Cafe Minamdang

A textbook K-drama filled with loads of humor, a seemingly unending mystery, the rekindled romance between the protagonists, and the much craved Korean lifestyle, it has everything. Cafe Minamdang is used as a front by a former cop, who now poses as a Shaman, and his friends in order to unravel the mysteries of a 3 year old case. The plot thickens when the killer resurfaces. The Shaman is joined by the female protagonist who is a feared cop. The duo, along with their friends, uncover secrets after secrets and finally hunt down the culprits.

It is a blend of comedy and thrill. I'd say it would be worth watching again sometime.

The first time I saw people posting on social media about a particular funny scene of Seo In Guk praising his looks in Cafe Minamdang, it caught my attention because I knew Seo In Guk is quite a comedic actor in Shopping King Louis years ago.

During the first episode, I was amazed at how expensive Seo In Guk was and his skills in reading the person's personality and background sparked my interest even more. Then, the drama got more exciting when I learned that there is a murder case that Seo In Guk's character has to solve.

I love the casting of this drama, however I just noticed that the chemistry is off between the characters of Seo In Guk and Oh Yeon Seo which gives me the idea that this drama can stand alone without the romance of the two main leads. Seo In Guk's role in this drama is meant to be smart, funny and childish. But I am seeing so much of an exaggeration of being funny which tends to be unrealistic at most times considering that Seo In Guk's role in this drama involves him being with the law enforcement team in the past. It's ironic how he's too childish and comedic when his past job was too serious and sensitive.

The predictability of the murder suspect is also one of the loopholes I have found in this drama. Other viewers might disagree with this opinion of mine, but I believe a lot of us already had one person in mind as the mastermind of the major murder case being investigated since the early episodes of this drama.

I know it's based from a web novel, but I hoped there would be more big surprises which are not noticed by the majority of the viewers.

On top of that, I appreciate how beautiful the camera angles are and the acting skills of the cast are great. I also like the script of this drama!

A detective who was imprisoned for a year after being framed sets himself up as a Shaman to catch the serial killer who murdered his friend. Along the way he becomes involved with his murdered friends sister who has become a detective to catch the same killer. I have been quite generous with a seven as it starts well and ends well but is way too long at eighteen episodes. The script overall is poor and their is no real chemistry between the leads, the actors all do an ok job with what they have to work with. The idea had promise but sadly if you watch it you may be fast forwarding a lot to see if the killer is caught.

The female lead in this drama is very clumsy. She was nicknamed a ghost, which made me think, "Oh she must be a smart cop and it's really hard to trick her." But she's just an obsessive and stubborn girl. She doesn't have a strong instinct in handling cases, she always fails to find valid evidence that can arrest suspects. For example, in episode 12, when she gets into Gu Tae-su's camping van, she doesn't even pay close attention to her surroundings. She enters without seeing there is cctv near the van door. That's so reckless. Then her nickname as a ghost is also too much. She is a troublesome girl.

I like how these series show the detective character using the mystic component that is more believable for some folks to help him for solving the case. The story is fun but on the other side, this is also dark from the thriller and mystery element.