Minamdang Café (2022)

Entertaining. Fun. Great Acting.

This was a seriously enjoyable and entertaining watch from beginning till end. First intro'd to Seo In Guk in Doom At Your Service where he looked bored AF. Having watched Cafe Minamdang, I can see why. He's got a great comedic range and is effusive and charismatic in Cafe Minamdang. He goes through the roles of brother, friend, mentor, shaman, son, charlatan, detective and beau effortlessly. The chemistry between him and his movie sister, Nam Hye Joon, and his longtime buddy, Gong Soo Chul, is so genuine it's a pleasure to watch. Also Gong Soo Chul and Nam Hye Joon is a seriously cute couple.

Although it was obvious to this viewer that Cha Do Won, the prosecutor, was the villain from the moment he appeared it still did not detract me from enjoying this hilarious romp. There were enough shenanigans that were unpredictable to have kept my interest going.

Probably the only thing I'd criticise is the age consideration in the casting. Jung Da Eun is meant to be years older than Won Hyun Joon and Seo In Guk a few years older than Oh Yeon Seo. And some unrealistic behaviours like how when Cha Do Won called out for help when he caught and was decked by Goo Tae Soo, I would not expect a detective like Han Jae Hee to go to him without looking around her and seeing the assailant run away. Also, I would've liked to have seen Gong Soo Chul's character show more of the fact that he had been a homicide detective in the past. Aside from the flashback, he was consistently the clown character throughout the series and at times it was frustrating as one can't help but feel that he wouldn't think or react this way because he's been trained as a homicide detective before! But anyway these sorts of unrealistic behaviours seem to be a hallmark of many Kdramas anyway so it's tolerated.

Highly recommend.

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Tengo la mala costumbre de hacerme ideas preconcebidas que al final suelen ser erróneas. En mi cabeza este drama era otra cosa, ni mejor ni peor, era diferente. Esto me pasa por no leer argumentos, sólo veo algún teaser y ya está. Con eso tengo suficiente para saber si me va o no me va.
Volviendo al drama. Me he estrenado con Seo In Guk, aún no había visto nada de él y me ha gustado su interpretación. La historia me ha gustado, es buena y da para un drama, el uso de la figura del chamán y el chamanísmo me ha parecido muy acertado, pero creo que algunas cosas lo han estropeado como un uso excesivo de los flashbacks, un uso inadecuado de los recursos narrativos, un exceso de “cuquismo” con ciertos personajes (sobre todo la pareja secundaria) y en ciertos momentos añadir innecesariamente más comedia en las escenas cómicas. El drama tiene 18 episodios, pero creo que podrían haberlo dejado en 16 sin problemas.

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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

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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.

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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!

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Questo drama non è da prendere sul serio!

Se deciderete di iniziare questo drama, sappiate che non è da prendere sul serio. Il drama pare una mezza parodia del genere crime/thriller infatti troviamo molti momenti esasperati viranti al trash. Avete presente il drama Made for Each Other? Ecco siamo su quello stile lì. Vi debbo confessare che inizialmente non mi aveva convinto perchè i primissimi episodi sono ricchi di scene trash e mi sembrava di essere incappata in una cazzata. Invece ha saputo sorprendermi, giocando sull'altalena del un po' trash un po' serio. Riesce molto a smorzarsi senza coprirsi eccessivamente di ridicolo. Mi tocca ammettere però che 18 episodi per me sono stati troppi, poteva tutto tranquillamente stare nei consueti 16 tagliando magari quei momenti morti che potevano essere usati per sviluppare la parte finale della storia. Piccola cosa anche da dire qui: l'incastro del tutto finale mi è sembrato un po' forzato nonostante plausibilissimo. Risvolto positivo, mi sono ritrovata a pensare che se ci facessero una seconda stagione la guarderei volentieri. Commedia crime molto carina.

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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.

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Excellent mix d'action, de supens, de romance... et d'humour

Vu sur Netflix, avant tout pour le ML !!! J'aime Seo In Guk, son talent, sa beauté et surtout.... le fait qu'il n'hésite pas à se ridiculiser, à se moquer de lui-même. Quelle belle leçon d'humilité !

Mais cette série (à ne pas prendre au sérieux) est agréable (pas super accrocheuse, mais très sympa) et nous donne un excellent mix de suspens, thriller, humour, romance.

Le plot est original : un ancien profileur s'est reconvertit en chamane et se heurte à une policière, guerrière zélée.

Les OST sont très actuels, très K pop.

Bref, regardez ce drama, vous passerez un bon moment.

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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.

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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.

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