Han Ji Min is accidental psychic and detective in K-drama Behind Your Touch
In Netflix’s comedy-thriller Behind Your Touch, Han Ji Min is a small-town veterinarian who finds herself solving crimes after acquiring psychic powers that get activated whenever she touches people’s butts.
Specifically, the South Korean star, whose character is named as Ye Bun, has the so-called gift of psychometry in this new K-drama that fuses elements of the supernatural, a whodunit and a romcom. But instead of divining hidden info from inanimate objects, our onscreen heroine can see visions and read animals and people’s past through physical contact with their butts. The longer she touches the butt, the more extensive the history she sees.
This peculiar ability sends her veterinary business booming. She can now tell and treat whatever concerns or ails animals just by “seeing” what happened to them in the past. She tries it on humans, too, but this places her in hilariously awkward if not disastrous situations, with her gift getting misinterpreted and landing her in trouble with the police no less. She particularly earns the ire of Jang Yeol (played by Lee Min Ki of My Liberation Notes), the once hotshot but newly demoted and transferred detective from the violent crimes investigation division in Seoul.
But once Ye Bun proves to Jang Yeol that her psychic power is real, it appears they will form an unlikely tandem out to unravel and resolve crimes, including those committed by a serial killer, which threaten the peace of their rural community in Mujin. Suho of K-pop group EXO also stars in Behind Your Touch as the mysterious convenience store worker Kim Seon Woo.
Han Ji Min further discussed her character during a virtual presscon last week: “First of all, Ye Bun’s characteristic is… she is someone who is warm-hearted and we call these people busy bodies. They are very nosy. From her first meeting with Jang Yeol, it’s not a very happy meeting but still she decides to be of help to his investigation. And that really goes to show what kind of person she is.”
As for her Ye Bun’s love-hate relationship with Jang Yeol, she said, “They clash against one another for sure. But also, I think the charm of Ye Bun lies in the fact that she still wants to cooperate with him. And that story itself is very charming.”
The actress’ previous works are notably of the melodrama/heavy drama mold such as Our Blues, One Spring Night and Miss Baek for which she won the Best Actress honor at the Baeksang Arts Awards, Korea’s equivalent of the Oscars.
Thus, one factor that enticed Han to accept this project produced by JTBC, and directed by Lee Nam Kyu and written by Kim So Yun (the tandem behind the Detective K series), was the opportunity to wade into comedic waters.
“I’ve always wanted to do some comedic acting, but you need courage to get into comedy, right? Because, you know, you have to make other people laugh and I don’t think that’s an easy gig,” Han said.
“So, in Detective K, I think writer Lee Nam Kyu and director Kim Sok Yun did such a great job creating that show. I know that their forte is comedy and I can trust them when trying out comedy.
“And a thing that’s really nice about Behind Your Touch is that there are other comedy shows, but there are not that many that mesh them up with psychometric ability… It’s a very good balance between comedy and thriller.”
As for her approach to executing the funny aspects in the series, she said, “I didn’t try to be forceful in the sense that I try to be funny or I want my character to appear funny. But Ye Bun is someone who is very serious and sincere in all of her efforts. And so, I tried to be Ye Bun as closely to the character as possible in those scenes.”
Here are more soundbites from Han whom The STAR was also able to chat with in a separate Zoom interview:
On what audiences should look forward to in the K-drama (now on its fourth episode):
“So, from the beginning, you know, the story follows the event where both of us (Ye Bun and Jang Yeol) come together and we have to investigate things together. And the ability that we can utilize is my supernatural power, right? So what we have to do is try to look around us and look for any kind of living creature so that I can provide, like, psychometry on that.
“So, I think, it would be really fun for the audience to be on the lookout for the unpredictable moments that come about in that moment (scene). And also, you know, what kind of living things or animals we come across for me to have them as pieces of evidence and as witnesses for these cases.”
On hilarious scene from trailer where co-star Lee Min Ki, wearing ‘spiked’ jeans, sits on her hand:
“What I had to do here was… my character was trying to read the mind of Jang Yeol. And the scene had to have these studs that were put into his pants, the back pockets. And so actually the stylist had to put and sew the studs, one by one, to the pants. That was quite a lot of work.
“When I actually was working on the scene and I had my hand in there and he sat on it, it really, actually hurt. So he did his best not to put on too much weight as he was sitting down so that it hurt less. And there were scenes where, you know, I would have to have my fist in his mouth and whatnot. I had a lot of fun but after we were done shooting, I was a little bit concerned about how it was going to turn out. But happily, I think it turned out great.”
On connecting with her character Ye Bun:
“I really could understand Ye Bun because I’m like that in real life as well. You can’t really ignore other people’s troubles. And when I sense something, if that person depends on my help or my intervening, I feel like I can’t just turn a blind eye. I don’t know if I’m as courageous as Ye Bun, but the fact is that my personality is similar to that. It definitely helped.”
On the psychic ability or superpower she’d like to have:
“I used to think that I would love to be able to teleport. However, I feel like time-traveling would be the better option. I think it would allow us to meet people that you aren’t able to meet in this world, in this time. So, I would love to have the ability to travel in time.”
Behind Your Touch airs new episodes every Saturday and Sunday on Netflix.
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