Faith (2012 TV series)
Promotional poster for Faith
|Also known as||The Great Doctor|
|Written by||Song Ji-na|
|Directed by||Kim Jong-hak
|Country of origin||South Korea|
|No. of episodes||24|
|Running time||Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 (KST)|
|Original channel||Seoul Broadcasting System|
|First shown in||South Korea|
|Original run||13 August 2012– 30 October 2012|
|Preceded by||The Chaser|
|Followed by||The King of Dramas|
|SBS official website|
Faith (Hangul: 신의; Hanja: 信義; RR: Shin-eui; also known as The Great Doctor) is a 2012 South Korean fusion fantasy-historical-medical television series broadcast by SBS from August 13 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 gets kidnapped and travels back in time to the Goryeo period, 700 years in the past. There, she meets and falls in love with a warrior who is the leader of the royal guard (Lee Min-ho).
Cast and characters 
In the mid-1300s, approximately 1351, Choi Young is a bodyguard to King Gongmin of the Goryeo Dynasty. He is 29 years old and has no regrets in life, no ambition for women or money, and whose hobby is sleeping. Because he lives a life of no regret and gave up on love to be an unflinching warrior, he's not afraid of death. He is the brave captain of the Woodalchi warriors and loyal to the king. Choi Young believes that people who do not fear death need not spin their wheels scheming, so he takes that to the extreme — he's a warrior with a brain who has the ability to strategize and attack head-on.
A 33-year old plastic surgeon in the year 2012. Eun-soo was originally a general surgeon, but quickly found that it was an overworked, under-paid profession and jumped ship to plastic surgery. Her dream is to someday open her own practice. But one day a strange man she thinks is dressed as a drama extra kidnaps her... and takes her back to the Goryeo era. In Goryeo, she is believed to be the apprentice of the famous Chinese surgeon Hwata, sent from heaven.
- Yoo Oh-sung - Ki Chul
- Ryu Deok-hwan - King Gongmin
- Park Se-young - Queen Noguk
- Phillip Lee - Jang Bin
- Sung Hoon - Chun Eum-ja
- Shin Eun-jung - Hwasuin
- Lee Byung-joon - Jo Il-shin
- Kim Mi-kyung - court lady Choi
- Park Sang-won - Sohn Yoo
- Baek Kwang-doo - Bae Choong-seok
- Kim Jong-mun - Oh Dae-man
- Kang Chang-mook - Deol-bae
- Yoon Kyun-sang - Deok-man
- Kim Soo-yun - Deo-ki
- Jung Yoo-chan - Joo Seok
- Kwon Min - Ahn Do-chi
- Ahn Jae-wook - Eun-soo's doctor ex-boyfriend (cameo, ep 1)
- Oh Kwang-rok - fortune teller (cameo, ep 1)
- Choi Min-soo - leader of Jeokwoldae (cameo, ep 4)
The title Shin-eui, means faith, as in belief in justice. But in Hangul it also means divine healer or great doctor, a pun on "god" + "medicine", as a play on the medical and the fantastical, two major elements of the world. Described as the epic story of those that will shape a king and change the course of fate, the series is a re-imagining of a what-if version of history, potentially changed on a massive scale by the actions of two individuals. The taglines for the show: "Fantasy and history will meet. Person and person will meet. Person and heaven will meet."
- 2012 Korean Culture and Entertainment Awards
- Top Excellence Award, Actress: Kim Hee-sun
- 2012 SBS Drama Awards
- Top Excellence Award, Actor in a Miniseries: Lee Min-ho
- Top 10 Stars: Lee Min-ho
- New Star Award: Park Se-young
Episode Ratings 
|Episode #||Original broadcast date||Average audience share|
|TNmS Ratings||AGB Nielsen|
|Nationwide||Seoul National Capital Area||Nationwide||Seoul National Capital Area|
|1||2012 August 13||12.2% (9th)||13.8% (9th)||9.4% (16th)||10.8% (10th)|
|2||2012 August 14||11.8% (9th)||13.1% (7th)||10.3% (9th)||11.4% (7th)|
|3||2012 August 20||13.4% (10th)||15.8% (5th)||10.3% (17th)||11.6% (10th)|
|4||2012 August 21||13.2% (8th)||15.5% (5th)||11.5% (12th)||12.8% (7th)|
|5||2012 August 27||12.9% (11th)||14.5% (6th)||10.6% (16th)||10.6% (13th)|
|6||2012 August 28||13.1% (10th)||14.8% (8th)||12.2% (14th)||13.5% (13th)|
|7||2012 September 3||12.3% (8th)||13.9% (7th)||9.8% (12th)||10.9% (8th)|
|8||2012 September 4||12.6% (11th)||13.9% (7th)||11.0% (12th)||12.4% (8th)|
|9||2012 September 10||11.6% (13th)||12.8% (6th)||11.8% (10th)||13.2% (6th)|
|10||2012 September 11||11.7% (14th)||13.0% (9th)||11.2% (10th)||11.4% (9th)|
|11||2012 September 17||11.8% (15th)||13.5% (9th)||10.4% (16th)||11.3% (13th)|
|12||2012 September 18||11.2% (13th)||12.2% (8th)||10.1% (13th)||11.0% (11th)|
|13||2012 September 24||10.7% (11th)||12.2% (7th)||9.7% (12th)||10.9% (10th)|
|14||2012 September 25||10.2% (17th)||11.6% (10th)||9.0% (17th)||9.7% (15th)|
|15||2012 October 1||11.1% (7th)||12.7% (7th)||9.3% (14th)||9.9% (11th)|
|16||2012 October 2||9.6% (17th)||10.2% (13th)||9.5% (18th)||9.7% (13th)|
|17||2012 October 8||13.2% (6th)||14.1% (6th)||10.5% (12th)||11.4% (9th)|
|18||2012 October 9||11.5% (15th)||13.0% (8th)||9.9% (13th)||10.6% (13th)|
|19||2012 October 15||9.2% (17th)||10.6% (13th)||8.8% (19th)||9.5% (17th)|
|20||2012 October 16||10.7% (11th)||11.9% (7th)||9.9% (8th)||10.9% (8th)|
|21||2012 October 22||10.2% (19th)||11.7% (9th)||9.3% (19th)||10.5% (12th)|
|22||2012 October 23||9.7% (17th)||11.6% (9th)||8.9% (17th)||10.0% (14th)|
|23||2012 October 29||9.1% (20th)||10.3% (13th)||8.7%||9.7% (15th)|
|24||2012 October 30||10.5% (16th)||11.4% (11th)||10.1% (14th)||10.9% (13th)|
International broadcast 
Due to the pan-Asian popularity of lead actor Lee Min-ho, Faith was sold to 6 countries including Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and others. Japan reportedly purchased the series for a higher price than most dramas. In Japan the series began airing on December 15th on Wednesday and Tuesdays on Japanese Smartphone Chanel NOTTV.
It is currently available on the USA Hulu service under the name "Faith".
- Sunwoo, Carla (13 July 2012). "Kim Hee-sun, Lee Min-ho start filming". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Oh, Jean (9 August 2012). "Boys Over Flowers actor back in time-travel romance". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Kim, Ji-yeon (10 August 2012). "Kim Hee Sun and Lee Min Ho of Faith Call Each Other Babies". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Ho, Stewart (25 July 2012). "Lee Min Ho Makes a Complete Transformation Into Action Star". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Choi, Bo-ran (13 August 2012). "글자 글자확대 글자축소 이메일 보내기 프린트하기" [Lee Min Ho makes a fresh resolution before his new drama series, Faith, starts airing]. Star News (in Korean). Retrieved 2012-11-03.
- Sunwoo, Carla (4 December 2012). "Lee Min-ho promotes Faith in Japan". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
- "Kim Hee-sun to Return to TV After 6-Year Hiatus". The Chosun Ilbo. 14 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Lee, Hye-ji (10 August 2012). "Kim Hee-seon says "I cursed almost during half of new drama's shooting"". 10Asia. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Hong, Grace Danbi (4 September 2012). "Lee Min Ho Made Kim Hee Sun's Daughter Cry". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Ho, Stewart (29 August 2012). "Kim Hee Sun Says Secret Garden, Sun And The Moon Inspired Her to Return to Acting". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
- Yu, Ah-jeong (29 November 2012). "After 5 years, TV beauty has Faith in comeback". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Ho, Stewart (18 July 2012). "Lee Philip as a Goryeo Dynasty Physician for Lee Min Ho and Kim Hee Sun's Faith". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- Ho, Stewart (30 July 2012). "Actor Sung Hoon Sheds 5kg for Faith Role". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-28.
- "TNMS Daily Ratings: this links to current day-select the date from drop down menu". TNMS Ratings (in Korean). Retrieved 2012-10-31.
- "AGB Daily Ratings: this links to current day-select the date from drop down menu". AGB Nielsen Media Research (in Korean). Retrieved 2012-10-31.
- "The power of Lee Min-ho!". Hancinema. 5 September 2012. Retrieved 2013-04-20.