Cafe Minamdang (미남당) is a mystery-drama-comedy TV series directed by Ko Jae-hyun and written by Park Hye-jin, the series is based on the book Minamdang: Sagun Soochub written by Jung Jae-han. Cafe Minamdang episode 1 has a runtime of 69 minutes.
The series, created by Park Hye-jin, Ko Jae-hyun and Yun Ra-young, takes over KBS2’s Monday-Tuesday 9.30 PM KST slot previously occupied by Bloody Heart. The series stars Seo In-guk, Oh Yeon-seo, Kwak Si-yang, Kang Mi-na, Kwon Soo-hyun and Baek Seo-hoo, alongside other cast members.
Netflix describes the series as:
A suspicious business that offers the services of a purportedly all-knowing shaman catches the attention of a tenacious police inspector.
– Cafe Minamdang Episode 1 Recap Contains Major Spoilers –
Cafe Minamdang episode 1 starts in a stylish and alluring way – a car drives into a hotel and out comes the very attractive Nam Han-jun who looks like he’s someone important. He goes into the CEO Room – he’s overviewing an interview process in the hotel and uncannily points out things that no one should know about.
After several failed attempts to get a new manager, Han-jun is intrigued by a foreign candidate and starts to exorcise a vengeful spirit. I think people would’ve thrown him out had it not been for that cool suit. Anyway, things take a turn for the worse when he asks for one of the higher-ranking employees to be thrown out – it’s because of him that they are not getting managers.
The next sequence, however, will tell you why people are so into Han-jun – he’s enigmatic, suave and extremely good looking and he dresses immaculately to fit that bill. It’s a celebration watching Han-jun, even when he gets ready for the day!
As Cafe Minamdang opens its doors for the day, a gaggle of women rush inside but only Kwon Gi-jun gets to go meet the famed shaman – he’s already made an appointment and wants to catch his affair partner who ran off with his money. However, before he can get a word in, Han-jun tells him why he’s here, something that he got to know thanks to his and his hacker sister Hye-jun’s exceptional skills.
It’s hilarious watching him be all high and mighty when it’s just his and his colleagues’ genius and research skills. After some exceptionally funny and entirely useless shaman action, he gives him a talisman and asks him to stay out of trouble – otherwise he will die in a ditch. In the end, he tells him where to find his money – it’s business as usual.
We next meet Han Jae-hui who faces sexism the moment she comes to her new office and then immediately is left behind by her superiors who run off to catch MK Nobel Hotel’s Ko Ju-won who is fleeing to China. Obviously, the bumbling fools aren’t able to catch up to him and Jae-hui comes out of nowhere to catch him in her leather jacket and open hair.
In the meantime, Han-jun is watching Jae-hui’s fight and looks totally smitten with her. However, that lasts only so long as the siblings start bickering together. We later learn that Ko Ju-won’s victim’s sister recruited Han-jun to catch her killer. Meanwhile, Jae-hui tells her colleagues that she is, in fact, their team leader and not a new recruit, much to their embarrassment.
As officer Du-jin wonders what to do with his new team leader who is a stickler for rules and has a fierce reputation for her name, Han-jun comes across Jae-hui walking down the road beside his house and turns on the lights so that she doesn’t have to walk down an empty and dark road, putting a smile on her face.
Fun and games, however, only last so long as Han-jun gets roped into another case where the wife finds her husband acting mysteriously, covered in blood. The three of them check their CCTV footage and try to find out what the S&H Group Vice Chairman, Shin Gyeong-ho, has been up to – turns out, driving under the influence, the man crashed into a biker and tried to get rid of the body.
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Han-jun investigates the matter and goes to where the cameras stopped following the perpetrator. Using his observation skills and some lucky bikers, he figures out where he could’ve gotten rid of the body. At Daeun Memorial Park, the three of them do find him after initially thinking of him to be a zombie.
They call it in and as the police rush to the spot, Gyeong-ho finds out that the biker isn’t dead. As Han-jun and Jae-hui come face to face, she gets a flash from the past – could Han-jun be her the-one-that-got-away case?
Cafe Minamdang Episode 1 Ending
A smitten Nam-jun overdoes his capabilities in front of Jae-hui and although she is intrigued, she has a nagging sense of doubt about him. That night, self-engrossed Han-jun surmises that Jae-hui must’ve taken this case to get close to him. Meanwhile, Jae-hui goes through Minamdang’s trash to get a deeper look into Han-jun.
As the Han-jun and his team chase the latter, Jae-hui gets away by literally wall climbing like Spiderman and leaving Han-jun and his colleagues confused on the road below.
In the epilogue, a bleeding Jae-hui gets to a crime scene and is heartbroken to find someone dead, someone close to her, by the looks of it. Meanwhile, Han-jun cries at home.
Cafe Minamdang Episode 1 Review
What a high-octane, fun and colourful episode! Right off the bat, Cafe Minamdang episode 1 is clearly an over-the-top entertainer and delivers on its promise of being a comedy – it’s slapstick, overdramatic and Seo Ik-guk fits right into the persona of a charismatic shaman who’s really good at what he does.
It’s a really enjoyable first episode which provides a lot of information to process. Add to that the series’ really fun background scores and music – it’s a very entertaining watch.
Oh Yeon-seo as the very serious detective promises to be a worthy competitor for Han-jun as well as a sweet love interest. I am very intrigued to watch him romance someone else, considering how self-absorbed he is. But that’s his charm. However, that epilogue, I think, left all of us reeling – what is in these two people’s pasts?
Cafe Minamdang is streaming on Netflix.
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