K-Drama Rewind, Hometown Cha Cha Cha: Kim Seon-ho and Shin Min-a's refreshing seaside romance is balm for the soul

For most of us, the seaside spells warmth and comfort. It means just soaking your feet in the water, watching the waves lash the shore and recede quietly. There's something rhythmic in the music of the waves.

And, Hometown Cha Cha Cha, starring Shin Min-a and Kim Seon-ho, is what a day at the beach feels like. Warm, sunny, a little reflective, and calming. It released in 2021 and often declared as one of the last traditional K-Dramas. It isn’t remembered for profound or unusual storytelling — because it isn’t. Instead, it’s remembered for its sweetness, warmth, and wholesomeness that surround not just the romance, but the entire cast of characters living in a small coastal town. Watching it, just reminds you of the real small towns you’ve visited on vacation. Everyone knows each other. Everyone loves their little gossip to share over tea. It’s this close-knit sense of community that keeps the show such a joy to watch, even three years later.

Shin Min-a’s methodical Yoon Hye-jin, a dentist, tumbles into this tightly-bound familial community. She’s a firm, resolute woman and dislikes the idea of spontaneity, and it doesn’t help when she encounters the town’s handyman, Du-sik (Kim Seon-ho), who appears to be just the opposite. They clash, but in a comical, fun way, because she cannot fathom his way of thinking. Yet, as she discovers as time goes by, he isn’t meant to be a handyman as such: He appears to have packed away his gifts and talent, to help others. This perplexes her, and in a rather quietly, unintentionally condescending way, she gets him to do profound mathematical equations, which he solves, albeit annoyed. His question to her, essentially is, why do you fit people into boxes?

Of course, love blossoms in the usual formulaic yet refreshing way: there’s always an extra lead to stir the hero’s jealousy. We get the hero flexing his muscles against a villain too. After all, what’s a K-Drama without the male lead kicking down a door and taking down a criminal threatening the woman with a knife? Tch.

The romance is touching, and it’s built into the atmospheric town of friendship and comfort. Thankfully there isn’t the usually prolonged separation between the two: Instead, it’s more about Du-sik coming to terms with his own broken, and fractured past, and his inability to move on from guilt, regret that almost begins to hinder his relationship with Hye-jin. And so, without being too on the nose and expository, Hometown Cha Cha quietly shows the scars that we try desperately to hide: But in the end, somehow, our past does catch up with us. The scars do burn. And, we just might need to find a way to accept it.

The series is a gentle blend of genres—primarily romantic comedy, with moments of intense drama and emotional weight. It’s also a sunny slice-of-life, sometimes veering toward the overly sweet, so props if you can take it all in. Breezy and refreshing, it feels just like the town itself.