Time now for another Korean drama post. I still love my Korean drama but I'm a veteran watcher at this point with years of watching under my belt. Elements of the same plot are always used too much, such as the angry grandmother, mother, or Aunt that hates a certain character for sometimes no reason(most of the time there's a reason). These conflict starters are fun to watch but it bothers me when things get predictable and you can foresee an angry grandma's appearance in a family themed drama. I have become extremely picky when watching dramas. I'm also not a trendy drama watcher because I buy boxsets more than I watch online. Watching the new upcoming dramas don't appeal to me. I'll probably see it in a few years time when none's talking about the drama anymore.[insert me laughing.] Achiara was right up my alley though. Very underrated but known by fans of the webtoon.
The cast consists of Moon Geun Young, Yook Sung Jae of idol group BtoB, Oh Joo Wan, and, Shin Eun Kyung. There's a huge extended cast that I don't feel like typing out but they're awesome as well. Lee Yong Seok(Super Rookie) directed the drama for sixteen episodes.
A sister travels to the town of Achiara to find her missing sister. She soon finds that the town is hiding a secret. The secret involves her sister but as she gets closer to finding out the secret, strange events start occurring in Achiara. What is this town hiding?
I can literally sit down at a table with printed out pictures of all the characters in this drama and make a relationship chart. The plot is literally like drawing a line to connect each character together. Achiara has a big enough cast that you have to sit and watch everything unfold. You miss something and the plot won't make sense. I found myself rewinding back to some of the parts because I had missed something and the piece of the truth being revealed to me didn't make much sense. The drama does try to give you cheap scares here and there but the whole drama itself isn't scary to me. Some parts deal with murder but its pretty PG-13. What was scarier than that was the darkness inside of people that is presented in this drama. The way its presented is chilling. Maybe even downright disturbing.... A supernatural theme is also added to this drama for a sad effect. Not scary but sad in the way that you know the person who appears is dead and can't do much to help the situation at hand. all this combined together as one makes for a great plot that has you wanting to see more. It also makes for a great discussion with friends as this drama has many characters and layers that are fun to talk about.
Each actor and actress play their part of a game of who done it? You as the viewer kind of go around and listen to each character's case. This isn't what actually happens in the show but its like your trying to figure out who is suspicious when a new face is introduced. Honestly, everybody in Achiara comes off as kind of strange at first. Then you learn more about the characters as the drams progresses through episodes. Moon Geun looks very dopey most of the drama like she rather be off in some imaginary land instead of in creepy Achiara. I liked her acting mostly during the later half of the drama where finding out what happened to her sister was her biggest priority. I have to give a hand to the extended cast who made this drama have so many different layers to it's story. So many layers that you forget about the main character from time to time. Certain characters have their own problems and the drama gives them their rightful screen time. What I liked the most was how every actor and actress had to act in a manner that made you think that they had something to do with the disappearance. I wonder if the cast got the whole script or if they had to act out their characters in the dark without knowing if their character was involved or not. Gosh, That would be so interesting!
Achiara was shot in the same style that a drama titled Gabong was shot in. Especially Gabong's village scenes. Many of the scenes are done at night or while it raining. If its not raining, there's a think fog cast over Achiara. These dark scenes make you think of a horror film but its more about the thrills than the scares. A scene shot during the day was like a needle in a hay sack. When you got to see daylight, it was like looking at something unheard of.
Thank you Achiara's Secret for proving that Korean drama writers(and webtoon creators) still have creative juices flowing in their brains. Besides the angry grandma thats in every drama, the storyline stayed true to itself. I need more Korean drama that will go against the popular formula thats out right now.
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