At the end of the year 2025, even though I didn’t so much as indulge in the dramatic personality changes, prior to that time of the year, I had to use the opportunity to get rid of movies I’ve had downloaded for some years now. This holiday was an opportunity for me to watch as many as I could, and delete them without any reservations, and the series ‘Faith’ was among the series I watched at the time.
Faith (The Great Doctor) is a 24 episode Korean series that follows two individuals, living into two different worlds. When the queen of Goryeo is injured by a sword, during a palace raid, Choi Young is sent to go to heaven, to fetch a high doctor who deserted them 1000years ago. Through a portal, he finds himself Choi Young (Lee Min-Ho) years in the future, and with people’s directions, he makes his way to a medical conference.
Meanwhile, at that medical conference, Eun-soo (Kim Hee-Sun) is promoting her prowess in cosmetic surgery to an audience. Fascinated by her talent being displayed on the screen, Choi Young takes her back with him, after confirming she can bring the injured queen back to life. Brought back in time, Eun-so performs surgery on the queen, and looks forward to going back to her life in the future. However, all hopes of returning to the future, is lost, when the portal through which she came, closes right before her. Having no means back to the future, she continues life with them, as the high doctor from heaven, becoming a major part of the royal decisions, and falling in love during her stay.
It took me days to be done with this movie, and I couldn’t even help the sense of loss I felt before concluding the series. I’m a huge lover of series because they’re what you can get obsessed with, and still have enough episodes to fuel that obsession. I say this because the storyline of this series was everything. I don’t think leaving it as a 1 or 2 hour movie, would have in anyway, done it justice.
This movie started out more fast-paced than any other Korean drama I’ve ever seen. In a span of 10 minutes, we were transported through years, and things went haywire from that moment. In this series, just when you’re beginning to have a concrete view on where the storyline is heading, something intense happens that takes you back to square one (the point where you can’t predict anything).
This was one of the dramas I ended 2025 with, and it was worth it in a way. Atleast when I get to think of my 2025 shows, this would top the list, since it’s the most recent. Lee Min Ho will always remain one of my favorite Korean actors. He made my childhood more fun than it would have been, and I love him for that. His acting here was peak, I had no choice but to swoon at the chemistry between him and the female lead.
About the female lead, I liked her. I liked her acting ever since I watched Tomorrow, but seeing her here, acting out this role, made me like her even more. High Doctor was ‘that’ character. How she made Choi young feel less aloof, and more lively was sweet to watch. I liked how she made intense situations appear less intense, however there were some actions of hers that had me and so many other characters annoyed in this drama. I’m not going to dwell on that actually cause her other performances were everything.
Oh my! The king and queen. Recalling them for the purpose of this review, brings tears to my eyes for all they went through. I loved them so much. I loved the love they shared. I loved how calm and humanly they were. Their love story was so beautiful, I just wished they got more screen time than the protagonists, cause I did enjoy theirs more, as sad and beautiful as it was.
The moment i was done with this drama, I immediately added it to my mental list of favourite Lee Min Ho dramas. I’m sure you can tell he was the highlight of this movie for me, and this isn’t even because of his previous dramas or anything, his character here is someone you just love for who he is.
I loved almost everything about this film except for the ending scene. It just didn’t make sense that after portraying the characters as logical, the writers then threw every atom of rationality out the window, expecting it to somehow be satisfying. That scene reminded me of this particular belief here in Nigeria, that once people fall in love, the tendency to be irrational, becomes higher than that of a single person, hehe. 😂
The ending was such a disappointment, and after questioning how that turned out to be, i mentally pictured a better ending for myself. I just couldn’t cancel such masterpiece from all the favorites archives i already added it to. I’ll rate this movie a 9/10. It was so good that even an irrational ending couldn’t influence my rating. You should definitely watch this, and maybe skip the last ten minutes.
Thanks for reading.
