YMMV / Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

• Harsher in Hindsight: In one of the earlier episodes, there is a scene where Hye-jin is driving to Seoul along with Du-sik and the grannies, and have a near accident with another car. Du-sik looks overly worried when Hye-jin starts over-speeding in order to catch up with the car, and while it would be considered a normal reaction for anyone, it becomes quite poignant after his past is revealed.
• Memetic Mutation: "Hometown Cry-Cry-Cry", because of the emotionally heavy episodes in the second half of the series, especially episodes 15 and 16.
• Stoic Woobie: Du-sik. He lost both his parents at a very young age, and then his grandfather in middle school, something he has always blamed himself for. And this is not even considering all the shit that he went through during the five years he was away from Gongjin. To summarise the whole thing, it was a series of unfortunate events that ended with his surrogate brother's death, and broke him to the point that he even contemplated suicide. And had it not been for Gam-ri's well timed text message, he would have actually gone through with it. Despite all the pain and suffering, he decided to live, returning to Gongjin as he had no idea how to carry on with life. Over time, he ended up becoming the town's chief, thanks to the townspeople constantly checking up on him, in his own words, "as if they were taking care of a stray cat". While he did manage to pick himself up and started living again, he continued suppressing his depression and anxiety for the rest of his life, until he finally broke down in tears in episodes 15 and 16, letting out years of guilt and pent-up suffering.
• The Woobie: While almost all the characters have their moments, Du-sik probably takes the cake when it comes to woobie-points. (See Stoic Woobie).
  • Hwa-jeong's past, and her strong yet unrequited feelings for Yeong-guk definitely make her one. Though things get much better for her and her family by the end.
  • Cho-hui. She was ridiculed by her own mother for having feelings for Hwa-jeong, and her brother would even threaten to lock her in a mental asylum for it. It's hard not to feel sorry for her as she finally confesses her feelings to Hwa-jeong, and is bewildered by how gently Hwa-jeong acknowledged her feelings, even though she might not have felt the same way towards Cho-hui.
  • Little I-jun's breakdown in episode 15 cements him as one. All the poor kid ever wanted was for his parents to live together under the same roof.