Café Minamdang

Koreans have quite the repertoire of movie and television series.

I've been away from there for 52 years now and discovered only recently these films were available, and I've been hooked on them for a month and a half non stop. Making up the lost times. I'm more American than a Korean now but still love "K-Drama!" I am happy that the "K-Pop" bands are popular among the young adults here and abroad, global in fact! Very proud of how Korea have came into world renown now, in all things technology and automobile exports and so much more just in over fifty years. Nothing like the one I'd left in 1970. Unrecognizable! Their population increase in the fifty years also the testament to their healthcare and the economic growth! Korea is a resilient country like our country, 🇺🇸!

Oops, I've gotten off onto tangent things. Apologize.

This series is worth watching. A cute funny story to boot. Great entertainment. It's actors are well chosen for each characters, love their crazy, often unrealistic actions. As I'd stated it is "a good entertainment!" The stories on going and well developed too. The few actors are recognized from their other works and glad to see them in this series too.

Anyway, I recommend you to watch it, I think that you will be glad you did.

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.

Updated review: As I continued to watch the series, I realized the script is just plain bad... The actors are failing to deliver, but it would be hard just based on the script, the characters they play, and the directing.

Original review with 7 stars: Over-the-top comedy at the beginning, but has more of a thriller theme now with drama and a bit of toned-down comedy. Lead actor does a great job as the eccentric shaman character, as well as the astute profiler. Supporting cast does a good job too. One character that I did not particularly like was the female lead character Han Jae-hui played by Oh Yeon-seo--the character does so many annoying things that it got irritating to watch. The character is suppose to be a good detective/police officer, but far from it and liked to blame the main male lead character.

I will continue to watch it since for the most part it is a good series.

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.

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!