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Village: Secret of Achiara: Episode 16 (Final)

Time to say goodbye to Village: Secret of Achiara, which turns out a pretty satisfactory finale episode that not only answers questions of plot but, more importantly, does a good job of reaching emotional closure with our characters as well.

Given that a main character is still dead, perhaps we can’t have a perfectly happy resolution… But if we can’t prevent that death from happening in the first place, next best is giving that life due respect by acknowledging how it really ended, and what that meant to the people closest to her. And perhaps surprisingly, it turns out to have meant more than we might have guessed for some.

SONG OF THE DAY

Ra.D – “엄마” (Mom)Download ]

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EPISODE 16: “Goodbye, Mom”

The carpenter’s wife recounts witnessing Ji-sook strangling Hye-jin, and So-yoon is stunned speechless.

The cops arrive to follow up with the wife’s story, having checked on the family’s alibi. The wife had visited her family with their daughter, but the carpenter had gone in for emergency dialysis treatment. Ignoring for a moment the logic hole where he forgot he had an alibi when he was insisting on innocence, this means the carpenter couldn’t have been in Achiara that day—so did the wife kill Hye-jin?

As she recounts that day, we see in flashback as the wife and daughter arrive at the mill to pack up the carpenter’s supplies. They measure the daughter’s height, and then she suddenly vomits, sending them rushing out to the hospital. (Hello, another alibi missed?)

When returning to the mill, a strange car is parked in front. Her first thought is fear that Hye-jin brought a reporter with her, having threatened to go public with the story. Instead, she sees Ji-sook throttling Hye-jin in the workshop, and Hye-jin gasps, “Mom… save me…”

Those words make Ji-sook recoil, and she looks at her hands in shock as Hye-jin comes to her feet. Hye-jin cries, “Do you hate me that much? So much you want to kill me?”

But Ji-sook doesn’t look murderous (anymore), and shakes her head, pleading for Hye-jin to stop doing this, and to leave the past buried. Hye-jin asks how she can when he’s the one who wronged them and now lives happily with his family. She insists that he has to suffer the same pain that he dished out.

And then, the carpenter’s wife swoops in and slams a heavy object into the back of Hye-jin’s skull. She drops like a rock. The wife shakes with rage, saying that they’re living diligently now.

Ji-sook trembles violently, shocked, while Hye-jin reaches out with a hand. She can only reach the wooden box, breaking her nail on the lid, and slowly goes limp. It’s the wife who says harshly that it’s better for Ji-sook to cover this up, while Ji-sook gags, then falls to the ground in a crying jag.

So now the story’s out. So-yoon asks angrily why the wife did it, and Woo-jae scoffs at her reasoning that she did it to protect her family.

The wife is taken in for interrogation, where she tells of burying the corpse in the woods with Ji-sook, then burning her purse and disposing of her belongings. Ji-sook had taken an envelope out of Hye-jin’s purse, and although the wife doesn’t know what was inside, So-yoon guesses it contained the hospital business card we’d seen before.

Ji-sook’s in the middle of a photo shoot when the police arrive to arrest her for attempted murder and the concealment of the body. She’s escorted away, protesting all the while.

Assemblyman Seo and Ki-hyun both hear of the arrest, and Ki-hyun urges his father to contact their lawyers right away. But the assemblyman is ready to wash his hands of his wife, saying that he and his mother have known about Ji-sook being Hye-jin’s mother for two years, and kept quiet about it. Now that she’s the source of all this attention, he’s not having it. Ki-hyun looks crushed at his father’s cold response.

In interrogation, Ji-sook is presented with a recording of the call the other day where she tells the wife it’s better to let her husband go to prison than to go herself. That proves she at knew about the wife’s actions, though she insists on her innocence and says they have no proof of her involvement.

When Ki-hyun visits her in custody, he tells her about getting an attorney, and is surprised when Ji-sook seems fixated on less important things—like worrying that her husband still wants to divorce her. She says she’ll be out of here soon, telling him not to worry.

When Ki-hyun asks if anything really happened, Ji-sook leans in closer and whispers, “I only tried to get rid of a monster.”

That night she huddles to herself in the jail cell, and hears Hye-jin’s voice calling out, “Save me.” Grabbing her head, Ji-sook screams and screams.

Ji-sook asks to see So-yoon, who visits the next day. Ji-sook explains that she’d thought Hye-jin would let things drop after she told her of her birth origins, but instead, Hye-jin became determined to track down her father. Ji-sook thought that since Hye-jin had come to her wanting to live, if Ji-sook offered her a kidney, that would put an end to everything.

However, that spurred Hye-jin in the opposite direction, and when Hye-jin saw that hospital card in that envelope, she’d decided to go to the mill and confront her father.

In flashback, we see Hye-jin calling Ji-sook from the carpenter’s workshop, telling Ji-sook that she’s here to end things once and for all today. Ji-sook urges her to leave the mill right away, and when Hye-jin refuses, she rushes over. She freezes at the gates, recalling being lured here as a young girl, spurred now by fear to drag Hye-jin out of danger.

She envisions her childhood self in the workshop and presses Hye-jin to leave right away. But Hye-jin interprets Ji-sook’s panic as a selfish desire to shut her up. She shakes off Ji-sook’s arm and vows to stay and confront the monster, asking why she’s concerned now when she’d coldly rejected her before. “Do you really want to save me?” she asks. “Even though I’m not a human? To you, I’m just a monster.”

Hye-jin gets increasingly worked up as she cries that she feels miserable and pathetic, and is here to get revenge on the man who turned her into a monster. That’s why she’s here: “I’m not trying to hurt you!”

But those words trigger a memory. Ji-sook suddenly sees the carpenter in Hye-jin’s place, telling young Ji-sook, “I’m not trying to hurt you.” Ji-sook screams, confronted with her buried trauma, and shakes with rage. She lunges at Hye-jin and shoves her to the table, hands at her throat, shouting, “You’re a monster!”

It’s only when Hye-jin says “Mom, save me” that Ji-sook comes back to her senses, falling back in alarm.

In the present, Ji-sook tells So-yoon that she just wanted her to disappear, like it hadn’t happened. So-yoon asks what she was thinking when she hid the body.

Ji-sook replies, “I’d better cover it up. Let’s forget everything, like it never happened.”

That’s enough of a confession, and Ji-sook is arrested. Joo-hee visits her sister upon seeing the news, feeling terrible now that she’s heard the whole story. But Ji-sook tells her confidently that she’ll be out soon, since she did nothing wrong. She says she’ll live well, have a baby, and live happily with her family. She warns Joo-hee not to dare pity her, but Joo-hee asks sympathetically how her sister lived all this while bearing such a burden. But Ji-sook seems locked in her denial that everything is fine.

So-yoon checks in on the kids, who are holding up pretty well. Ba-woo is determined to find the real time capsule, thinking that the one they found wasn’t the right one, while Yoo-na sees her mother as sick, rather than a bad person. She asks So-yoon if she hates Ji-sook, and So-yoon answers that while she does, she also feels heartache about her.

So-yoon comes home to find a creepy package at her door: There’s a clown mask inside with a note that reads, “Did Kim Hye-jin merely hate her mother?” She knows it’s Agasshi, and logs onto the web address on the note, which is a foreign chat site.

Agasshi joins her in the chat, asking if she’s happy now that that criminal has been caught. When she says no, he points out how difficult happiness is, and asks if she wants to be happy. He proposes that they meet in person, using that cryptic question about Hye-jin as the lure.

So-yoon is both tempted and wary, and takes it to the police. They outfit her apartment in security cameras and promise to be there anytime she needs.

Ki-hyun brings a lawyer to talk to Ji-sook, who explains how she took Hye-jin’s keys after she died, and went to her place looking to get rid of that DNA evidence. She didn’t find it, but did get rid of a laptop, assuming it would contain damning information. When the lawyer asks if she was afraid of that truth being leaked, Ji-sook insists with wide-eyed innocence, “It wasn’t because I was afraid—it was because it wasn’t true!”

Ji-sook insists she has no relation to Hye-jin, calling her a monster who appeared one day out of nowhere.

The police officer stationed at Agasshi’s shack is approached by a passing vagrant—and doesn’t recognize that it’s Agasshi in disguise until he gets knocked out and tied up. Agasshi rummages through his house for the hidden supplies he’d stashed away, then asks the officer if he wants his pain taken away.

Ki-hyun updates So-yoon on Ji-sook’s condition and psychological evaluation. So-yoon sighs that she wishes Hye-jin had someone with her, the way Ki-hyun is there for Ji-sook, and says it’s heartbreaking to think of her sister dying alone. Still, she can’t shake the feeling that there’s something more to this whole situation, her mind flashing back to Ji-sook’s attempt to take Hye-jin away from the danger at the mill.

When So-yoon gets home, her fortuneteller neighbor informs her she has a package for her—and it isn’t until So-yoon steps inside the door that she sees that the woman has been taken hostage by Agasshi, who holds a loaded syringe to her neck.

With the ladies tied up and subdued, he prepares his drugs, explaining how he’s mixed up a new batch that has great results.

So-yoon tells Agasshi that she has to check in with police every three hours, and that if she doesn’t call them now, they’ll come to check on her. So he allows her to call Woo-jae, and she tells him in very stilted language that she’s totally safe and nothing weird is going on. I’m assuming the check-in was a lie, and Woo-jae finds the call odd enough to suspect Agasshi is involved.

He and Sergeant Han hurry over to So-yoon’s apartment, and when they find nothing, they check the camera footage and see that she went next door. They burst into ajumma’s apartment, but she’s the only one there—Agasshi has taken So-yoon somewhere else.

Seeing the drug supplies laid out, they guess he may have taken her back to his laboratory and move out to the shack. That’s indeed where they’ve relocated, and Agasshi resumes mixing up his drugs while So-yoon surreptitiously tries to untie her bound wrists. She asks what Hye-jin said about her mother, but he says he’ll tell her “once you’re happy.” Then she asks why he began killing, and he replies that Hye-jin had told him her wish was to become happy. He couldn’t do it for her, but promises to do so for So-yoon.

She asks why he never uses the drugs on himself, wondering if he doesn’t want to be happy himself. He scoffs, “What, and die?” That confirms to her that he does know what he’s doing, and she calls bullshit on his “making you happy” line as an excuse to kill people.

He gets upset that she won’t believe that he just wanted to make Hye-jin happy, and when he approaches with a syringe, she shoves him aside with newly freed hands. But he regroups quickly and has her cornered in no time, ready to dose her with his needle.

Thankfully, Woo-jae and Sergeant Han burst in then, and Agasshi backs away from her. He manages to knock Sergeant Han aside and shoves Woo-jae to the floor, and overpowers him with multiple punches. He’s about to stick Woo-jae with his needle when So-yoon grabs one of the dropped guns and points it at Agasshi, shaking with fury and telling him that he deserves to die too.

She looks like she may just pull the trigger, but Sergeant Han leaps in to take down Agasshi and handcuff him, while Woo-jae diverts her gun. The rest of the police arrive to take over the matter, leading Agasshi away just as So-yoon steps in his path to demand an answer. What did Hye-jin say about hating her mother?

Agasshi replies, “How can a child only hate their mother? Not when they yearn so much for her. I was like that, and so was Kim Hye-jin.”

Ki-hyun brings Yoo-na to visit her mother at the jail, and Ji-sook lights up to see her. She assures Yoo-na that she’s fine now, while Yoo-na tells her mother that it’s not a bad thing to be sick, and that Hye-jin would have thought so too.

Ki-hyun wants to get Ji-sook to serve her time in a treatment center, saying that’s what she needs most. So-yoon has decided to return to Canada, and expresses disappointment that the real criminal hasn’t been punished adequately—the carpenter.

A man drops by the police station to fill out an application for gun possession, and Woo-jae compliments him on his expensive shoes. The man says he bought two pairs since the first one got lent and ruined, and when he turns in the form, the name of his business catches Woo-jae’s eye—the fitness center he runs is the same fitness center owned by the deceased Chairman Noh.

Something niggles at Woo-jae’s memory, and he realizes the shoes were the same ones worn by that man found hanging in the meat processing factory. What could this mean?

Elsewhere, Assemblyman Seo meets with… Chairman Noh? Not dead after all? What? The chairman chuckles that he’s returned from the dead and thanks Assemblyman Seo for making it happen.

So-yoon visits Ji-sook one more time to ask about her real reason for going to the mill that day. Ji-sook says it was to stop Hye-jin, but So-yoon has made sense of all the details now, and guesses that Ji-sook really went to save her. She also points out that Ji-sook first looked into kidney donation before Hye-jin had even started looking for her father.

Ji-sook explains that the day after she’d told Hye-jin about her birth origins, Hye-jin had returned to tell her she’d leave her alone. She’d said there wasn’t anything she wanted from Ji-sook, and that the people she’d considered family hadn’t turned out to consider her as such. So she hadn’t sought Ji-sook out because of their blood tie, or even for the transplant: “It’s just, I was so lonely. The feeling of hiding alone in this world… it was so saddening that I thought seeing my mother might make it a little better.”

“But I know now that all that is nothing,” she’d said. “I’m sorry. For being born to you. For being a monster to you. Goodbye, Mom.”

Ji-sook cries recalling this. “I couldn’t accept her,” she says, “But I could save her life. I thought that might be okay.”

So-yoon asks why she didn’t tell Hye-jin this before she’d started on the hunt for the carpenter. Ji-sook asks pitifully, “What if I confused myself and thought of her as my daughter? I didn’t want to let her know that I thought that even for a moment.”

So-yoon replies, “But at the very least, you saw her as a person. Not a monster. If she’d known that, even that alone would have comforted her. And my unni isn’t a monster. She’s our mother and father’s daughter, and she’s my sister.” Ji-sook manages a smile and nod.

Aw, our trusty cops are promoted—Sergeant Han to lieutenant, and Woo-jae to sergeant.

Woo-jae is sad to hear that So-yoon is leaving, though she recognizes that she stirred up a lot of discomfort in her quest for the truth. Woo-jae counters that it doesn’t justify covering up injustice.

Yoo-na and Ba-woo continue to dig in the woods, and finally come upon the real box buried in the dirt. They bring it to So-yoon, who opens the envelope containing Hye-jin’s wish.

Inside she finds an old family photograph with her, Hye-jin, and their parents. The girls wear their matching heart necklaces.

There’s a second photo—of Yoo-na with Ji-sook, taken one day when Hye-jin had walked in on a sweet mother-daughter moment.

It brings So-yoon to tears, thinking of Agasshi’s words: “How could a child only hate their mother? Not when they yearn so much for her.”

 
COMMENTS

It’s a complicated tangle, but finally we unravel enough of the knots to see the truth hidden behind all the secrets and tragedy. The final “twist” wasn’t much of a twist, in learning that Ji-sook wasn’t quite the unfeeling monster she was presented to be, but I credit the actress with doing such a fantastic job acting the conflicting emotions that I could clearly see Ji-sook’s inner turmoil as it unfolded. So when So-yoon figured out that there was more driving Ji-sook’s behavior, it wasn’t a surprise for us, because Shin Eun-kyung had already shown it in the moment.

That’s probably my one lingering disappointment with the show, which had a lot of strengths to recommend it—tight story, ever-changing directions, suspense, chilling cliffhangers—but it was never quite put together as delicately as it wanted to. The direction wasn’t as intricate as the story demanded, so I often felt like we were getting the oversimplified, hit-you-over-the-head version of events.

Sometimes I feel wistful for what could have been if Village had just been produced with a bit more… skill, style, and/or directorial finesse. Its themes and narrative motifs could be quite moving and thought-provoking, but the effect was sometimes compromised with clumsy handling. So-yoon’s character bore the brunt of that mishandling; she had to pull double-duty as our heroine/driving force and also exposition device, and sometimes this resulted in So-yoon just seeming stupid. I do think Moon Geun-young faltered a little in her portrayal, because even with flat writing it should have been possible for a great actor to do something more than what was given on the page, but I can’t blame her too much when it was mostly a writing issue. The same goes for Woo-jae, who was necessary in propelling the investigation onward, but missed some laughably easy leads and jumped to enough wrong conclusions that I couldn’t take him too seriously as a sleuth. You never want to sacrifice a character’s intelligence just to keep the mystery going—you should always make the villain smarter, not the protagonist dumber.

I do think the show had a tendency to get lost on convoluted storylines—I’m still trying to wrap my head around what the whole deal was with the expensive shoes and the fitness center guy and the very-much-alive Chairman Noh. Well, I would still be trying to wrap my head around it if I ever cared in the first place; I only ever paid attention because I figured it was a key clue to the Hye-jin mystery, but now looking back that whole detour was a red herring, and since it is neither relevant to the plot nor interesting, I can’t be bothered to care. I know a mystery has to have some red herrings sprinkled in to keep us guessing, but it kind of feels like they dropped a big thing in our laps in the last moment and ran away snickering, doesn’t it?

I’ll write off the chairman as a negligible plot detail, but I share So-yoon’s chagrin in the carpenter not being given an adequate punishment. He’s been the source of so much misery in this town, and although I’m sure he’ll suffer a little after all this, with his wife gone and all, it does seem he’ll get to live on and stay out of prison, with the rapes past their statute of limitations. Maybe it shouldn’t matter too much what becomes of him because I’m more interested in Ji-sook and everyone around her, but it still feels like an oversight.

All that said, I’m content enough with the last episode, because it chose to end with a poignant emotional resolution rather than a crime whodunnit. Of course I wanted to know the truth of how Hye-jin died, but it was more important that the drama gave us insights into her thoughts and desires; I like that the moment we end on is more of a thematic revelation than a plot one. Rather than seeing Hye-jin in a moment related to her death, we’re given a glimpse into the emotion that become her driving force—the longing for a mother’s love that was both the thing that shaped her whole life and led to her death.

Village wasn’t without numerous flaws, but I appreciate the show for trying something different—for telling a complete story and painting rich characters who didn’t conform to a set of familiar tropes, and for not being afraid to get muddy and gray in its character depictions. It wasn’t a ratings hit, but it rewarded you for paying attention, and made an impact with its complex storyline and commanding performances, with hardly a weak acting job in the bunch. Dramaland would be better off with more shows attempting the same.

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it's hereee i've been waiting for the recap .. this episode got me crying the whole time :'(

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Nice ending. I have have reading the entire drama from the dramabeans recaps (Too scared to watch it). Except watched the raw since I couldn't wait for the recaps :D

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Now i can't hate ji sook, i only feel pity for her. It quite hurts that aghassi was aware that he was murdering people under the pretext of making them happy. Knowing that ji sook saw hye-jin as a person and was willing to donate the kidney means she has a heart after all. I agree with so yoon; the carpenter ajhussi wasn't punished properly. I know romance wasn't the direction of the story but I'd have loved a little so yoon-ki hyun time. The part of chairman Noh and the guy who came to fill gun possession form was confusing...anyways village did the suspense till the end.

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Goodbye Achiara!! Bravo to all. ")

I must say, I love all characters and although some are better written than other characters I found all of them superb. Still its given the star of the show is SEK and Hee Jin because the story is after all...all about them.

MGY can never do wrong in my eyes. What can I say I love her too much to even blame her in this story and I appreciate the fact that although she knew So Yoon is not a well written character she still decided to take on the project believing in its story. She definitely knew what she was getting herself into. For that I applaud her.

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A fairly satisfying ending... but there were a few things I would like to have been written differently:

1) Ga Young not being killed off (I don't think this was necessary for the plot)

2) More information about the carpenter's oldest child... and perhaps a scene with him taking his little sister away to live a better life without her murderous/rapist parents

3) The Assemblyman getting his due... He was actually far more "evil" and "selfish" than Ji-Sook

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Everything to damnation! Why is there even a statue of limitations for such things?!

And that carpenter's wife is cray. Living diligently is what everyone does and is not reason to get off scott-free after traumatizing others.

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That was very sad.
You think you really got someone figured out and they do a 180.

Ji Sook really wasn't that bad she just didn't express her love properly.

Thanks for the recap.

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I'm a little confused, it feels like parts of the story are still missing. This didn't feel like the last episode... more like a mild cliffhanger....

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Thank you so much for the recap! It helped me ever since the subs came out late. I enjoyed this drama the most. I got so much into it and appreciated it wasn't as gory or painful to watch as other mystery dramas. It was very emotional to get to the very end and I liked that they also touched on mental illness, trauma as well as identity issues with Aggashi and Ji Sook. I think that it was both realistic and fictional enough for me. One of my favourite mystery dramas because it doesn't leave me feeling too overwhelmed with negative emotions like others usually do.

Your narration is perfect by the way! Thanks a million for recapping this drama! <3 :)

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The carpenter ruins so many lives and he's able to live off scott free from being punished.

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Thats the unfortunate truth in a lot of cases

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yess ! I like the ending. like someone said above, i only read JB recaps the read the comments and never bother to watch the drama itself, coz i'm a coward myself. lol.

the drama's great. and this is one drama which i think everyone is the lead. coz every characters has their goal, and doing a god job in it. although maybe some can be better with better writing.

lastly, Moon Geun-young has chemistry with almost every men in this show: Ki-hyun, Woo-jae, Agasshi, and also Gun-woo

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i wanted a chemistry so badly with her and woo-jae but maybe next time :(

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i just hope that MGY would get a hit drama... it's been a while since her big hit drama. i quit this drama on ep 8 or 9, and literally following this drama through the recaps... thank you so much for your recap.

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Your final comment nailed every detail that had to be said about this drama. Thank you for recaps, comments, and viewers comments.

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First of all, thank you JB for recapping this!
In between watching raw eps and getting eng subs, your recaps are really helpful.

I personally love this show. It's nothing outstanding apparently, but a drama doesn't need to be outstanding (outstandingly good/bad) to be remembered. It's something different from kdramaland definitely. No loveline between leads, no standard characters like poor heroine/rich jerk, and there are twists and turns at every corner waiting to make you dizzy and confused. At one point I even become confused of everyone's relationships but the last few eps clear it all.

I'm happy Moon Geun Young take this drama as her comeback drama after 2 years. So Yoon probably is not her best character to date, but it's definitely something different than her usual roles (Candy girl/poor heroine). She never let me down and she always doing her best. Ah and in The Village finally she turns into a mature woman, no more childish act, but real mature person. Good job, MGY!

Good job too to everyone involved!

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Certainly not MGY's best performance, but she didn't have much to work with. As a whole I thought the drama was really enjoyable. I like that MGY is always trying out different genres of dramas and hopefully one of them will be a hit in the future.

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Nice drama and nice ending to.Thanks for recapping.

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Thanks for recapping this. :)

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Javabeans, Thanks so much for recapping all 16 episodes. I'm 3/3 with writer Do Hyun-Jung now: Que Sera Sera (2007), Can Love Become Money (2012), and The Village: Secret of Achiara (2015).

Props to the show for thinking beyond/outside the box. Opens up the possibility for more dramas to follow suit. Unconventional (check ✔). Determined to try something different - no love triangle (check ✔). A willingness to march/walk to the beat of its own drum - a narrative plot revolving around an ensemble cast of characters with (almost) equal screentime and importance to the plot (check ✔). The background music really draws your attention and highlights certain scenes.

I really liked Ahn Seo-Hyun as Seo Yoo-Na. Fantastic job.
"with hardly a weak acting job in the bunch." As it stands right now, I'd have to say Lee Yeol-Eum as Ga-Young was a weak link in the casting.

Hmmm not sure that all those who deserved it got their collective comeuppance in the final hour. Batshit crazy Yoon Ji-Sook - arrested, jailed, transferred to a psychiatric hospital/ward. Miss/Kang Pil-Sung/'Agasshi' - the serial killer is apprehended and arrested. Mr. Carpenter who raped and impregnated multiple women - Subject to punishment for his bygones from 30 years ago - nope. Statute of limitations expire so he gets off scot-free. Must live with Fabry's disease but he his gets to raise his young daughter. Politician Seo Chang-Gwon - etc.?

http://www.soompi.com/2015/10/06/three-things-the-drama-the-village-achiaras-secret-does-not-have/

First, there will be no romantic aspect in this drama. It is a weird drama with no love-lines. Secondly, there are no actors in this drama who cannot act. All of the actors and actresses in this drama, including Yook Sung Jae, are extremely talented people. Lastly, none of the actors know who the actual killer is. They will be guessing along with the viewers. All of the actors are scared that it might be them. It is rare for actors to be kept out on such an important detail in the script.

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Unpredictable to the end. Glad the way it ended. And yes- there are no actors in this drama who cannot act (Then again there are a few others like that in currently airing shows). Sim EunKyung is great as Ji-Sook. The actress seems to be in the news a lot these days (for bad things like debts, her son issues etc.) Hope she does ok because her acting is great.

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On my "to watch" list - good to know that it's a pretty satisfying watch.

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Thank you so much Javabeans for recapping all 16 episodes. Your recaps made me see much better plots and characters especially Ji-sook.
Way in the beginning, I thought this show was so slow and not much to offer as a thiller crime story.
I applaud for actress for potraying chilling, shimmering under-tension-ready-to-explode-any-moment Ji Sook. Bravo.
I think So-yoon and Woo Jae were the supporting characters to much more interesting characters like Ji-sook and Hye-Jin.

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I looked to the recap to fill in any gaps I might have missed or lacked understanding. For instance, the significance of the matching shoes between man at police station and dead man. Plus, the rebirth of chairman Noh. I guess you couldn't piece it together either..lol . Probably an editting error, or deleted scenes left in for necessary filler minutes.

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Village turned out to be a very different something. It's undoubtedly a drama with the saddest ending ever this year. :(

I can sort of understand why they'd left the boots and Chairman Noh part open-ended. It's because they no longer have anything to do with Hye-jin, and maybe it's a faint message saying that there will always be murky cases unsolved and baddies that never die in the real world. But never mind, we have Woojae to do all the investigation, eh? I think it'll be great for another season. (Which is impossible due to low ratings...sob.)

Village: Secret of Achiara had flaws, but for it's uniqueness, it has gained a spot in my heart.

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I really enjoyed this drama. Even the small amount of supernatural element was well-handled. Ji-sook, don't murder your daughter when your mom and daughter have shaman-like psychic powers, you know you've got a dose of it too.

A lot of little details from early on that were hard to remember made sense in the end. Especially the "Save Me Mom" that the ghost had painted on the walls at her funeral. It was a dig directly at her real mom and practically her dying words.

This series would be great if it were remade for US cable/Netflix etc. One good editorial pass to clean up the script a little and boom! Shocking tale of small town corruption and scandal. Could make a good Southern Gothic actually.

Thanks for all the recaps! Since the subbing was slow for this one and the story so engaging I watched most of the episodes only 2/3 titled and the recaps filled in a lot.

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This drama ws soo good! making us confused till the end, and woo jae, i thought he needed more to this story because his the second lead. I dont pity ji sook at all since she never wanted to accept hye jin and its really sad hye jin died tragically. Anyway overall this drama is amazingggggggggg!

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May I missed the explanation, but who killed the woman that was killed while agasshi was in custody?

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This show isn't great but has unique elements that make you want to keep watching.
I honestly didn't expect much for the ending after watching the 15th episode.
But.. wow.. the final episode was brilliant. Emotionally brilliant. There's some plot holes, still. But the full story between Jisook & Hyejin was so emotionally brilliant.
Kudos to Shin Eunkyung's excellent performance from the start till the very end, she nailed it!
Jisook is definitely my most favorite character, I dislike her as much as I pity her.
She's definitely far from saint, but I can feel her pain: how could you live normal after being rapped at such young age?

Last but not least, thanks Javabeans for the recaps. :)

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Ready for marathon this drama ☺

Shin Eun Kyung was outstanding and Jang Hee Jin also ! Just wondering what made MGY decided to accept this while in my opinion ,this story is about SEK n JHJ.

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idk, she probably only saw the first couple of scripts and her character was more prominent during the initial set-up. By the time it became clear the writer was laying all her eggs in the SEK/JHJ basket it was too late. Many times when I was watching, I felt like this show would have been so much better if we could have watched Hye-jin's story firsthand...and if a show would do better in MGY's absence, someone is doing something wrong (and it's not MGY lol).

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Hye Jin is already a ghost before she die.

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Great recap!!!
But the story didn't explain why did Soo Yoon's grandmother jump down from the building and died. It's a v v nice drama to watch!!! The actors and actresses did a fantastic job too!!! Keep up the gd work. Hope to see more drama from this genre. I'm glad there wasn't much love or romance scene. They didn't show whether did Ji Sook gave birth to the child. What will happen in the child's future when he found out abt his mother's past? Maybe there will be a part 2? Which is highly impossible. This drama is worth to watch!!!

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The grandmother didn't jump down from the building. She was a window cleaner and fell down when one of the robes that hold her cleaning platform got torn.

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Monster? Another secret?

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I think what really pulled at my heart and was left out of the review was when soyoon mentioned the mom knew exactly where hyejin word and said "MY CHILD was in there, I had to save her." I cried at the whole ending....I wish we could have saw hyejin'so ghost one more time.

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Cried buckets at the ending. Sad that Hye-jin who was already living a lonely life, had to die that way and without knowing that her mother, even for a while, had thought of her as a person, instead of a monster which Hye-jin believed was her mother's perception of her. Also sad that she didn't get to meet her So Yoon before she died. At least she wouldn't have felt so alone in this world. Girl just wants her family T.T

Shin Eunkyung's performance is superb - I cant completely hate her character. As manipulative as Jisook is, she has her vulnerable side and given her history, you can somehow understand why she did some of the things that she did. All the actors did great making you feel suspicious of their characters and keeping the suspense (I keep changing the murder suspect every episode or so).

I wish there are more suspenseful dramas that keep the twists coming with a satisfying ending like The Village. It's not perfect but it did keep me on the edge of my seat for 16 episodes. So for that - I love you Achiara, flaws and all.

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Despite my disappointment about some details of this drama, I think it provokes serious thoughts about rape rand rape monsters.

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Thank you for recapping this series!!!

I loved this drama despite its flaws because it was brain candy and kept me guessing from Day 1. I also feel discontented about the rapist who basically got off scot free even though he raped Jisook when she was a child so I thought there would be no statute of limitations...

Shin Eun Kyung was amazing and I will be looking into her past and future projects. Such an amazing and complex portrayal of a victim and mentally unstable woman trying to live after such a trauma. She had me in tears when I realized she tried to protect Hye Jin but also conflicted at how she handled her death.

Aghassi, Yoo na, and Ki Hyun were also quite interesting to watch.

I really hope this writer creates another drama soon!

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Just like what I guessed that ji sook is hye jin's mom in early episode, because both of them have the same talent about arts. Also I guessed that the culprit is carpenter's wife. It had shown when so yoon met her at the first time. She seemed more frightened than carpenter when there is people asked about hye jin. To be honest I love this drama very much, because there are no romance scenes on it.

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It wasn't an AMAZING drama but it was unique. The first half was definitely a little slow, the only reason I didn't stop watching was because I liked Sungjae. Sadly, MGY isn't one of my favourite actresses and this role didn't change my opinion of her.
The plot was great, I could never exactly guess what was going on but at the same time the plot was really convuluted. Is it really possible to have a village that deeply connected with so many issues? Maybe.
Character development for the main characters was a little bit lacking. Hell Ji Sook was the most interesting character and she's the villain. Ga young was also a character I actually liked unfortunately she was killed for, in my opinion, no reason. But also in the most sudden manner. Did not expect the fact that Hye Jin was also a rape child. I really didn't think Hye Jin was Ji Sook's child mostly because of the age but I didn't consider the possibility of pedophilic rape.
Loved how the drama and all of the actors successfully made me both very suspicious of everyone and yet trustful. Hateful of most characters but also sympathetic. This drama was very good at portraying the idea that humans are not just black and white but mostly grey. We are complicated and connected to make the whole picture even more complicated.
I also loved the fact that it ended while discussing mother-daughter relationships as was the whole theme of this story.
My questions:
How did So Yoon's Grandma die? I thought their was some implications that her death was abnormal.
What the heck was with the shoes and Chairman Noh still being alive thing? Like what did assemblyman Seo even do to fake that death? And who the heck was the guy that signed the papers? Was there even a point to him? I feel like scenes were cut here.
Anyone catch that they hinted about Nam Gun Woo being related to the rapist with his past actions with another high school's student? Like father, like son? is that why he 180ed and started dating Joo Hee who is older than him?

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I love the scenes between Jang Hee Jin & Shin Eun Kyung. It was sad, touching, & endearing at the same time. Kudos to both of them. They portrayed ,almost as realistic as possible, the relationship between a mother who wants to forget her unwanted daughter & a daughter who just wants to be loved.

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I feel that the mother of Ji-Sook was raped and gave birth to the second daughter (Ji-Sook's sister with different father) that's why she only adores Ji-Sook --- and I recall the scene where she was devastated discovering that her child gave birth without her knowing which I think the feeling of a mother about how painful it was for her child as well as recalling the same experience. I feel that was the reason why she favors Ji-Sook more than the second child.

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JB ~

Thanks for the recap.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around what the whole deal was with the expensive shoes and the fitness center guy and the very-much-alive Chairman Noh.

The clown mask was creepy. The shoes and Chairman Noh, were WTF worthy.

The Carpenter escaped justice!?! Where was The Truck Of Friggen Doom when you need one? Where? It would have been so satisfying to see him squashed by a lumber truck, perhaps driven by his Art Teacher son.

All and all a decent show, 4/5 stars.

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There are things that I really don't like about this drama but I stick to it until the very end. I'm quite sad since I am very much a Sungjae fan in School but then the show decreased my love for him. Other than that, I really care about each and every character. I'm also satisfied with how the show ended.

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mgy felt quite lacking throughout. i haven't seen much of her work but i always felt like there could have been more to her character if she could have done better or played by someone else. either way i did enjoy the drama.

ill be sad to see this drama go. it's so sad hat all she ever wanted was her mother to love her but they were both so broken. i couldn't hate either. i wish things could have been different.

i am a little angry sungjae role was so shitty. he was amazing in school 2015 and then he plays this dumb cop. sad to see him wasted because of lame writers.

"you should always make the villain smarter, not the protagonist dumber." THIS

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It seems a little besides the point to critique Moon Geun-young's performance when practically everyone else was bad (Yook Sung-jae eye-gougingly so, but the serial killer, all his cop friends and the art teacher weren't much better), or underperforming (Shin Eun-kyung was the best, but she can do much better; ditto Jung Sung-mo)...but then, I am an oversensitive Moon Geun-young fan and it's not like you don't have a point. Meh. This drama was never really good, but it was consistently okay, so I would count the curse broken. Hopefully she'll continue onward and upward from here (and finally get a role that will challenge her again).

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Shin Eun-kyung does "crazy" really well! I'm happy that she wasn't 100% crazy though. Finding out that Chairman Noh is still alive because Assemblyman Seo pulled a fast one was oddly satisfying, proving that Seo's won't let anything stand in the way of success and he now has some more control over Noh. Love to see the newly promoted Sergeant Woo-Jae and Lieutenant Han team up in a sequel to take on Noh and Seo, maybe send Woo-jae over to Canada on some kind of international police exchange for a bit so he can meet So-Goon again. I know not every drama needs a romance, but I like 'em with just a little bit of one! I enjoyed So-Yoon's neighbor and her weirdly abrupt mannerisms, and the Agasshi hit a perfect 10 with his alternating helpful earnestness and creepy machinations. Not one of my absolute favorites but I enjoyed it to the end.

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Hmmmm...
In my viewpoint, the plotholes did not give a satisfying ending. We were shown in ep. 1 that when SoYoon found a newspaper clipping which reported on her family's accident. I thought there's something serious going on there - when it's said that the 2 girls didn't survive.

Y'know, i have a feeling that Noh has got something to do with the accident. I couldn't exactly piece the puzzle together between Noh-Shoes-Butcher-Random guy in police station. But judging from the scene where Assemblyman meets Noh, it could be that Noh wanted his death faked because he was the mastermind behind the accident. (SoYoon's father could be a detective or prosecutor, who was leading an investigation on Noh's shady business). Noh gets information that HyeJin is one of the daughters (whilst in the search for SoYoon in Canada, after that deal between HyeJin & Noh).

Well, this is just my theory. I'm not sure about others not caring for the scenes that seemed like fillers, but i just couldn't accept it that way lol!
In my heart, i'm pleading for a 2nd season, but i know that's not gonna happen. Meh! But if they could release an SP episode which entails these unanswered mysteries will indeed be a worthwhile ending! Pleeeease.

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I enjoyed this drama sooo much, yes I got frustrated at So Yoon but woah she really stepped it up in the last few eps. I really felt so sad for Ji Sook, one of my favourite characters of the year because of how complex she is but ah her story is really tragic. I felt sad for Ga Young too, she didn't deserve to die, but in my opinion I feel that Gun Woo should have played a bigger role, he recognised his father's true colours but didn't do anything about it, to me that was the biggest pity about the ending, that the rapist who started everything didn't get his just deserves.

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Friends
I found a story similar like Ji Sook.
Please follow the link
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a50949/she-had-her-rapists-baby/

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When I saw Chairman Noh alive, I was like wtf? and i thought that he will be punished in the next scenes together with Seo. But what I saw was the credits wth

Is that an open ending? where woo jae will catch Noh in our imagination?

My fav character in this story is hye jin and the cross-dresser serial killer.

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