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Behind Your Touch korean drama review
Completed
Behind Your Touch
2 people found this review helpful
by Sarann55
Oct 5, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

Good potential in this concept but unfortunately badly flawed by cliches and plot holes

Vet visits a farm to attend a sickly cow, and while she and the farmer are handling it, they are struck by a meteor, imparting each with psychometric powers to read the minds of any person or animal who they are touching in the same place as they touched the cow – him on the leg, her on the bum
A supposedly hot-shot detective is demoted from Seoul to the small town of Mujin where he is desperate for that single big case which will get him back to the capital.
After a predictable period of distrust, with him being especially hostile and dismissive, they begin to work together on a series of cases (successfully, leading him to trust her assessments/visions totally), and eventually on a number of brutal murders.
The drama is not awful and at times quite amusing. A certain amount of comedy 'business' is mined because she is obliged to find respectable reasons to touch random bums, and due to his complete ineptitude in the face of local customs and certain styles of communication among the natives. He routinely has to have his colleague 'read the room' for him and translate local euphemisms about his behaviour. Various other local characters are also good fun and relationships among the local people are often quite charming and engaging
The cases start off being quite lightweight, and there are a mixture of police investigations and vet work all resolved by her being able to read peoples' bottoms. The serial murder cases though are darker and there are hints that a number of tragic deaths in the families of protagonists many years ago may be linked with current events. So intriguing, but it looks like these are never going to be investigated, nor the link/s checked out.
For me a lot of potential in this concept, but petty ineptly applied by the writer and director. The psychometry s played too much for laughs, and hardly ever taken seriously – even when it is accepted as true.
Neither the vet now the cop are particularly professional. The vet often finds a dead or injured and bloody person and NEVER knows what to do! She goes straight to panic and whines to a man for instructions. Any medical scientist will look at a pool of blood and know immediately what to do and how to do it – and will do it while multitasking to call for help. Good grief even I can have a good stab at that (pun intended)
The hot-shot cop seems pretty incompetent. He ends up taking control of his police team despite the presence of a superior officer (who limply protests but not much), but leaps to a series of unwarranted conclusions about who the perpetrator is, based solely on suspicion or personal dislike and never even considers actual evidence. His attention bounces from one person to another and occasionally rotates round individuals in the group. This is frustrating and confusing - poor writing reduces my engagement with the central drama.
On the whole, this is an enjoyable little drama, but imperfect. Writing and plotting is somewhat perforated (there are holes) and I found the ending a little artificial. OK but far from the best. The best thing I can say is that the bad guy wasn't immediately obvious to me ... but I found his revelation badly over-played.
This drama also committed a few several pet peeves. Young attractive and intelligent female characters are styled to look just ridiculous. The pretty vet is in boxy jackets that are 5 sizes too big for her, chunky jumpers that swamp her, and trousers cut too short, making her legs dumpy. Her 'assertive' friend, notorious for having a mind of her own and a temper, is styled like a clown : but when she meets a man who unexpectedly tickles her fancy she suddenly tones down the make up and starts to look more human. Our FL's aunt, divorced and desperate to regain that lost love of her youth, dresses too young for her age, but looks good on it however, her demeanour is that of an aged fan-girl desperate for attention.
Meanwhile, our male actors are styled as normal males. Depending on their work role they are dressed for the part. They're neither fashionable, nor dowdy – unless they are oxter deep in a cow....
For me this kind of sexism in character styling makes me question the competence of designers and directors. It's unnecessary fancy dress - and actually gets in the way of me enjoying a drama unfold. It's all too common, though.
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