Doona! (2023)

Realistic fanfic

Doona! is like a fanfic I would have read when I was 17 that I would obsessed over, rereading multiple time to relive it's beautiful written moments.
The drama does seems like an ode to Suzy; written by an obsessed fan daydreaming of an outlook from his mundane life. Despite the extreme implausibility of this scenario, all the relationships depicted in the drama are written very realistically. That's the charm of Doona!, you deeply empathise with all the characters, their deeply flawed personalities and their struggles to navigate through love and life. A beautiful story, wrapped in stunning visual cinematography.

Sidenote: While watching the show I kept wondering if this was a manhwa which it actually was, I am so glad for the rise of webtoon and manhwa. The best sprouting grounds for aspiring Korean story tellers these days!

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Sparks all kinds of emotiona

Perfect ? idk how else to describe it.
One of the best love stories in drama land this yr.

The whole drama was beautiful, the cinematography, the ost omg, the ost especially the one they ended with each ep?

From their meeting to falling in love to fighting for their love waa just good. They had fire chemistry, both sexual and just idk how else to say but spiritually.

The supporting cast was perfect. The lityle friendship group that they formes, the vibe and architecture of the house, perfect.

I also love how it wasnt dramatic like the love triangle, their separation, the whole drama was peaceful. Their live was peaceful.

I also just loved ira's character, she brought bright energy, comedy and fun to the drama, her and her friends.

Also this drama sparked and made me somehow remember about my own painful past and scars which lead to an 8 mins recording ( that i still havent sent which is what i was intending to do ) and soo much crying, i dont think i have cried like that b4.

Anyway, i really loved it, wished it was longer even though it was just perfect as 9 ep.

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Muy recomendable

Este drama nos ha abierto un poco la mente respecto a los idols en Corea. Me ha gustado mucho esa visión de todo lo que tienen que soportar las personas dentro de la industria y como todo lo que vemos, nos muestran, no es realmente la realidad. Los problemas que tiene Doona y como los va afrontando y sobreviviendo a ello es muy duro.

Respecto a la cinematográfica, la estética de la serie son espectaculares, crea que tengan un estilo propio y se nota el cuidado que se le ha tenido.

Sin embargo, siento que es de esas series que en mi opinión se me van a olvidar en un tiempo, de hecho, ahora después de haber pasado un par de meses desde que la vi, casi que no la recuerdo al completo, pero sí que puedo decir que ha sido muy entretenida, interesante y también la relación amorosa entre los dos protagonistas.

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A estética perfeita para um enredo fraco e um romance meio xoxo capenga

Quando comecei a assistir esse drama, eu estava muito ansiosa. Desde o último trabalho da Suzy, eu estava muito ansiosa para ver sua evolução como atriz, e embora ela tenha dado um show de atuação - me fez odiar, ter empatia, querer dar um sacode na personagem -, essa história é profunda como um pires.
Pelo que pesquisei, ela é inspirada em um Webtoon, e as expectativas já estavam altas aí. Dramas inspirados em Webtoons não costumam ser ruins, pelo contrário! É provável que você vá ver as melhores cenas de beijo, a melhor química, as personalidades mais mente aberta possíveis. Esse casal principal é muito mente aberta, sim, também tem cenas de beijo quase cinematográficas, mas eu pelo menos não senti a química que a maioria dos telespectadores estava dizendo que era gritante.
Os personagens secundários, coitados, tiveram uma boa apresentação mas foram virando figurantes ao longo da trama. A querida que imigrou pro Brasil foi uma surpresa ótima, embora estereotipada aos montes, mas me fez rir e até esperar que suas cenas durassem mais do que a chatice do casal principal.
A personagem de Doona é boa. Ela é complexa, ela tem aquela clássica personagem irritante de protagonista, mas vai atrás do que quer e não fica esperando o cara tomar atitude. No entanto, essa representação de sua carreira idol foi extremamente rasa também. Eu esperava ver uma outra coisa quando li o enredo, imaginando que seria um título cheio de momentos para nos fazer até questionar o que diabos ainda faz com que a indústria musical da Coréia do Sul seja tão restritiva, tão desumana. Vimos a velha história de que idols não namoram, mas foi o máximo. O hate na internet e a perseguição não foram nem de longe bem explorados, durando pouco tempo e sendo mal desenvolvidos. Devo dizer que, se esse drama tivesse mais episódios, talvez eu pudesse realmente me apaixonar por tudo nele, afinal não é preciso de muitas exigências para se divertir assistindo algo, mas ficaram muitos pontos sem nó aí.

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A straightforward snapshot of life, career, and love...

/ Actual Rating: 9/10

/- It is what I deemed to like about Netflix KDramas. They never tend to put stalling scenes of every character for them to show their development. The struggles of being an Idol and being an ordinary citizen, living under their decisions to stay together depicted the reality of respecting the balance of life, career, and love. Despite all those, I think Doona and Won Jun had the right balance of their relationship. It's just an intimate yet very welcoming (and patient) to understand their feelings and their mental fortitude.
/- Aesthetically, I like the skybox filtering and cinematography!
/- This must be the best Netflix have ever done for a KDrama. Well-made!

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Breakfast at Tiffanys's inspired k-drama

Doona is a slice of life drama with a very carefully built slightly melancholic ambience. Fantastic acting from Suzy and Yang Se Jong. This reminded me of Age of Youth, which I like a lot. Especially the second couple. Maybe it was somewhat difficult to relax bc from the beginning it was kinda clear there would be no happy ending. But all the time I when I was watching I was getting Breakfast at Tiffanys vibes. There were definitely similarities, but that just made me appreciate this drama more. Especially Yang Se Jong's character was very similar to Breakfast at Tiffany's male lead, outsider-ish, ordinary and rooted. Suzy's character was unconventional and slighly unbalanced like Audrey Hepburn in BaT. Also, both were tied to a man from their pasts. I really enjoyed this a lot and I think the writer and director created a very good, unconventional k-drama. I'd give a Daesang for Suzy for her role. I know more trashy and popular dramas will get the awards make the headlines, but I guess that's okay, since this was just right for me.

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intimista, ousado e real.

achei intimista, ousado e real.

É muito difícil ter doramas tão próximos da nossa realidade, cenas de intimidade e tão atuais. Achei profundo mesmo com o final em aberto, e espero que tenha uma continuação.

Agora, os esteriótipos do Brasil me pegaram desprevenida, achei engraçado mas cringe demais, a forma como eles nos vêem de uma forma tão caricata.

enfim, eu vi um review em que disseram que é um ótimo dorama pra se ver em um dia nublado, frio ou ameno e concordo, é um daqueles doramas em que você facilmente pode pegar para relaxar ou apenas mergulhar em um drama romântico.

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Redflags, done well!

I wasn’t gonna write a review because i thought msnotes’ one was perfect already! And captured most of how i felt! But i wanted to rate it🫶

here is what i can add:

-you will find many reviews calling for toxic relationship, redflags etc… and first episodes the mess is quite crazy and a bit overdone , but along the episodes i came to realize it was well done!! How ? What i mean is doona’s character and actions slowly reveal her fears & vulnerability behind her mess.

-both ML & FL go through their weaknesses and both evolve. (FL maybe more?)

-the ML character us so genuine, he really made me reflect on how kindness can be perceived as flirting, lol

-i loved the dialogues, the said & unsaid , the questions that echo a lot of imagery and deep conclusions about fame, ambition, loneliness, abandonment and love


- i dunno if it was binging the episodes that made it look so overdramatic at times, but towards the end i got that feel.

- i wish it was a longer show! The pace was nice, i rooted for the characters and i think their evolution/story was not yet complete

-Doona’s character suited suzy soooo well! I think this kind of drama makes her shine so much!

-the secondary stories were really a bore ( i dont know why ! They felt so disconnected… ) but i looooved their evolution.

Its a show that reveals itself slowly and keeps getting better n better w each episode. A highlight of 2023 so far for me!

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Started off great but wth happened towards the end

This series started well with a lot of potential but I didn't know why I suddenly felt disappointed.

The casts are so cute together. It's not the best chemistry out there but there's definitely a chemistry among this group. The character development is a bit off putting though. During the first half, I kept being intrigued about Doona, who she is and why she ended up where she's at but then as her story unfolds, it didn't make sense at all.

Overall, there's 2 types of ending for me. 1) the ending that is so satisfying or mind boggling that I have to search more for it; 2) the ending that makes me go 'what the hell' and despite explanation, it still don't make sense. Unfortunately, this series falls on the latter.

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Clever casting transcends a great show into a masterpiece.

Doona is something special. Not just among K-Dramas but among all love stories.

The plot line of a celebrity falling for someone remarkably normal is nothing new. Cue: Notting Hill and the Hannah Montana Movie. Doona, however, is something entirely different. Washed-up, abandoned, and functioning on a half-hearted nicotine addiction, we find this particular "Star" dimmed and burnt out. Inexplicably enigmatic - even without recognising who she is, Wonjun is pulled toward Doona. Her attitude and her body language imply she is both rude and defeatist, but there is something in her eyes that say otherwise. Behind the scorn and the evasion, something in Doona's eyes calls out to anyone who looks at them long enough; an ardent plea; "save me from myself". Wonjun can't help but do just that.

There is a lot to be said for the directorial style and the overall character development in this drama, but undeniably it's greatest testament is the performances. Whoever cast Suzy in this role was a visionary. Who better than an idol in a disbanded group to portray the ugliest sides of their industry. At times, based on Suzy's own experiences with Miss A, it was hard not to wonder how much of the acting was drawn from past experiences - particularly after a revealing cosmopolitan interview on that very subject - but I'll leave the speculation to rest. The key here is to say that Suzy's acting in this drama always feels raw and authentic, so much so that whenever she's on the screen, you can't tear your eyes away from hers. Like Wonjun, we are entirely consumed trying to work out exactly what pain it is that Donna isn't able to overcome. In the end, the answer isn't so simple.

As for Wonjun, although I feel that the Drama rather conveniently skipped over a few important plot points toward the end of the show, I am at least glad that they made sure to provide clarity and finality to the two leads in one particular aspect. We know that for Wonjun, he isn't a person who can cope well with things that are uncertain and precarious. He takes a gamble on Doona, but in the end he sees that she is still broken and dangerous; he doesn't have the courage to stay with her. Meanwhile, Doona is overly reliant on others. When she was confronted with the prospect of what her life would be like without her career, and, by extension, her fans - she spiralled. The anxiety became so bad that she ended up losing another pillar in her manager, and by this point, she was a shell of her former-self. Although it never becomes clear how she ends up becoming a woman who no longer needs to rely on men, by the end of the show she is independent and able to cope with life on her own.

Without Doona overcoming that flaw, the 'open ending' can't be a happy one. Although its mention is only brief, we know that Wonjun is altruistic. He moves into the room at Doona's house in order to escape the dire reality of his situation at home, having spent his first years of university commuting in order to take care of his ill sister. He mentions the relief he felt when the responsibility of looking after her was taken away from him, yet jumps right into another person dependent on him in Doona. Wonjun doesn't necessarily see it as his job to fix Doona. By contrast, her presence alone has been enough to calm him and comfort him through difficult moments. Yet, the fact remains that Doona is overly reliant on Wonjun, regardless of whether or not she's helping him.

This is the crucial point in the show's climax - while Wonjun is at military service, Doona must become a person who no longer practices over-dependency on others, just as Wonjun must learn to to so easily let others be overly dependent on him at the expense of his own happiness. This is, in my opinion, a factor which hugely contributes to his decision to break up with Doona when she returns to fame. It's too hard, it's too precarious, and there's a large chance he'll get hurt if they stay together. However this is also an example of Wonjun's hypocrisy. Jin-ju explains to Doona from the moment she first suspects that she likes Wonjun that he's not a person who can cope which a personality like hers in the long-run. Whether or not it came from a place of jealousy was irrelevant, because it was true. Although at first Wonjun believes that he doesn't mind what Doona does or how she feels about him he eventually realises that he doesn't like her to an extent that he can ignore his own jealousy and hurt. Even after admitting this to her, he does the same thing when he swears he won't mind if she returns to the spotlight. Doona, too, at first thinks that her newfound happiness with Wonjun is enough to fill the void left by her early retirement, however she harbours a deep need to be loved, and Wonjun's love alone was never going to be enough to satiate her. Neither one seems to truly understand their emotions, except for the fact that they truly love each other.

As for my sprinkle of negativity, even though this show managed to escape practically every K-Drama cliché of a celebrity falling for a normal person, it failed with it's side characters a little more than miserably. A seemingly random arsenal of side characters (save for an albeit-underdeveloped Jin-ju) served only as lacklustre comic relief or as devices to further the plot through causing jealousy or misunderstandings. Although the side stories and supporting characters aren't the worst I've encountered, compared with the addictive story of the two lead characters they are inevitably mundane. Doona's mother, too, although perhaps the most interesting of the parental “figures” seems to be entirely written off as someone who uses her daughter for money. Sometimes in life it really is that simple, yet with this character it feels more like two-dimensional writing than a purposeful choice. The same goes for Ira. She is no more than a device to make Doona jealous.

Despite its flaws, Doona succeeds in something that most shows cannot. Deceptively simple, its story engages you without ever throwing its quirks and messages in your face. Often in Dramas a character’s true feelings and thoughts are spelled out to the audience, but in Doona, when Wonjun looks behind Doona’s eyes and can’t figure out what really lies behind them, the audience find themselves doing the same. Even when he asks her to tell him she’s sorry, we are just as surprised as Wonjun when she tells him she loves him instead. These twists aren’t shocking, but they aren’t predictable either, which demonstrates perfectly the complexity and depth of the two lead characters, even if those same dimensions are lacking elsewhere in the show.

In the end, you can’t help but root for Doona and Wonjun. The same goes for the show. It’s perhaps one of the only shows I genuinely think has benefit in a second watch. Knowing from the beginning what we know from the end, it must be an entirely different experience, and an experience well worth it.

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