Park Jong-Bae is the local shaman of Mujin and actively hunts for any and all opportunities to make a quick and big buck from his supposedly divine powers.
Behind Your Touch revolves around characters and storylines that converge, intersect, and take place in and around the small town in Mujin called Chungcheong-do.
Populated by a flurry of eccentric people, the town’s residents contend with economic stagnation by finding opportunity in every nook and corner. Park Jong-Bae, the local shaman, is perhaps the biggest grinder among all.
A has-been
Park Jong-Bae’s shamanism is filled with hilarious antics. To start off, he carries out his shamanism tomfoolery while sporting a persona belonging to a certain General MacArthur.
He claims it’s a spirit that he hosts and it’s this spirit of MacArthur that makes all the prophecies and other supernatural stuff possible. He also uses toys and a funny falsetto in his performance.
His jig is up when Ye-Bun sees through the conmanship at the shamanic rite ceremony she was advised by him to perform. It still costs a significant amount of money which he asks her to not take back, and she obliges.
He also tells her that there was a time when he did host the spirit of General MacArthur. However, one day, many years ago, the spirit, as well as the powers once within him, abandoned him.
The hustle goes on
But Park Jong-Bae didn’t abandon shamanism, since it runs his house, earns him bread, and also money a lot of which he needs to send away to his wife and child living in Australia, both of whom have been offscreen thus far.
In fact, the money he scams from Bong Ye-Bun, he claims he would use it for his child’s K-pop dance classes in Australia. Sometime later, he returns from the country fairly quickly and thanks Ye-Bun for her help.
And so, despite his act being busted by Ye-Bun, he continues his shamanism, as he previously told the vet that it’s his source of earning a living. Meanwhile, Jong-Bae also runs a channel on MeTube, a video-hosting website.
Dubious renaissance
So far in the show, many characters have frequented him seeking supernatural solutions for their very natural and regular problems.
However, the number of customers flocking to him increases exponentially after a shocking shamanic ceremony he hosts. It takes after the town is in a frenzy regarding the serial killings happening in their midst.
To cope with said morose and fearful circumstances, the town decides to host a rite to strengthen the energy in the village and ward off the negativity.
This faith-based measure comes about after Park Jong-Bae nudges the town elders in its direction multiple times. Lucrative for him, the rite ceremony becomes that much bigger a deal when he suddenly seems to get possessed during it.
In what seems to be more than one voice coming out of his mouth simultaneously, he embodies the victims recently killed by the serial killer and says that he is present amongst the people gathered there for the ceremony.
This causes a town-wide frenzy and people think that his old psychic powers are back and flock to him for predictions regarding the serial killer situation as well as their own life problems.
However, he’s shown to be really clueless about what happened at the ceremony since he fainted soon after he made that shocking claim and upon waking up, forgot all about it.
And yet, he continues making more claims and predictions, which surprisingly enough do come true, further cementing his legitimacy as a shaman in people’s eyes.
However, Park Jong-Bae is also shown to be really doubtful whenever he makes these predictions, implying that he’s mostly doing it to continue making money and milking this rare opportunity.
Also Read: Park Jong-Bae: Behind Your Touch character explained
