Netflix’s latest Japanese thriller, The Village follows the bullied youngster of Kamon village, Yuku, who contends with the corrupt officials and resentful villagers who all see him as an eyesore for what his father did a decade ago.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Yuu works at the Kamon village’s waste plant as one of the recyclers. His superiors bully him and he doesn’t fight back. The villagers also find him despicable and glare at him with contemptuous murmurs. This is all because his father committed a crime 10 years ago.
Toru bullies him and he has a hard time toiling away at work, in addition to also doing night shifts when he has to work along certain others in burying the toxic waste illegally dumped there by Yakuza people, working in cahoots with Toru, the son of the mayor.
When Yuu’s childhood friend Misaki returns to Kamon, she begins her work at the waste processing facility as the new leader of the PR department. She makes Yuu participate too, which runs Toru off the wrong way. He tries to convince Misaki to ditch Yuu but she only grows closer to him.
The two begin their romance and thanks to Misaki, Yuu gets new opportunities and his life changes for the better. When Tory records himself trying to rape Misaki, Yuu arrives and stops him. Toru beats him and is about to kill him before Misaki stops him for good.
Yuu and Misaki’s lives continue to be on an upswing but when her brother Keiichi finds infectious waste, he reports the authorities about it. Yuu is tasked with covering it up as well as the fact that the illegal dumping has contaminated the water drastically.
Meanwhile, to exonerate himself, he tries to make Keiichi give a false statement to the police, which he denies just as the two meet an accident. Misaki prepares to leave and Yuu heads off to Mayor Ohashi’s residence, where upon seeing his sleazy and corrupt soul, Yuu can’t bear it all and sets ablaze his surroundings with the flames of revenge.
The Village ending explained in detail:
What did Yuu’s father do?
When the waste processing facility was being built in the village, there were some who organized opposition against it. Yuu’s father was the leader of the opposing group.
However, his efforts proved unsuccessful and he was ostracized and bullied, following which he isolated himself but he also killed one of the plant’s officials.
His story concluded with tragedy as he ended his life as well, burning himself along with his house. This act left his family alone in a village the residents of which came to hate them most viciously.
Who kills Toru?
Toru has been a bully since childhood and has subjected Yuu to his sadistic whims. At the waste processing facility, he bullies Yuu by making him participate in fights but he doesn’t fight back so he’s mostly pummeled by the other participant.
When Misaki returns to the village, she recognizes him but he takes a little time to do the same. Meanwhile, Toru is instantly jealous and insecure about how much Misaki seems to like him and cares about him.
When he fails to get her to care for him instead, Toru’s obsession with Misaki takes a hideously virulent form. He goes to her home and first tries to sway her opinion of Yuu by showing his picture at the illegal dumping site that he previously captured, citing this to be the reason why he’s such a bad person.
However, Misaki knows right off the bat that he made Yuu do that. Toru then proceeds to force himself on her, and despite her resistance, he continues to force his way to rape, in addition to recording his terrible deeds.
A phone call from Yuu to Misaki was moments ago picked up by Toru who hung up after saying that he and Misaki are busy. Yuu races to her home and manages to stop Toru from doing his horrible deed.
However, this earns him the rage of Toru and he starts to beat him up. Yuu tries to fight back but it’s to no avail. After getting punched incessantly by Toru, Yuu lies all bloodied on the ground, but before a tragic occurrence can come about, Misaki sneaks up on Toru and plunges scissors into the back of his neck.
Toru bleeds to death and Yuu acts quickly, carrying his corpse to the dumping site and burying it, with Misaki standing nearby, in shock and trauma over what all transpired.
What happens to Yuu and Misaki?
Misaki had left the village and went to Tokyo but work and life there turned out to be impossible after a certain point, thanks to her mental health problems.
She then decided to return to Kamon where she reunited with her childhood best friend Yuku aka Yuu, who had now become a mere shell of the extroverted, vocal, and confident person he once was.
Misaki’s return to the village made Yuu smile again and helped him leave the miserable hellish life he was subjected to by a host of people, including the shady money lenders, corrupt employers, apathetic officials, the village people at large, and even his own gambler and addict mother.
The two found in each other a warm company but it all went to hell once again, as Misaki came to be assaulted by Toru who also tried to rape her. Meanwhile, Yuu’s improved life is intervened by the corrupt deeds of the mayor and other officials getting the spotlight.
Misaki wishes to and is about to leave by the end of The Village, and Yuu regrets not being able to offer her the same happiness that she brought him. He then proceeds to the Mayor’s house and after seeing just how pathetic and greedy he is, he kills him.
He also sets fire to his home, killing his mother in the process as well, before walking out, as Kokichi, the Mayor’s brother, catches up to him after having seen the video evidence of Toru assaulting and trying to rape Misaki and Yuu saving her, essentially figuring out Yuu’s part in all of this.
By the time he reaches the village, however, it’s too late for his mother and brother Ohashi. As for Yuu, whatever happens to him is left for the viewer’s interpretation and guesses.
Whatever it might be, one thing is sure — Yuu and Misaki do not have their happy-ever-afters, and the two become one of the most tragic victims of the village, where it’s not just the water that’s contaminated but also the hearts and souls of its residents.
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