Somber. Mature. Realistic.
"Be careful when you're alone in a crowd. It's obvious.""What do you mean? What's obvious?"
"Your loneliness."
Doona! Wasn't what I expected it to be, instead, it was much better. It was somber, mature, and it featured realistic dialogues.
"Your desperation to be loved, to try to compensate for never having it. You're afraid of losing people's interest."
I think Suzy did a good job portraying a female character as complex as Doona; a compulsive, miserable, and highly irresistible washed-up popstar desperate for love and attention driven by her abandonment issues.
"I wanna know what goes on in that mind of yours."
If you're looking for the usual fluffy Korean drama with feel good romance, skip this one. But if you want a more subtle and slow burn story with heartfelt confrontation scenes, go watch Doona.
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YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS DRAMA!!
I was actually 50/50 if I should watch it because I already saw spoilers about it. But watching it is one of the greatest thing I did this week, Imagine I finished it after 2 days when I'm super busy at school!! In the 1st part I don't pay much attention but as the story goes on I'm freaking hooked at it!!!The visual of the two lead is given, but their acting chefs kiss!!! Even the side characters, I really like the build-up of the characters interaction. Mixed emotion crying then getting excited for the next scene and crying again. But the ending is lacking for me, I know that those things really happen in their industry. And I think it's the real ending from the webtoon but I guess I'll just work with the next event from the last scene of the show with my imagination. But I'm very happy with their success in the show. So still a very good series in 2023 🤗Was this review helpful to you?
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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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With this one you will need to towel off.
Doona is an exquisitely paced romance rich drama, which will leave you needing to towel off after viewing. It is one of those Korean dramas which you do have to sit through to the very end, however. The Koreans always show you how to make a romance rich and sensually alluring drama without even showing much skin at all. The romance scenes never get above PG 14. However, with the great natural acting talents of Suzy Bae and Yang Se Jong and the fire hot chemistry of this physically attractive couple in this unique drama, you might feel that a rating of PG 14 is too low. (Scenes do contain smoking and some slight cursing).The story centers around a college kid named Won Joon (Yang Se Jong) who becomes a tenant in this share-house near his College campus. One of the long term tenants in the share-house is a burnt out former big name K Pop Idol named Lee Doona (Suzy Bae), who is from a popular girl group. Won Joon is a 21 year old green kid, a young man who is more versed in books than life. Won Joon is not impressed at first by the credentials of this older woman named Doona, and he just finds her to be someone who seems always to be in his way. The slow evolution of this romance may leave some impatient, but this pace is meant to leave you irritatingly anxious and fully invested in the lives of this couple. Both actors give stellar and sensual performances, befitting of their characters as defined. Doona and Won Joon have close to 80% of the screen time in ‘Doona’. This is physically and emotionally challenging for actors.
Doona is actually a female Korean name. For me, the title is a play on words for the word noona (older sister). The drama is based on the Webtoon titled ‘The Girl Downstairs’.
Suzy Bae (While You Were Sleeping, Start-up) and Yang Se-jong (Still 17, My Country: The New Age)
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Love vs. Lust
I'm somewhat of a newbie to the K-drama scene and this drama made join this platform to write a review.First things first, the acting was superb. Despite how I feel about the characters and the plots, each actor committed to their roles and executed them quite well in my opinion. Now, as for the storyline itself...holes on holes on holes. Yes, we all know that relationships aren't perfect and people aren't perfect and relationships take work. Sure. But, WJ and Doona's relationship was giving toxicity - poor communication, neglect, feelings of unworthiness, co-dependency, jealousy, selfishness, and just levels of dysfunction. It's one thing to be young and in love, but these two had some personal issues that when combined just would did produce a healthy relationship. When they did spend time apart and supposedly grew, I didn't think they had anything left to stand on besides chemistry (basically lust) because they still barely knew each other. For what it's worth the chemistry between them made for some good TV, but when you really analyze the relationship for what it is, it just doesn't work. The other cast members were awesome and their side stories diversified the plot and kept the series interesting. There were some good comedic elements that made me lol. Overall, I did not regret watching it, but I also thought leaving the ending open was a bit of a cop out after taking the audience along on such a polarized ride.
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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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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 sà que puedo decir que ha sido muy entretenida, interesante y también la relación amorosa entre los dos protagonistas.
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very emotional ending
This is probably one of the best dramas I've watched in a very long time. In my opinion the acting was amazing, the actors chosen are very talented. The plot was also very good, I think it was probably a bit more realistic compared to other dramas. Also a warning, the end is very emotional, although I think it is an open ending it was still so sad. I cried so much, but i think that's also a sign that the drama is very well made.All these things are just my personal opinions btw so please don't get mad.
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It made me feel all the feels
This drama is a wholeass experience.The non verbal storytelling was some of the best I've ever seen. There was so much that was said without uttering even a single word, case in point: the little, seemingly unconnected scenes at the beginning of each episode. Pay attention to them. They may seem inconsequential, but tell a whole story of their own when analyzed in the context of the ambiguous ending of the show.
So too was the case with how the passing of time was subtly but distinctly conveyed not only by the clothes the actors were wearing, but also by looking at their environment. I genuinely wonder over how long a period of time this was filmed, became the production crew can put actors in shorts and short sleeves in the middle of winter and pretend like they're enjoying a nice summer day, but how do you transition from bare branches, to trees in full bloom, to verdant and lush foliage to falling leaves? You can control wardrobes, but not mother nature.
I loved the OST, the plot of the drama, the cinematography and especially the main couple. They had such intense chemistry, and Se Jong in particular just blew me away with how much he could emote just by minutely changing his facial expressions. I liked him in Still 17, but he was amazing here.
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a doona não seria a minha bias!
achei o roteiro desse drama bem promissor quando li pela primeira vez, infelizmente minha percepção dele não permaneceu a mesma enquando eu o assistia. achei muito difÃcil de me conectar com a doona, detesto personagens que fazem o que querem com a desculpa de que tiveram uma vida difÃcil. balela. o outro carinha principal é um bundão. não curti muito ele com a doona, simplesmente um dos casais mais sem quÃmica que eu já vi. os outros personagens eram mil vezes mais interessantes do que os principais. amei as referências ao Brasil! é muito raro ver esse tipo de coisa, ainda mais com falas em português (mesmo o personagem brasileiros sendo claramente um gringo). só consegui terminar porque eram poucos episódios.Was this review helpful to you?
It was good until the ending came
At first i really liked it, the acting is perfect, and so is the plot, but as i came to the end, it kind of went down from it. shortly i wont really think to rewatch it, it is sad that the end ruined the good of the story. by the way it is my opinion and there are probably people who will think different from me.p.s why does it have to be 500 words ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜helppppp
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This review may contain spoilers
WORTH IT
Okay I was super hyped up for this mostly because i LOVE suzy baes acting and I knew this was going to be a banger.Doona was an interesting concept for me from the start, i’ve always loved ‘celebrity/non celebrity’ tropes because they’re either tragic or a lovely love story.
The love between the main characters was a doom from the beginning, both of them so toxic going on and off and never really properly communicating, but i really loved the chemistry between the actors.
The first kiss in the show made me get butterflies, and thats really rare for me! I loved how Doona was the confident and dominant one and then later on when Wonjun got a little bit more confident, he started taking charge too.
But their love story was so short lived and yet so painful. I was actually really rooting for them, and i’m so sad that they didn’t end up together. I know it’s the harsh reality yadda yadda but c’mon!!
I liked the side characters as well, especially the side couple, I just kneeeew something was gonna spark between them, they were adorable!
Seeming how the show ended, I don’t think there will be a season 2, it seems pretty in the face about the ending. Even a time skip. They will always long for each other but never have each other, and that thought alone breaks my heart for both of them.
This even made me think how it would be a nightmare to date someone famous…imagine getting hated on for loving someone and then when you break up, you see your ex everywhere. Just seems like a nightmare.
Anyway the show is a really good quick watch!
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