Following a fairly dynamic ninth episode that effectively set up and resolved a fairly dynamic conflict, the tenth episode returns “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” to a less than exciting holding pattern. The night stalker storyline is put to a rest within the first few minutes. Over an hour later Chief Hong does a belated windows inspection, and I had to remind myself why exactly, since both internally and spiritually it had felt like an awful lot of time had passed.
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Nor does very much happen in the intervening periods. The eighty minute long episodes of “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” have always been a bit much, but this one was legitimately galling in just how little actually happens. Perhaps the oddest part is how resultory the entire experience felt. You could have told me “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” was a ten episode drama and that this one was tying up all the loose ends, and it would have felt perfectly believable.
The main exception to this rule is the love triangle between Yeong-gook, his ex-wife Hwa-jeong, and their old friend Cho-hee (played by Hong Ji-hee). It’s not really much of a love triangle, though, since poor Yeong-gook keeps getting rejected as women show themselves as unwilling or unable to interpret his fairly obvious body language. It’s pretty close to a running theme, actually, since we see similar scenes play out on three separate occasions.
But that’s the charitable interpretation. The less charitable interpretation is that screenwriter Shin Ha-eun has abruptly run out of ideas, and is now forced to frantically recycle them for nearly every character. The baffling thing is, there’s plenty of stuff that hasn’t really been seriously explored. I, for one, was expecting the variety show to be a bigger deal. Yet Seong-hyeon is so absent from his actual job as director that his own staff calls him out on the lack of effort.
This episode wasn’t bad so much as it was awfully tedious, and not even very well-done technically. A flashback to Hye-jin and Seong-hyeon in college is poorly edited, mostly because their actors look indistinguishable from their present day selves. There’s not even very much food. We’re briefly told about a pancake sale, rendered as jun in the subtitles. But we barely even see any pancakes, with a giant feast scene just feeling kind of wasteful, and ultimately noteworthy mostly for a generally pointless callback to a random line of dialog about snow crabs.
Review by William Schwartz
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“Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” is directed by Yoo Je-won, written by Sin Ha-eun, and features Shin Min-a, Kim Seon-ho, Lee Sang-yi, Gong Min-jung, Seo Sang-won-I, Woo Mi-hwa. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/08/28~Now airing, Sat, Sun 21:10 on tvN.
[HanCinema’s Drama Review] “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” Episode 10 (2021/09/29)
Source: Laban Lang Philippines
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