Touches You

Please don't spend money on this.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

"Ji Eun Yi" (Ha-neul Kim) is a young woman who works in the fashion section of a magazine and is sometimes treated with disdain because her boss and others are envious of her American education. This is especially true of another woman named "Lee Young Eun" (Yu-mi Jeong ) who also happens to want her job. In any case, after her boyfriend dumps her, Ji Eun Yi begins to feel a bit lonely and as luck would have it her brother convinces a young man named "Kang In Ho" (Keun-Suk Jang ) to stay temporarily in her apartment. Needless to say, this angers her to no end, but since he has already paid money to her brother in advance she cannot turn him down very easily. So to convince him to leave on his own accord she tells him that he must renounce his human rights and become her personal pet. To her horror he agrees. But it soon becomes quite difficult for them to ascertain who is actually the master and who is the pet. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an entertaining movie at first but the humor eventually wore off the longer the film continued. The ending was also quite predictable. That being said, while this movie certainly wasn't bad by any means, it wasn't nearly as good as it could have been and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Most people aren't aware that this movie is an adaptation of a Japanese comic entitled "Kimi wa Pet." I read it a few years back, so as a warning, I must say that this review is highly influenced by my love of the comic.As a fan of "Kimi wa Pet," I can say that this film reached my expectations. While the comic presented a great social commentary on the expectations imposed on the different genders, what inspired me to keep reading was the questionable relationship between the main characters. Their relationship in the comic was nothing short of entertaining and oftentimes, heartwarming. While this movie may have been lacking in tear-jerking scenes, it nonetheless compensates with fun and quirky interactions between the two leads. I couldn't stop laughing because of the film's slapstick and sometimes witty humor. Also, I loved the chemistry between Eun Hi and Momo; I loved how natural and fluid their interactions were. The transformation from thought-provoking social commentary to bubbly, budding romance was a good move considering the short time allocated; I don't think you'd want to bore the audience by parading a variety of social issues when they came to see a romantic comedy. I would have HATED the film if it tried to address the gender roles issue in such a short amount of time. It would have just seemed too pretentious if it tried to cram it along with the main struggles in the film (having a human for a pet should be enough of an issue to address in 2 hours).At the same time, it satisfactorily gives the audience the closure we (aka I) wanted (i.e. happy ending where the two finally get together). As a fan of the comic, this is the adaptation which satisfied my fan girl needs.I do realize that the film may be shocking and difficult to understand for those who didn't read the comic as a precursor. While the film somehow managed to reflect the change and development in the feelings of the characters, the same felt a bit lacking. I had to use my recollection of the comic to supplement some parts. That shouldn't be an obstacle to the film viewing, though, since the movie provides sufficient entertainment to keep you occupied from noticing the minor lapses.

I'll admit that it's somewhat unfair to compare a movie to a TV show, since there is simply no way to fit the same amount of material into so much less time. However, if you strip away all content, you're left with something pointless, which is what I feel has happened in this adaptation.This movie lacks completely the depth and interest of the Japanese TV show Kimi Wa Petto, instead making this a shallow and frankly dull romantic comedy - without much romance or comedy. The characters lack definition and drive, and the story is simply *pretty boy + pretty girl inevitably leads to pretty love*, without anything to make it interesting.The original source, and the excellent Japanese TV adaptation, is a very different type of story. They speak of loneliness, outsidership, compromise and partnership, and do it well.You Pet appears to have nothing to say, and writing this I realize it has left me in much the same predicament. The movie is boring, the characters empty, and there is no story to speak of. Do yourselves a favor and watch Kimi Wa Petto instead!

I've now seen three versions of this story. The manga series that covers about three years of the lives of Momo and Sumire, the Japanese TV series "Kimi wa petto," and then an English translation of this Korean film.The TV series is much closer to the manga in terms of character but I actually preferred the ending to the TV series because it leaves room for more advancement and development. That Sumire, the female lead, is more active in the TV series is very important to the story because the tale is more cultural commentary than romantic comedy.The Korean movie continues the story further into the manga series but mixed up scenes out of order. The translation I saw was also very poorly done and many sentences made no sense at all. If you didn't know the story, you'd be lost in the translation.The greatest different in the Korean is what made me like these least of the three version. The movie is very much a romantic comedy; the manga and the TV series are cultural commentary first and foremost. While there are certainly differences between Japan and Korean, this film never focused on the challenges that our female lead faces or the difficulties her human pet faces simply because they are not comfortable being the "man" and "woman" their society says they should be.I don't want to spoil any of the versions though with more detail. Read and watch them all and I think you will see what I'm writing about.