More Faith...

[dangermousie]

Ummm, I am afraid that less than one episode in, Faith has displaced both Shut Up Flower Boy Band, Queen In Hyun's Man and Gaksital as my biggest obsession/favorite drama of the year.



It's also taking me forever to get through each episode, between watching, capping, cleaning said caps, reading recaps to fill in sub gaps etc. I am only half-an-hour in, and I've spent two hours watching. At this rate, I won't be able to follow anything else!









































































































































One of the things I love about Lee Min Ho's character is how internalized he is (in that, if in little else so far, he is like Dam Deok of Legend. In that, and in his controlled fierceness). It's a pretty rare type in drama. He's phlegmatic but not flat. The scene that sticks with me is when he tells the King to order him to step into the void - that's suicidally brave, and he is being very dutiful, especially towards the King he has no particular attachment to (I love the scene where the King pressed him for his opinion on him, and LMH gave his view that all these kings, this one included, are just pointless Yuan puppets, without any embellishment), but you feel that this is because he has nothing he treasures in this life, nothing that excites him. Is it truly bravery if you have nothing you fear to leave? Or does he just control himself well? I think it's a mixture of both.

I also love the way our world is shot when he is in it - it looks so wholly alien. And I love how he takes crossing the road as some sort of a test of faith and courage. And I love his rare grin which transforms his serious, still face, and makes him look oh-so-human and much younger.

In some ways, a gorgeous, focused, fierce warrior is what my id has always wanted as a protagonist of a drama. And I got it!

Oh, and this drama is surprisingly, awesomely funny, to boot.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Totally agree! This is blowing most of my earlier 2012 faves out of the water. Thanks so much for all your hard work, especially the images! But also for the comments. I think Choi is an old-style warrior such as you find in traditoinal sagas and folk tales - certainly Scandanavian and Celtic, I think. And he has a great sense of a warrior's honour, indeed is prepared to pay his life for his word - so I think we must discount uninterested and I feel we will see layers unpeeled as the drama proceeds.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can see him in an Icelandic saga, fitting right in.

I agree that he is willing to die for his honor. I do think that he is deliberately trying to keep himself detached from the world so as to be ready to give up his life. I wonder if we'll find out why.

[iheartkleenex.livejournal.com]

Completely unrelated to Faith but I really need to tell you this!!! I just finished watching Tengo Ganas de Ti, the sequel to 3MSEC. It's online at 1chanel if you want to see it under "I Want You", the subs are really crappy - it's a complete wrong translation - but you could still see it. You should watch it, then we could talk about it and I wouldn't have to keep all these feelings inside me. ;p A very weird thing happened to me during the movie though, I completely shipped Hache with Babi's best friend from 3MSEC, you'll see what I mean right in the beginning of the movie!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Spoil me for the end?

[iheartkleenex.livejournal.com]

Ugh, it was such a let down. Hache and Babi have like three scenes together towards the very end of the movie. Basically, they meet again, they go to the beach, make love, she says that she's getting married in a week's time, and he goes back to the girl he met in the beginning, Gin. That is the ending, they each go their separate way, ending up with different people. It's not a bad ending - it's understandable that they would not be together after everything that happened - but the way they executed it was pretty bad. They didn't really need a sequel, they could have just put it in the first movie. Anyway, after everything that happened in the first movie it was kind of a let down, maybe that is why I shipped him and the best friend. It was still a prettily shot movie though.

[jennyhime.livejournal.com]

Basically I think because this is so different then SUFBB I can't compare the two, but I have to wait for a few more eps before I start adding this in my all time fave kdrama list.
It is surprisingly funny which is nice that it's not just all action and awesomeness.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was expecting epic. Funny is an utter (and welcome) surprise.

[gurlygirl10.livejournal.com]

Mousie- I haven't started watching yet, but I love how you describe him as having nothing he treasures ( no attachment to anyone) in his life so he just uses his duty as a purpose for living. This is going to be awesome because when he falls for the heroine I just know that he will only care about her and her alone, even above his duty to the king. A firece, cold warrior who has never been in love before falls for the heroine and only loves and cares about her, and would die to protect her in an instant. Just thinking about it makes me swoon!! It would be awesome if he is just cold and unemotional to everything, but when he is with the heroine, she makes him crazy and feel things he's never felt before. This is my favorite type of hero (I'm such a Mr. Darcy fangirl!) Make this happen drama!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Well, the df description seems to indicate you are going to get your wish :)

Even in ep 2, he almost violated the royal order so she could escape. Mmmm.

[gurlygirl10.livejournal.com]

yah!