Cafe Minamdang: TV Show Review

If you enjoy murder mysteries, comedy, and a bit of romance, then this is the Korean Drama for you. Recently released on Netflix, this TV Show is about an ex-cop who’s become a shaman in order to make a living in order to solve the mystery of who murdered his friend. While he’s trying to solve the mystery, the police are also trying to solve a similar case and their paths cross many times. This show has a mix of some vfx, great cinematography, and silliness all in one.

Many TV Shows have visual effects in them, and this show is no exception. For example, there are some shots that use vfx in a way to emphasize the silliness of what’s happening in the scene. A character is running away from another character and they parkour up a building. If you’ve ever seen old kung fu movies where they do flying kicks, this is similar to that. They use this vfx to play on the silliness of what is happening in the scene and to emphasize a certain characteristic of the person who is doing parkour. Personally, I like some cheesiness in these kinds of comedy TV shows because it makes it that much more funny. Additionally, when one character gets mad, the camera zooms towards her face and a fan blows her hair around as if to show  she’s so angry that her energy is making her hair fly around. Not only are there fun effects such as the ones mentioned above, but in the show itself, they use an LED wall. For the shaman’s consulting room, behind his throne is an LED wall that has a looping video. And in one scene they change it to something else to add more humor.

If you like murder mysteries but also love a bit of silly romance, this is the show for you. A lot of people only watch western culture shows and think that eastern culture lacks in quality. But that perception is a very narrow-minded one. Media of all cultures such as Korean Dramas are just as good as western civilization media. Visual effects worldwide are increasing in quality and there are many shows out there such as this one that is great to watch.