Moon Geun-young, Kim Jae-wook confirm SBS’s Village

by javabeans

SBS’s upcoming Village is on a casting spree, with a slew of additions to the cast being made in quick succession. Heading the list is Moon Geun-young (Goddess of Fire Jung-yi), who has confirmed taking the lead role in the mysterious drama about a seemingly peaceful, crime-free village that is rocked when an unknown corpse is discovered.

(Note: The drama now goes by The Village: Secret of Achiara, where Achiara is the name of the town, although it’s still reportedly just a working title.)

We did previously hear of Shin Eun-kyung (Oh My Ghostess) being cast to play an elegant art gallery director, and now the drama will also feature Kim Jae-wook (Age of Feeling), Jang Hee-jin (Scholar Who Walks the Night), Lee Yeol-eum (High School King of Savvy), and child actress Ahn Seo-hyun (Gold Rainbow, Dummy Mommy). Not too shabby.

Moon Geun-young’s lead character will be a language instructor who becomes the key figure in uncovering the secret of the corpse. We aren’t told how, but the description makes it sound as though she will actively be investigating the curious case of the long-buried body that nobody was searching for or knew about. I’d love for this show to be a better showcase of her abilities than her recent dramas (I loved her in Cinderella’s Sister, for instance, when she got to be dark and conflicted and dynamic), and am encouraged that it sounds like a meaty project.

I’m also excited to hear about Kim Jae-wook making his drama comeback, and am crossing my fingers that he’ll also get more acting this time around; he was dropped from Age of Feeling pretty early on, and while I liked his character in Who Are You, what I wouldn’t have done to allow him to speak a few lines in that show! He’ll play an art instructor with the looks of a refined artist and a free spirit that makes him popular among his female students. (I’d totally forgotten that he and Moon Geun-young worked together before, though maybe you won’t blame me when I remind you that it was in the muddled rom-com Mary Stayed Out All Night. I’ll hope for better results this time.)

Jang Hee-jin, Lee Yeol-eum, Ahn Seo-hyun

Jang Hee-jin will play an instructor at an art academy, whose character has a sexy, mysterious aura. She was the secret mistress to the town’s most powerful man, but because she’s an outsider, her sudden disappearance one day prompts no interest. Still, the village “experiences change through events connected to her.” That’s a really vague way to sound mysterious, and I wonder if she’ll be that corpse, or if the description is just meant to make us wonder.

Lee Yeol-eum plays a high schooler with vague dreams of being an idol singer, though her everyday life is spent without much thought, just having fun. Deep down, though, she harbors pain about growing up without a father and in difficult circumstances.

Child actress Ahn Seo-hyun will be playing a bit older than her actual age—she’s in fifth grade in real life, but her character is a middle schooler—and will take on a character who started to see strange things at the age of five, which earned her the reputation for having supernatural powers. Her ability waned afterward, and in the present day she’ll become Moon Geun-young’s sidekick in seeking out the truth.

Village plans to hold its script reading later this month and will begin filming in September. It’ll follow Yong-pal in the Wednesday-Thursday slot and will begin its 16-episode run in October.

Via Joins, Sports Chosun, IS Plus

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