One of my sisters is a big fan of actor Kim Seon-ho, the actor who rose to fame after appearing in the series Startup. He recently had a follow-up K-Drama on Netflix called Hometown Cha Cha Cha and my sister and her daughter were both watching it every week as it was being released on the streaming platform. A few weeks later my nephew followed and started to watch it as well. I think he was already on the 10th episode when I started to get curious when they talked about what happened in the latest episodes. I decided to see what the fuss was about and began to watch the show myself.
The show is based on a 2004 South Korean film called Mr. Handy, Mr. Hong. This show, one of the most-watched Korean dramas on Netflix, did not disappoint. I found myself liking the plot of the story where the city girl dentist loses her job and finds a new life and home in a seaside village as their resident dentist. As someone who moved out of the city and to the province, I could relate to the adjustment that the lead character, Yoon Hye-jin (played by Shin Min-a), had to go through. Luckily for her, she had the very capable Hong Du-sik (Kim Seon-ho) to help her every step of the way.
I am not always a fan of shows that have too many supporting characters but for this one, I have to say that they enhance the show and do not take away from the lead character’s screen times. I love that every one of them has his/her own back story that people can easily relate to and grow attached to. By the end of the show, I found myself rooting for each one of them.
The show wasn’t a heavy drama, I think it was marketed more as a romantic comedy. There were a lot of cute and funny moments, including “kilig”-worthy scenes that rom-com fans would enjoy. But there were serious parts too, such as stories on different types of love, relationships and divorce, grief, and sexual harassment.
I love the plot throughout the show that showed Hye-jin and Du-sik repeatedly running into each other at various points in their life, showing that these two were destined to be with each other. I thought that was a cute part of the story. One thing that I didn’t expect but also appreciated having were the parts about Du-sik’s back story: his grief and guilt the deaths of people around him and how it drove him to be the man that he was in the village. After all the cute and kilig moments in the show, it was unexpected but refreshing to have this episode that made me cry buckets while watching it. This show had a lot of heart, I liked that.
It’s too bad that as this show was coming to an end, Kim Seon-ho was involved in a media scandal involving his ex-girlfriend. I won’t go into detail as I have no idea what is true or not but I just think it’s too bad that this affected the show at the end (I read that they had to cancel some promotional things at the end of the show because of the scandal). I think that he is a good actor and is very charming on screen, it would be such a waste if he did not get to come back to work on other projects because of this issue.
And as a little side-note, I have to add that I saw a little BTS connection with the show when the plot went to a couple of K-pop idols who went to the village to live there for a few days. The way they were going about the show reminded me so much of BTS In the Soop, only that they were in a seaside village. Another little connection was during the end of the show where I noticed Du-sik wearing the exact same shirt that Suga was wearing when they were interviewed by Chris Martin for their promotion of the song Permission to Dance. Those connections may not be intentional, but they were very cute for an ARMY like me.
If you love K-dramas, particularly romantic comedies, this is a must-watch for you. I highly recommend it!
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