Café Minamdang (2022)

Acceptable mess!

Don't expect this show to be a mind-stirring thriller-mystery, and you'll be able to watch it! for many of the viewers, this turned out to be a disappointment which is understandable as many of us had high expectations from the plot line and the casts...this story definitely had potential but they couldn't bring justice to it. It's more of a comedy series as clearly specified in the genre but the mystery part was a fail due to pretty predictable and poor story development. While watching I could feel like something's missing, unnecessary disputes and logic were constantly repeated, and it seemed like they were trying to make progress with the storyline but ended up with a mess. there were times when I couldn't find sense in certain characters' thoughts and certain behaviors. Anyways this show made my Mondays and Tuesdays light-hearted! For the comedy part, they sure did a Good job, it's a good drama if you're looking for a good laugh with a hint of thrill. I really enjoyed watching their fun- interaction . The whole minamdang crew was my favorite throughout the show! Acting wise all of the cast members did their best to portray their characters! the ending ost's such a bop!! This's all I gotta say...you won't regret this for a single watch or you might?! IDK!!>_< . <3

Read More

Great thriller with surprising plot twist.

I got to admit, I wasn't sure about this show after the first two episodes. But once his it gets going, boy does it ever get good. Absolutely amazing, not to mention the plot twist in episode 16. Amazing show and most synopses don't do it justice.

Cafe Minamdang (2022)

A story about a former criminal profiler who was falsley accused of evidence tampering in his best friends murder. Upon being released from prison he now works as a fraudster posing as a fortune teller, tryingto solve that murder. He inadvertently ends up teaming up with a police detective who turns out to be the dead friends little sister. As they begin to trust each other and fall in love the begins to take surprising and unexpected twists and turns.

Read More

Chaotic plot that misses at everything (comedy, romance, thriller, mystery)

6.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2022 South Korean mystery romance drama with 18, 63 minute episodes.
First I will provide a synopsis then review.

Synopsis
Nam Han-joon (Seo In-guk) was a profiler but is now a faux shaman who always delivers results for his wealthy clients. While he pretends his knowledge is from Shamanistic ability it really stems from above average investigative work. Key to his success is his unhygienic sister who just so happens to be an expert hacker and was formerly a member of the national intelligence service. Gong Su-cheol (Kwak Si-yang) is also onboard with Han-joon’s schemes and helps in not only the investigative aspects but also uses strong arm techniques when the situation requires. The other swindler team member is Jo Na-dan (Baek Seo-hoo) who helps in a variety of capacities on the cases but primarily focuses on actual café operations. Han Jae-hui (Oh Yeon-Seo) who heads up the Dauen Police force is not amused by Han-joon’s antics. The police think the Shaman team’s ability to always be one step ahead is suspicious.
Review
The story was absolute chaos. One of the few I have experienced where there is all this action and things going on but it made me completely bored. They called Jae-hui ”the ghost” which would make you think she had supernatural powers but she did not. Han-joon plays at behind a shaman and I thought perhaps it would turn out he had some ability but he did not. The chemistry was off. I just could not see them together romantically. The killer was predictable. I would no watch this again and only recommend it to die hard In-guk fans as it is a unique role for him and he carries it off as good as anyone could have.
Spoilers*
I think this was a miss in everything it tried for. There was potential for a supernatural element in her name ”the ghost” and in his role as Shaman. Instead they would have these sort of fade to black moments when she was about to give bad guys a beat down but it really meant nothing and just made it silly. She was supposed to be some super detective but her and her team couldn’t solve their way out of a box. They were always a step behind Han-joon’s team whose plans seemed to fall apart and backfire as often as not. His shaman ability was all a sham and it turned out he was just very intuitive and had his people working behind the scenes and feeding him information. It was supposed to be funny when he went into shaman mode because you knew it was an act but I just founded it cringy. It made no sense that he was good enough at martial arts when he was an officer to train others but in most of the physical conflicts he was getting bested. It wanted to be a comedy but the situations were not very comedic and it wound up being over the top, three stooges like, cheesy. You don’t even find out who the killer is until the last few episodes and that is when he really goes on a spree. Would have been more interesting if those cases had occurred earlier. Jae-hui spent so much of the story being harsh to Han-joon because she blamed him for her brother’s death that it killed any chemistry as it was hard to envision him falling for someone that acted so hostile. They all were so inept and none of their plans worked out completely. His shamanic situations were meant to be comical but they fell short. Several of the characters are hit in the head so much you would expect serious head injury but it is shrugged off like no big deal. I like In-guk and think he is a talented actor and that is what kept me watching.

#CafeMinamdang
#SeoInGuk
#OhYeonSeo
#KwakSiYang
#KangMiNa
#KwonSooHyun

Read More

A Drama with Twists and Twists on those Twists

This is probably one of the most enjoyable crime oriented dramas I have ever watched, the drama does a great job in reeling in the viewer with introducing them to wild cast of characters headed by the wild outlandish Shaman Nam Han Jun and the Charming yet deadly Han Jae Hee and each other's respective groups. The drama also does a great job in keeping true to the tone it sets in the first few episodes which allows for a very easy view while not throwing off the drama's balance at all.

There is tons of twists however which do get a tad bit disorienting but overall they aren't too far fetched in terms of the story. The drama does leave some good hints here and there for sharp eyed viewers to discern who the real main villain of the story is, although it drama does a good job just throwing in little bit of doubt which kept me invested in the story. The 18 episode/1 hour time run per episode fit the story perfect and allowed for everything mentioned to be resolved or at least attended to.

The drama's ability to maintain its tone it set is also its weak point, while being able to balance between the comedy and the very dark seriousness of specific crimes involved. Both sides of the drama were fantastic but I just feel like personally for myself the drama's story would have been much better if they would have completely devoted to one over the other, if anything, the drama's wild outlandish main cast could have totally created one of the best comedy crime dramas.

The music is fantastic, the opening theme by Gonia, the Dance of Minamdang has instantly become my all time favorite drama theme, I just can't stop playing it! The overall quality of the production from the sets, like Cafe Minamdang to the filming locations was all high quality.

This drama would totally be perfect if it would run for more than just one season, the concept of fraud Shaman with his team of comedic goofs running around leaves so many limitless ideas. Great drama all around!

Read More

Confused About Ages

I LOVED it when I first started it. I originally gave it 10/10. It was so funny.

However, by the end, it just wasn't my fav. It gets dark throughout the show, which was to be expected.
I was not a big fan of the relationships. The age gap was really weird to me for the leads, but it was even weirder considering the actors are the same age? I also hated that the main character's little sister and best friend got together--another weird age gap (both onscreen and offscreen).

I predicted the plot twist/villain from the beginning, so nothing really shocked me? The biggest confusion/shock was that there was one character who did not age at all while the others around them aged significantly (let's say she looked like she was in her 30s when she met some guys who were chilren. When they grew up, becoming middle-aged men, she still looked like 30)-- and there was no explanation for it.

Over all, I liked the comedy x mystery vibes. It's kind of giving K-Drama version of "Psych," which is one of my fav TV shows.

Read More

Seo In Guk never fails as main lead

Cafe Minamdang is a good drama to watch when you don't wanna watch anything too complicated.

Cafe Minamdang is your basic police/detective kdrama with a nice funny twist!
This kdrama does have a lot of slapstick humor and can be sometimes a little tiring to watch as the story takes a while to really kickstart.

STORY:
The drama is about a criminal profiler Nam Han-jun (Seo In Guk) who now is pretending to be a shaman with the help of his little sister, ex NIS hacker Nam Hye-jun and Kong Su-cheol, a friend of theirs who runs a private detective agency. While conning the rich with dirty laundry, they come across leads to Nam Han-jun's friend's Prosecutor Han Jae-jung's murder case. Nam Han-jun has been searching for "Gopuri" a serial killer who killed his friend for many years, in a disguise of being a shaman. While trying to get leads in an illegal way, suddenly he comes across a detective, Han Jaehui. Han Jaehui is Han Jae-jung's little sister, who is determined to find out who killed her brother. She has misunderstood Nam Han-jun and now dislikes him. Soon they realize that they need to work together in order to find the serial killer.

My thoughts :
The drama really was interesting. The story did take a while to kickstart but as a fan of comedies, i really wasn't that bothered by it since it meant that there were a lot of funny scenes of Seo In Guk acting as the crazy good shaman. The serial killer's identity was also very well thought and almost all the main characters were very likeable.

CAST:

Seo In Guk as Nam Han-Jun,
He is just perfection. His acting is literally so fun to watch. In one moment he was this crazy funny shaman and then he suddenly turned into this very serious criminal profiler.. Seo In Guk just never fails as a lead. Fun, charming and good looking-! I am really obsessed with his acting and this shaman role was made for him!

Oh Yeon seo as Han Jaehui,
I feel like she was an okay choice. I like her acting but for me she got so overshadowed by Seo In Guk. She felt too plain. I would have loved to see someone as crazily charming as Seo In Guk to match his energy. She was the typical "police/detective girl" aka it meant that she was stronger than all her male coworkers and just overall this tiringly stubborn character. She wouldn't believe in Nam Han-jun's words at all which resulted in her having to learn the hard way to listen to what he is saying.

Overall:
A great drama when you don't wanna watch anything too heavy and enjoy the slapstick comedy while the story is actually pretty well thought out.

Read More

It was fine.

At first I had a hard time watching the whole first episodes, it seemed like pure comedy (I thought it was okay but I had other expectations) and the plot was just forming. A few episodes later the drama gets better, I admit it made me laugh and I binge watched the last 5 episodes. Anyway, I think it was very predictable, I immediately identified who the killer was but still wanted to know how and why he did it, also for me it was a bit rushed the way the main characters fell in love but I appreciate the effort.
I think the overall drama was fine, not the best but you can watch it to relax.

Read More

One of the worst

This started off well. The concept is good but a lot of the acting is just plain awful. Too many corny/cheesy comedy, if you can call that comedy at all. Be honest people, Seo In Guk is not a good actor...objectively and subjectively. He's just popular for being popular. Oh Yeon-Seo's and Kang Mi-Na's presence is what makes the show watchable. Perhaps their acting isn't to their usual standards either, which can only mean the director didn't execute the assignment well. Kwon Soo-hyun is type cast in villainous roles so there's no point creating a major plot twist when the audience can guess who the main villain would be. Pointless. If I were a casting director, I would've cast someone who usually plays a protagonist with an innocent look, then BAM! The big reveal at the crucial moment. Otherwise it's just pointless. I wouldn't recommend this show at all. Not even to my worst enemy.

Read More

Comedy at its purest

The story revolves around an ex profiler turned shaman. His character is different and surely not something seen like yet. He is detailed in his investigation and is smart enough to get his way out of the problems. But at the same time he is naive and is not judgemental about people in general. His goals although are very clear to him and with the team of none other than his best friend and his sister, he is determined to solve the biggest mystery that one killer threw at him. But the interesting part is not just one, there seem to be many people involved. The comedy is true to its genre, slapstick humour. Every scene has some elements of it but the investigation never stops.

Read More

sadly a fail for me

I was really looking forward to this as I had watched a few really good dramas with Seo In-guk before, and was wondering about this new show.

Well, this one didn't work for me. The first two episodes had some funny elements although I started to find the side characters annoying because of the massive overacting.
I watched on and for my taste the elements that were meant to be comedy were just way over the top, be it facial expressions, verbal expressions, movements, it all sadly seemed to clowesc for my taste.

I also have to say I don't like the female lead in this role. ( I don't know her from any other shows yet though) She for a change has too few facial expressions and I can't really see her acting qualities in this show. I don't believe for a second that she is a police woman, especially in scenes where she gets hyper emotional, screams like a mad person or beats a man in the hospital bed who has just died and totally loses it, while doctors and colleagues are watching on. Someone with the police can't be that emotional and lose their countenance.

Also I don't buy the lovestory between the leads. It's one of the few shows where I really can't see any chemistry between them: I always felt like I see the actors 'acting while acting'. I'm constantly aware of it. Them just reproducing their lines they learned, I never believe they are really the characters they play or have real conversations.

That sadly goes for the side charcaters too, especially the other couple. Again, way too much overacting, especially the male side character with the way he speaks, when in some situations it's obvious that he can speak normally.
As I think Seo in -Guk was brilliant in other dramas, I can still see why he might have chosen this role now. In the past he was in several rather serious and even tragic roles, - but, and that is the point - in those he was really outstanding. I believed every single second that Kim Moo-young in '100 million stars...' existed, like that person existed for real for example. I still bet doing 'Minamdang' was a lot of fun for all the actors, as it was a funny show and the feeling gets through they might have laughed a lot on set.

I know 'Minamdang' is meant to be comedic but for my taste it it was just too much of these slaptstick elements, so many that I couldn't believe the serious story parts in the background anymore. You can do comedic K-drama and make the characters real and believable to a degree, like in 'suspicious partner' for example. But Cafe Minamdang' just couldn't convince me. At some point I was even fast forwarding and getting impatient for 'something to happen'.
I did enjoy many parts of the soundtrack though.

So, if you are really into slapstick/ hullabaloo shows, this one might be the right thing for you, otherwise, probably not.

Read More