Episode 3 of Cafe Minamdang dives a little deeper into the history of Nam Han-jun and then focuses on his plan to trap Shin Gyeong-ho. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.
Recap
Han Jae-hui sneaks into Cafe Minamdang to do a little digging into Nam Han-jun and find out more about what he’s up to. She sees that he’s got information on her brother’s murder and wonders what it’s doing there.
At the same time, Han-jun and Hye-jun oversee a meeting between Min Yu-seon and Inspector Jung Cheong-gi. Yu-seon asks Cheong-gi for all the evidence he hid to clear her husband, Gyeong-ho, of murder. Hye-jun uses this meeting to bug Cheong-gi’s phone.
When they get back, Jae-hui is still in their house but she manages to escape before Han-jun can catch her.
She visits the cafe the next day when Detective Gwang-tae shows up. He says that he had made a reservation earlier and finally got through so he didn’t want to let it go to waste. Jae-hui insists on going in with him.
Jae-hui bumps into Han-jun and falls down, that’s when Han-jun realizes that she is the same little girl he trained to fight when he was still an officer.
During his meeting with Gwang-tae, Jae-hui asks him why he’s conning people with this facade and Han-jun is reminded of how he got into this business in the first place.
She brings up the fact that he made a mistake and tampered with evidence and that led to the death of a prosecutor but she doesn’t reveal that the prosecutor was her brother. Han-jun says that he is wracked with guilt but defends himself, stating that he never made mistakes.
Jae-hui stakes out the cafe and even invites Cha Du-won to join her. Inside the cafe, Han-jun and his team are listening in on a conversation between Gyeong-ho and Cheong-gi. Gyeong-ho tells the inspector to drop by with the evidence that he’s holding.
Han-jun and the team follow him with Jae-hui also in pursuit. They drive for a long time before arriving at a mansion far away. Hye-jun is listening in on Cheong-gi’s phone when their car is surrounded by security.
Soo-cheol fights them with a little help from the others. Inside the house, Gyeng-ho has Cheong-gi beaten up and after he gets what he needs, he orders his men to kill the inspector. Han-jun and Soo-cheol go out to stop that from happening.
While Jae-hui and Do-won are waiting and watching, they get a call from detective Jang who tells Jae-hui that someone is there to talk to her. It is Yu-seon, who wants to testify against her husband. She confirms his hand in the hit-and-run and he’s at his mansion doing drugs at that moment.
Jae-hui tells the others that she’s already there and for them to rush there as soon as possible. Before she can go in though, Do-won says that it’s better if she waits for him to get the warrant. As soon as that happens, they move in.
Gyeong-ho’s men are about to kill Cheong-gi when Nam Han-jun begins some sort of ritual in the distance as some kind of distraction. Jae-hui hears the sounds and walks right up to him and asks him what he’s doing.
In the epilogue, someone places some evidence in Nam Han-jun’s drawer at the station and the next day when he walks in, the internal police find the evidence and arrest him.
Review
- The fight scenes could certainly be improved upon. While the choreography is adequate, the camera work is too snapshot and sudden.
- The humour is also hit and miss during this episode. Some of the jokes land perfectly although some of them are downright ridiculous.
- The story is starting to take shape but it’s taking a while to get there. It’s definitely intriguing but the director runs the risk of dragging things out.
Rating: 2.5/5