Hometown

Hometown: A South Korean TV series which includes a few tropes, serial killers, cults, noir, police procedural, but taken together with all of the violence and death involved it elides into the slipstream of Horror. Set in 2000, 1999, 1987 with shorter flashbacks to other years. In 1987 members of a cult launch a gas attack at a railway station killing hundreds. In 1999, detective Choi Hyung-in who lost his wife in the 1987 attack sees a pattern in seemingly random killings and suspects that the cult is back. Only one person was ever convicted of involvement in the attack, Jo Kyung-ho; his sister Jo Jung-hyun becomes involved in the case after her niece goes missing, The timelines cut back and forth, often in a confusing manner so keep off your phone when you're watching this. Killer cults may have milder cults as fronts but paradoxically this makes it even more difficult to infiltrate them. The use of mind control through mixtapes and video tapes is portrayed in a convincing yet horrific manner. The violence isn't just that of the mass killings, individual deaths are also shown in a traumatic way. There are 12 hour long episodes, the strands gradually weave together as the series reaches a conclusion. It all fits together in the final episode. At least i think it does! Stick with this one and you'll find it rewarding. Directed by Park Hyun Suk,Written by Joo Jin. On Netflix. 8/10.

This is my first review . After watching so many great shows like leftovers , dark and ... with complex storyline and good drama finally I see a great show with superb acting and well-developed characters . I usually avoid korean dramas because of so much romance but in the recent dramas I watch I never expected this show to be so smart and having satisfying ending. I realy enjoy the detective personality and Yoo jae myung acting too . He portrays the detective excatly nothing less or more . It is slow paced but worth the paitience until the end.

Hometown impresses with its atmosphere, character depth, and suspenseful pacing. But the similarities to the Japanese film Cure (1997) are hard to ignore: hypnotic suggestion, memory lapses, senseless murders, and a mysterious man behind bars pulling the strings. Even the overall mood and slow-burn storytelling feel very much alike. Watching Cure after Hometown is like realizing you've seen this story before-just told in a different country, in a different style. It's surprising that this connection hasn't been widely acknowledged. Still, for fans of dark, psychological thrillers, both are absolutely worth watching-maybe even more so together.

Can't keep track of the characters and timelines!

Korean series are a challenge for a lot of Anglos because of the characters' names being hard to recognize and remember. This series adds flash forwards and flash backs and having different actors play the same characters in the different timelines and that all adds to the problem of keeping track of who is whom.

I had to just stop watching in the middle of episode 2-I just could not figure out who was missing, who was murdered, when did things happen and how were these people related?

I was up for putting in effort and paying close attention and still I just couldn't figure out what was going on!

Im basically a fan of Korean detective series, but couldn't watch this one.

Bummers.

At first liked it... Then became very slow and very stale.. the producers tried their best to make it a suspense thriller but ended becoming slow and a bit sleep inducing boring.

Also, y r u creating a problem that never existed?

I mean India and South Korea always had an amazing relationship. We respect each other a lot and find a lot of similarities in each other's culture and so feel very related to each other (most probably cz of the spread of Buddhism in Korea long time ago and also being an Easter race just like Indian-dravidians).

The series tries it's best to target and insult India/Hindu ideologies even tho it doesn't touch any of them at all.. pretty weird.

It's like when America was discovered but mistaken as India which is why we have the racial term "red/native Indians" This series does the very same by antagonizing hindi that too by totaly mispronouncing and misinterpreting every syllable of Hindi. Showing as sanskrit mantra and yoga as marker of the ongoing "evil force".. My question is WHY???