Touch Your Heart

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU STILL PLAN ON WATCHING THIS SERIES OR HAVEN’T FINISHED IT YET!!

Touch Your Heart
(진심이 닿다 / Jinsimi Dahda)
MyDramaList rating: 7.5/10

Hello everyone!! It’s been a couple of weeks, I took my time to finish this drama and write a nice review for you again ^^
I could’ve finished it earlier but I didn’t want to rush and I also took plenty of time to make myself comfortable and really follow my mood (and not just watch it because I wanted to finish it quickly but because I really wanted to enjoy every single moment of it. This drama moved up a little on my list as well since I’m getting impatient of waiting for series that I’ve been postponing, so I’ll switch between golden oldies and more recent stuff that I’ve been dying to watch more often.
I hope my way of thinking makes sense haha, I tend to change moods and ideas about how to go about my list very regularly.

This series originally wasn’t on my list, but a friend recommended it to me and I thought it’d be cute since I saw comments about it that referred to it as a kind of spin-off of this couple, since they also acted as a couple in Goblin. People liked to think of it as a story in which their Goblin characters were reincarnated and able to meet again as their TYH characters, which I thought was a cute concept. Not sure if that was the actual idea behind it, but I suppose they were casted again together also because they showed good chemistry before.

I’ll say right off the bat that I found this a very sweet, refreshing, enjoyable drama to watch. It had me laugh out loud multiple times and I also really liked all the side characters. Watching another office-type drama after What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim? was nice and I’m starting to like this type of drama more now.

Touch Your Heart is a 16-episode drama (around 1 hour 7 minutes per episode, so be prepared for that) about famous model and actress Oh Yoon Seo (played by Yoo In Na), who has been facing a very difficult time due to her involvement in a scandal with a chaebol. She has been waiting anxiously for a chance to make her big comeback, and when a new script accidentally falls into her hands for an upcoming drama, she falls completely in love with it and claims that she wants to play the main characters. Although the writers are initially quite hesitant because of her reputation (and because part of her fame comes from bad acting), Yoon Seo wants to do it no matter what. Eventually, she and her managing team manage to persuade the writers. Since the part is for a female attorney, she agrees to a 3-month field training at an actual law firm so that she’ll be able to portray the role as realistically and professionally as possible. As a former law major, she thinks she can do it and she’s willing to do anything for this drama.
She starts her training at Always Law Firm, because the CEO there is related to Yoon Seo’s agency’s CEO and she is assigned to work as a secretary for Always’s ace attorney, Kwon Jung Rok (played by Lee Dong Wook). Initially, the two couldn’t be more different. Kwon Jung Rok is a very stiff and logical person, who is also the only one in the law firm who refuses to go easy on Yoon Seo just because she’s famous. He also decidedly keeps calling her Oh Jin Sim, which is her real name (Yoon Seo is her stage name). While most of the law firm’s employees fawn over Yoon Seo, Jung Rok is very strict with her and doesn’t really expect anything from her as everything about her just screams naive actress who has no idea what she’s doing at a law firm and doesn’t take it seriously. As time goes by, though, he is surprised by how much effort she’s willing to put in and he realizes she is actually quite capable of being a good secretary because of her natural skill of memorizing things, and not just scripts.
The drama follows them as their relationship develops and they eventually fall for each other (of course), but it also continues after Yoon Seo’s training period ends and she goes back to acting. Will they be separated or will they still be able to be together, even though their worlds are so different?
Also, how will Yoon Seo/Jin Sim deal with the repercussions of her past?

So what I liked about the storyline is that, although of course it would a romance story, it did actually cover a lot of serious situations that law firms deal with. I liked that it gave the law-related issues enough screentime and made the romance between Jung Rok and Yoon Seo something that supported that. Their bond became closer while working on various cases together, I liked that they showed a couple of example cases, because I have never really had a lot of interest in law or anything like that, but this drama made it interesting to me. As I’ve mentioned before in my review of Radio Romance, I always appreciate it when a drama provides insight in a certain business or industry that I don’t know a lot about or wouldn’t personally get into myself due to lack of interest.
On that note, I have to say that the build-up of the story was quite surprising to me, as was the ending. Because, as K-Dramas usually go, I thought it would take ages for the main couple to get together and that there would just be one main thing that would become a dramatic issue in-between. However, it took only 7 episodes for Jung Rok and Yoon Seo to open up about their true feelings about each other and this was quite a speedy process – they were really frank and direct so as to not leave any misconceptions to the other. When they both found out they liked each other, they just straight out told each other. That was really refreshing.
When the truth about Yoon Seo’s scandal came out and she suddenly became a client to Jung Rok, that was also an interesting thing because in this way she really got to experience both sides of a trial. Truthfully, when the chaebol returned I really expected this to be the dramatic thing. The Return of the Chaebol, who would dig up all sorts of wounds from Yoon Seo and start harrassing her again. He did, but it only lasted like two episodes or something before they already managed to arrest him. So for me, that was like ‘oh, they got him already? this part’s over already?’ I don’t know, I figured they would use this as a more dramatic comeback of the ghost from Yoon Seo’s past.
But instead they decided to fill that last few episodes with a temporary break-up and a follow-up of a case that they had been working on together before. I’m not sure why, but I found this an interesting choice, and also refreshing, because it wasn’t very predictable. If they had gone with the Return of the Chaebol as the main dramatic issue, it would’ve been more standard? Following the trope? So I don’t mind, but in that way it kept surprising me in a positive way.

Let me just quickly go over the main and side characters, the people who made this drama for me. This time, I’ll discuss the characters and the actors simultaneously, because I have so much love for everyone.
First of all, Yoo In Na. I saw her first in Secret Garden (which seems like centuries ago) where she played the female lead’s best friends, and other than that I’ve only seen her in My Love From Another Star (in which she also played a famous actress) and Goblin. I doubt she’ll ever be able to portray a character that doesn’t stand out for her ‘beauty’ because everything about her just screams model. But I would like to see what more she has to offer in acting. This was a very interesting role which fit her very well, I think.
I know Lee Dong Wook of course from Goblin, but the first drama I saw with him was Wild Romance, which I loved. I’m thinking of rewatching that sometime, it’s not very well-known I think. Anyways, I realize I haven’t actually seen that much of him, but because of his popularity I still know him. I think his character in Touch Your Heart was quite mellow, it was a character who internalized his emotions a lot, but he still managed to show different sides. Once he fell for Yoon Seo he started smiling a lot more and at the end, when they got back after their short break more heads over heels than ever, he became a complete fanboy, haha.
Even though he was so sceptical about her in the beginning, he slowly but surely started understanding her and her world better and he even started watching parts of the dramas she appeared in.

I was so happy to see both Oh Jung Se and Oh Ui Shik in this drama, because I love these guys. I’ve seen them as side characters in multiple dramas now and I just love them. They’re such versatile actors, they can be so endearing and hilarious at the same time and I was just really happy to see them in their respective roles in this series.
Oh Jung Se played Always Law Firm’s CEO Yeon Joon Gyu, who was related to Yoon Seo’s CEO (although I’m still not sure how exactly? Brothers? Cousins? They share the same last name, in any case). I loved his character, he was such a weird pervert sometimes but you just had to feel for him. He was a big fan of Yoon Seo, so he was beyond excited to have her at his firm and also shamelessly just pined for her love, even though he could be her uncle. At the same time, despite all the childish mannerisms, he was a really good guy and he really cared for his team, although they sometimes went past him. When Jung Rok took a major case without asking him for permission, Joon Gyu treated him really badly for like a day before already making up with him over drinks.
Furthermore, there were Lawyer Dan Moon Hee (played by Park Kyung Hye) and Lawyer Choi Yoon Hyuk (Shim Hyung Tak). First of all, I’ve seen Park Kyung Hye in several dramas before as a minor side character, but I think she really showed herself as an actress in this series, even though her character mainly fulfilled a comical purpose. I think she deserves more credit as an actress, because she’s probably one of those female actresses who wouldn’t be considered to be ‘pretty’ enough to become a female lead in a drama, but I love seeing these underdogs break down that standard by getting a proper chance to show what they’ve got to offer as actors. Dan Moon Hee is a bit timid as a lawyer, but she is also the woman who would fall in love with a guy at one glance (be it a shop employee, a delivery guy, etc) and this has made her quite the clown within the firm because in silence, no one really takes it seriously anymore when she claims she’s found a new love – and in sad truth, her crushes have never been mutual, so she always gets let down by love.
I didn’t know Shim Hyung Tak, I haven’t seen any of his dramas, but he also played a really funny character. From one side, Yoon Hyuk can be seen as quite the pervert, since he’s a bit narcissistic and he’s also the biggest mama-boy ever, always reporting everything that happens in his life to his mother. He is a divorce lawyer and gets a lot of female clients who want to sue their husbands for cheating on them and stuff like that.
In the end, against all odds and expectations, these two become a couple. I definitely wouldn’t have predicted that from the start since they are initially enemies in the firm when it comes to getting cases, but several incidents lead them to become drawn to each other in their mutual hopelessness when it comes to love, which was kind of cute.
Then there were Mrs. Yang Eun Ji (played by Jang So Yeon) and Mr. Lee Doo Seob (played by Park Ji Hwan). I didn’t know these two actors from before. Mrs. Yang is the CEO’s legal secretary, and she’s this nice and calm motherly figure. She’s very rational but caring, and has a teenage daughter she raises by herself. After getting divorced she’s never really looked for new love.
Lee Doo Seob is the firm’s paralegal. The running gag about him as that he has a bit of a scary face (?) but he’s actually the most sweet and poetic guy ever. He has a unrequited crush on Mrs. Yang but never acts on it because he is too considerate of her living situation, so he is content with just watching and supporting her from afar. For example, he sees how tired she is everyday and even though he lives on the other side of town, he rides the same bus home as her because she always falls asleep on the bus and he’s always the one to wake her up in time for her stop. Things like this. This guy was so damn precious!! Looks can truly fool a person, although I actually didn’t find him that scary-looking myself. I had actually hoped Mrs. Yang would’ve given him a chance when she found out how considerate he was, but unfortunately she told him not to like her 😦 and again, even after finally being able to confess his feelings, Doo Seob respected her boundaries. He didn’t go after her or try to change her mind – he respected her answer. TAKE NOTES, PEOPLE. This is how you should deal with a ‘NO’.
And lastly, there was Kim Hae Young (played by Kim Hee Jung), the youngest of the firm. I knew this actress from Who Are You – School 2015, where she was Kim Soo Hyun’s bestie who wanted to become an idol. She also played a minor role in Reunited Worlds.
I only understood Hae Young’s position in the company after reading somewhere what everyone’s job title was (I don’t even remember where lol), but apparently she was Mrs. Yang’s assistant. She also sat at the reception a lot in the beginning and she was kind of the breeze of youth who was up to date with social media and who always seemed to be on top of all the rumors going around the office. She penetrated every single lie or personal thing that was going on, but she never really got a personal backstory. I would’ve liked to know a bit more about her, although too much might have thrown off the balance of all the information in the series. Since she was just a side character, I think in this case it was a good decision to not give everyone a lot of backstory.

Then, there was Oh Ui Shik, who played Yoon Seo’s manager. I was a bit confused as to what his actual relation to her was, because it was mentioned a couple of times that he was her cousin (?), but I don’t know if that was to hide that he was her manager to Jung Rok. She always calls him ‘oppa’, so that doesn’t really clear anything up. Anyways, he’s the person closest to her and he cares a lot for her without any romantic feelings attached. I really like Oh Ui Shik, he has such a nice friendly face, haha. He portrayed the caring brother-like manager who just wanted Yoon Seo to be safe and healthy and happy very endearingly, including many suspicious looks towards Jung Rok when he eventually would spot the two of them together after they started dating. I really enjoyed his performance.

And lastly, there were Jung Rok’s two childhood friends. Since his college days he has been close with Kim Se Won (played by Lee Sang Woo) and Yoo Yeo Reum (Son Sung Yoon), and he even had a crush on Yeo Reum before she started dating Se Won. So Jung Rok was kind of the odd one out in the friend group and he was also the only one who became an attorney – the other two both became prosecutors.
Honestly, I’ve seen Lee Sang Woo in two other dramas (20th Century Boy and Girl and High Society), but never have I enjoyed his performance as much as in this drama. In the previous dramas he always seemed to stiff and dry to me, but here he had this comical and cheeky streak to him that really made me laugh out loud multiple times. I actually really enjoyed his performance in this drama.
Apparently, Son Sung Yoon has appeared in about 3 other series I’ve watched, but I don’t remember her in any of them… Even in Secretary Kim… Is my memory really this bad? Because she looks really familiar.
Anyways, I was a bit worried that she might become a love rival since she was Jung Rok’s first love and all, but she only provided Yoon Seo with a tiny bit of anxiety – she didn’t have any romantic interest in Jung Rok. On the contrary, it was clear that she still had unresolved feelings for Se Won when he started working at the same company as her, and he definitely had feelings for her. I’m glad they got back together.
But in this case, I wonder how important they really were. Because Yoo Reum got more backstory than other people who could have done with a little more. We also saw scenes of her and Se Won in their respective offices, with their own employees, although these scenes became less frequent toward the end. Occasinally they would help Jung Rok out with a case, and Se Won even moved in with Jung Rok, against the latter’s wishes.
Although I liked Se Won and Yoo Reum as a couple, if this were for real I wouldn’t have been 100% okay with Se Won’s proposal at the end of the series. He basically just announced to her that they were getting married and just put the ring on her finger while she didn’t get to say anything. It was okay because it was them and they were okay with it, but a part of me was like…
If it were me, I would’ve been like, ‘This is how you’re proposing to me?!’ lol.

I would like to give one last major shoutout to Kim Dae Gon who played the mentally handicapped Park Soo Myeong who got involved in a trial. He was so incredibly endearing and his case was so heartbreaking. He was actually used by a woman who manipulated him into believing that he’d killed her husband and she even vowed against him in court and all… I really felt for him, he acted so brilliantly! His performance truly made my heart ache.

Okay, so I think with that I’ve discussed all the most important characters.
I’ll continue with some comments about my general impressions of the drama. Because in its unpredictability, it also changed a lot of first impressions for me. Most of all, Yoon Seo. From her first appearance on, I thought she was this little doll who had to be careful and who seemed really naive to the outside world. Her first day at the law firm also proved this, when she literally tried to extend the phone cord to Jung Rok’s office because she didn’t know how to transfer a call, turning up on her first day in the shortest dress and on the highest heels ever, all that hilarious stuff. But I was as surprised as Jung Rok with her ability to adapt and show this side of her where she wasn’t just a beautiful face but an actually intelligent woman. She was able to use her adapting and memorizing skills as an actress in order to put in effort to reach her goal, and when she started acting again she was able to use all that she learned to her advantage.
She fulfilled what she set out to do, made her big comeback, and won back the hearts of her fans. She completely managed to put the scandal behind her.

Also, to go into a little more depth regarding the ‘scandal’, it turns out that Yoon Seo was 100% a victim. This creepy chaebol (played by Jay Kim) started stalking her and put something in her drink – she never did anything involving drugs out of her own volition. But it just proves again how much the media can blow up stuff like this and how hard it is to prove your innocence when the whole world is set against you.
The truth about these things is that you never know what truly happened. As a fan, as a regular person who was not personally involved in the case, you will never know. And still everyone needs to have an opinion. So in the end, it can turn out to be that you condemned a person who was actually innocent all along. But this is how the media works.
They waited a bit to explain what really happened until the actual Return of the Chaebol, but until then Yoon Seo’s ambiguous response to it made it kind of hard to read. She also never explicitly denied anything in the beginning, so I wasn’t sure if there was any truth to it until she turned it into an actual case at the law firm and we were shown the flashback of the incident.

Including this example, I think this drama did a good job in playing with and changing impressions. A lot of things that seemed one way or were vague in the beginning were cleared up and revealed at the end. In that way it added to the unpredictability and refreshingness of the drama, and I liked that. It started out quite stereotypical, but it went its own way and still ended nicely.
I found it interesting how they decided to finish the series with Yoon Seo taking Jung Rok to her red carpet to officially present him as her boyfriend, because ironically, it ends without showing how the audience responds to this. After successfully making her comeback with this drama, Yoon Seo announces to her CEO that from now on, she will do whatever she wants, and the first thing she does is stop hiding. The first thing she does is appear in public with her boyfriend. A very interesting and refreshing way to end, since I think it really symbolizes Yoon Seo turning her life around for the better. After the scandal she has lived in seclusion and hiding, she was always paranoid of paparazzi and could never eat in public places, she was always aware of other people seeing her and targeting her. And she managed to get over that fear and become strong enough to think, screw it, I don’t want to hide who I am or who I’m seeing anymore.
Powerful stuff.

Lastly, before concluding my review, I would like to express some positive comments on the word play of the series’ title. The English title is Touch Your Heart, but the Korean title literally means something like ‘Be Sincere’ or ‘Reached by Sincerity’, or something with the word ‘jinshim’ which means ‘sincerity’. Of course, the word play here is that ‘Jin Shim’ is Yoon Seo’s real name, so the title can also be read as something like ‘Touched/Reached by Jin Shim’. And the whole purpose Yoon Seo is trying to achieve in her life is to reach her fans again by proving her ability to make a comeback, and then to Jung Rok and the law firm, to prove that she was able to work diligently and not just be the nation’s goddess of beauty. A lot of people in the story were eventually ‘touched or reached’ by her.
So I really like the title for this series, it just makes so much sense.
And then, I just wanted to express my appreciation for the blatant Descendants of the Sun references. The drama that Yoon Seo is pining for is basically derived from that series and it made me laugh out loud when she started reading the script in episode 1 and pictured the scenes and they were just remakes of DotS scenes. Also, the example scenes to show her acting and they were so cringy, it really added to the humor of the whole thing.

All in all, I enjoyed watching this very much. It was cute, simple, humorous and refreshing in its own way. It still provided new content and didn’t stick to all of the tropes. I’m glad my friend recommended it to me and that I decided to watch it now.
Next up on my list is another golden oldie, and after that I’ll be returning to more recent stuff that I’ve been impatiently waiting to get to!