Hometown (홈타운) is a 2021 Thriller Cop Show drama that aired in South Korea by tvN. It's been made available throughout Asia through Viu, OnDemandKorea and iQIYI with appropriate regional subtitles. The drama stars Yoo Jae-myung, Han Ye-ri and Uhm Tae-goo.
The show begins in 1989 in Saju, South Gyeongsang Province. The Saju Train Station has been attacked with sarin nerve gas with everyone inside dead. The Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency arrest Jo Kyung-ho, a South Korean man who studied in Japan for a few years before he came back. He's sentenced to life in prison for the attack.
In 1999, Detective Choi Hyung-in is coping with the loss of his wife, who was killed in the '89 terror attack. He works with Lee Si-jeong to solve a murder case with ties to Jo Jae-young, who has gone missing from Gyeongcheon Girls' Middle School. Meanwhile, Jo Jung-hyun, Kyung-ho, is trying to have a low profile after his arrest and conviction since she's stigmatized for having a terrorist as an immediate relative. Meanwhile, Hyung-in and Si-jeong have picked up the trail of a supposed cassette tape that has a strange recording that does seemingly nothing...
As the investigation continues, Hyung-in and Kyung-ho realize that whatever's happening in Saju, it ties with a video tape made by Kyung-ho and her friends back in Gyeongcheon High School with an occult-like symbol that's tied to a presence of a cult known as Youngjingyo and drugs being smuggled into South Korea.
Homeland contains examples of:
- The '80s: The drama is partly set in 1989, a year after South Korea hosted the Olympics.
- The '90s: The main setting of the drama. You can tell by the mobile phones they use as they aren't the smartphone-types you see in the 2010s.
- Abandoned Area: An abandoned building is investigated by the GPPA
- All There in the Manual: The Viu website gives the episode titles in English (or whatever the country's language is).
- Cult: The Youngjingyo. Basically the South Korean equivalent of Aum Shinrikyo.
- Driving Question: Several made in the show.
- What made Kyung-ho use sarin on Saju Train Station?
- Why did Jae-young leave school while classes are going on?
- What's the strange occult-like symbol popping around Saju?
- What are the tapes the middle school students found? And how are they tied back to 1989? It's suggested that using the tapes is one component of having someone brainwashed.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Jae-young's abduction is investigated by Hyung-in and Kyung-ho. As they continue to do so, they realize that it may be tied to Kyung-ho's terror attacks.
- A witness Hyung-in and Kyung-ho spoke to was murdered prior to leaving for Japan. Turns out that he's involved with the cult.note
- Police Are Useless: The GPPA is pressured to find out whoever kidnapped Jae-yong from Gyeongcheon Girls' Middle School and murdered several persons in Saju. They can't get good clues because the Youngjingyo are taking any evidence that can used to incriminate them.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The Saju attack is one for the sarin gas attack at the Tokyo Metro subway in 1995.
- SWAT Team: The GPPA has a SWAT team called in to help Hyung-in investigate a suspicious building as part of an investigation tying in the kidnapping and murders with a supposed drug gang.
- Wham Episode:
- "A Missing Girl": Kim Hwan-Kyu was last seen with Jae-young. She later goes missing.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Saju is said to be located in South Gyeongsang Province as indicated by the first episode, "A Missing Girl".
