Doona! (2023)

Don't Watch this if you have read the Webtoon, If Not You are good to go.

As someone who has read the Doona Webtoon I can clearly say this is nowhere near the Original work. The whole freakin story has been changed.

But if you watch this as a independent story this is quite good till the last episode.

The Drama is hugely dependent on Suzy and Yang Sejong who did their part of the job brilliantly. You can just watch this drama solely for their chemistry.

Another good Thing about the drama is the Visuals they left no frame incomplete, every frame was like an artwork.

But if you really want to know about Doona and Won Jun just read the Webtoon it's just on an another level of storytelling and characters just make sense.

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Doona! A Introspective Review

Doona! felt like a perpendicular line at the moment the lines cross.

I think the story was woven amazingly and felt realistic enough compared to other romantic dramas. The ending while sad and unfortunate felt more real. I know a decent size of people watch dramas as a form of escapism, I do to, but the show made me confront some feelings of reality that was hard to ignore.

Ultimately if I could point anyone to a poem that could capture this show I would point towards 'By Chance' by Xu Zhimo. I won't copy it here because that would spoil the show but feel free to read it yourself if you don't mind.

To conclude, I highly recommend you watch the show but if you can, make no real expectations or assumptions, so that the story can be appreciated more.

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Why this drama is one of the best of the year, and it's not an exaggerated thought!

I have never written a review but I felt the need to do this one today. I hope to do fairly well.

I think it is the perfect drama for the rainy season that is going on right now.

From my point of view, it makes you meditate, it is simple, but at the same time, it leaves you with a feeling of heaviness in your heart and you can't stop turning it over in your head.
For some reason I have felt comforted myself when I listened to Won-jun speak, and in some way, it has made me reflect as a person because of the character he has.

I think the story is perfect, I would not change anything, because I really liked how they developed it. The only reason this drama is not a 10 for me, is because I would have liked them to delve more into Doona's life before meeting him, otherwise it is perfect.
And for the detractors of the ending, I have to say that I think that what they wanted to tell and how they did it, was phenomenal. If you remember, Doona explained to him that only when her career stabilized could she be with him and he knew that for society to "accept" him he had to be an "adult", that is, graduate, settle down and get a job, as it is dictate on the standard that exists in society. That is why I think the ending has accurately captured how they have fought and achieved the "requirements" to be able to love each other.

I also want to emphasize that both the cinematography and the soundtrack of this drama are exceptional.

We must also talk about the level of the performances of both Bae Suzy and Yang Se Jong. She has never seemed like a bad actress to me, but I think she nailed it this time. And what can I say about him, I have been eagerly awaiting his return.

I hope this simple, although a bit short, review helps you.

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Good Enough

Korean Drama '' Doona! '' is a romantic melodrama about a troubled celebrity who meets an ordinary man who seems to not know who she is.

The drama starts off pretty great, with the story being intriguing enough to make the audience want to know more about Doona and her past as she struggles with her relationship with her ex agend, her family, her career, and her current loneliness, as she is only now starting to get to know who she is really as a person and not as an idol persona. So, her story was interesting and nicely presented, as it shows the dark side of showbiz.

On the other hand, the romance was boring. The pace of the love story was all over the place, the story too basic, and the ending more or less predictable. However, it was interesting to watch how the couple help each other grow and change.

Finally, the performances were all great by everyone in the cast, especially the main leads. The cinematography was impressive as well.

So, overall, five out of ten.

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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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Netflix "realism" predominates.

Netflix has a definite style of youthful romance which may not be to everyone’s taste. The characters (not necessarily the plot) are more realistic and less “wholesome” or formal than the one’s coming out of Korean television. More willing to mess with the standard norms and to be concerned with the realities of things like depression. Less afraid to explore the uncertainties of youth, which make it more afraid of the finality of rejection than living with the denial of feelings or unfulfilled desires.

The production style here is more akin to “Nevertheless”, although the storyline is totally different. It has a greater emphasis on showing more realistic reactions and character traits, such as smoking, swearing or anxiety attacks. The characters are often much less sure of themselves and can display behaviour that is obvious red flags, such as a dangerous tendency to want to be violent, or being caught up in abusive relationships. The actual impact that these situations have on an individual is more honestly portrayed. Often K-dramas gloss over the effects of trauma and create miraculous and timely recoveries so that the sense of a moral correctness, or fairytale happy-ever-after can be preserved. Whereas this story takes place amongst the uncertainties and messiness of life.

The director, Lee Jeong Hyo, has a string of hits in the last 5 years, including “Crash Landing on You” and “Romance is a Bonus Book”. Here he has adopted a less predictable style. He likes to observe the reactions on the actors faces and Bae Suzy is well worth looking at as she successfully conveys her inner emotions. Yang Se Jong is less convincing, but his character is lacking light and shade in the writing and it is very much a cypher and a foil for Doona. For me, the ML character is too young to be believable and as a result is played more mature. In general, his circumstances and themes were under-explored. At this length, the drama could easily have opted to focus only on the leads and gone deeper. There was plenty of material, particularly on Doona’s side to do so.

Instead, they chose to introduce secondary characters and subplots that did not hold up particularly well. There was an air of plot convenience about them with insufficient integration between their characters and the lead story. The script for these subplots, particularly between Lee Won Jun (Yang Se Jong) and his old flame, disappointingly often slipped into the banal and trite.

One annoying detail was that the continuity was bad. The weather and costumes were very mixed up. People wearing summer outfits in early spring and full tree foliage with snow. I’m prepared to overlook bright sunshine and rain, as that is often unavoidable due to a shooting schedule. But deciding on the season and dressing appropriately is something that should be unified.

There were some deliberate attempts at stylistic cinematography - especially towards the end. The breaking up the images into multiple rectangles (there’ll be a technical term for this, sorry not really my speciality). The use of a lot of close up reaction shots. It had a modern feel. Slightly smokey images, with the edge taken off by using less saturated colour, and moody lighting, nicely played into the slightly sombre tone of the piece. Greys, blues and browns predominate. The spare use of music carries emotional weight because it is unusual to have no background sounds.

Overall, for me, there was a lot to like about this production regarding the central characters and storyline, but the subplots and details let it down. It was an emotional 8, but a rational 7.5.

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Fallen star done right

This is another one of those dramas that just draws you in and before you know it it is over...

To be honest we have seen this type of story before in several dramas, all rated highly by me, and all loved in their own little way. This drama does not have a lot to add to the lot of dramas of this type story wise even if it does have a slightly different angle and has the star fall a bit deeper than most other dramas do.

HOWEVER it does have Suzys amazing acting, singing and all round awesomeness.

It also has really beautiful cinematography a bunch of lovely friendships and extreamly few moments of annoying.

The biggest downside of this drama is it leaving me wanting more, as well as the high age of the actors supposed to play 21 yearolds (not very believable, sorry). However the acting, chemistry, kissing, emotions are all spot on and I loved pretty much every second of watching the interactions between the leads and the second female lead.

Definitely a drama worth watching for all those who can appreciate watching falling star dramas and can handle some darkness and spunk.

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O romance entre uma idol e um anônimo é um caso de amor fadado ao fracasso. A aproximação dos dois protagonistas foi despretensiosa e vê-los se apaixonando à revelia tornou o sentimento mais intenso. Apesar daquela cena onde a Doona "abandona" o rapaz lá na casinha no meio do mato para voltar para Seul com o agente, sem nenhuma explicação para o rapaz, foi realmente enervante. Mas entendo que diante do agente ela se tornava uma criança vulnerável. O problema não foi nem ela ter ido com ele (pois na verdade ela queria resolver as pendencias com o agente), mas ela ter ido sem nenhuma explicação.

O final do drama em si não foi ruim na minha opinião. Nem toda história de amor é para sempre, aliás, me pergunto se existe alguma que seja. E a história deles, como disse antes, estava fadada ao fracasso desde o início. As escolhas de vidas deles eram muito opostas, manter um relacionamento minimante saudável ia exigir a anulação profissional de uma das partes, então não vejo como eles poderiam dar certo naquele momento. Com o final em aberto a gente pode especular se talvez um dia eles se reencontrem.

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DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME !!

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Llaryz
a day ago
This is my take on the drama I’ve got a lot to say about it, just to be clear this is my own opinion and I understand everyone won’t agree and have different opinions especially since I know others have attempted to watch this drama and found it boring and sure I get it but for me I absolutely loved it. The cinematography was my kind of aesthetic and the songs were giving melancholy but it also gave the feeling of peace at the same time. Ever since the first episode I was hooked and I never found it boring in fact I found it intriguing. To me it felt so organic and real mainly because of the main character/s and their story. I’ve read on a reddit post someone said it felt more like a character study than a K-Drama and I agree. To me it felt so different from the K-Dramas I watch that it felt like a breath of fresh air apart from the several love interests introduced in the drama for the male lead and some cliches. The reason why I agree that this drama is more of a character study is because it mostly centres around Doona (of course it’s the name of the series) and who she is, it shows her past, her struggles, the problems she faces and how it has affected her negatively. However that’s not the main reason why I was so intrigued in the first place. I was interested because the drama tackles mental health issues and mentions the abuse Korean Idols go through within the industry, it shows awareness and it’s one of the reasons why the actress of Doona (played by Bae Suzy, I love her) picked up the role because she related to the character. Now aside from all that I enjoyed and deeply loved Doona and Won-Jun’s (Yang Se-Jong) love story, there was amazing chemistry between the main leads in my opinion and they did a fantastic job portraying their characters. I love their relationship dynamic in the show where they come from two different worlds, a soft hearted, innocent and serious boy in university meets a famous Korean idol who puts on a tough exterior but is actually broken and struggles with mental health. He fell for who she is and didn’t try to “fix” her, he was always there for her and became her safe place and she needed someone that just loved her for who she was. Whilst Doona fell for how genuinely good and sincere he was, he was different to the people she met in her life and Won-Jun needed someone who was bold and got him to loosen up, they were a perfect fit. For me this show really hit the spot and it’s definitely my favourite K-Drama in 2023, it’s definitely high on my list. Regardless of the ending which for me was a good ending and quite realistic, at first I wasn’t sure what to feel all I know is everyone should take it easy on idols, with media nowadays they aren’t given the freedom they deserve as human beings and aren’t even given the right to date the person they like without a camera in their face or being judged and hated for it.

Anyways I should probably stop I still have a lot to say but I’ll just say this, if you think this is your type of show to watch based on what I’ve mentioned then of course I highly recommend you to watch it but if it’s not, then don’t waste your time.

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REFRESHING!!!

First of all, let's just say, I'm surprised!!! Why? Because I thought that this is going to be a typical fairy tale drama, but no, it isn't!!! Let me say one thing for those who want to watch this show, and they have huge expectations. FORGET THEM ALL! It's not a typical love drama, and it's not even a feelgood drama. IF you watched 'Crash Landing on You', you will have almost the same experience, and it's not a coincidence because both show made by the same director! This is not a fantasy where everything is good and there are rainbows and cute puppies.😅 This drama is REAL as it gets. If you hate one or more characters because of their decisions, I'm not surprised. BUT if you ever loved someone, especially when you were young, you will understand why this show is a fantastic representation of “young love” and young people in general. Sure, we could say, Doona sometimes willful, violent or just don't care about anyone else but herself. That's only the surface! This drama showed us how fame can ruin a person's life, and not everything is as it seems, and maybe you want to watch TV shows because you want to escape from reality. If you want to do that, DON'T WATCH THIS DRAMA! Like I said, this isn't a fairy tale!

The characters are real, Doona too. The whole Idol part of the show just scratched the surface, to be honest, because being a celebrity is way worse than we have seen in this show. So, I'm not that surprised that the ending wasn't a typical Disney fairy tale. BTW, the ending. If you want happy ending, you have to pay attention!!! Again, YOU HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION, because the director purposefully blended every scene together perfectly, so you have to think twice or even more if you want to know what happened, especially in the second half of the season. He sprinkled a LOT of info and little scenes in the intro and in the episodes where you can find clues how the show really ended! Honestly, I bow down for the director because in my lifetime (36 years) I didn't witness a creative directing like this too many times!

My only problem with the show, is that it's too short, 9 episode nothing. I could watch 9 more. I hope there will be a second season, because if we don't count the minor issues and the short season, this show could've been perfect.

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I dont get it

I feel like i was way too hyped because of the first two episodes and expected way too much from this drama. I dont even know what i was expecting but it delivered absolutely nothing. Did it make me happy? No. Did it make me sad? No. Did it make me emotional? No. It made me frustrated.
The scenes just felt like they were thrown there in a rush, sometimes is hard to follow what is even happening. Important stuff that woild add so much to the plot are brought up and "solved" in 5 seconds. Like Jinju family situation, it had so much potential because honestly it semmed like a terrible and traumatic household, but its just brushed up in a minute of flashback. Doonas manager or whatever that man was, i was totally up for doona going back on stage and being happy but i didnt want it to be with that guy, he clearly didnt treat her well as well as her agency didnt treat her or the other members of her group well, that becomes clear when her member meets up with her and says that if doona hadnt stopped singing she would and even with all that happening - and alot more stuff that we have no idea about because the script is way too ambigous - doona still goes back to the same place.
I wanted character development and what i got was absolutely nothing. The whole drama i didnt feel doonas feelings for wonjun at all. Most of the time it just felt like she was going after him cause she was lonely and that its brought up a couple of times but they dont ever really talk it out. I wanted confrortation. Conversation. Development. And it just didnt happened, the only time i felt like she had a little bit of feelings for him was in the last episode when she cried and went to confront him about it but even when i thought we were finally going to have a good conversation abiut their relationships and feelings the said two words for each other and hugged. TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Explain to each other why you did what you did. I dont know if the confusing and ambigous feelings are the concept of the drama but it didnt match with me.
The secondary characters had potential and it was just thrown away. If youre gonna show me a second couple then show me a second couple. I dont need them to become the main characters or anything but i feel like they dont even have full five minutes of sceen time together and they look like they would had such good couple shenanigans. I didnt feel like i would like them as a couple cause when ira first came i found her a little annoying but she grew into me and she clearly had a good couple dynamic with her boyfriend which we see for two minutes of them getting ready to go to work together in the last episode and just that made me want more from them. I wanted to see them grow into a couple and to go from like to love. It could be quick scenes but i just wanted SOMETHING.
I feel like such good casting was wasted. Their acting was good but the script was a let down. In my opinion it didnt have enough depth. It feels like the wanted to do so many good things but it all ended unflavored.
Also that ending sucked ass

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