I misteri del café Minamdang (2022)

A Decent Cop Thriller with some Comedy thrown in

Hey, Everyone, welcome back to the K-drama Study. Last time we talked about the spectacular drama Twenty Five Twenty One. Today I'll be talking about the Seo In Guk drama Cafe Minamdang which aired from June 27 - August 23. The last time we saw Seo In Guk, he was in Doom At Your Service, A drama that could've been significantly improved. So did Seo In Guk's new drama impress me more, or did it have similar problems to his last drama? Let's jump into the Cafe Minamdang world and see what I think.



Characters:

Oh Yeon-seo as Han Jae-hui: Starting this Review, we talk about the female lead with whom I was in the middle. The actress acted well, but the whole character was weak. It felt like all the female lead did was punch and threaten the male lead. Stealing evidence and never catching the bad guy which felt like a never-ending cycle. I also found the female lead annoying at times, which made me dislike her that much. I wish I could throw her character away since she sometimes felt useless in this show, but I kept watching her to see if she would grow, and yes, she grew on me a bit.

Seo In-guk as Nam Han-joon: Seo In Guk's acting perfectly fit his character. I loved seeing him play a shaman, which made me laugh occasionally. I will say some of the shaman humor got old often. However, I enjoyed how slick her was when he needed to be and how he was the brains of the operation they were putting on. Seeing the Male lead interact with the female lead felt like I was watching Tom and jerry. I still wish his character was more serious and less goofy to fit with the thriller elements.

Kang Mi-na as Nam Hye-joon: My favorite character in the show played by former gugudan member Kang Mina. I love how serious her character could be and go into funny/cute. Hye-joon is excellent at computers and is super intelligent. I also loved the romance hse had with Gong Soo Cheol; that was super cute and funny. This character felt necessary to the show helping the story to progress further.

Story:
There are so many things to say about this exciting story that didn't impress me. Unfortunately, the writers built more on comedy and less on the mystery elements, making the whole story not connect well. I did find some of the casting to feel strange as some of the actors and actresses felt out of place playing some of the characters. The biggest letdown was the plot which I was excited about after reading it, but this show didn't live up to it. My favorite episode was when minamdang and the police raided a club with a good balance of comedy and thriller. The shaman moments where he was advising people felt like he was a con artist lying to them, but those moments were great. Now I will mention that the episodes dragged on too long, making my board halfway through them. The cringy moment of the show was the romance between the Shaman and the female police, as they didn't fit together well. There weren't too many romance scenes, but watching them made me sick. However, I did like the moments where Seo In Guk's character was fighting the villain; that was cool to see. The comedy this show had was good, but there were times that they used it in the wrong moments. The first couple of comedy episodes were too over the top, which made me dislike those moments that much.
During episode one, the two male police thought the female police officer was a ghost, and I thought that wasn't an excellent addition to the show. The second ML. who played as the cop who got let go. He started promising but looked like a weak, slow-witted pig. I don't care for characters like that, as they feel like throwaways. There was one moment when the Shaman came down the steps in the cafe, and all the girls were like, he is so cute and felt cringy and not crucial to the show. One thing the police did was break the law so many times in this show. The show's ending showed the male and female lead find a dead body on their holiday, which made them go back to work. I felt the conclusion was building up to a season 2, which I don't want to see.

OSTs:
I found the OSts to be the best thing about this show. Gwangil Jo had the first OST, which I enjoyed, but I found it not to be my favorite. Raina had a piano ballad song, the first track from the show became my first obsession. The second was Seo In Guk's track which showcased his killer vocals, and I've been listening to that tune a lot these past few days. SuA of Dreamcatcher had the 7th and final song, which was a perfect closer for the OSTs. The dance of Minamdang was the weirdest song for me as I still don't know if I like it. I'm happy with the songs from this show as they worked well with the story. I will still be repeating these tracks since there were some good ones.

Thanks for reading my review for Cafe Minamdang, a show that used too much comedy that sometimes felt unnecessary. I will give this show a D for having a poorly executed story that the writers could've done better on. I hope the next Seo In Guk drama is much better than this one. Don't forget to come back next time I talk about Sejeong's drama Today's Webtoon.

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It could have been shorter

Overall, the drama is all right. It could have been shorter though. I feel like the sections of the female detective doubting/hating the main male lead is kinda long and repetitive.

Romance is not that attractive. I would not ship these two leads. There aren't much romance scene in this drama. (not gonna lie, I skipped the romantic scene between them at the end of the drama lol)

The acting is not bad. Actors are good, but the characters itself are sometimes silly.

I do like Kang Mi Na acting in this drama. She's funny to watch. :)

For Kwon Soo Hyun, this is the first time I saw him acting. He is not bad. I like his Cha Do Won character; it's mysterious but not enough. His sense of justice kinda remind me of character K in Inspector Koo. Both kill people that are deserved to be punished. However, the difference is Cha Do Won also kill the innocent (prosecutor Han). One thing I would change Cha Do Won acting is show more creepy expression to create more mysterious vibe (smiling). His smiling is more of like forcing himself to smile (not natural). It would have been better if he shows more expressions. His expression in this drama is kinda stiff.

One thing I like about this drama is when Nam Han Joon did the criminal profiling. I love criminal topics such as forensic science; so it's interesting to learn how criminal profiling works.

Overall, my rewatch value is 4/10. Story is 5/10. Acting is 7/10. Romance is 3/10. Music is 5/10

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*All in all, was the story successful??* Ummm.... nop.

*First of all, does it need 18 episodes?* Not really. They could have told the story in waaay less episodes than that.

*Police vs shaman? was the synergy successful??* Again not really. It was already hard to find a midpoint in the harmony between police and shaman to catch criminals and the shaman here is really just a profiler and a hacker.

*Is comedy successful?* tbh Seo In Guk did an amazing job of trying to bring out the humour within his characters and maybe the shaman team did a good job but the police team failed miserably and so when taking the entire story the comedy fell short.

*Characters?* again Seo In Guk did the best out of his characters, but the female lead failed miserably. or maybe her character was really annoying in the first place. Han Jae Hee is a self-opinionated woman, who just believes what she wants to believe. And she is caught up in her own guilt for her brother's death, which also was a result of her own bullheaded personality. And she always screws up Nam Han Joon undercover projects.
The first few episodes are like Nam Han Joon goes undercover --> Han Jae Hee discovers him -->Han Jae Hee screams Nam Han Joon name as loudly as she can --> The bad guys discover that something is fishy --> Han Jae Hee ends up revealing herself as an undercover cop while also exposing Nam Han Joon.
This was soo annoying tbh.

*All in all, was the story successful??* Ummm.... nop. This is sad for me to say really, cuz I'm a huge fan of Seo In Guk and I just feel sad that he choose a project like this. I know he did his best, but the overall story was a failure.

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blends with every scenes, seriousness to craziness :p

This drama was underrated for me even if the plot (like some parts of the drama) was familiar. I was supposed not to watch this drama but do not judge the drama by its poster, it would bring you soooo muchhh tears of laughter :'D.
First and foremost, this drama talks about a serious case of Han Jae-hee's brother who got killed by a professor who prevents the truth having an anti-social disorder. Then there's the handsome, crazy shaman, Nam Ha Joon who is a fraudster but the point where he made his shop, cafe minamdang to solve people's cases and troubles. For the duration of the drama, it seems to be okay with me since the whole series has interesting outcome every time each episodes ends. I also like the plot, but as what I have noticed it has the same type of twist with vincenzo (I'm not sure but I guess it's like that). But the comedy was very on point where its not that clingy to see. It fits where the story was in, and the fact that it fits to the scenes from seriousness to craziness, or in other words, the romance, comedy, and crime blends with the whole drama series.

For the cast and characters, I really adore most of them so much even if other viewers said that Han Jae-hee was pretty annoying where in fact she is really connected to the problem to the story as well. I like how the cast contributes the drama, because every scenes, like most episodes have funny scenes to make it very entertaining for me. The lead casts were so attractive and I like how Seo-In Gyuk proves me that he can be anything from his assigned roles from any type of genre in kdramas. I got attracted to all of the cast, not mentioning their names but we as viewers know who we appreciated them the most. Most of the cast, including the supporting cast has a great role to this drama because they are also connected to the case.

Overall, this drama was pretty good for me, but I think the director should consider the plot since it was too familiar for me to see. But, I like the way it blends to every episodes. Actually, I had so much fun watching the whole series!
Good for binge watch especially for beginners, a must watch as well! Looking forward to the other casts new projects!

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A comedic psychological thriller drama with a bit of budding romance.

A comedic psychological thriller drama with a bit of budding romance.

I thought it would gonna be like other shaman based drama, heavy on the paranormal and spooky meter. This one's not. It became evident that the story revolves around the search for justice.

It turns out that the ML was a former cop, framed with a crime he didn't commit. Now he's in search of the real culprit. While our FL is a no none sense, bad @$$ cop, searching for her brothers killer.

I like the actors fresh faces and their on screen chemistry. The acting was not bad, just a bit over exaggerated. The story didn't gave me the high of a roller coaster ride. Instead, it has the feels of a horror train ride at the amusement park. You knew everything's fake, sometimes the props are even laughable.. but it's there, the anticipation of the fun entertaining journey.

The timeline was a bit of a mess/sloppy written but it's still an entertaining comedic drama.

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Cafe Minamdang … what was going on?

I watched this show because of the star studded cast, and as much as they do and as great as they are.. this show has its problems that are too distracting.

Maybe this show would’ve been good to binge, but to wait each week and watch I just found myself forgetting things and plot points and getting confused as each episode went on. And for some reason even though so much was happening- I was bored.

To the shows credit it is very good looking to watch. I really enjoyed it at the beginning and that’s because I could understand what was going on and the characters weren’t too difficult to like either. They are charismatic and campy and I understand the criticisms about how over the top this show can be at times but it’s a comedy. Honestly the show is pretty funny.. but I don’t understand the whole crime thriller genre and then the funny moments. The tone changes A LOT and it’s a bit jarring.

Seo In Guy is such an amazing actor, but whenever he cries or really shows how good he is- the story and script isn’t backing him up at all. I really tried to like this show, and I do like it.. but man it’s sort of a guilty pleasure. I like it for the cast and the funny moments. Either go all out in the thriller direction or all out in the comedy because at this point the two didn’t blend together well at all.

As for the character dynamics I really liked the sister and brother duo- that is where the funniest moments came from. The main couple’s timeline was so screwed up that I didn’t know whether to root for them or be creeped out. I had to loose a bit of my reality to take things seriously when I don’t even know if this show wanted me to take it seriously. That’s a major major problem. In the serious things that happen if I have to take a step back and be like “oh it’s supposed to be funny or over dramatic.” That’s an issue. A show that pulls crime and comedy together well is From Now On it’s Showtime. That show was really good because it understood what moments were serious, and what characters had their motivations. The female cop character was too much with her assaults and the way she did things were unethical and they were played for funny moments. In Showtime the magician is petty, but his dynamic with his female lead is better- even though she suspects him she doesn’t assault and she uses thinking and feels guilty for thinking.

There are so many things wrong with this drama. The timelines of characters are off.. the script.. the tone. But for the good is that it’s funny. I really don’t recommend. It’s too long to watch if you want to turn off your brain and enjoy because you have to memorize people and plot points. What slaps though is the outro, that was pretty cool.

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I'm confused. A potential kdrama but......

The romance between the male lead and female lead feels so forced that I can't even feel the chemistry between the two of them. Every time both of them try to be sweet, you know, look into each other eyes, etc, I will eventually skip those scenes. I feel bored watching them talking, there are no sparks, and feel very forced. I don't know what to say but the writer tried really hard to put romance between both of them. Not just her but the male lead also, every time he try to deliver his acting and be a 'charming guy' in front of the female lead, I didn't feel anything besides them being forced lol.

This could be a very good kdrama because it involves investigation but in more light and a comedic way so it's kinda ok-ok in the early episodes. I bet it's because THERE IS NO ROMANCE AT THE BEGINNING hm... this kdrama doesn't seem to end well. Besides romance and the female lead, the male lead character is also poorly written. Why is he so frail and unable to fight? He's a former police officer, for God's sake. Oh, and his friend, why is his personality like that? Acting with your mouth pursed and your hand like that? If you watch it, you will understand what I mean.

However, I like the friendship between the male lead and his cafe minamdang squad, and the OSTs in this drama are awesome. I love it. That's why I feel confused and don't know how to rate this kdrama because at some point this kdrama feels really bored and meh but sometimes it gives you the feeling of 'not bad.'

Update: I’m not confused anymore. I will not drop this if this kdrama has only 16 episodes but because there are 18 episodes and I need to watch 4 episodes left, I'm not gonna waste my time so goodbye im gonna drop this. I barely finished eps 14, I basically skip the entire interaction between the ml and fl which has SO MANY LOL ON EPISODE 14.

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A Struggle to finish

Such big names cannot make this script work.

First ep. was so enjoyable. The over the top comedy of Seo In Guk and his team operating cafe Minamdang got me laughing non stop.
Then came in the FL's grand entrance, taking down a van of bad guys, walking in slow motion with wind blowing up her hair on one side. WOW! SO Good I thought!

And then.....
FL went from super smart to can't connect the dots.
Somehow FL met ML are supposed to be at least a decade apart yet ML didn't age after so many years . Meanwhile she looks older than him. When casting doesn't match the characters, it's hard to make it believable.
FL & ML -- Zero chemistry. I enjoyed these actors in other dramas but this pairing was just terrible.
The last "twist" was not necessary.
Again same age characters as children (school age boys) ending up looking 10-15 years apart.

I finally finished it but definitely time wasted.

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I can’t stand the female lead. She ruins the show

I saw the vision the writer had with the female lead but execution was done horribly. The female lead and her character absolutely ruins the show. I understand having a bias against the male lead but she takes things too far all in the name of “justice”. Or what she claims is justified, all while her terrorising behaviour is ignored by her fellow police peers. She’s so strict on everyone else with the law, but is blind when it comes to her clear harassment and breaking of the law, when it benefits her while abusing the male lead. Currently only watching this show for seo in guk and the other characters. The show would have been much better with another female lead or a female character who wasn’t so annoying to watch on the screen. I genuinely feel the urge to throw something at the tv whenever she pops up on the screen. Her role is so annoying and has no purpose except antagonising the male lead because of he biased beliefs. On the other hand, this show is very comedic and interesting to watch but would have benefited from having a female lead character that wasn’t so annoying. Rewatch value 1/10 due to the fl actions. Im trying my best to continue watching this drama but by episode 6 i had enough . The male lead is awesome with his acting and they tried thier best to put comedy in every scene which is the only thing that had me going but the humour was mostly acying and not the concept . The female lead with oversized black coat was boring. This would benefit from another female lead or a better screen writer. I’m this far in, I have to finish it

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A fun wild ride

This drama is very well balanced.. Has action, crime, suspense, comedy and it’s starting to show romance.. The Minamdang squad are to die for, the police squad is also great.. both squads show their chemistry in and out of the drama, they make everything better and fuller, Every episode is a wild ride, packed with fun elements, and they keep on getting better and better.. I can’t wait for the squads to work together and capture the culprits.. also, very intriguing about how the romance part of the show will go about.. all in all, I’m enjoying it very much.. Nam Han Joon and Soo Cheol are my favorite characters.. they are walking memes hahahaha..,watch it, these two make the drama so fluffy ????

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drama yang serius, tapi lucu!

cafe minamdang punya premis cerita yang cukup menarik dan unik. tentang penyamaran mantan anggota polisi untuk menyelidiki kasus pembunuhan sejak 3 tahun yang lalu. drama ini bergenre misteri, komedi dengan romansa tipis-tipis.
sekilas, drama ini mengingatkan aku dengan film extreme job.
sejauh yang aku tonton, alur ceritanya masuk akal, namun kalian bener-bener harus tonton setiap adegan-adegannya biar gak ada yang kelewat. soalnya kalau kelewat dikit, aku gak yakin kalian bisa mengikuti jalan ceritanya (ini terjadi sama aku)
drama ini juga memuat riddle yang membuat para penontonnya berusaha mencoba menerka-nerka siapa dalang dari pembunuhan berantai yang terencana lewat hint-hint yang diberikan di tiap episodenya.
drama yang menyimpan plottwist ini menjadi drama yang layak ditonton dengan kualitas akting dari para aktor dan aktrisnya yang mumpuni juga soundtrack yang mendukung.

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