My thoughts are contradictory when it comes to Korean drama Doona!. I loved the first half upto about Ep6, but then things kept going downhill and the drama never went back to its awesomeness factor.

ABOUT

It’s about an idol Doona (Suzy) who left the music industry after an incident and is presently living in a share house. She’s isn’t social. A guy Lee Won Joon (Yang Se Jong) from a small town comes to Seoul to study civil engineering in a college and starts living in the same share house. They start off a bity roughly but start interacting more and more and gradually fall in love despite having lived very different lives.

REVIEW

The show is moody and indie like. Its vibe is quite different from the usual Korean romcoms and a bit unexpected too. It defies the conventions of the rom-com genre; the drama has some darkness and somber mood at times. It is full of quiet, beautiful moments.

I really liked how the two leads were so different and yet their attraction grew, and the way they fell in love.

Doona and Won Joon both are interesting characters with their own quirks.

We also meet Won Joon’s first love from high school and presently his college mate, Kim Jin Joo (Ha Young). She is thoughtful but realistically flawed. I love how the second lead wasn’t manipulating or jealous kind of person. At one point I was rooting Won Joon with both the girls and that’s something rare in dramaland. You ache for Jin Joo and Won Joon and their bad timing. Kudos to Doona! for giving us a beautiful side plot of the male lead with the second lead.

As much as I loved Doona and Won Joon together, I have to say their relationship turned kind of toxic after the initial healthy phase. The lack of communication and Doona’s habit of being impulsive did not help. It annoyed me how she did not care at times how her actions would affect Won Joon. The show becomes kind of unclear by the end, by not giving any linear structure with respect to timeline.

THE MINUS POINTS

The drama kept dragging in the end and got more and more depressing. We are left confused about the scenes – whether the characters communicated about certain things or not. I also could not understand why Won Joon fell in love so deeply so soon that he could not move on properly.

The show wanted to go for a realistic ending but it is not satisfying — both Won Joon and Doona are living a melancholic life. I wanted to know more about their present selves and how are they really doing but the drama gives no clear answers — it feels kind of incomplete.

PERFORMANCES

Yang Se Jong displays his flair yet again — giving a heartfelt performance. Suzy is in very good form and delivers a strong and uninhibited performance. Ha Young shines through her understated acting. The chemistry between both couples (Yang Se Jong/ Suzy and Ha Young/ Yang Se Jong) has different shades and is lovely in both the cases. Rest of the cast is fine too.

IN A NUTSHELL

Moody and wistful, Doona! is at times lovely and at times frustrating.

MY RATING: 7 out of 10