Premier Watch: Hometown Cha Cha Cha

The most awaited kdrama of this year just landed. Ever since the world finally saw Kim SeonHo as Han JiPyeong in StartUp, there has been much anticipation as to his future projects and we have been swooning over the little teasers of this beachside town romance and what fun things it will bring. In Hometown Cha Cha Cha, City girl and dentist Yoon HyeJin (played by the ever lovely Shin MinAh of My Girlfriend is a Gumiho fame. This is my first ever drama with her and from the first moment onwards I was captured) finds herself in a seashore village with no reception, a broken car and no cash, who runs into Chief Hong who helps her earn some money by giving her a job removing innards from squids. 

Let's start with the cast. What a gret array of characters. After Vincenzo, we are all looking for a new found family cast and I'm sure the residents of Gongjin will stay with us for long. 

We have an a fun array of lovely faces starting with the owner of a seaside fish restaurent Yeo HwaJeong (she was MaeYi in Run On, so seeing her here as a divorcee and mom was such a surprise and I barely recognized her. What a versatile actor) and her son. 

If you've missed Lady Noh from The King, worry no more because she's the ever so lovely halmeoni with her group of lovely oldies who truly run this town and keep Mr.Hong occupied. 

Jo HanChul has left the world of Vincenzo and Babel and now is a one hit wonder musician from 1993 Oh ChunJae who owns a coffee and music bar that sells crappy coffee. His sassy daughter gives him more than enough to worry about in life. 

From HyeJin's side, we have her bestie Pyo MiSeon (played by Gong MinJung of Please Don't Date Him fame) and it's lovely to see this sisterhood. Her father Yoon TaeHwa (played by Seo SangWon whom you'd remember from all the emotionally stunted rich dad roles he has played in dramas like Record of Youth and True Beauty) is lovely and caring who is shown for a very brief shot but we can understand that he is a loving husband and a wonderful dad! 

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EP 1, obviously. 

Plot wise, we have a lot going on. Ms HyeJin is a go getter dentist at a big dental firm who is a career woman who loves to splurge (but a discount doesn't hurt!) but takes her Hippocratic Oath very seriously. When the mother of her neighbor (that she met once earlier on the day in the lift) comes to her about dental worries, she helps her with a plan that is budget friendly. Her boss clearly does not like this and she stands firm in her treatment plan only to find the next day that her patient has been now transfered to her boss. She gets angry and yells at her boss for ripping off customers (and recited the Hippocratic Oath) and storms off in an I quit scene that will have you rooting for her from the beginning. She splurges on a pair of expensive shoes that will definitely be a plot point forward, we know this ahaha. She drinks with her bestie and in her drunk state writes a very bad review of her former boss on a dental forum. When she wakes up and comes face to face with what did wrote, she realizes the mistake she made. Former boss has made sure no one will hire her so she spends months unable to get a job with a bank account going down as we speak. 

One March day, on her moms birthday she visits the seaside town of Gongjin where she and her family used to visit earlier. We see that her mom was a disabled person and a loving mother. She calls the dad who is now married to someone else. The assumption is that the mom is dead and as she sits at the beach in her expensive heels, she reminisces over the good times. We see her staring into the ocean (where out ML is chilling on a surf board). She loses her shoes (one of which the ML saves as it bopped into his board) and they start off at a slightly annoyance but the ML does give her a pair of toilet sandals that she takes. 

She goes around town looking and runs into two kids one of whom has a teeth fall and as the loving dentist she is, she helps the kid who turns out to be the son of a seaside fish restaurent owner who notices her wearing her restaurent's shoes! After eating a lovely seaweed soup and being hinted at that this town doesn't have a dentist, she goes to a cafe where she meets the owner who makes terrible coffee. She doesn't get reception and is unable to pay on her card and runs into Mr Hong whom she asks for money and he says he can get her a job so she follows him as he goes from one house to another telling all the older residents of the town that there is a fire at the telecom building which is why there is no cell reception. He leads her to the port where old ladies are removing innards from squids and asks her to join them for minumum wage. 

After 3 hours of hard work, she has enough money to pay for the coffee and hopefully leave but her car won't start and Mr Hong suggests her to stay at a sauna (where also her works, what doesn't this man do?). At night we see more into Mr Hong's life as he helps a halamoni who hurt her feet. We know that he is parentless and was cared by the residents of the town and now in return he is helping the residents by doing all odd jobs for them, what a lovely story! In the morning, HyeJin gets a call from the older lady she helped at the dentist saying she is grateful that HyeJin didn't let her be taken advanatge of. We know this is to test at her heartstrings to stay back in the town. She is on the way back home when she gets a call from the former boss who tells her she won't be hired by anyone in Seoul and that she can have her job jback if she kneels down and apologizes. She ain't having any of it so she reverses back into the seaside town and asks the fish restaurent lady about a realtor so she's taken up the realtor's house. The realtor who lives in a boat is of course, none other than our ML.

What a ride. I loved the little bits of info about the leads and the choices that led to their meeting. The chemistry is already oozing and if you've seen that last 3 minutes of the post episode scene you would be swooning over the leads. I can't wait to see the drama unfold and fall in love with the seaside town. As a small island girl who hasn't been able to go to the beach in two years I am vicariously living through the townsfolk and I enjoyed the cinematography immensely. We have yet to see the second lead and I don't know how I feel about even having a second lead, but for now this drama has my entire heart and I can't wait for more episodes. 

What do you think about Hometown Cha Cha Cha?