The Village: Achiara's Secret (2015)

I’m really glad I decided to start “The Village: Achiara’s Secret” which I can say it’s probably one of the best Korean dramas this year (and one of the most underrated too, sigh!). I’ve been hooked with it since the 1s° episode and I spent hours thinking about the culprits, the other character’s story etc.

PLOT:” Achiara is a small and peaceful village in the Korean countryside where nobody commits crime ; not other parts of Korea where a mysterious serial killer kills people on “Rainy Wednesday”. That’s what people say to Han Soo Yoon, the new English teacher, when she arrives from Canada. Unfortunately, the shy Soo Yoon discovers a corpse right away! Seeking the truth in Achiara is not simple: everyone has a secret or a reason to hate and threat someone….
One of the many things I really appreciate is the absence of romance/story line: no distractions, no useless moments or stupid parts! Also there aren’t many characters with side stories: dragging level is like 0%.

ACTING: to be honest, at first I didn’t like Moon Geun Young’s acting and way of playing Han Soo Yoon ^^” I thought she was emotionless and below average but, episode after episode, I realized that she probably is the only actress in Korea able to portray this kind of character: shy, scared, with low self-esteem. However I can’t totally say she did a great job; the other actors did WAY better than her
BTOB’s Joung Jae, for example, impressed me in a positive way (also because he’s only 20 years old…) and I read that many Koreans thought he was a professional actor, not an idol. Actresses Jang So Yeon, Shin Eun Gyeong and actor Choi Jae Woong did a wonderful job too

REWATCH VALUE: I wouldn’t rewatch it because I already know who the culprit is but I think this is a series that everyone MUST watch soon or later!

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This drama is the perfect example to show you how a drama with thrill, crime and msytery on its genre should be done! I've seen my share of this genre and they usually can't pull it off at least not in a way that would make me anticipate for 16 eps long and to actually work my brain out trying to find answers. The Village: Achiara's Secret promised me a thrilling journey and it definitely fulfilled that promise (that's a tough promise to keep considering 16 eps long).

Story
NO ROMANCE that's the best thing about it because it is fully focused on the story no distractions no useless characters or side stories or scenes. I can't really explain much about the story without spoiling it, I wouldn't say the perfect story cus it's not it actually has holes which weren't covered. However, the story wasn't just about crime, mystery, thrill it actually delivers feelings and meaning behind it all.

Acting
I gave it 9/10 because I think if it wasn't for everyone's FLAWLESS (except for one person) performance this drama wouldn't have worked out. Though all dramas require great cast with great acting skills, a drama with these genres in particular requires much more than great acting to pull it off. No matter how thrilling the storyline is without the right cast it will never work out. I personally give BIG applause to Shin Eun Gyeong, Yook Sung Jae, Jang Hee Jin and Choi Jae Woong the most. Surprisingly though in terms of performance Moon Geun Young was the weakest of them all (I don't know if it was because of the character).

Rewatch
Definitely not, the kind of category that this drama falls in makes it a none rewatchable drama. Once the mystery is solved there is no point in watching it again (at least not to me).

Overall
This drama needs to get more audience on the (currently watching) it's a good one and worth the attention. One more important point it's thanks to this drama I started to like this genre even more now. I highly recommend it

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