Kevin C. Wong

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (2021) [+]

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha is a South Korean romance/drama series that ran sixteen 70-minute episodes.

City girl dentist Yoon Hye-jin (Shin Min-a) manages to get herself blackballed in the city and ends up opening a one-dentist practice in the small seaside town of Gongjin with her best friend Pyo Mi-seon (Gong Min-jeung). At first she clashes with the residents because she's rather frank and a bit condescending of village life and really clashes with Chief Hong Du-sik (Kim Seon-ho), a hometown prodigy who does all the little odd jobs that need to be done.

As the series progresses Hye-jin and Chief Hong slowly start to be attracted to each other and by episode ten they admit their feelings and start dating. We get a couple of episodes of them happily dating and driving their neighbors sick before Chief Hong's dark past is revealed which takes another episode or two to resolve. The last episode or two are winding down and ending a bit after they decide to get married.

The supporting characters are interesting and have their own subplots. We have a brief possible romantic rival to Chief Hong in Hye-jin's college friend Ji Seong-hyun (Lee Sang-yi) who is now a successful director and wants to shoot a series in Gongjin. I also like the triangle with Ywo Hwa-jung (Lee Bong-ryun), her ex-husband Jan Young-guk (In Gyo-jin), and recently returned friend Yoo Cho-hee (Hong Ji-hee) who was Young-guk's first crush until Choo-hee moved away and he "settled" for Hwa-jung. In a twist Choo-hee was never into Young-guk and was attracted to Hwa-jung years ago (gay/lesbian characters seem less common in Korean/Japanese/Chinese dramas than in current USA dramas).

Anyways, a good romantic series.