El Amor es como el Cha-Cha-Cha (2021)

Quite tiring

The cute became tiring very quickly. And from cha cha cha light fun it went full on angst on the last 4 episodes, without much preparation along the story.

The FL’s character developed from someone that made assumptions and judgements at the drop of a hat, to someone that struggled a bit when young, to a full on bunny boiler teen in love that demanded the ML’s full attention and life history disclosure on day 3 of the relationship.

The ML had a bit more of depth, albeit the whole of it pretty much on the last three or four episodes.

The stereotypical villagers were all there, and oh god how tiring the whole concept is - zero boundaries, gossiping, etc.

SPOILERS ———
Something nice was the refusal of the ML and the second lead to engage in the normal competition / rivalry trope.
The most beautiful part was the resolution of tooth issue suffered by the lesbian character, an allegory of healing the hidden pain she endured as she came out.

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Turning challenges into potential

At first this drama appeared to me to be quite light, even to the point of being petty, but as it evolved, not only the exceptional acting skills and direction, but the actual content was full of situations that are not merely relatable, but also enriching and educational. 'Yes, we've all been there', - might be a cliché response to many of the scenes, but it's much more than that, i.e. it contains a wealth of food for thought to adjust one's own behaviour and judgement of situations. 'Don't be quick to judge', and 'give people the benefit of the doubt' would be suitable mottos for this show, - and it's done in the most inspiring and beautiful way. Making things work, creating harmony, - the big endeavours of Eastern philosophies that the West could learn so much from.

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Its a average story but well written

For me, this drama is average. Nothing special from the story. But the drama writer can make this story become a good and mature one with good character development. Even though this drama didnt make me bored to death, but the story is kinda slow pace with nothing happened. Lack of heartwarming scenes also. Sometimes i just wondered what actually am i watching? Just seaside village usual life? Its different with reply series, hospital playlist and racket boys. They are also slice of life but there is more meaning and impression in the stories. There is destination in their stories. There is heartwarming scenes everywhere. I am sorry but this drama is not for me.

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The definition of over hyped

I hated this drama. I tried so hard to finish it just to see if I was missing something, but I wasn't. This show was full of all the tropes I hate the most in shows, and it wasn't even done well.

First of all, my number 1 pet peeve in dramas is whens someone falls in love with a jerk. This happens a lot in Kdramas, especially older ones, but can we please out grow that? Why can't people just fall in love with someone because they are actually a decent person? The ML goes to the ends of the earth and falls in love with the FL when all she ever is is snobby and mean. They try at some point in the show to "redeem" her by showing how she came to be such a total b***h (she was made fun of for being poor) but it doesn't change the fact that she is a horrible person who is materialistic and only cares about herself. She also never really changes. People just get used to her snobbery, but that doesn't make it OK.

Outside of the male and female leads every single character is unlikeable. Almost all of the supporting cast play annoying characters who are caricatures of anyone you might hate from your own life. Honestly the only redeemable character in the whole show is the girl who was a closeted lesbian and she didn't even get a happy ending (just goes to show how much this screenwriter hates a healthy relationship).

2nd ML and his plot line also makes no sense. He basically friend-zones a girl his whole career and when she decides to move on like a mature person he doesn't allow her to leave? Why is everyone in this show so selfish?

My number 2 pet peeve is when someone's big bad dark secret isn't bad at all and just a sign of their immaturity. The ML blames themselves for "killing" someone when in reality the person died in an accident that is in no way his fault. I get the guilt he must have felt but if after all those years in therapy he still blames himself, he needs to fire his therapist.

My number 3 pet peeve is when a screenwriter makes a character sexually assault women to be the bad guy. Can we please stop dramatizing attacks against woman? It's lazy screenwriting (there are better ways to write threatening characters), and it's traumatizing for actual women watching the show.

Honestly every single character in this show was either annoying, nonsensical, selfish, poorly written or overdramatic. If I could take back the hours of my life I spent watching this show, I would.

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Hometown Cha Cha Cha? More like Hometown what the fuck

This was so boring. It's a ROM without the COM

Waste your life away watching 89 minutes per episode, just for the last minute to have some ridiculous scene, like finding sandals in the ocean.

Cinderella this is not.

I give it 2 thumbs down and I would literally rather watch the last half of Start Up 20x and kill myself after before I watch another minute of this stupid show.

This show makes me go:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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started so well and promising, but then...

it started so well and promising but suddenly it was a complete drag and felt like it had LOST ITSELF and just could have definetely had 8 (or more) episodes less. what started off feeling bright, relatable, and refreshing, towards the end just became a frustrating, gratuitous and nonsense tearjeaker. such a pity and waste of potential and cast.
for the most part, main couple saved this thing with their adorableness. the character hong dusik raised my standards towards men to a whole new surreal level - just made me never want to date a man again unless it's him. but from episode 7 or so til the end, their story felt unnecessarily dragged and i think we all have had our fair share of that in dramas already. the comedy by then started to lose its pace too, and there was a running bit of overboard slapstick comedy between the couple that disgusted me.
the whole cast were definitely great actors and their characters felt realistic and funny, but some secondary couples - although cute - had their plotlines even more dragged until complete exaustion than the main one. i just blatantly skipped many scenes for some of them because of it, couldn't bring myself to care.
this drama had great cinematography, very clever choices of camera angle and movement.
i rated the music as i did because it hadn't really stood out to me, despite not sounding bad.
i wouldn't ever rewatch it as a whole. maybe just some specific cute scenes like of the relationship between dusik and the elderly ladies - which was adorable and reminded me so much of my own grandmothers.

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Lala lala la lala la la wawa summer!

Midtown chachacha is a slice of life show.

Thus, it is boring as shit. There is no plot. Any random small problem was resolved pretty quickly. The characters were kinda annoying sometimes.
Besides like one random couple there is barely any character development. There were many missed opportunities and the main character was honestly abit of a bitch. For a relatively grounded show, the relationships were pretty fucked up. Like the main character straight up commits domestic violence but its funny because women hit man haha you must laugh now. There were 2 interesting plot points throughout the show, which failed to deliver (especially over such a long run time). The show could have been a 2 hour film honestly. It would have been signfiicantly better as one 2 hour film, instead of 20 ish hours of mid.

The acting is fine. But I just don't care about any of the characters. Except maybe that one boy that will 100% be abused by his wife in the future. The villagers yap too much. Watching at 1.5x speed turns them into animal crossing characters, which does increase the watchability of the show by fixing the slow ass pacing.

Besides the opening lalala song that they spammed the shit out of, there was one other good song. Which they severely underused. The clarinet meme song. They could have used this song much more effectively. The show did not deliver. I should not have watched this drama for shits and giggles. It was boring. It honestly kinda ruined the meme song for me.

I don't think I can rewatch this or recommend watching this unless you really just enjoy meaningless drama with 0 stakes. I guess it is boring and comfortable and cheesy and thats up to others preferences. But that shit aint for me bruh.

The peak ending would have been if Du sik had a family in the 5 year void. And on his daughter's deathbed, she says some shit like, when I grow up, I want to be an electrician, engineer or all the random ass jobs that Du sik learns. So that it actually explains why Du sik learns a million skills. Shit would have made the show somewhat worth it, after all the random fluff.

This show gave me indigestion

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Scrambled eggs, not eggs benedict.

This drama is a slow simmer - not a hard boil. It's slow starting out and the pace doesn't really pick up at all. If you're looking for something that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this not the drama for you.

It started out well enough. I felt an emotional connection with the FL and it was good to experience Gonjin and it's townspeople with her. Because of that, I could understand what first drew her to Gonjin. But that's as far as good characterisation goes with the female lead. When I think about it, I don't think that she created any real relationships with any of the townspeople besides Gam-ri and Mr. Hong. In the end, she still felt more like a person who's in Gonjin as a result of circumstance rather than an integral part of the town. Moreover, Mr. Hong was an even more frustrating character to watch. His story was told in a rushed fashion with minimal tension. What a wasted opportunity! I believe more could have been said on trauma, grief, survivor's guilt and even about our ideas on how society defines success. It just felt like his emotional struggle was a plot device to keep us watching and once the drama had gone far enough, they just wanted to get it over and done with.

I also noticed that whenever Hye-jin and Mr. Hong had an important conversation, the camera would focus on their faces for a few seconds and it would feel like that awkward moment when you're done talking to someone but you can't decide whether it's okay to leave yet. They would smile at each other in a way that I found absolutely cringey. Am I the only one who noticed this?

I understand why some take issue with the relationship between Hwa-jung and her ex-husband, but I think the actors did a great job of portraying the yearning and hurt between them from the very beginning. And given enough time, more could have been done to flesh out their story. Ultimately, I still enjoyed watching these two and I wouldn't mind watching a drama based on a story like theirs.

All in all, relationships were a major problem. Some were resolved through the magic of TV happiness (Hye-jin and her stepmother) and others by simply forgetting and focusing on something else (Yun-kyung and her husband). Really, I'm tempted to start a #JusticeForSides movement.

Apart from all these issues, I can see the money that went into making this drama. The setting was ideal and it made me wish to see the town for myself. I can't really call it a light watch because you'll need a lot of determination to finish it. But it's great if you're looking for something that will not take too much from your mental faculties.

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An Enjoyable Watch

Things that I love about this, is the simple plot, and the humor. It doesn’t feel like a chore to watch. I didn’t fast forwarded once, and that is saying something for me. Not a lot of thinking involved in watching this, it just feels kind of relaxing to watch. A perfect blend of humor, and serious subject matter. It is a simple love story with great acting, with a main love story, and a couple of side love stories thrown in. It started out as a 10 for me, but the last two episodes were kind of, I wouldn’t call it disappointing, but just frustrating. There was one long Dominos add, they fit into the story, that was very obvious. Also, they finally showed what Hong Du-Shik’s secret was. I won’t give it away, but let’s just say it was nothing for him to feel guilty about, nothing was specifically his fault. The ending wrapped everything up nicely too. I finally found out who won the lottery! Nothing left to guess about. This is a definite watch!

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Best drama I ever watched in a while!!

Literally, everything (aside from the random Domino's placement) connects!

I am a sucker for dramas where the most trivial lines or moments come back to mean something at the end. And this has tons of that. I love how at the end of each episode, you kind of get an easter egg where you learn something new that adds a layer of cuteness to that episode.

It's INSANE how many life lessons they packed into such a small town of people. I have never cried this hard or smiled this much for a drama ever. The people was perfectly casted, especially the children! Get that little boy a Grammy's!

The big reveal of Chief Hong was a bit of a letdown, in my opinion. It felt like we were waiting all these episodes just for this small bit of drama during the last couple eps. But their last 2 episodes saved it, as they managed to offer closure in the most beautiful way.

Such a beautiful, heartwarming, slice of life drama. This is definitely one of my favorite dramas for sure!! Highly recommend.

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A Fantastic Classic

The first time I heard bout this drama and the casts, i knew I would love it so much. Not only that I liked each of them from other dramas, but it turned out that they made such a greaaattt couple, the chemistry was just perfect tho. I put somuch expectation and it didn't dissapoint me^^
I always loved slice of life dramas, and this is one of the best that i've watched so far. The gags and romances are just right. One thing that I want to point out is... idk i didnt't flutter that much on other romance dramas, sometimes it's just making me smile a bit and it went away, BUT THISSSS gave my heart somersaults and crazy butterflies inside my stomach. KIM SEON HO HOW COULD U DO THIS TO ME!!?? Ahh, seems it would last for weeks.
It might sound like I was just falling for faces. I wouldn't deny that is true. But good face without good act is a big thumbs down. Seriously like seriously, all three Mains' acts was really good, that to me it didnt miss a thing. Storywise could be cliche or classic, but a smoothly polished classic is FANTASTIC.

I'm really not that kind to rewatch all over again but this one should be the first on my rewatch list!!!

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Bucolic small town life

What I loved:
1) When the writing was shining a light on the ensemble cast, it was right on point. It did a wonderful job of developing the characters, allowing us to get to know and care about them. There was so much heart and humor in letting us feel what it's like to live in a small town, with its quirky characters, warts and all. To live in a place where everyone is all up in your business, but they've also got your back, made me long to be a part of their lives.
2) Overall cinematography. In general, beautifully filmed. The colors of the buildings, the boats in the harbor, long shots of the small town in the distance, combined to pull you into the drama.
3) Couple chemistry. So, I'm now going to have to call Kim Seon Ho and Shin Min Ah the Dimple Duo!! Theirs was a sweet relationship of growth and development. The relationship made sense and they were so flipping cute together. Their smiles just lit up the screen.
4) Kim Seon Ho as Hong Doo Shik. What a wonderful character, beautifully portrayed by Kim. His happiness was almost palpable, as was his despair. The love he had for his friends and neighbors was a joy to watch.
5) Kim Young Ok as Kim Gam Ri. I want her to be my grandma! I've loved her in everything I've seen her in. She was so sweet, but she had twinkle in her eye that said she was up to something.
6) Non-triangle love triangle. I love when there is a potential triangle and the secondary person actually wants their love interest to be happy - that's love rather than obsession.

What I didn't love:
1) The character of Yoon Hye-Jin. Shin Min Ah did an excellent job, but I didn't care for this character much at all. I hated her at the beginning, so much that I debated whether I was going to be able to continue the show. Thankfully, I stuck it out and her hard edges softened somewhat. I understand the reasoning for the way she was, but there still needs to be something at least a little likeable about a main character or what's the point? Later on, when she softened up a bit, she was better, but then she started acting all aegyo and that worked my last nerve.
2) Some jarring camera angles. There were a few times when the camera angle completely took me out of the story. I think they were trying to be clever, but it was unsuccessful.
3) The idol storyline. It was done strictly to bring in more characters and then not much was done with it.

I ended up rating this show a little higher than I thought I would, based on the last couple of episodes. I felt that the last episodes really showed the heart of the show. The importance of family and friends, and the impact they have on us. On forgiveness, for others and for ourselves.

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