The Village: Achiara's Secret

Warning: this article contains spoilers and if you have not watched the first six episodes of this drama, you may want to stop reading now.

Firstly, this is my first article that I have done so I apologize in advance if my writing style is not to your taste. Anyway, the main reason I started watching The Village: Achiara's Secret is because of Yook Sung Jae. I have been a fan of his since his debut in 2012 with the rest of his group, BTOB. And for those who have watched his previous dramas will know that he has broken the idols-can't-act stereotype. However, this drama did interest me as well because I'm a sucker for anything horror or thriller themed. I believe that thriller dramas bring out the best in actors and I just love the suspense as well.

The Village: Achiara's Secret is quite a cliche drama. Someone new starts living in a small, quiet town, only for a murder case to arise in the first few days of them staying there. But, what I find most interesting is that not only does the audience not know who the murderer is, but neither do the actors themselves. The writers have purposely made almost every single character suspicious and have a motive to kill the victim. That itself can make any drama more fascinating.

Introducing the characters:

Han So Yoon (Moon Geun Young)

Han So Yoon decides to travel back to South Korea after discovering a strange letter which points to a village named Achiara after her grandmother's death. Upon her arrival, she starts to find the sender of the letter and realizes her family has many hidden secrets unbeknownst to her. So Yoon would most definitely be the center of all the events going on in Achiara pretty much right after she arrives.

For those who haven't been watching this drama, I can say for certain that she is the only person who can freed from suspicion for being the murderer.

A lot of coincidences (or are they?) have happened around So Yoon. She moved into Achiara while a streak of serial killings were happening around the area, she was almost attacked as soon as she stepped foot into the town, So Yoon was the one who discovered the dead body of Kim Hye Jin (who is most likely to be So Yoon's sister) and she even lives in Kim Hye Jin's old apartment. Everything that has happened throughout have all been set up by the writers to push So Yoon further into the mysteries and wonders of the village of Achiara.

There is a lot more to discuss about So Yoon and the things revolving around her, but with the several amount of main characters in this, I don't want this article to be too lengthy.

Park Woo Jae (Yook Sung Jae)

Park Woo Jae is an enthusiastic police officer, his police post is based in the village of Achiara. After a period of peace and low crime rates in Achiara, Woo Jae gets excited when a chain of serial murders occur and tries his utmost to solve the case. However, he soon finds himself tangled in secrets that have been intentionally covered by everyone. I think everyone can tell that he is the sugar to his drama with that cutie face of his.

While reading through several comments on the main page for The Village: Achiara's Secret, a lot of people were slightly hoping that Woo Jae would end up being the killer because that would give a huge plot twist that would set apart this drama from any other typical thriller drama. I would have to agree with this, because not only would it be great to see Woo Jae's personality change (which would show a great deal of intelligence), but I would love it if Yook Sung Jae had a different style of character from his normal, kind-hearted characters. This theory is why I haven't crossed him off my list of potential suspects.

Another couple things that I would like to add is, first, I wish the writers didn't add any sort of romance aspect to Sung Jae's character because I wanted The Village: Achiara's Secret to be purely based on the thrills, and I know the only shown evidence of love is Woo Jae's one-sided crush on So Yoon, but even so. I would have liked to have see Yook Sung Jae with a character that doesn't have this (still mentally dying from second-lead Gong Tae Kwang in Who Are You: School 2015). The second subject I want to address is the subtle issues of transphobia. I believe that Woo Jae doesn't have any hate or fear towards transgender men or women, but the scenes where he asked Agasshi to go to hospital because of these issues is just plain wrong.

Kim Hye Jin (Jang Hee Jin)

Now, let's focus on the character who has caused the most problems throughout the entirety of this drama. As I have mentioned before, she is the dead body that So Yoon discovers on her first day at work, and is most likely to be So Yoon's sister with the extreme amount of incidents that link with each other. I mean, she has the exact same necklace that So Yoon's sister has, the exact same birthday (which was later found to be changed), the fact that Hye Jin had an older sister who "died," and both So Yoon and Hye Jin having followed the same career path of being a teacher. Coincidence much? Nope.

I'm sorry to say this, but I can not stand Hye Jin's character. I can understand her hate for Yoon Ji Sook and why she is the worst person alive, but her actions are so infuriating. She in an Achiara person, yet she forces herself to stand out. She doesn't socialize with her coworkers, she's only kind to her students, and worst of all, she slept with Yoon Ji Sook's husband just to show others what she's capable of doing. I can understand why someone actually killed her (I know that's not a very nice thing to say, but it's true).

Yoon Ji Sook (Shin Eun Gyeong)

Despite her ignorance on the subject of Kim Hye Jin, she is most definitely the prime suspect in the murder case. The two of them have a hateful past and gives Yoon Ji Sook the right motive for death of Hye Jin. She is also extremely determined to stay beside her husband, whether it's because she actually loves him, because of his wealth or just so that her children have a father. I don't know to be honest, that is quite unclear but she seems eager to have yet another child with the man, only to assure herself that her husband only belongs to her, and not with Hye Jin as well.

Even without her past, Ji Sook still isn't a great person. She has favoritism between her children (loving her son more than her daughter), her spite towards her sister is full of vengeance and dislike, and she suspects anybody for doing nothing. She's trying to find more about So Yoon when she's done nothing for her to do that. Nobody wants to get on his woman's wrong side.

Seo Gi Hyun (Ohn Joo Wan)

The son who had everything handed to him on a plate. There isn't much I can say about him. He doesn't have a motive to kill Kim Hye Jin (just yet), but there has been evidence that Gi Hyun was one of the last few people to see her alive and they have meeting secretly. For what reason is unknown (or I just can't remember) but he is a shady character. He is near the bottom of the list for suspects, but things may change as the drama progresses.

Also, I am wondering why he is hanging around So Yoon as much as he is. I get that So Yoon mostly trusts him and they might be friends, but he is spending a lot of his job time with her. He must either have a small crush on So Yoon (like Woo Jae, but I find this unlikely), or he knows that So Yoon and Hye Jin are connected somehow. But all will be revealed sooner or later.

Nam Gun Woo (Park Eun Seok)

Finally, we have this guy. The awful art teacher. He is dating Ji Sook's sister (I do believe this is intentional spotting) with no plans of getting married, while secretly stealing her money to buy alcohol and drugs. He is also flirting with Ga Yeong (Lee Yeol Eum) to the point of having her come into his car and almost sleep with him. After finding out he was a drug addict, he's become less of a suspect because when drunk, most people would accidentally spill out that they killed someone, but in this case, he hasn't done that. However, there is still potential of him killing Hye Jin without awareness.

With the amount of suspects out of only six characters, a sudden plot twist could come out of anywhere.

Reasons Why and Why Not to Watch

Advantages: 

• - Yook Sung Jae. 
• - The chemistry between each and every character/actor is incredible and believable, acting needs to go very far for a drama to succeed and The Village: Achiara's Secret has that. 
• - Good pacing for a thriller-horror drama.

Disadvantages: 

• - The music is all over the place. 
• - Unnecessary scenes. 
• - Issues of homophobia and transphobia are used. 
• - Subtlety isn't being shown when needed. 
• - The drama tries too hard to be scary and doesn't execute scenes properly. 
• - Seo Yoo Na (Ahn Seo Hyun) has been more active that So Yoon.

I realize that I've pointed out more flaws than actual positive points, but for someone to be surprised at how much better a drama is than they were expecting, they need to have some disadvantages to work with.

At the moment, I'm not enjoying The Village: Achiara's Secret as much as I wish I was, but I would most definitely recommend to someone who likes crime and thriller themed dramas. It's worth a shot.

Images came from Dramabeans.

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed it.