bending over to pick up things for her, ride shotgun in her beat up car, and making lewd comments out loud and in public to embarrass as well as shock him.

See, teen and young adult chicks will NEVER get the true worth of the male form until they reach Madame Kim's age. She's not stupid in the least, and after going through all the ditzy, wasted time of her youth, she's no-nonsense about things like sex and what really matters in a relationship.

I love her!

Jae myung is the son of the man who assists Do woo's father, and at a young age, he sent his son to live in America.

He returns as a mysterious character, and we don't learn his true reason for being back in Korea for quite some time, but he runs into Kim Shin, the two hit it off, and while staying at the cool bar, they begin working together on this scheme.

Do woo's sister gets involved with them as well, and then Do woo finds out, making him snap (even though he really, already has - for quite some time now - had a screw or three loose).

If I say anymore, it would be likely that I end up dropping a hint or spoiler, and I don't want to do that.

Suffice it to say this was well worth the twenty episodes, there weren't TOO many draggy bits, and as I mentioned earlier, the ending hinted at there being the possibility of a sequel.

If you haven't seen this one yet, I highly recommend that you do.

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시크릿 가든 / Secret Garden

Secret Garden 

#5 (last five-star review)

November 13, 2010 to January 16, 2011 KDorama that starred Hyun Bin and Ha Ji won as (here it comes again) star-crossed lovers who met years earlier but had no idea this was the case (at least she didn't, anyway).

She is a stunt actor working on a period drama and he (Kim Joo won) is a spoiled rich guy who wanders onto the set looking for a woman and mistakenly (or so it would seem) believes that Ji won's character (Kil Ra lim) is that actress.

Natch, the pretty actress is also a snotty bitch with low self-esteem who picks fights with girls 'beneath' her as a way to combat this affliction of a personal character flaw.

Ra lim is the target.

Joo won lives in this totally rad glass house on oodles of acres of land owned by his bitch halmeoni who insists everyone do everything her way or suffer the dire consequences (have you heard this one before, cause if you have, I can stop now).

Yes, Ra lim is poor but cool in an unaffected sort of way, and at the start she wants nothing to do with snot-nosed Joo won or his ilk, but that FATE thing keeps popping up to put the kybosh on her desire to be as far away from rich folk as is humanly possible.

She works at a 'combat' or action school of sorts, where people of her caliber study hard to make the action dramas we adore so much seem all the more real, and the leader of this troupe is one HELLA hot guy (Lee Philip as Im Jong soo).

Jong soo played the suave, silent loner type no lady in her right mind could resist falling head over heels for, but our Ra lim is too serious about becoming successful in her career to take the time to stop and sniff them damn, fine roses!

That is until our bumbling but determined Joo won butts his way into her life one, too many times and forces her to have to think about things other than swinging from cables, beating the crap out of opponents, and what to order for dinner that night.

EVERYONE loves Ra lim! but, she's a tad on the clueless side when it comes to such things as that, and maybe because her late, firefighter abeoji is about the only man she remembers or wants to remember that has her so fickle, who knows.

Joo won is stupid but cool, and despite his acerbic nature, he always tends to come out smelling like roses in this one - a glaring flaw in my opinion, but by the end of this ab-fab drama, I didn't care anymore.

Another show-stealer (imho) was his older and much hipper cousin, Yun Sang hyun as Oska - an aging but not yet fading pop star who glides in and out of the story for all, twenty episodes to delight, dazzle, and mesmerize.

Oska was madly in love with the girl Joo won is currently entangled with until his burgeoning career and the demands of his gay-ass fans get in the way, spoiling it for them for about ... oh, what was it? sixteen or six years? something absurd like that, but what the hell - it's a drama and not real.

The Korean authorities are determined to force the 'NO MARRIAGE UNTIL YOU'RE TOO OLD TO ENJOY ANYTHING ABOUT IT' mentality.

Regardless of the ploy to brainwash their people, that aspect of the show was actually believable, and in the most unexpected and MATURE fashion I've seen yet with one from that part of the world.

Later in the show, ANOTHER dude appears to dazzle the senses in the form of a brooding and smart-ass, young punk with singing as a way to make a living on his mind.

It wasn't, quite clear, either, but I believe Lee Jong suk as Ssun was supposed to be gay and had a mad-on for our oblivious and looks-more-like-a-gay-than-Ssun Oska.

Someone keeps spreading rumors about Oska that actually work in his favor at the start, but then no - and then he's almost forced to have to high-tail it for parts unknown (at least until the fury dies down), and in-between all this mayhem, he continues to try and remember why it was he and the chick had to part ways to begin with.

Meanwhile, we start to learn a tad more about Joo won's past and how it's tied with Ra lim.

The title has to do with their wandering into a strange and unfamiliar forest, happening upon this snarky, old woman who feeds them and offers them a drink of some really, pretty potion, which they both consume.

From there, every time there is an electrical storm, the two switch mind, body, and soul and are forced to have to cope with each others opposed lifestyles until the next storm arrives to break the spell.

It was during these switch-overs that I found the drama most entertaining.

In her body, he was the biggest bitch! Not even the most seasoned Korean actress bitch had anything on this guy!

HYUN BIN is the sharpest, most believable actor from Korea that I've seen (with Jang Hyuk being a super-tight second and Rain a distant third).

When he's on the screen, it's nearly impossible for me to believe he's acting out a character but more that he's being himself but under varying circumstances.

Funnier still, I don't, particularly care for the guy - and, there are only two dramas so far that he's starred in that have captivated me - this one, and My Lovely Samsoon.

The ratings for this one were actually high over there in Korea, which surprises me considering their taste in storylines is nothing like mine.

I'm having trouble trying to decide if I liked this one more than, as much as, or perhaps a bit less than Gumiho ...................... jury in my mind is still deliberating on that one.

If anyone else got the odd sense of Wizard of Oz meets Grimm's Fairy Tales while watching this drama, let me know and that way I won't feel so isolated.

The soundtrack was good, the acting was superb, and the storyline just this side of believable, so all in all, I give this the coveted 5-heart rating, and if you haven't yet, I urge you to watch this drama WITHOUT the preconceived notions floating around inside your head to distract you from what you should do as opposed to what you think you need to do.

(yea, I liked this one so much, I didn't find the time to screen capture anything, I was that mesmerized for the duration).

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