FAITH re-visited

[scottishlass]

I have started to re-watch FAITH (after two weeks I just needed a fix of our IMJA Couple) and I noticed that the writer Song started out this sageuk as a traditional love triangle thing.

It is such an amazing story and now watching it a second time around I can see much more clearly what writer Song started and then abandoned completely (a love triangle between Choi Young/Queen/King and Choi Young/Eun-Soo/Jang Bin). Thank goodness she saw what amazing characters (and actors) she had to abandon the usual drama tropes and just tell a wonderful love story.

A visible break is noticable from ep 5 onwards. While in ep 4 he is asked (near death) if Daebak Ma-Hee is still in Choi Young's heart he answers in the affirmative only to be saved by Eun-Soo by using CPR (and waking him up through her tears).
Then in ep 5 he tells Ki Cheol that he came for the woman he loves which he actually doesn't say. He says I like the person behind me and will leave with (her). There are two ppl actually behind him ... Daeman and Eun-Soo. And he even admits that he only said that to throw off Ki Cheol and to give a valid reason for the king to appear innocent.
I think the first time he realizes Eun-Soo is more than just an annoying woman who drives him up the walls is in ep 6 when she examines the abdicated Child King. From then onwards he actually memorizes stuff she tells him, even the negative stuff (that she hates him for having blood on him, esp. the Child King's blood etc.).

Eun-Soo on the other hand is only flattered and part of her knows that Choi Young's confession was just a subterfuge, but she is a stranger in a strange land and for all she knows Choi Young is the only person she really knows the longest there and she trusts him ever since he took the stab wound from her. She knows now he wanted to keep his promise or try dying which he almost did - twice. As she knows that he is a legendary hero in the annals of her time she also gets very protective of him.

If writer-nim would have followed her initial idea of the typical jealousy/spurned lover/true love trope, Faith wouldn't have been so epic as it turned out to be I think. It is just a minor detail but made the impact oh so stronger.

Talking about minor details. I have come across a very interesting series of vids on youtube where someone did an alternate version of Faith with footage of The Myth, Bichunmoo and of course Faith. It changes the on-set of why Eun-Soo is called from the Heavens and it turns more into a traditional re-incarnation sageuk kind of thing ... well done, and if the drama would have been made this way, it would have been interesting too, but I'm glad we have the love story we all watched and came to love.


Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V - was removed from youtube AISH!!! But! If anyone wants to see it I can upload it to a file server for you to download.

But you get the drift!

Comments

[sum-solus.livejournal.com]

Could you maybe put videos under a cut, please? =) Not for the content, of course, which is awesome. Just for the size.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

done

[sum-solus.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!