Café Minamdang (2022)

Can’t hook my interest

Tried really hard to give this series a chance but I eventually dropped it. Artists were all great. It might be the story just didn’t hook me at all.

It’s too far out there for me probably and sometimes the scenes didn’t make sense.

I might return to it in the future and change this rating if I have the incentive to try watching it again.

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Great Premise, Mediocre Execution

The premise of Café Minamdang caught my attention. A former criminal profiler is pretending to be a shaman with the help of his sister, a genius hacker, and brother, a private detective. This promised to be a lot of fun. However, the execution seems to have ruined whatever uniqueness there could have been in this story.

As soon as I started watching episode one, I felt a strong sense of déjà vu. I was introduced to a rich, eccentric, handsome, slightly narcissistic guy, a strong, independent woman, incompetent detectives, and a murder case. Sounds familiar? Well, this is essentially Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. Shaman Nam Han Joon gives the precise same vibes as CEO Ahn Min Hyuk – same exaggerated mannerisms, same ability to analyze people and figure things out quicker than the police, same tendency to fall in love at first with a woman who beat up several bad guys because she is strong and can protect him. The two main characters have, of course, also known each other when they were younger because K-drama scriptwriters consider it unthinkable that two people might have a romantic relationship without having a past together. I can go on pointing out similarities, but I think that you get my point.

Instead of centering the narrative around Nam Han Joon and his gang's scam, the production team went for what has been done many times: a murder investigation, which probably ends with an underwhelming revelation, and a little romance on the side. The comedy element is not funny in the slightest.

As if all of this was not enough, this series features the worst female lead that I have ever seen. I usually try to focus on the positive qualities of each character and do not judge them quickly, but I can confidently say that Han Jae Hee is a b*tch. Her character is an insult to women. She is the worst possible version of a Mary Sue, and this makes her not only uninteresting, but also incredibly annoying.
In a time when positive representation of women has become an important issue, it is discouraging to learn that women are still characterized like that. A woman who can stand up for herself and has proved to be a skilled professional in her field should not be depicted as rude, insensitive, and frustratingly narrow-minded. A woman detective should not be portrayed as someone who stalks and uses physical violence against civilians while claiming that the law must be followed. When Nam Han Joon told her that she was not cut out to be a detective, he was right. It is great that the story does not focus on their relationship because if I had to see more of her, I would have dropped this series.

Overall, scenes with Han Jae Hee aside, this series is sometimes entertaining, but it is nothing special. I keep watching for Nam Han Joon, who has become likeable despite being too much in episode one, and his gang. However, I will probably drop it and plead justice for Seo In Guk – he deserves to work with better scripts.

Edit: I dropped this series at episode seven.

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Boring and too predictable

The only reason I watched this in entirity is because I am travelling and this is the only thing I downloaded on netflix.
Idk what the makers of this show were thinking. I suppose it went: what should we do? should we make a generic villain? should we make a cliche villain mindset? should we drag it out? should we make it as dramatic as possible even though it will make people loose interest in the show...........and someone went "YES".

It was so predictable that I had an idea from episode 3-4, who the villain would be. They tried really hard to convince the viewers but all they managed to do was make viewers go..."ah let me guess, it's him/her right? heh".
Also there are so many loopholes.

The only saving grace for this show is it's cast and music.

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Inovou

Eu já imaginava que seria engraçado mas não imaginei a minha rebolando história.
Uma história tão densa e chega a ser complicada mas bem original. Estava com saudade desse elenco foi bom revê-los e suas atuações cômicas, irreverentes e com certeza memoráveis. A todo o elenco parabéns!
As falas não foram cansativas e todo o enredo foi fluido porém acho que da parte do vilão faltou mais atitude de vilania e ficou muita comédia... Não ficou nenhum assunto em aberto, todo mundo resolvido, todos os corpos identificados, todos os vilões presos ou mortos, porém deixou a desejar quando se tratava de falar do assunto abuso de poder dentro das agências de modelos e astros, ficou como se fosse um assunto tão corriqueiro que não fosse necessário se aprofundar... Acho que poderia ter posto outro tipo de assunto já que eles não iriam se aprofundar e realmente dar solução com mais louvor ao caso.
Em matéria de rios dá para rir sim de muitas coisas, mas na maior parte do tempo é tudo muito tenso, e somente lá para o episódio 12 e 13 é que os verdadeiros vilões vão se revelando e é realmente inédito apesar de o ator x sempre fazia papéis parecidos, dessa vez como estava andando o personagem dele fiquei surpresa e ele saiu de lá.
No mais satisfatório !
Assistam, irão gostar. Esse é aquele drama para você assistir em intervalo à espera de episódios dos seus dramas favoritos.

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comedy, friendship

All of them can bring the happiness to who are watching this drama
The plot is you can't guess what is happening to them until the end
For me its new version
I enjoyed i hope for you all
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Misto tra una commedia e thriller...storia comunque sorprendente.

Avevo letto che era divertente poi metti anche che lui mi è piaciuto moltissimo in un altro drama e decido che lo vedo.E ho fatto bene, inizialmente non sembrava serio,un ex profiler di polizia che ora è un sciamano che ha i suoi metodi e aiutanti speciali,tutto preso con leggerezza e comicità ma pian piano andando avanti nella storia diventa sempre più intrigante.Di scopre perché fa lo sciamano che è successo prima,la sua vita.La protagonista sembra solo un po' una scocciatura,una brontolona come la chiama lui.Ma è una seria e quando poi la verità viene svelata potrà diventare meno brontolona.
Ovviamente con la specie di collaborazione che faranno finiranno per provare dei sentimenti che si concretizzano alla fine,ma di romanticismo c'è poco e niente in questo drama.
Il criminale sarà una scoperta scioccante.
Nel complesso tra la demenziale storia del sciamano super famoso e la storia crime che si sviluppa è un bel drama,gradevole da guardare.
Attori bravi e comunque è risate sono assicurate in molti momenti.
Nota particolare per i vestiti che indossano 🤦🏻‍♀️

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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

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I do not recommend it.

I'm an official Seo In Guk anty-fan but I decided to give him a chance to prove himself as he is paired with lovely Oh Yeon-Seo. Unfortunately even she couldn't pull him up in my likings. Drama ended up at the bottom of my drama list - https://my-asian-dramas.blogspot.com/p/k-dramas-i-watched.html

What I was most afraid, has happened. Stupid faces, clowning and poor-comedy moves of Seo In Guk destroyed the last hope for this serie. I felt that it will happen to this drama. He's acting the same as he does in Shopaholic Louie which doesn't fit the theme of Café Minamdang! 😠 I understand that the producers wanted to introduce some humor to this series but this was too much and out of place ... flying characters with one kick or throw a shoe? I beg of you .... It was more pitiful than entertaining. Screen editing was poor and there was too many "funny" flash-ups that aggravated me.

About leads as couple... THERE IS ZERO CHEMISTRY BETWEEN THEM, they are mismatched characters and both have quite and annoying roles. These two should never be in the same show together. Oh Yeon Seo had a great role in My Sassy Girl and a brilliant one in Korean Odyssey .... but here .... eh low. You can feel she was trying. Her character along with hacker Nam Hye-Jun and commentator Jang Du-Jin were the best characters in the drama. I also like the handsome Jo Na-Dan, but he didn't play a big role in the series. He was a typical supporting character but gave more heart and authenticity into it than Seo In-Guk in the leading role. Saddening.

Although the last episodes were better than the first ones, I still can't say that I liked the series. An interesting scenario was poorly acted and even the best ending did not improve it. I don't want to say much about the ending so I'll just say that like the killer, it was pretty predictable. A lot of things in this series were like that so at least they keep the level 😅

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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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The perfect fusion of humour into a serious story arc

The minamdang gang is pure fun! I had a great time laughing along with the actors - the cast & crew did an especially great job of fusing humour without ridiculing the seriousness of the story arc.
Seo In Guk is an absolute treat to watch! Loved his acting & expressions throughout. This drama is a lovely destressor without giving up on the great story & acting.

The few cons I found were easy to overlook in light of the acting. Any scene with Seo In Guk was an absolute joy to watch.
This is going to be one of the dramas I rewatch as a mood lifter in the future.

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Cômico

Não tinha muitas expectativas sobre esse drama, já sabia que seria cômico, foi divertido assistir, uma boa distração, apesar que com passar do tempo o drama foi ficando previsível e um pouco irritante.
O casal principal foi muito bom, mas o Guk já teve parceiras com mais química.
Amei ver esse lado da atuação do Seo In Guk, e o squad do Café Minamdang era uma graça <3

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Full of action , comedy , mystery and a lot of fun

This one is so packed with action and fast paced scenes that even before you know it, you will be enjoying the ride.
The little glimpse of justice and them wanting to help the innocent from bad and evil keeps adding to that soft touch in the crime investigation process.
The comic characters make it all fun, like an amusement park ride.
Traditional korean tunes and "shaman" music is refreshing.
This show is also a subtle reference to the dark times in Korean history when even educated and powerful were blind enough to think that shamans and talismans can cover up for their wrong deeds when in reality they had to eventually pay for their crimes.
The dark subject is blended with the comedy. Nam siblings also seem to have a history of once being the victims of those rich criminals, they will take their revenge but meanwhile let's not forget to laugh and enjoy it.
This one is going to hit very close to heart.

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