Originally written on Feb 24, 2022

I have always found comfort in things like Animal Crossing. The feeling of moving to a new town, getting to know the people who live there, and slowly settling in always makes me feel warm and cozy. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha perfectly replicates this feeling with its main character, Hye-jin, who moves to the coastal town of Gongjin to open her own business.

After a couple of episodes, I wasn’t too sure if I’d finish the show. I remember telling my friend Koen that it was a fun, but pretty generic watch, riddled with clichés, and while this stays true for pretty much the whole series, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha is so much more than that. It’s fun, wholesome, and heartwarming, but it also knows really well how to tug on your heartstrings. They should’ve just called it Hometown Cry-Cry-Cry, because even though most of the time this is a very wholesome show, this shit will absolutely wreck you.

These K-dramas are usually very long, with episodes more often than not being over 75 minutes, which often keeps me from investing my time in them. But after watching a couple of them over the last couple of years, I also realize that a runtime like this makes you really feel invested in the lives of the main characters, as well as all the supporting characters a show like this throws at you. While the show sometimes drags a little just to fill the runtime of an episode, more often than not, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha makes great use of these precious minutes to really make you feel like you’re there in the fictional town of Gongjin, getting an iced Americano at Oh Yoon’s café, sitting front row at the DOS concert, or eating squid with the elderly. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha is a big investment, but it’s well worth your time.