Letter #35: Cafe Minamdang

Good morning, Erin. 

I promised you an Oh Yeon-seo trilogy—and so an Oh Yeon-seo trilogy you will have! 

For today we are going to discuss Cafe Minamdang, and, for whatever else you could say about this show, there is no denying that it has Oh Yeon-seo in it. 

And, also, the premise is that the male lead is pretending to be a shaman, which…is sort of supernatural-y. So it’s not just about me following around a pretty actress like a dope, see? I’m on theme, as well! 

But let’s not dally—we’ve got a lot to cover and very little to say. Because: 

1. It’s awful. Oh my goodness, was this an absolute disaster. The whole show is a mess. Everything about it is inconsistent, from the characters to the writing to the tone. If not for my intense desire to prove that I was right about who the killer was—and I absolutely was right—I’d have dropped it around Ep 5. 

2. …but let’s put a pin in that, for a moment, and go through everyone I recognized:

● Oh Yeon-seo, of course, as Lt. Han, our female protagonist 

● Ju-ri (the teen girl at the cafe) from Cha-Cha-Cha as Young Lt. Han 

● Miss Intern from Hotel Del Luna as Mr. Shaman’s tech-savvy sister 

● The prosecutor who’s married to Zumba Snake in Man x Man as Older Detective Guy 

● The jerkface convenience store owner in Sweet Home as a businessman or something 

3. So—and we’re probably heading into some spoilers for this, because, if you haven’t seen this show, you shouldn’t, so absolutely f*** being coy about any of it—this is a murder mystery that involves a serial killer. This serial killer was being tracked by our male protagonist, Mr. Shaman, back in the day when he was a cop. His best friend was a prosecutor who was killed by the serial killer…and whose murder was pinned on Mr. Shaman. He goes to jail for a while, then gets out and stumbles into setting up shop as a fake shaman, using his superior deduction skills and his sister’s hacker skills to appear as though he is communicating with the spirits. All the while, he and his little team are trying to track the real killer. 

3A. Meanwhile, the dead prosecutor’s little sister turns out to be Lt. Han, our female protagonist, who joined the police and is likewise secretly trying to track the real killer. Just not with any level of success. Or focus. For some reason. She’s just got nothing apart from the desire to find the killer. BUT…she has earned quite the reputation as being a super-cop, often called…um, The Ghost of Trench Coats or some such nonsense because she is like a supernatural force unto herself, when she gets intense. Oh, and when she was a little girl, she totes had a crush on Mr. Shaman. 

3B. So, we’ve got these two people who are desperate to solve this murder of someone who is very, very important to them, and, for various reasons, they fine themselves crossing paths and, eventually, working together. And maybe falling in love, who’s to say. 

3C. This murder mystry is incrdibly serious. As in, it matters a great deal to both of our protagonists, being the singular focus of them both FOR YEARS. So, naturally, this show predominantly involves exaggerated slapstick humor. All the time. 

3D. It’s an absolute s***show. Mr. Shaman and his cohorts are from an entirely different show, they’re just so entirely goofy. And Lt. Han and her cops always wind up being dragged into their antics—and no one seems to notice that they’ve veered into the utterly silly. At all times. No matter how grim or dire the circumstance. (Like, there’s literally an entire episode about auditioning for a variety show as a means of

getting access to a person of interest, and Mr. Shaman thinks that’s a great opportunity to sort of prank Lt. Han by acting as an advisor to one of the judges and making that judge make her do more and more ludicrous stuff. It’s all flirty and dumb and not at all what he would be focused on in that moment, considering what’s at stake, but it’s for the lulz ‘cus isn’t Mr. Shaman so funny and charming, ladies???) I swear, he’s more often Ace Ventura than Sherlock Holmes. 

3E. And don’t even get me started on Lt. Han, who has to be the most inconsistent character on the show, swinging wildly between hyper-competent super-cop (she literally leaps up the side of a building, in one scene, and roundhouse kicks a bad guy off a moving motorcycle only to then land on and ride that motorcycle in another, and can sprint at Olympian-level speeds in another) and weepy little girl who’s out of her depths trying to play detective. At any given moment, she is either capable of stopping an army of villains or utterly useless in catching one fleeing suspect. About the only thing that’s consistent about her is that she’s gorgeous, but that’s only because she’s being played by Oh Yeon-seo. 

3F. SIDEBAR: In my Korean Odyssey letter, I talked about how I think Oh Yeon-seo comes alive, as an actress, when she’s playing a character who isn’t, broadly speaking, being a regular person. And that’s also true, here, where the segments when she’s putting on a character to hide who she really is make her shine, while playing plain ol’ Lt. Han makes her seem like a total drag. Which is, in part, her idiosyncrasies as an actress, but it’s also the script, which doesn’t know what her character is, at its core. When who you are changes with the necessity of the scene, there isn’t a lot you can do, as an actor—unless you’re mega-great or don’t mind pushing back against the production staff. 

3G. I mean, even the frikkin’subtitles are inconsistent! Is it Deacon Kim or Deaconess Kim? Auntie Im or Auntie Lim? This shouldn’t be hard, guys. 

3H. And and and—I can’t believe I almost didn’t mention how Mr. Shaman’s motives are so muddy and in discernable, especially early on, when he seems to treat finding the guy who killed his friend and framed him for it as a hobby that comes second to A) getting tons and tons of cash and B) constantly being told how handsome and brilliant he is by all his female fans. (Oh: his shaman, um, shop is a cafe, and it’s constantly being visited by ladies who want to fawn all over him and his staff like they’re k-pop idols. Which is fine, but it’s gotta be a kick that gets put aside as soon as he shifts into “hunt down the killer” mode, lest he appear to be unserious about the whole endeavor. Which he does.) 

3I. My point is that the show’s everything is off. And it sucks. 

4. That said…that she is a “ghost” and he is a “shaman” is actually quite clever. I only wish they’d done something with that. 

5. The show does get a couple of points for Mr. Shaman spending so much time forbidding his other friend (and lackey) from falling for his little sister and then falling for L. Han who turns out to be his friend’s little sister. 

6. Oh, also: Mr. Shaman’s friend (and lackey) falls for Miss Intern. Though, it takes him a long time to realize that that’s what’s happened. I mean, I know sometimes relationships seem set in our minds and it can be hard to realize that fraternal concern has shifted slightly to become romantic affection, but…it seemed pretty obvious to me that he was smitten with her. And who wouldn’t be? We love Miss Intern. 

6A. …who, by the way—and I swear I will explain why I’m mentioning this—turns out is quite buxom. (There’s a really awkward shot of her running away from something, and she is bouncing all over the place—to the point where she has to throw her hand over her chest to try to. um, calm things down. And I

was like, “Why didn’t they zip up her jacket? That would have hidden, well, that.”) I had no idea. And, obviously, this now colors my whole outlook on Hotel Del Luna. 

7. The killer’s identity is pretty obvious. I think most people could figure out who it was, roundabout Ep 3 or 4—but the story throws A LOT of things out there to obscure it, once the audience is murmuring about how it has to be that guy, doesn’t it? Which…I mean, your mileage may vary as to whether this is appropriately clever or not. But I thought…actually, I mostly didn’t like it, at first because I didn’t like that the killer appeared to be someone we had no chance of picking up on on our own, but then particularly when they reveal that the killer is exactly who you thought it was all along. There’s one part of the misdirection that’s really good, but the rest of it…meh. Though, to its credit, none of this part of the story is goofy. A little hard to believe, perhaps, but tonally consistent. So there is that. 

8. Now, I don’t want to make it seem like there’s nothing good about this show at all. Like, there’s…um, there’s…the end credits song. That’s pretty dope. 

9. I’m kidding—there’s definitely more than that. Like, for instance, that one of the layers of reveals is that there is a shadowy shaman working for the bad guys. Which is a great parallel. (Although, if I’m remembering this correctly, she genuinely believes what she’s doing.) 

9A. Also, the shadowy shaman (called “Auntie Im”) is…well, let’s just say I fancied her. Because I have a serious psychological problem, I assume. 

9B. Also, I mentioned her in reference to there being an issue with the subtitles, but it eventually becomes an issue for the story itself. Because, eventually, it is revealed that her real last name must be “Lim” rather than “Im,” because she has an issue with one of her lackeys needing to change his name because it is also “Lim.” So…unless I missed the subtext about why she’s called Auntie Im rather than Lim, I’m guessing 

there’s a problem with the translation. Or an ambiguity, at the least, with the week-to-week release preventing the eventual reveal that “Lim” is important from correcting past episode translations. 

10. Another good thing: there’s a point where Mr. Shaman is captured, and it sends Lt. Han into a panic. Now, I suspect the show is too dense to realize that this is actually a really deep character moment (because losing Mr. Shaman means losing the last connection she has to her brother) and not just her being upset that her crush is in danger, but…it was still good. 

11. I didn’t mention it before, but I thought it was funny that this made two Oh Yeon-seo shows in a row that I watched that needed her to pretend to want to be a pop star. 

12. Believe it or not, despite my well-established affection for them, my pick for #BestGirl is neither Lt. Han nor Miss Intern nor even Auntie Im, but, rather…um…okay, I don’t remember what her name is, but she’s the ex-wife of a crime boss who is a client of Mr. Shaman’s and keeps popping up in the story to try to get him to marry her. She’s a pip. And, importantly, written consistently. You know I like that in a girl. 

12A. BUT…it’s not just her that’s great. She eventually becomes a sort of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern comedy pairing with that judge from the variety show I mentioned. They both run in the same elite circles and are both devoted to Mr. Shaman and so wind up competing with each other for his attention. Then working together to get close enough to vie for his attention. Then they start dating. And they are a delight to have strolling in and out of the story. 

13. Relatedly: something I found really amusing was…okay, so, first off, the show’s a bit inconsistent with the ages of the protagonists, with Lt. Han seeming something like 10 years younger than Mr. Shaman, when they show them interacting when she’s a young teenager, then something like four years

younger, when she’s an adult (…while Oh Yeon-seo is actually a year older than Mr. Shaman’s actor in real life). So, anyway, our girl is playing probably seven or eight years younger than she actually is in real life, so keep that in mind: Lt. Han and Mr. Shaman and his gang of handsome lackeys all get into a trendy club they want to surveil, and our Rosencrantz & Guildenstern duo try to follow them in, but they get stopped by the bouncers because they, essentially, for however good looking they both are, are clearly outside the ideal age bracket for the club’s clientele. Which was a funny bit on its own but double-funny when you do a little research to find out that they’re only a few years older than Oh Yeon-seo. 

14. Oh, and this age disparity thing also goes for Auntie Im, who is a full-grown adult in flashbacks and…looks not to have aged in the 15 or so years since the time in the flashback. [shrug] 

15. But speaking of that club: they get betrayed by a wide shot, which reveals the hoppin’ nightlife is just about a dozen people who all happen to be standing directly behind Lt. Han and Miss Intern. 

16. In a similar vein, there’s a wide shot that gives away a trick in a different episode where Lt. Han is at a party in a cocktail dress and heels. Because they have to do a lot of running around, it looks like she’s wearing her sneakers…except I mean that Oh Yeon-seo is wearing sneakers, not Lt. Han. That is, the actress is (sensibly) being allowed to wear shoes that aren’t going to make it difficult for her to run around, but the character is still supposed to be wearing her high heels. Tee-hee. 

17. There are A LOT of moments that are played for laughs despite being entirely inappropriate in context, but there are also a fair few that are legitimately funny—despite still being entirely inappropriate in context. One such funny moment comes when Mr. Shaman and his right-hand lackey (who eventually dates his sister) go to stop Miss Intern from taking a bat to a guy she was dating who has decided that they aren’t “exclusive” and taken another gal to a makeout point on the waterfront. We see her start breaking the windows on the guy’s car, and then the guy gets out of his car, furious, and is about to smack her around a little bit…when suddenly headlights blast on and Mr. Shaman and his lackey slowly walk towards them with big coats on, just like in that one scene in Goblin. Miss Intern is less appreciative than Eun-tak at the gesture. But I liked it. 

18. It is baffling to me that the cops on Lt. Han’s team genuinely believe Mr. Shaman is a legit shaman and not, y’know, the expert profiler he very famously was as a cop before he was arrested. 

19. It is even more baffling that Lt. Han can be as smart as she is and still not know that Prosecutor Cha has a crush on her. 

20. And it is EVEN MORE BAFFLING that they thought I wouldn’t realize that Lt. Han is driving a Hyundai IONIQ5! You think a logo-covering sticker could fool me?! FOOLS!!! 

20A. It’s an electric car. And…looks like an old VCR. Which is, y’know, interesting. 

21. Lt. Han might not realize that both Mr. Shaman and Prosecutor Cha have the hots for her, but her teammates do. And they start taking sides on who she should pick: one says Mr. Shaman, one Prosecutor Cha, and one says she should date both—because “personally, I’m a big fan of love triangles.” [insert Jason Mamoa “My man!” gif] 

22. After they realize they like each other, Lt. Han and Mr. Shaman go for a walk, and she gives him the most satisfying-to-see glare/pout when she realizes he’s taking her on a reconnaissance mission and not a date. It’s as hilarious as it is adorable.

23. There was another scene ( like in Korean Odyssey) where two characters are speaking different languages, but the subtitles don’t indicate as much—yet my brain immediately knew the difference. (In this case, one was speaking Chinese and the other, of course, Korean.) 

24. There’s a Death Note reference, in the last episode, and that made me chuckle. Good to know that comic/anime is world-wide. 

25. There’s a great moment when Mr. Shaman and his right-hand lackey are really frightened and start praying for their safety. But neither of them is much for religion, so they can only default back to what little they remember—which is a children’s iteration of grace before a meal. Had me cracking up. That was very clever. Done a little too unseriously, but still clever. 

26. In a fairly obvious bit of character stuff, Mr. Shaman’s mom is a very devout Catholic, and so he is desperate to keep her from figuring out he’s “cavorting with dark powers” (even though he is faking all of it…which she would also be upset about, because he’d be a liar and conman). But find out she does, and her response…is to call in an exorcist. Which confused me, at first, because I didn’t understand why she would think he was possessed by a demon—but then I did a little actual research and, wouldn’t ya know, shamans are by definition possessed by deities or other such spirits (it’s where they derive their spiritual powers). Which means, yeah, she’d want whatever is supposedly inside him to be chased out by the power of Christ. I mean, there’s still the issue of only very specific priests being able to perform exorcisms—and how rarely they are dispatched—but at least the impulse makes sense. And it’s a pretty funny scene, on its own. 

27. You know what else I hated about this show? Especially towards the end, they do the annoying “and here’s a flashback to show you how we organized everything you’re seeing to trick the bad guys and we’ve been in control the whole time!” thing ALL THE TIME. 

28. Fun fact: I was so angry about all the ridiculous inconsistencies and contrivances that I was, by the end, rooting for the bad guys. 

29. Wait—the season ended with Oh Yeon-seo in a straw beach hat. I take back everything I said; this show is awesome. 

And that, sadly, was that. 

Absolute disaster. Like, I have to rearrange the bottom of my K-drama rankings, now, because of this. 

Fingers crossed what’s next will be in some manner better. And, hey, maybe I’ll be able to get some trusted guidance from my K-drama seonbae about what the next thing should be. 

What? A boy can dream. 

—Daryl