I’m down. I’m watching this kdrama because it’s entertaining.

1. The Male Lead, Lee Ahn, is a funny dimwit.

I don’t know who this actor is and I prefer to remain ignorant of his biography. I read that he’s kpop idol of the group “Got Milk?” but I’ve already reached my maximum number of idol actors to “stan for.” Four: Kyungsoo Do of Exo, Siwan of Ze:a, Yoon Doojoon of Highlights, and Ok Taecyeon of 2PM. There’s no room left in my brains for another one.  I’m not accepting any more applicants. No siree!

But I must say this: his character, Lee Ahn, had me in stitches in Episode 2.

Lee Ahn possesses a gift (or curse) of seeing other people’s secrets with the simple graze of his hands, arms, hair, face, or lips on their skin, clothing and personal effects. He’s as sensitive as the princess in that fairy tale, “Princess and the Pea” except his pea consists the whole human race, both dead and alive.

Interesting premise, right?

Take for instance his problem in Episode 2. He had 30 minutes to figure out the identity of the test cheater in his high school. So he hatched up a “brilliant” plan to catch the culprit. You know what his brilliant idea was?

To become a human turnstile.

He blocked all exits in the building except for one, then he set off the fire alarm. As the kids stampeded out, he stood with outstretched arms in the middle of their path and touched every single one of them.

Like a subway turnstile.

See his face? Doesn’t his face have the most indescribable expression ever? I’m at a loss for words…and that rarely happens.

His brilliant plan would have worked except that he had a sensory OVERLOAD from learning all the petty secrets of his schoolmates.

His sensory overload gave him a nosebleed.

Also, he didn’t foresee the PHYSICS of his plan.  The massive throng rushing past him because of the fire alarm sent him tumbling down the steps.

It was the most comical thing I’ve watched in ages.

I truly appreciate that this actor “sacrificed” his idol image for this hilarious scene and this witless role. I’d been waiting for screenwriters to veer away from the genius male/dumb female trope and to pair instead a klutzy guy with a genius girl.

At long last, the drama gods heard me.

Lee Ahn is definitely not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but he’s likable. Sure, he has a unique super power. He wears a red hoodie with extra-long sleeves under his school uniform, presumably as an extra layer to prevent him from accidentally touching people and uncovering their secrets. He didn’t think of using his power to get even at the bad math teacher.

He’s no weakling. When he was little, he was picked on, but by the time he reached high school,  he’s already known at the police precinct for taking down a gang of bullies single-handedly.  Every time he jumps over school fences in a single bound — like Superman — he causes the girls in school to shriek in adulation.

But the one thing most lovable about him is his hero-worship of his surrogate Hyung.

On the night he lost his parents, he had thrown a tantrum because he wanted a puppy as his 8th birthday present. His father said he could ask for any gift other than a puppy. To his parents’ dismay, he then asked for donsaeng (or younger sibling).

Now, eleven years later, Lee Ahn has a puppy and a hyung as well. It’s clear that his Hyung plays a big role in his life and mentors him on how to use his talent. He spouts weird aphorisms which he could only have picked up from his Hyung, such as, “With great power comes great responsibility, and “Though the beginning seems humble, the future will be prosperous.” In fact, he can’t remember where he picked up the latter quotation. He thinks that “a guy named Genesis said it” when it’s a quote from the Book of Job in the Bible. The original text goes like this, “Though your beginning was small, Yet your latter end would increase abundantly.”

It’s a good thing that his affection for his Hyung is reciprocated. His Hyung dotes on him despite his Hyung’s persistent threats to disown him if he ever misbehaves again. Not once has the Hyung criticized him for being a burden to him or for ruining his good reputation as an up-and-coming prosecutor.

Lee Ahn’s hero-worship for his Hyung is understandable because his Hyung saved him from fire that killed his parents. And his hero-worship is most evident that time the bad math teacher threatened him with expulsion from high school, but his primary concern was not himself, but disappointing his Hyung.

Here’s the dialogue:

The bad math teacher: You go and bring your parents right now. I’ll be considerate of your future so I’ll just have you drop out.
Lee Ahn: My parents passed away.  But the important point isn’t that. Whether expelled or dropped out, there’s no other school to go to, is the point.
Math teacher: I thought you were pathetic so are you an orphan?
Lee Ahn: That’s not the point. (grimacing) My Hyung told me to graduate from high school no matter what. He ordered me to do that.
Math teacher: You’re annoying me so get out. (talking to Lee Ahn) Then we’ll just expel him from school, right? (talking to Lee Ahn’s homeroom teacher who said yes.)
Lee Ahn: The graduation is really close so you can suspend me but hold off on expulsion. I’ll do 500 hours of volunteer work.
Math teacher: I said to get out.
Lee Ahn: Teacher!

To me, this scene from Episode 1 is key to understanding Lee Ahn’s motivations. He doesn’t want to be pitied for having lost both his parents, and he doesn’t want to fail to live up to his Hyung’s expectations of him. It seems as if his Hyung as replaced his own parents. As long as his Hyung is there beside him, he isn’t an orphan.

2.  The conversations are snappy not sappy.

The other thing I like is the conversation between Lee Ahn and the female lead, JaeIn. They’re often at cross-purposes but JaeIn gets the better of Lee Ahn. Take for instance when JaeIn mistook Lee Ahn for a Peeping Tom in Episode 1. The real Peeping Tom accidentally bumped Lee Ahn as he was fleeing from JaeIn. Lee Ahn then saw the Peeping Tom’s perverted memories.

Lee Ahn: (talking to his school buddy on his cellphone) Ah, that perverted jerk. Why are those visions the only things I see clearly?
Friend: So what if you’re psychometric? All you can see are the sizes of underwear anyway.

JaeIn spotted Lee Ahn. Since he was wearing the same colored uniform as the Peeping Tom, she mistook him for the Peeping Tom and started to video-tape his phone conversation.

Friend: What my grandma said is right. A fly only sees dung.
Lee Ahn: That’s because you don’t know any better. It’s all about gradually seeing a little more. What’s the fun in seeing the whole picture at first?

He means that he was slowly improving in his skills as a psychometric so he couldn’t see everything all at once. But that was fine with him because slowly and steadily, he was improving in his psychometric observations. He was patient.

However, to JaeIn who was eavesdropping on Lee Ahn’s phone conversation, she was convinced that the pervert Lee Ahn was bragging about seeing a bit of nudity as full nudity would come sooner or later.

Friend: You’re such a talker. So what did Prosecutor Kang say?
Lee Ahn: What do you think? I just ran out of there. I wasn’t supposed to be there.

Lee Ahn was talking about his stint at the morgue when he tried to help out his noona, a detective friend, identify the body. But Jaein misinterpreted his comment as the pervert bragging again about running away from her in the bathroom and avoiding detection.

Lee Ahn: So how can I say that I saw the underwear so well?

Lee Ahn was talking about the dead people in the morgue whose underwear he had seen in his vision. But Jaein thinks the pervert was talking about HER underwear.

Just as the Friend was commiserating  with the Hyung, “I feel terrible for him. He’s stuck with you for an adoptive brother,”  JaeIn confronted Lee Ahn. Lee Ahn was startled and avoided walking into her.

Lee Ahn: Ya! (talking to friend) What the– (talking to JaeIN then sidestepping her) Next time, I’m going to focus harder.
Friend: Sure. I wonder what you’ll see next time.
Lee Ahn: You wanna die?

JaeIn chased him again and blocked his path. She mimicked him.

JaeIn: You want to die?
Friend: Hello? Over there?
Lee Ahn: (talking to JaeIn) What?
JaeIn: Is it fun to peek at girl’s undressing?
Lee Ahn: (talking to friend) Hold on.
Friend: Are you sullking??
Lee Ahn: (talking to JaeIn) Me? What are you accusing me of?

JaeIn plays back the conversation she taped and, without context, it sounds defnitely perverted.

JaeIn: It’s a confession. You have nowhere to turn.
Lee Ahn: I think there’s a misunderstanding.

JaeIn played back more of the recording.

Lee Ahn: Wow, are you crazy?!

Then he remembered about the Peeping Tom who bumped him earlier and he connected the dots.

Lee Ahn: Ahhh. You… that, that… You must really like bathrooms, am I wrong?
JaeIn: I never said it was in the restroom.
Lee Ahn: Huh? (he realized too late that he wasn’t supposed to know about the bathroom because he didn’t want it known that he had the “gift of sight.”)
JaeIn: This psycho pervert jerk!

She was about to kick him in the crotch but he stopped her by gripping her leg. In that brief moment, he saw aspect of her past. She shouted, “Ya! You jerk! Where do you think you’re touching?”

Even he protested, “No, this isn’t – Really. I really didn’t. Ah, no, no, no, no, really wasn’t me” the spectators were convinced that he was the Peeping Tom.

This dialogue took place in Episode 1. In Episode 2, there were more conversations demonstrating that the female heroine in this kdrama was no victim nor pushover. And that’s why I like this show; I’m tired of heroines who remind me doormats and wet tissues (side-eyeing the female leads of “Romance is a Bonus Book” and “Touch Your Heart”)

3. The chalk art is a clever way of getting the point of the two episodes across. 

Yes. Yes. I notice weird things like this…

Do you see that artwork on the ground?

I enlarged it here.

When Lee Ahn escaped to the rooftop in Episode 1 (50:33), only half of the chalk art was visible: his side.

There was a soldier wearing a red uniform and a top hat. The soldier seemed to be surrounded by baby faces. There were two hands manipulating strings. The soldier was attached to the string, like a marionette. .

Later, when JaeIn escaped to the rooftop to hide from inquisitive girls in her class, the other half of the chalk drawing became visible. There was a sketch of girl in a blue dress, sitting with her hand reaching out for the gloved hand of the red solider.

From this angle, we got a clearer picture, right? Two disembodied hands are tugging the strings attached to the blue girl and the red soldier. The blue girl has only one string attached to the hand while the red soldier is connected to the puppeteer’s hand from at least six strings.

The blue girl and the red soldier are reaching out to each other in space.  This is an adaptation of that famous Michaelangelo “Divine Touch” or “Creation of Man.” The similarities are obvious.

But in this chalk art, the divine touch is not beween God and his creation, but between Lee Ahn and JaeIn.

The “god” or the master puppeteer appears to be Lee Ahn’s Hyung who also happens to be JaeIn’s benefactor (or “Daddy-Long-Legs” after that famous book by Jean Webster).

In Episode 1, the Hyung said he was waiting for Lee Ahn to find someone he really wants to get a read on. His exact words: “Until he has someone he truly wants to do psychometry on.” And the Hyung had somebody in mind. He imagined that they might have met already, and he referred to JaeIn as “That girl.”

To me, the Hyung is designated as the “puppeteer” in the chalk art. His body is invisible but his hands pull the strings of the blue girl and the red soldier. And that’s because he’s the connection between Lee Ahn and JaeIn in real life.

Then, in Episode 2, Lee Ahn almost shook hands with JaeIn after he won their bet. He had made the bet earlier, saying, “if I catch the criminal who got into the classroom, then let’s do it then. A handshake. Holding hands without doing anything else for 3 seconds.”  He found out the real culprit and he was ready to claim his “prize” for winning the bet: a three-second handshake.

Note: the whole painting was on full display now.

But at the last second, Lee Ahn left JaeIn hanging.  He changed his mind and decided not to touch her hand.

And as he left her on the rooftop, the close-up of the two puppets’ hands was visible. Both blue girl and the red soldier have their arms extended and their hands reached out to touch the other’s hand.

I thought it was clear from the optics of this scene that, although Lee Ahn had found his “fated” partner, he wasn’t ready yet for the emotional connection — not to mention, the psychological upheaval — of doing a reading of her.

😀

There you have it: my first impressions of the kdrama, “He’s Psychometric.” I will add it to my growing list of “Bloggable” shows. I doubt that it’s going to be mind-blowing but it should be entertaining.