Touch Your Heart (2019)

i'm glad tomorrow isn't promised but in a good way

As if I needed any more reminders that I'm single and will die alone, but this show really made a good point of making sure I know it.

Touch Your Heart is quite an apt title for this drama because it does just that - it touches your heart and your soul and leaves you feeling light and full of ooze but in a good way. I finished my rewatch of Goblin and found myself in dire need of more Yoon In-na and Lee Dong-wook, and jumped straight into this drama so fast I almost got whiplash.

The love, the comedy, the cute air around it - this drama is exactly what a person needs to cheer themselves up and to nurse their cheeks after smiling so much from watching it.

Overarching thoughts:
This show has to be the CUTEST show I have ever watched, along with being the least frustrating one ever. It's so warm and kind to its characters and to the viewers, it makes you feel like you're being wrapped up in a blanket and that you're surrounded by so much love.

Yeon-so has jumped to top of my list of favourite ever female lead characters. I hate the trope of "Famous Actress is snobby and spoilt and looks down on every day things", and Yeon-so is such a breath of fresh air. She's a bit ignorant, for lack of a better term, of the "real world" but she never looks down on it; in fact, she's excited to try the normal things normal people do - she doesn't complain about her work as a secretary being below her, she doesn't try to weasle her way out of doing grunt work. She wants to learn and recognises that she doesn't know how to do these mundane things but will jump at the first chance to even try and do them even if she doesn't do them right or can't understand.

I don't want to say she's ditzy or an airhead because she most certainly is not - perhaps innocent is the better way to describe her? She is very innocent, perhaps it's to do with being sheltered and being a top actress where she's had staff and "underlings" at her beck and call since being a teen, and at first glance you would think "ah, her brain is as smooth as her skin" but she's not. She's the complete opposite to the trope of female actresses in dramas where they're spoilt and cruel and uncaring, because Yeon-so is so kind and warm hearted and you can tell she's been craving connections with people for so long. She wants to please and she cares for other people so much you can't help but like her. It feels as if she's been stuck as the person she was since she was spotted and thrown into the industry, no time to grow as into an adult and protected by her manager and CEO. God, there's just so much to love about her and In-na was SO DAMN CUTE AND BEAUTIFUL AND GORGEOUS AND AMAZING IN THIS ROLE.

Yeon-so was such a gentle character; she's incredibly in tune with her own feelings and of those around her and you can't help but look at her and want to protect her from everything. But she's not so innocent that she can't stand up for herself because she does that frequently. She knows people look down on her and she will always stand up for herself when need be and you learn it's a recent mindset because now she has nothing to lose after her scandal has cost her her reputation and career. Yeon-so's growth into a woman who is finally confident in herself and surrounded by people who love and care for her was such a touching thing to watch and it really, as per the title, touches your heart.

Jung-rok's characterisation in the first 2/3 episodes were incredibly misleading; you are led to believe that he, like Yeon-so, will be trapped in this trope of being a cold lawyer who doesn't care about anyone and doesn't have a heart.

Boy, I'm so glad the show stomped on that the second it could.

I can't say that Jung-rok had a deeper characterisation than Yeon-so, but there are more layers to him than you initially think. Once he gets over his prejudice towards Yeon-so, you get to see how he really is - he's awkward, he's not really sure how to deal with people on an emotional level because being a lawyer means you have to remain of critical thought and pragmatic mind almost all of the time. But he's incredibly empathetic and kind towards Yeon-so and he places a lot of faith in her abilities as a secretary which help her to grow confident, and in turn her kindness towards him helps him to overcome this lawyer-state of being all the time.

And god, Dong-wook put his entire Dongussy into Jong-rok; you can see he's hesitant and tentative because Dong-wook, like Yeon-so, is very inexperienced when it comes to romance and dating. He's not sure how to navigate his own feelings nor how to proceed with them once he's over one hurdle and onto the next and you can tell it's genuine, it's not because he thinks love is folly and only for fools, but because he's genuinely never had the chance to actually fall in love with someone. And when he falls in love with Yeon-so, it is so damn CUTE.

I know I'm saying cute a lot but it's true! Dong-wook is so CUTE with Yeon-so; he never diminishes her and he always tries to help her. He never rolls his eyes at her inability to eat by herself or go out to crowded places, in fact he does his best to help her overcome these anxieties she has such as showing her a single person restaurant where she can order and eat by herself when he isn't there to eat lunch with her. He has so much trust in her that he never crosses a boundary unless she's ready for it, he never pushes her for answers until she's ready to give them. He's always patient with her and holds her hand to say "I'll walk every step of the way with you". He's incredibly understanding of her, of the way she is and how she lives and her life as an actress and she is just the same.

God, their relationship - THEIR RELATIONSHIP! You will have to visit a dentist after this show from how many cavities you'll get watching them because they are so CUTE! They're like two teenagers in love and Dong-wook doesn't pretend to be anything other than completely in love with Yeon-so. He goes out of his way to try and make her happy, indulging her with secret displays of affection, trying to cheer her up with dates and he never questions her or her feelings ever, and neither does she.

They have genuinely the most healthy relationship I have ever seen portrayed in a kdrama - they're not afraid to be cringey with one another by doing aegyo and they trust each other and their relationship 100% of the time the moment they start dating. Example: Jung-rok gets set up on a blind date unknowingly and Yeon-so crashes it, bringing him back to her apartment where she says she's angry; Jung-rok hastily begins to apologise saying he didn't know, and Yeon-so's reponse? "I'm angry because she said you're more handsome in your pictures! You're too handsome! You're going to steal so many hearts!" But not ONCE does she imply that she's angry at him for going on the date or that he might cheat or anything of the sort. She never gets angry at him for cancelling their first dates, he never gets angry at her when men seem to flock to her and fawn over her. They're just so HEALTHY that even their jealousy is healthy, because their jealousy isn't based in the fear that the other might leave them or cheat on them, it's always "you're too handsome" "you're too beautiful" and shaking their head that, sigh, so many people are going to get their hearts broken because the two of them are so in love and will never date anyone other than each other.

They protect each other to all and any lengths even before they start dating; Jung-rok gets angry on her behalf for all the hate comments she used to receive, Yeon-so gets angry when someone even questions Jung-rok's ability as an attorney. They're just so deeply in love that they never question the other; Jung-rok even states that if she's keeping a secret from him that he doesn't care because she's doing it for her and he will never question her on why she's keeping a secret from him.

As for tropes and cliches, there's very little if none at all save for ones that are done for either comedic purposes or done with genuine reasons that make you understand WHY they're done, e.g, the breakup in the middle of the show. I understood why it was done and felt like it strengthened their relationship even MORE and made them more stable after the fact, and also I felt like it was a very realistic reflection on the industry and life of being an actor. You're even given a perfectly reasonable explanation why the two shouldn't be together: after so soon after a scandal, should it come out that Yeon-so was dating an attorney at the law firm she was "studying" at, the people wouldn't see it as a job she undertook to research for a role, but as a flimsy excuse to date with no regard to her acting career. Jung-rok's worries were legitimate and I can completely understand why he did it because it's completely true that netizens often don't react well when seeing their fave is in a relationship - you see it with kpop stars, perhaps less so with kdrama actors but considering Yeon-so's story, it's definitely based in fact.

Onto other things, the drama's storylines flowed like an ebbing river; there were times ripples were made, and others a wave, but it all flowed so easily, and sometimes too fast. With Yeon-so, I thought her stalker storyline would last a lot longer than it actually did and I'm not sure how to feel about it; part of me wishes it did last longer than it had, but the other part is relieved they didn't drag it out or make it melodramatic as they could have. I liked the legal side of the drama, specifically on Jung-rok's side, usually because Yeon-so and Jung-rok's relationship was peppered in throughout it. A lot of storylines and cases happened and a lot of them were tied up quite nicely, if not almost a bit too quickly that left me wanting more. Maybe I'm a masochist but I did want just a biiitttt more angst.

The other characters (once again, on Jung-rok and Yeon-so's side) were a delight and I loved them all; they were each so entertaining to watch and they lit up the screen any time they appeared. The other side of the drama was... well, I skipped through most of it that I can't even remember their names. I did not care for Jung-rok's best friend or the girlfriend at all. It was very... meh. I could not connect to these characters even after the first five episodes so I just skipped through all their scenes after that. I feel like they were brought in to be the large portion of the legal side to this drama, but the characters were just so BORING. I literally did not care at all for Se-won and Yeo-reum's relationship at all, I liked Se-won when he was acting as Jung-rok's best friend more than whenever he and Yeo-reum were on screen together.

This show was a complete delight to watch solely for Dong-wook and In-na, and the rest of the show was a side benefit to their characters and their relationship. My cheeks hurt so much from smiling and I think my face has turned a colour of bright red permanently from how many times I was blushing watching them, specifically Dong-wook. I'm so sad to see this show end!

Also, if I don't get a relationship EXACTLY like theirs, then I dont WANT ONE AT ALL.

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