Doona!

Artistically stunning with hidden meanings :)

I don’t write many reviews. I’ve only ever written one before and it was for The Glory. But this stunning drama deserves one, especially as I am upset at some of the comments and reviews made so far.

I am in England, and currently we are having a pretty intense storm so I am home and had free reign over the tv. I had saw this on my Netflix recommendations, so decided given its nine episodes that this would be my treat for the day (alongside wine and chocolate obviously ;)

This drama is stunning. Visually, directionally and its gorgeous writing. The main characters are endearing and free spirited. I resonated to Doona through mental struggles and her cold approach to relationships.

Key to the series here is that Doona is outwardly cold, but inwards she is warm hearted and yearns for love and approval. This needs to be remembered as you go through the series, every decision she makes you need to remember that inwardly she feels so much profound pain. She also loves Wonjun more than anything in the world. But she needs approval, and her career is the only thing that can satiate that need.

Your twenties is a period of change and growth. Ebbs and flows are normal - reviews upset about the ending are not looking deep enough.

Here’s something you may not of noticed. In the last few episodes - After the opening credits, at the beginning. There is a clip, which is very interesting in response to the ‘open’ ending. In the last episode, the clip is Doona and Wonjun meeting in a field of flowers. *look* at the outfits! Wonjun is wearing the suit and coat that he is wearing in the last scenes. When he is smiling at cake, glances at jewellery. Before walking in the hotel, and Doona turns round. Clearly she calls for him, or they are already in some kind of situationship.

The opening credit scene shows after this ‘open’ ending, they do meet and I believe the intention is to be together and make it work.

Because all these years later they are ready for eachother. They have the approval they needed from the world all those years ago. Now they are ready for it from eachother. Early on in the series, Doona says that her personal life and career would calm down after a few years. In 2027, that has happened and she can love freely the person she loves.

Gorgeous hidden meanings and direction. The director is a genius, look at CLOY. People shouldn’t write this drama off, be upset if you were initially- go back and re watch looking at the depth and meaning of words.

It’s beautiful and has enriched me for the better.

I hope it enriches you as well.

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Too much “aesthetics” for me

The photography is undeniably beautiful, but they went overboard with the sheer number of completely silent scenes. You can count on your fingers the moments when the soundtrack fills a dialogue-less scene. They went too far in the name of "aesthetics," and sometimes I wondered if I was watching a mediocre alternative indie short film.

About Doona: this is your typical "not like other girls" story, and it's getting a bit old.

Personally, I found her to be an insufferable character - she doesn't elicit any empathy. She's traumatized, selfish, clueless, and has the emotional intelligence of a rock. She refuses to explain herself, making it hard for the viewer to understand her journey and empathize with her story.

Wonjoon ends up being a pitiful character, letting himself be dragged along by Doona even though it's clear she's incapable of relating to others. He takes too long to question her, and when he finally does, he doesn't do it right.

The only thing that made sense to me was the ending. Even then, it was one of the weakest stories of the year.

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Looks Beautiful, Feels Hollow

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

After I had binge-watched this drama in 1 day, I was left with mixed feelings. I spent some time reflecting on it to better understand what I liked and didn't like about it. By the way, I have not read the webtoon that it is adapted from.

Acting/Cast: I literally only wanted to watch this because it had been a while since I've seen Suzy in a drama. Don't let that fool you though - I actually don't think she's a good actress. Everything I've seen her in, her acting is subpar. However, she's one of the few actors that I still enjoy watching despite their acting ability. Instead, I like to watch her for the sake of nostalgia (Uncontrollably Fond -- my 1st K-Drama, Dream High). This drama was no different for Suzy; her acting was still lacking. But even so, I was glad to see her. On the other hand, Yang Se Jong (양세종) is a good actor. I've only seen him in one other drama (Thirty but Seventeen -- one of my top 10 K-Dramas) and I loved him in that one, so I was relieved to see that he would be playing the male lead in Doona! I knew Suzy would need the help and I was right - he was great. They worked well together and I felt their chemistry. The side characters were interesting too. I thought I wouldn't like them and I didn't at first, but they ended up being a fun addition. I actually wanted to see more of them. 5/10

Writing: This is the difficult part...this is the part that left me with this hollow feeling. It's as though I walked into a building that was still under construction. The foundation is set, the support beams have been erected, the walls are starting to be built up, and I can see signs of some great craftsmanship and beautiful architecture. But, the construction was left abandoned...I guess because the architect thought it looked more meaningful this way. I can't say that more episodes would have fixed this problem, because it seems to be an artistic choice. I felt as if the writing was skirting around the issues, afraid to really delve deep. I saw the potential for the drama to get into more of the psychology of Doona -- to really understand not only her, but others in the entertainment industry that may be facing similar problems, but it just didn't happen. This hollowness was even felt with the side characters. It seemed like they were just thrown in without much character development, which is a shame because I actually ended up liking them. The chemistry between the 2 leads helped to sell the romance in K-Drama world, but it didn't feel like a real-life romance to me. Observing it realistically, Doona would be the type of girl you'd expect to be (to put it nicely) a serial dater. She would have eaten that sweet guy alive in reality -- completely crush his heart with no remorse. So, while I was watching, I was very scared for him...I mean, she's just one giant red flag. But anyway, I'll stop here so I don't give any spoilers. 1.5/10

Direction/SFX/Music: Easily the best thing about this drama. It is very pretty, very aesthetically pleasing. Great ASMR mic quality. Great cinematography all around. I even like some of the music. My favorite songs on the OST are The Universe by Kwon Jin Ah and Still by DVWN. I think this is why it was so easy for me to binge this drama - it was just so nice to look and and listen to. 9.5/10

Entertainment Value: I found myself hanging on the every word while watching this drama. Even rewinding if I missed a sentence. I only do that when I'm genuinely enjoying a drama. However, by the end, I was left dissatisfied and wanting so much more. Maybe a bit confused, too. Towards the end it became somewhat frustrating to watch. I myself wasn't even sure of Doona's feelings... 4.5/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 5/10. It was difficult to put a number on it since my feelings about it are all over the place. Would I recommend this drama? Probably not... unless you're a fan of one of the leads.

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Such a Disappointment……

Ranted in the comments, making it into a review. After reading the Webtoon since its very beginning, I’ve been waiting for a drama adaptation for years. Although the ending may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the rest of the story and plot had such good potential for one of the best rom-coms/slice of life’s this year. Completely ruined the drama with Ira being Joon’s childhood friend, and just not including so many important and memorable scenes like the school festival or Kook Su Jin fanboying over Doona at the shared house. No dream trip to Hawaii either? Wasted cast too, Suzy was the perfect actress for this role, her acting has improved so much over the years and gets dealt a terrible script and story. Ending was terrible too, just let Joon and Ira end up together, why leave it open-ended? Satisfies no one. Only positives are the cinematography and OSTs, great work there.

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If you want to watch how a toxic relationship unfold, I think it's for you but for me, I'm not really into this type of dramas. It started off really good and I was hoping a character development somehow but no I got nothing I think.

Suzy is somewhat not that effective here for me. I was really amazed with how she acted in Anna and I can see her improvement there but this time around it was hard watching her crying because she is bad at it. I don't know maybe I expected a lot from her already.

The ending is bad, I am really not satisfied with it. I'm happy that they release all episodes in a day because I don't think I would watch this ongoing.

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An Open Ended Mess of a Story that Disappoints

I was looking forward to watching this drama from all the trailers and teasers I had seen plus it also staring Suzy who is one of my all time favorite idols so I was instantly drawn into it. The drama started off so strong with excellent character introductions and development, the characters felt real and relatable with each conversation and scene feeling natural. The development between the relationships felt perfectly timed and with roadblocks being resolved quickly. All of this was up until Episode 7, that was when the writing and the characters became a complete mess. Each decision the leads made felt like a slap to the face in everything that was established in the first six episodes. Everything the writers were building up to that point they just tossed into the garbage and forgot about it from there. In some instances, the characters felt completely different from the ones the drama started off with initially.

Open Ended endings when done correctly are a fantastic however this one was not done correctly, it was done so poor that it requires the viewer to go back and watch the drama or look up on the internet about what actually happened. Having invested time into these characters and their story only for it to end on the most flat open ended endings I have ever seen out of any media I have ever watched or played. To put it plainly, it was like buying a scratch off lottery ticket and instead of it saying "You Win or You Lose" it instead told you "You maybe won or You maybe lost". This drama's story required a defined and resolute ending to its story, this was not a science fiction drama that could have questions left unanswered nor some cop drama which left an investigation's potential culprit a mystery. I could have overlooked all of the mistakes and mess that was made during Episodes 7, 8, and 9 if the ending was not some vague nonsensical mess that required a re-watch of previous scenes or a web search to have it be resolved.

One of the best thing about the drama is the cast it had. Suzy knocked it out of the park with her performance as the titular character Doona. she played the role of the fallen out of grace idol that was a complete mess perfectly. Yang Se Jong as Won Jun was great as well, his problems of having to help Doona put the pieces of herself back together throughout their relationship and having to bare the burden of giving up everything for her felt very relatable. Ha Young as Jin Ju was a great secondary love interest that in my honest opinion, was the much better choice for Won Jun in all honestly. The rest of the supporting cast was great as well, they really did a great job in contributing to the story. One minor disappointing thing was that the drama never revealed the relationship of Doona and Won Jun to Won Jun's bestfriend Su Jin who was Doona's biggest fan. It was a missed opportunity, which the drama had several of those unfortunately.

The soundtrack itself was solid with it being an all around great OST, there isn't really any stand out tracks other than Ordinary Days which itself was performed by Suzy and Daylight by BIG Naughty. The cinematography was perfect, everything about the drama's production was high quality. Also excellent job in being able to show the emotions of the characters through camera shot styles, its rare seeing a drama being able to do that.

All around, I wish this drama didn't throw away all the great work in started with in the first six episodes. Had they continued with that pace, this drama had the potentials to be one of the greatest drama's of all time but unfortunately the drama self sabotaged itself leaving myself and many more viewers disappointed and unfulfilled.

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I don’t usually drop dramas but…

The premise of Doona! is very intriguing and attention catching. But upon actually watching it, the acting was stale and none of the characters were likeable. I got to episode 5 and it felt like the main leads had zero personality and even less chemistry. The two leads meet by chance and at their first meeting they have conflict which is never brought up again or moved on from. After that conflict Bae Suzy’s character becomes sort of a “pick me” following around the male lead. I wish her character had more of a personality because the story set the two up so well. by the time i reached episode five, I wasn’t rooting for a single character and I found myself bored trying to complete it.

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Like the title character at the beginning, it doesn't know what it should be

"I can't sing" says Doona when asked why she stopped performing but it's obvious that the issue is NOT that she can't sing. It's that she doesn't know WHY she is singing. And that after the years of training and performing, she's lost any meaning to what had once been her dream.

That much is clear.

And equally clear is that a kpop idol interacting with Yang Se Jong's Won Joon is like a plunge in to an ice bath. He's such an opposite of her. He's beyond his years in maturity. He doesn't smoke. He's a rule follower. His emotions are as grounded as a concrete block building foundation. C'mon, he's a civil engineer. As a romance? Legitimately, there are some terrific, compelling scenes between Won Joon and Doona. But this is not a show where any rational viewer is expecting a fairy tale - they get together, leave the world behind and live happily ever after. Immediately upon solidifying their relationship, the clock begins audibly ticking before their troubles as a couple will consume them. Regardless of whether or not the lovebirds find a way to be together, the main issue that is dramatized is whether Doona falls for Won Joon because she needs someone and he's the one that happens to be there or is he legitimately her soulmate? But somewhat ignored is why has Won Joon fallen for Doona as a person? Clearly he's a straight male and she's stunning and seems interested in him and that should obviously be enough for a brief infatuation. It's not enough, however, to explain how he overlooks all the negatives (and there are many) in her and she becomes the only woman for him. So the romance is intermittently great but, in totality, is more just going where it was pretty expected it was headed from before the first frame hit the screen.

Moreover, the secondary storylines have promise. Park Se Wan and Kim Do Wan are a fantastic pair. Won Joon's got a potentially colorful hometown connections subplot. Ha Young's Jin Joo has a troubled family life. But the shorter episode run times and 9 episode duration don't give these diversions ample space to really fulfill what could have been. Park Se Wan, in particular, is wild and colorful but shows up halfway just as things in the main plot are gaining serious traction. Even just a single additional episode could have allowed more screen time to cultivate what were some potentially entertaining developments.

Where "Doona" really hits (and, in a way, misses) is that Doona herself is this fascinating, complex, damaged and brilliant character in the midst of discovering herself and her passion for music. And, for as much as no other man but Won Joon can make her happy, the reality is that not even he can come between her and who she is as an artist and a singer. It's her journey from being a woman in crisis to finding what within her gives her a purpose and meaning that captivates. How it misses is that it is clumsily obfuscated by the demands of the industry that she return to settle her contractual obligations and the effect that her return to singing has on Won Joon. These are certainly points worth noting in her growth, but they overwhelm what could have been a better exploration of her personal awakening, finding meaning in songwriting, realizing what she loved about performing and that a life without music, for her, would be a life without meaning. Instead, her internal development is captured in only brief moments. It's a pity.

Recommended but with forewarning that "Doona" isn't what it could be.

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Doona Left me Disappointed???

Yeah a bit. Could have been much better. But after 6 episode everything seems like a mess. Although ending could have been better. Why leave it as open ending without satisfying anyone. The only positive things about this drama is The OST and Cinematography. I was looking forward to enjoying a great show. But Doona left me disappointed!!

From episode 1 to 6. I loved everything. The plot and leads ongoing chemistry was giving me good vibes. But when Choi i ra came, everything strated to be messy. Although it was like the real life struggling of a Idol singer. I know it was goona be a tough decision. But The ending could have been much better. I like almost everything about this drama but except the Ending.

The only thing continuously pop up my mind is why why why? Why leave it as a Open Ending. It could have been a great drama if the ending was Good. Doona's ending disappointed me a lot.

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Oh my Doona!

Doona! What a name, it’s unforgettable! Drama was engaging, heartfelt and have moments to reflect on. The ending, omg - crap. It felt so truncated. Being emotionally entrenched and then left high and dry felt like a sense of betrayal.

Props to Suzy. To me, this was her best acting to-date, putting her amongst the upper echelons. Strangely for me, watching her again after ‘Startup’ and feeling all conflicted was such a deja vu. And Yang Se-jong you are no exception with ‘My Country’ and now this. Lol! I guess I’m just a sucker for good endings, but this takes the cream for how sudden it ended or should I say, disappeared.

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The BEST BOYFRIEND award goes to Won Jun!!!

First of all I would like to talk about the amazing cast and their wonderful acting. So, I would like to say that the first point that few people check for in a drama is satisfied. I felt that only an idol IRL can perform the character of Doona perfectly and Bae Suzy just nailed it.

The story is nothing new. But I just enjoyed this story so much, even thought the story is nothing new the characters and the way story progressed made it up for me. The character portrayal is obviously the heart of the story. Especially Yang Se Jong's character felt so refreshing to me.

Also the visuals in this drama are really good. Especially Doona, won jun, Jin-Ju, I-ra are really really good looking in the drama. I have no complaints regarding acting. This is my first time watching Yang Se Jong's acting and I really can't wait to watch more his dramas in the future.

If only they have an award under the category of best boyfriend, then definitely Won jun will get that award. He is such a caring boyfriend and understands Doona very well more than anyone else. Doona deserves the best as well, even though at first she irritated Won Jun, she is just misunderstood. Won Jun and Doona deserve each other as they deserve the best!!!

In the first episode, when they tried to portray the scenes that happened in the past, I felt that there is a bit of confusion while trying to figure out whether the scenes are happening in the past or the present. But in the upcoming episodes it was alright. But the last few episodes are really painful. Because I really couldn't stand them being sad even though they are doing pretty great in their daily life.

This is the first drama where I felt that opening song suited the drama the most and it felt really good listening to that song. I am not a big fan of these kind of climaxes. I watch dramas for pleasure and to feel happy, but the climax made me a bit sad. Only if they just given us a hint about their relationship instead of just vaguely defining it. But overall I enjoyed watching this drama. The chemistry b/w the leads is off the charts.

Then again this is a kind of drama where the director wants us to guess everything and have not explained few things in detailed. Like for example I-ra's dating phase, Jin-Ju's trip and occupation, also Won-Jun's job whereabouts. I am curious to know what job did Won Jun get and how is his family doing. Considering all these things, I wish they go for a season 2, cause I want to see more about Doona and Won Jun's story!!

PS - Great Acting! Usually Unusual Story LOL! Worth Your Time!!

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