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Heartwarming cliches, surprising depth, superb chemistry
I'm going to miss this dimple couple!!
Many viewers describe this as a "feel-good" or "healing" drama, and this is exactly the case. Homcha's cozy seaside village setting already lays the foundation of its biggest themes: found family, love in unexpected places, diamond in the rough, overcoming prejudice, forgiveness/acceptance, wholesome bromance, and more. If you can ignore the product placement, the fictional town of Gongjin is a heartwarming place to visit when watching Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.
PROS
❀ Production value was A+ | The thing about romcom tropes is that depending on the way the drama shows them, they can be ridiculously annoying or pleasantly refreshing. Homcha's tropes were the latter for me, and I think it was due to the accumulation of production, acting, and directing. The music was added in expertly (seriously, I associate the best vibes when it comes to the singer going "La-la-la-la-lalalala. romantic Sundayyy" for one of the OSTs), and the cinematography was an added bonus. I really think Homcha's production elevated this romcom for me, despite the well-worn tropes and dialogue.
❀ Literal flirting since day 1 | I saw this Instagram reel with Du-Sik eye-ing Hye-Jin the day they first met, and one of the comments was like "flirting since day 1." This is accurate. Although the characters aren't officially together until around ep 10, their chemistry is off the charts at first meet! I enjoyed their romantic progression from Du-Sik helping Hye-Jin settle into Gongjin as friends/neighbors into a romantic line between similar but different people learning from each other. Du-Sik opens Hye-Jin's eyes to the charm of a small-town life (be patient with her, as her socioeconomic prejudice is pretty conditioned and it takes her a few incidents to get out of that mentality), while Hye-Jin gets to spoil Du-Sik as this king deserves.
As for the characters themselves, they're both lovable. Hye-Jin is the more flawed one (more comments about this in CONS section), but this makes for excellent character development. She starts off as a snobbish dentist with a sense of justice who's trying to adapt to the sleepy seaside village of Gongjin but ends up really comfortable with this village and its people, despite a rocky beginning. She's a character with strong morals, definitely a sense of what's right or wrong, but is also empathetic (especially to children). I love that she's strong both mentally (thinks over her decisions and makes them resolutely) and physically (doesn't take sexual harrassers off lightly).
Du-Sik is the village chief and handyman. He's hilarious, light-hearted, and doesn't take anything too seriously. One of my favorite introductory scenes is when he pulls out all the licenses/certificates he has as a handyman - LMAO! To be honest I thought this guy was way too perfect - in his house, he pretty much made everything. He woodcrafts, fixes up boats, saves people from harm, delegates jobs, makes his own wine and tea, and everything in between. This man is literally self-sufficient. Underneath that playful exterior is a man plagued by nightmares and a deep-set trauma, which this drama later goes into.
As a couple, we have the uptight and snobby dentist x relaxed and easygoing handyman. You KNOW that's a set-up for cute happenstances, lessons learned, and a slight opposites-attract love story. Love this Sikhye couple! ("Sik-hye" combines their names and is also a sweet wine.)
❀ Superb side characters who are holistically explored | Homcha really dives into the side characters' backgrounds, and each one of them faces something that makes you want to cheer for them. (Also, love the 3 mysterious of Gongjin that the script includes haha.) Some of these conflicts include the difficulties of being pregnant/having children, losing a child, raising a child as a single dad, loss of loved ones, misunderstandings in marriage/divorce, failed careers, and more. Some scenes are heartbreaking, others are heartwarming. The common denominator is that the characters grow and come out stronger, emboldened by their new experiences and lessons learned. I'm in love with the imperfectly perfect villagers of Gongjin!
❀ Happy ending for everyone!! | Seriously, I was smiling the whole time while watching ep 16. Every character you root for in Gongjin gets their happy ending. Their stories felt completed and their endings were so satisfying to watch.
CONS
✕ Don't watch if you dislike romcom tropes | Personally, I loved the cliches that the writers of Homcha used, but I know some people may find it boring (including friends of mine). Others, like me, love the way the drama utilizes these cliches to make you fawn over the couple. Some of these cliches include: coincidential childhood/teen meetings between main couple, (slight) love triangle (although the 2ML takes it very well and finds his own romance later on), ML with mysterious/tragic past, getting saved from a stalker/harrasser, surprise angst towards the end, etc. Honestly though, it wasn't too bad and didn't have tropes I dislike like amnesia or forced separation. All the tropes used had feel-good romcom energy.
✕ Inconsistent character development | As much as I loved Du-Sik and think him a perfect ML, he was TOO perfect sometimes... even the 'flaws' about his mysterious past towards the end (ep 14-15 were the angstier ones) didn't really add depth to his character. He was just perfect from start to finish. Which is fine, I guess? But in contrast, Hye-Jin was imperfect and her character showed it well, which led to satisfying character development later on. In this way, the main couple's character writing felt inconsistent and lacking.
✕ Lack of logic when it came to the "incident" revealed in ep 14-15 | Don't know why the drama decided to use this heavily hinted incident as a point of conflict, but the actual reveal was anticlimactic and made me go "wat." The people who were mad/angry/upset were pretty emotional/illogical when it came to those feelings, and the guilt Du-Sik had was unwarranted. Sure, it added dimension to his character (the trauma leading to issues such as PTSD and survivor's guilt), but the set-up was weak. Very weak. I don't know, there was just this big build-up and foreshadowing and for what? It felt like the writers just crammed those characters/their emotions in for the sake of emotional angst to lead to the finale.
✕ Misunderstanding level: 0/10 | I don't remember any that jump out (feel free to point out any). One thing I liked about this drama is that the main couple is pretty open with their communication (ex: Du-Sik calling out Hye-Jin for her superficial attributes, them saying sorry to each other when warranted, etc). The other villagers had more misunderstandings, exacerbated by the hilarious gossip group, but it was all in good fun.
OVERALL
If you love love, family, and reconciliation, then Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha is the heartwarming romcom you're looking for! However, if the first couple of episodes don't capture your attention, I feel like the rest of the show won't (and this is what I tell my friends who were bored of it). Otherwise, I was in love with it from ep 1 and understand why people call it a "healing" drama. Only good vibes and energy from Homcha!
(Note: My rewatch value is set to 5.0 always as a default as I'm not the type to rewatch dramas EVER. Thus, I do not take it into account when calculating overall score.)
Many viewers describe this as a "feel-good" or "healing" drama, and this is exactly the case. Homcha's cozy seaside village setting already lays the foundation of its biggest themes: found family, love in unexpected places, diamond in the rough, overcoming prejudice, forgiveness/acceptance, wholesome bromance, and more. If you can ignore the product placement, the fictional town of Gongjin is a heartwarming place to visit when watching Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.
PROS
❀ Production value was A+ | The thing about romcom tropes is that depending on the way the drama shows them, they can be ridiculously annoying or pleasantly refreshing. Homcha's tropes were the latter for me, and I think it was due to the accumulation of production, acting, and directing. The music was added in expertly (seriously, I associate the best vibes when it comes to the singer going "La-la-la-la-lalalala. romantic Sundayyy" for one of the OSTs), and the cinematography was an added bonus. I really think Homcha's production elevated this romcom for me, despite the well-worn tropes and dialogue.
❀ Literal flirting since day 1 | I saw this Instagram reel with Du-Sik eye-ing Hye-Jin the day they first met, and one of the comments was like "flirting since day 1." This is accurate. Although the characters aren't officially together until around ep 10, their chemistry is off the charts at first meet! I enjoyed their romantic progression from Du-Sik helping Hye-Jin settle into Gongjin as friends/neighbors into a romantic line between similar but different people learning from each other. Du-Sik opens Hye-Jin's eyes to the charm of a small-town life (be patient with her, as her socioeconomic prejudice is pretty conditioned and it takes her a few incidents to get out of that mentality), while Hye-Jin gets to spoil Du-Sik as this king deserves.
As for the characters themselves, they're both lovable. Hye-Jin is the more flawed one (more comments about this in CONS section), but this makes for excellent character development. She starts off as a snobbish dentist with a sense of justice who's trying to adapt to the sleepy seaside village of Gongjin but ends up really comfortable with this village and its people, despite a rocky beginning. She's a character with strong morals, definitely a sense of what's right or wrong, but is also empathetic (especially to children). I love that she's strong both mentally (thinks over her decisions and makes them resolutely) and physically (doesn't take sexual harrassers off lightly).
Du-Sik is the village chief and handyman. He's hilarious, light-hearted, and doesn't take anything too seriously. One of my favorite introductory scenes is when he pulls out all the licenses/certificates he has as a handyman - LMAO! To be honest I thought this guy was way too perfect - in his house, he pretty much made everything. He woodcrafts, fixes up boats, saves people from harm, delegates jobs, makes his own wine and tea, and everything in between. This man is literally self-sufficient. Underneath that playful exterior is a man plagued by nightmares and a deep-set trauma, which this drama later goes into.
As a couple, we have the uptight and snobby dentist x relaxed and easygoing handyman. You KNOW that's a set-up for cute happenstances, lessons learned, and a slight opposites-attract love story. Love this Sikhye couple! ("Sik-hye" combines their names and is also a sweet wine.)
❀ Superb side characters who are holistically explored | Homcha really dives into the side characters' backgrounds, and each one of them faces something that makes you want to cheer for them. (Also, love the 3 mysterious of Gongjin that the script includes haha.) Some of these conflicts include the difficulties of being pregnant/having children, losing a child, raising a child as a single dad, loss of loved ones, misunderstandings in marriage/divorce, failed careers, and more. Some scenes are heartbreaking, others are heartwarming. The common denominator is that the characters grow and come out stronger, emboldened by their new experiences and lessons learned. I'm in love with the imperfectly perfect villagers of Gongjin!
❀ Happy ending for everyone!! | Seriously, I was smiling the whole time while watching ep 16. Every character you root for in Gongjin gets their happy ending. Their stories felt completed and their endings were so satisfying to watch.
CONS
✕ Don't watch if you dislike romcom tropes | Personally, I loved the cliches that the writers of Homcha used, but I know some people may find it boring (including friends of mine). Others, like me, love the way the drama utilizes these cliches to make you fawn over the couple. Some of these cliches include: coincidential childhood/teen meetings between main couple, (slight) love triangle (although the 2ML takes it very well and finds his own romance later on), ML with mysterious/tragic past, getting saved from a stalker/harrasser, surprise angst towards the end, etc. Honestly though, it wasn't too bad and didn't have tropes I dislike like amnesia or forced separation. All the tropes used had feel-good romcom energy.
✕ Inconsistent character development | As much as I loved Du-Sik and think him a perfect ML, he was TOO perfect sometimes... even the 'flaws' about his mysterious past towards the end (ep 14-15 were the angstier ones) didn't really add depth to his character. He was just perfect from start to finish. Which is fine, I guess? But in contrast, Hye-Jin was imperfect and her character showed it well, which led to satisfying character development later on. In this way, the main couple's character writing felt inconsistent and lacking.
✕ Lack of logic when it came to the "incident" revealed in ep 14-15 | Don't know why the drama decided to use this heavily hinted incident as a point of conflict, but the actual reveal was anticlimactic and made me go "wat." The people who were mad/angry/upset were pretty emotional/illogical when it came to those feelings, and the guilt Du-Sik had was unwarranted. Sure, it added dimension to his character (the trauma leading to issues such as PTSD and survivor's guilt), but the set-up was weak. Very weak. I don't know, there was just this big build-up and foreshadowing and for what? It felt like the writers just crammed those characters/their emotions in for the sake of emotional angst to lead to the finale.
✕ Misunderstanding level: 0/10 | I don't remember any that jump out (feel free to point out any). One thing I liked about this drama is that the main couple is pretty open with their communication (ex: Du-Sik calling out Hye-Jin for her superficial attributes, them saying sorry to each other when warranted, etc). The other villagers had more misunderstandings, exacerbated by the hilarious gossip group, but it was all in good fun.
OVERALL
If you love love, family, and reconciliation, then Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha is the heartwarming romcom you're looking for! However, if the first couple of episodes don't capture your attention, I feel like the rest of the show won't (and this is what I tell my friends who were bored of it). Otherwise, I was in love with it from ep 1 and understand why people call it a "healing" drama. Only good vibes and energy from Homcha!
(Note: My rewatch value is set to 5.0 always as a default as I'm not the type to rewatch dramas EVER. Thus, I do not take it into account when calculating overall score.)
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