lilili
This review may contain spoilers
A weird ass drama that turned out to be my fave of the year
So maybe you’ve seen people talking about Behind Your Touch but you’re not quite sure whether you wanna watch a kdrama where the central premise involves reading people’s minds by grabbing their asses. Well I freakin' loved this show and here’s why I want everyone who’s been holding back on starting this one to check it out.
Behind Your Touch tells the story of Bong Ye Bon, a small town veterinarian who one night during a meteor shower acquires the ability to see people’s memories -- but only if she touches their butts. She teams up with Detective Moon Jang-yeol, a Seoul detective banished to the town because of a screw up, to solve crimes and soon they’re desperately scrambling to solve the mystery of her mother's death and to stop a serial killer. To give you a flavor for the tone of the show, their meet cute is when he arrests her for trying to test out her powers by touching a pickpocket’s behind on the bus.
There's a lot of bizarre comedy like when the FL’s best friend develops a crushes on the ML and keeps serenading him with an accordian. She has a girl squad who she calls on to provide muscle as needed, like the scene where they deliberately start a fight at a political rally so the FL can run through the crowd and touch as many asses as possible. The squad includes a token man who is subbing for his pregnant sister and refers to the 2FL as EONNI! There’s also a screamingly funny 2521 parody that goes on for half the drama (people were referring to it as 5551) and even a throwaway gag referencing a famous artwork by Yoko Ono. The small town residents speak in an impenetrable dialect that has to be translated for Detective Moon who can't understand what anyone is saying.
But even in the early episodes (which are the funniest), there’s elements of a disturbing thriller. For example, the very first scene of the drama shows poor Ye Bon watching her mother’s body getting pulled out of a car in the ocean. And the first episode also features a scene with a woman being dragged through the dirt by her hair
Also know that while there are some very sweet and deeply heartfelt moments and some heart fluttering moments, this is not a romance. While I was dying for something serious to go down between the leads, it's only ever alluded to. I still loved them together. And there are secondary romances which are delightfully bonkers.
As the drama goes on it become less and less about zany wacky shenanigans and more and more about omg where did he stick that knife. The body count is truly impressive and major characters who we deeply care about die which is a bold choice for the creators and raises the stakes for catching the killer.
Unfortunately the thriller part of the story eventually goes off the rails. This writing team has never produced a thriller before and it shows. There's a lot of huge plot holes and implausibilities in the unsatisfactory final episode. It's really too damned bad because up to ep 15 I was absolutely riveted by this show and loving every minute of it.
In addition to the mostly excellent writing (except for the final episode) I want to shout out the performances. Han Ji Min and Lee Min Ki are absolutely perfect as our chaotic crime fighting duo. They handle the comedy and tragedy equally well. The entire cast is stellar, especially the actor who portrays the killer. I also love the Mujin police officers and the local shop owners and fishermen.
My biggest problem with the drama was episode 16 which failed to close some gigantic plotholes and wasted time with cameos from people we didn't care about instead of giving us a proper ending for the main couple.
Despite all that I freakin' loved this show and rate it my favorite watch of the year. I need LMK and HJM in a proper romance together asap.
Behind Your Touch tells the story of Bong Ye Bon, a small town veterinarian who one night during a meteor shower acquires the ability to see people’s memories -- but only if she touches their butts. She teams up with Detective Moon Jang-yeol, a Seoul detective banished to the town because of a screw up, to solve crimes and soon they’re desperately scrambling to solve the mystery of her mother's death and to stop a serial killer. To give you a flavor for the tone of the show, their meet cute is when he arrests her for trying to test out her powers by touching a pickpocket’s behind on the bus.
There's a lot of bizarre comedy like when the FL’s best friend develops a crushes on the ML and keeps serenading him with an accordian. She has a girl squad who she calls on to provide muscle as needed, like the scene where they deliberately start a fight at a political rally so the FL can run through the crowd and touch as many asses as possible. The squad includes a token man who is subbing for his pregnant sister and refers to the 2FL as EONNI! There’s also a screamingly funny 2521 parody that goes on for half the drama (people were referring to it as 5551) and even a throwaway gag referencing a famous artwork by Yoko Ono. The small town residents speak in an impenetrable dialect that has to be translated for Detective Moon who can't understand what anyone is saying.
But even in the early episodes (which are the funniest), there’s elements of a disturbing thriller. For example, the very first scene of the drama shows poor Ye Bon watching her mother’s body getting pulled out of a car in the ocean. And the first episode also features a scene with a woman being dragged through the dirt by her hair
Also know that while there are some very sweet and deeply heartfelt moments and some heart fluttering moments, this is not a romance. While I was dying for something serious to go down between the leads, it's only ever alluded to. I still loved them together. And there are secondary romances which are delightfully bonkers.
As the drama goes on it become less and less about zany wacky shenanigans and more and more about omg where did he stick that knife. The body count is truly impressive and major characters who we deeply care about die which is a bold choice for the creators and raises the stakes for catching the killer.
Unfortunately the thriller part of the story eventually goes off the rails. This writing team has never produced a thriller before and it shows. There's a lot of huge plot holes and implausibilities in the unsatisfactory final episode. It's really too damned bad because up to ep 15 I was absolutely riveted by this show and loving every minute of it.
In addition to the mostly excellent writing (except for the final episode) I want to shout out the performances. Han Ji Min and Lee Min Ki are absolutely perfect as our chaotic crime fighting duo. They handle the comedy and tragedy equally well. The entire cast is stellar, especially the actor who portrays the killer. I also love the Mujin police officers and the local shop owners and fishermen.
My biggest problem with the drama was episode 16 which failed to close some gigantic plotholes and wasted time with cameos from people we didn't care about instead of giving us a proper ending for the main couple.
Despite all that I freakin' loved this show and rate it my favorite watch of the year. I need LMK and HJM in a proper romance together asap.
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