DoDoSolSolLaLaSol (2020)

confused enjoyment

As a fan of Go Ara and Shopping King Louis I had really high expectations for this drama, and it took me for a ride. If you’re looking for a sweet romantic comedy about found family and learning to love again, then watch this!

Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol (the notes to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) is about a naïve rich pianist (Goo Rara) who reaches rock bottom after the death of her father, and a mysterious man (Sunwoo Jun) who lends her money and helps her get back on her feet with a piano academy. As fragile souls out in the world alone for the first time, they find comfort and love in each other as well as the cast of characters around them.

Strengths:
-The characters!
Rara is delightful. Despite falling so far from a sheltered life of comfort, she stays positive and hopeful, and her warmth heals the characters around her (and us in the audience). She sees and brings out the good in the people, and they reciprocate with the same energy. Multiple characters which start out antagonistic become part of the extended family and my heart is so filled with love.

-Acting/cast
Go Ara does a wonderful job of playing Rara, the role suits her perfectly since her personality is very similar in real life. Though Sunwoo Jun is initially a more restrained character compared to Rara, Lee Jaewook is great at communicating Jun’s inner thoughts through his eyes and body language, and he especially excels during the more emotional scenes that come later on. Go Ara and Lee Jaewook have great chemistry (people always say that it is despite the 8 year age gap but I don’t know why such an age gap (same as Shopping King Louis btw) only seems to be a potential obstacle when the woman is older but I digress). Other members of the cast do a great job at portraying supporting characters that we come to adore just as much as the main leads. Considering that this is a romantic comedy, the comedic timing does not disappoint either.

-Music
Music is an integral part of Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol. It takes classical pieces and weaves their meanings throughout the plot and characters, and their melodies throughout the backdrop. The piano scenes are so beautifully emotional that they make me regret quitting piano. In addition to the classical OST, there is also the conventional pop OST. Extraordinary You and Shopping King Louis fans will find familiar voices in the track list (Sondia, Epitone Project, April; Monsta X, GFriend).

-Dog!
Rara has a pomeranian named Mimi.

Weaknesses:
-Plot (in the last quarter of the drama) and ending
This drama really likes to subvert our expectations of tropes, which is a strength for most of its run (a spoiled and rich girl who’s not entitled and mean?? Great!). But in its last quarter, it falls victim to the typical show-is-ending-soon-so-let’s-stir-shit-up view bait that afflicts so many Kdramas. As an initially warm and positive show which became a source of healing for so many people, the last part of the drama is exhausting with the way it constantly tries to trick us by attempting to be smart with its manipulation of tropes. While in the beginning, tropes are subverted to avoid melodrama, the last quarter would subvert one melodramatic trope with a completely incomprehensible and melodramatic trope (it feels like the writers forgot they were supposed to be writing a romantic comedy). Its signature cute and heartwarming moments are still present in this last quarter but be prepared to get whiplash from the main couple, and don’t watch the episode previews because they become maliciously misleading (also, the ending is pure trash, 0/10).

Nonetheless, Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol is still enjoyable. If you wanted a drama with a tightly woven plot, then you probably need to look somewhere else. But, if you enjoy cuteness, laughter, character growth, supportive relationships, and cathartic music, then you should watch this drama.

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WORST ENDING EVER!!

Let me start with the reasons I loved this show, I'll save the spoilers until the end.
Go Ah Ra as Ra Ra. I saw her Miss Hammurabi and loved her. She has a fresh appeal about her. Though Ra Ra's life went south pretty suddenly, she was always optimistic. Though I often felt she was taking advantage of Joon, I couldn't be mad at her - she was always open and up-front about what she was doing. Ra Ra changed everyone that she came into contact with for the better. Her effervescent personality in the face of adversity was a joy to watch.
Lee Jae Wook as Sun Woo Joon - this is really his first leading-man role, and I must say he was made for it. His personality was the opposite of Ra Ra's, but there was a magnetic pull between them. His acting is understated and believable, and when he cried, oh my!
Ye Ji Won as Jin Sook Kyung - as the owner of the beauty salon, she was quirky and a little strange, but so fun to watch.
I felt that the entire cast was excellent.
OST - Oh wow!! How they wove "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" through the entire series was brilliant. Playful one minute, soulful the next, heartbreaking in the next minute.
STORY - here's where things get difficult. Up through about episode 11, I would have rated this as a strong 10. The writing was excellent for each of the characters. Their actions and their conversations were so fun and heart-felt. The salon ladies were a hoot. Though Dr. Cha was a little creepy to me, his character made sense the more you got to see him. The friendships/crushes of the teenagers were fun and not too terribly irritating. I loved watching everyone change through Ra Ra's influence, and the fact that she was acting in a completely natural manner without any artifice was lovely. The budding relationship between Joon and Ra Ra was so special - she'd ask him to do something for her, he'd say "no" but then do it. All the things he did for her - I really felt that he loved her. The beginning scenes of each episode and the epilogues provide some additional clues as to what was going on. I love a storyline where the main characters have met in different scenarios over the years.
After about episode 11, I was wondering if a different writer took over. This went from being a light, fluffy love story (with quite a few laugh out loud moments) to melodrama pretty quickly. Here is one of my issues, if I know it's going to be a melodrama going in, I can prepare myself for angst and stress. I was going along, really enjoying this show when BAM! His nightmare mom, his even more nightmarish dad, breakups for no reason, lots of time spent apart, everyone is miserable, clingy ex-girlfriend shows up, and toss in an illness that he doesn't tell anyone about and it's a big old mess. I do have to give the writer credit for the scenes making fun of the "water in the face, paying off the girlfriend to leave her son alone" trope. This couple was apart more than they were together.
SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS - SPOILERS!!!!
This is what is unforgivable for me - Joon goes to the US to "study", though he's really being treated for leukemia. Joon and Ra Ra still talk to one another on the phone. A few months go by and his mother shows up at Ra Ra's piano studio and tells her that Joon has died, and he left her a letter. So, we hear Joon's words to Ra Ra and go through her grief with her. FIVE YEAR TIME JUMP (I hate the time jumps in the best of times, but this was the worst!) Ra Ra is playing the song that she used to play to welcome him home and looks up, and there stands JOON. He says he didn't want to come back until he was well. She's a little bit mad but then forgives him pretty quickly. I had problems with this on many levels. First, what kind of mother would lie about her son being dead?!? And the fact that he left Ra Ra completely out of the loop, that's not love. All I could think of was, if I was Ra Ra, I'd be wishing that I'd been able to spend whatever time she had with him. When I got to the end of this show, I really felt like I'd been cheated, and I am NOT amused! So, strictly for this reason I had to lower my rating to a 7. I really wanted to go lower, I'm so mad, but the show was so good up to when it wasn't anymore.

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Twinkle, Twinkle But Not A Gem..

The Story; Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol ( roughly translated to ‘ Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ from Romanised Korean), tells the story of an affluent girl who is a dreadful pianist, Goo Ra- ra ( Go Ara). When her life hits rock bottom, she ends up running again into the mysteriously hardworking Lee Jae- wook (Sunwoo Joon). Together with Jae- wook and her new friends, Ra- ra might just find the answer to getting her life back on her feet through the kindness of strangers and new love.

The Characters; The show offered an odd mix of characters both endearing and lacking characterisation. As our main protagonists go, Ra- Ra was mostly driven as a weeping heroine with little emotional depth. Considering Ra- Ra lost her mother, father and has gone through Hell and Back, there was so much potential for the scriptwriters to induce a level of pity or teaching her character about the realities of life. Instead, any hope for Ra- Ra to be a realistic female lead is thrown out the window in pace of her romance with Jun. Even small actions regarding Ra- Ra by the scriptwriters such as her mysterious multitude of outfits ( and not considering even in the beginning of the show to perhaps sell them to help pay for Jun), the expenses of her hospital fees and her seemingly remaining oblivious to the Doctor and Jun’s secrets, added little to her character. Moving on to our main lead, it’s fair to say that he was perhaps slightly more tolerable for audiences as he seemed to realistically carry emotional burdens upon his back as well as mysterious secrets. Sadly, rather than trying to allow Jun to face his own demons by spending time with Ra- Ra , the scriptwriters tried too hard to add obstacles within their relationship through the strange plot twist near the ending of the show. Whilst this did help for Ra- Ra and Jun to explore their relationship, it seemed just to point out that none of the characters in the show were truly grounded in reality.

Relationships between characters; Perhaps my one appraisal for the show is the Mother- Daughter bond between Jin Sook-kyeong ( Ye Ji- Won) and Jin Ha-yeong ( Shin Eun Woo) . For a show grounded in romance, there was a surprisingly familial turn upon learning that the seemingly daft and flirtatious hair stylist , Jin Sook- kyeong, got a surprising moment of characterisation through learning of her hardships and her actual affection as a single mother for her daughter. Similarly, it was equally sweet that Sook-kyeong, Ha- Yeong and Ra-Ra developed a strong bond between one another as the show progressed. I have a couple of complaints, however, about the need for Sook-kyeong and Ha- yeong to have romantic interests in the show. Whilst there’s obviously nothing wrong with either character having their own love interest, it seemed out of character at times when there could have been more focus upon the characters as individuals. For me, this was seen especially with Ha- yeong. Whilst the scriptwriters dropped the hints, the ending seemed to deny a lot of Ha- yeong’s potential to continue with a successful career.

On other notes, there were other signs of familial love within the show such as Jun and his mother ( Seo Yi Sook) and , the child prodigy, Jae- Min who develops a familial bond with our characters. On a romance level, the show was a bit of a mixed bag. Once Jun’s secrets were exposed it did put a bit of edge for viewers between their relationship, but, perhaps one of the things which didn’t entirely add up for us as viewers, was the revelation towards Ra- Ra not recognising Jun from the past. Whilst it’s natural her memory might’ve been a bit hazy, it seemed a little strange that she didn’t even mildly recognise Jun at the concert hall or at the wedding either. Naturally, there is of course the ‘ second Male lead syndrome’ of the tired Doctor Eun- Seon ( Kim Joo- Hun) . Whilst there were a couple of factors which made Eun- Seon a little more appropriate for Ra- Ra, Eun- Seon came across as a little too forceful of Ra- Ra’s privacy at times, something which struck a nerve with me. The other evident factor was that once Jun swooped in, his “ fanatic feelings” seemed to mysteriously disappear. Whilst the scriptwriters evidently didn’t want to spend hours upon Eun- Seon falling out of love, it was another case and point of bad characterisation that we didn’t get to see Eun- Seon’s reactions as a human being.

Acting; Go Ara struck me as an unusual choice to play a romantic female lead. Typically taking on more gritty or melodramatic styles such as Black and Haechi, it wasn’t that Ara was necessarily bad within playing Ra-Ra, and in fact, exposed herself as an actress by not being typecasted as the action heroine. ( An ironic reversal for most female actresses). On the other hand, to put it simply, , she just didn’t add anything new or illuminating to her role. (Admittedly, this was also the fault of the scriptwriters as well) Moving onto our Male lead, Lee Jae- Wook has really been rising to providence as a romance actor after his appraised role in Extraordinary You. Whilst I wasn’t a great fan of the show, Jae- Wook’s acting did peak my interests as a potentially good actor. It was clear to see that Jae- Wook put his heart and soul into the drama within his role as Jun, however, in a similar manner to Ara, Wook didn’t bring anything new or exciting to his take on the Male lead. (Perhaps a personal thought upon Jae- Wook is that whilst he took the role on within the popular genre of romance, he should explore outwards into different genres in order to explore his boundaries of acting).

OST/ Cinematography ; Whilst the show plays upon classical music and standard panel shots, there was a lot which could’ve been explored with the usage of music and cinematography hand in hand.

Plot thoughts; In all honesty, the actual plot of the drama isn’t terrible. What it certainly isn’t is overwhelmingly impactful, original or intriguing for audiences. The cliches have simply been seen and done before; the sanguine and dippy rich girl who learns life lessons, the hardworking Male lead , illnesses and hidden pasts as well. The biggest fault within playing upon these cliches is that the audiences rarely get to see the characters as human beings, rather than merely plot devices. As a consequence, whilst sugary sweet with a bittersweet ending, the drama was overly unrealistic and easily forgettable for the next Korean Romance Drama succeeding this one. .

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Let's just remember the good moments!

Ok, so... at the moment it is really hard for me to review this drama. I've just finished it a minute ago and ... what happened?

Alright, let's start from the beginning. Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol was just breathtaking in its early episodes, and even though the following episodes may have had some weird plots, I couldn't care less as the show was just so beautiful and as many people have said, it was "a breath of fresh air" (which clearly is more than welcomed during this special year that is 2020).
From the characters to the importance of music, every episodes felt so short and I was really attached to our two main leads, Jun's character (our male lead) being so touching and beautifully naive, Ra Ra's character (our female lead) being this lovable and strong-minded woman.

However, something changed during episode 14. I don't want to write any spoilers so I'll just say that Jun did something so out of character that it felt wrong. From then on, I kept feeling that this character was not the one I knew and I still can't understand why the writer did this (I have watched Shopping King Louie and loved it, but I do remember her fancying "pranks" - she clearly should have changed that).

So I decided to only think of episodes 1 to 13 as Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol and I would definitely recommend these episodes to anyone looking for something warm and touching to watch. Btw I'll probably rewatch these episodes very soon just to forget the last episode...

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a heart warming story that the last two episodes completely messed up

The story started off amazing, the male lead's character was to die for, the female lead has a charming and bubbly mentality that makes people hearts smile. The story was well written in a way which would heal the views hearts and make our hearts flutter
but the last two episodes messed up the whole story, the writing and ending felt forced as if the writer changed it for the viewers to get a happy ending with no back story (spoilers ahead)

jun (our male lead) is suddenly diganosed with blood cancer in episode 14 and he doesnt tell the female lead or his friends. In episode 16 his own mother comes dressed in black and tells that he's not longer with us to the female lead

everyone starts crying when they hear this news, his friends and duh us the viewers but the last 5 minutes of the drama jun is somehow alive and comes to visit the female lead, he says he wanted to get full treatment, and rara (female lead) somehow accepts that

question 1 )If jun didn't want rara to suffer did he think that making her think that he's dead would make her happy?

question 2) the blood cancer plot felt like it was written last minutes with no clues at all in the beginning

question 3 )how could his own mother support the claim that he was dead

at least make another 2 episodes to somehow make since and give us a backstory.
The story had so much potential, towards the end it became a children's drama play.
the writer should have stuck to the initial idea of healing and light heartedness.

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MUST-WATCH IF YOU WANT A QUALITY ROMCOM SERIES

RaRa (Go ARa) and Jun (Lee Jae Wook) have undeniable chemistry in Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol and they portrayed their respective roles amazingly! The first episode made me cry with all the touching moments of RaRa with her father and made me laugh by RaRa's innocent beauty and positive aura while my heart fluttered with how Jun looked at her. I watched it thrice and I know I will keep doing so in each episode because I could not get enough of them. In the second episode tonight, I laughed really hard at RaRa's quirkiness and innocence. I appreciate Jun and Dr. Cha (Kim Joo Hun) concern towards RaRa and I could not wait for the next episode because of the last scene. Wondering what? Watch it! I assure you, this series will make you happy.

God bless everyone and stay safe always!

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OFF ENDING

Dodosolsollalasol is literally one of the kdrama series where I like the FL and ML together. Most of the time, I am fond of the second lead and/or side characters—but this one, I like them as a couple. This is actually the second kdrama that I watch with Go Ara as a female lead, the first one will be Hwarang, and to be honest I find her acting off and her personality doesn’t scream her character that much on that historical drama. However, I love her in this one! *Good, good*

There’s nothing much I can comment on the technical aspects of the series, I like how the story flows and the plot twists were predictable but not. The plot twists were obvious but not. I don’t know how to word it but if you get what I mean, feel free to comment. Lmao.

The only thing I find disturbing is the very ending of the series. I mean, I cried a little when ML “died”, and I kind of agree that he really needs to die, I settle with that thought and kind of happy that they ended it that way—until the last five minutes suddenly changed just like that! I kind of predicted that it is possible to happen because it is a Korean drama after all, but seriously??

This is how I view it: imagine causing emotional distress to the people who love you—who thought you’re dead. They mourn for you for fuckng five years then you will just arrive smiling and laughing as if all these years they didn’t feel awful with your loss? THAT’S INSANE!

Dodosolsollalasol 🤝 My Bromance the series (Thai)

I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending. Yes Taylor Swift, wbk.

The writers could’ve make it more decent, though! I know it’s unjustifiable to sprout like a mushroom when everyone thought you’re dead, but at least the producers gave a decent way to represent the means of ML’s decision to hide it from the people who love him. Imagine Mr. Kim died believing that Jun died before him—idk but the last minutes of the series dragged the whole show for me.

Overall it’s a decent and light series. I love Miss Jin and her daughter so much. Also, protect Seung-gi at all cost!

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What... the... heck.

Short: Overall, this feels like an exceptionally light and bubbly drama, with a major exception, this is like a cure for all ailments, a cure for all people feeling a bit down. The cast are light, the story is amusing, the piano music is fantastic - and approachable, the main theme is "twinkle twinkle little star". Ra-Ra's character is the most light hearted, innocent and pure i've ever seen in a drama. And then the story takes a major course change and then crashes and burns in the most spectacular way (imho).

Detailed:
This story has some interesting characters, the writers will take you on a really clever journey of misdirection on a number of occasions leaving you hurling insults at the TV as an episode ends and then explaining in more detail in the following episodes. Time and time again you will fall for the misdirection because it's all in the fun and really done quite well.

In some respects it's a bit of a Romeo and Juliet, they are together but he's run away from home and the mother is relentlessly hiring people to try and find him and force him back on the path she and the father want instead, so there's this note of wanting to be together but then forces trying to keep them apart.

There's a hint of a love triangle (albeit one that I was sincerely hoping they wouldn't pursue) but it did keep things interesting and allowed for more than one bit of amusing misdirection.

The piano music is great, I love the Piano, it's my favourite musical instrument - but my appreciation for it is probably at a simpler level than many and I find that I can't enjoy a lot of the Piano music that people consider great because I just can't get into it, relate to it or understand it... so my favourite pieces are generally simpler. While this doesn't shy away from the more complex pieces, there is a lovely mix of simpler and complex pieces throughout to where all the Piano music was a real joy. The piano is definitely no small bit part in this drama, but neither should it put you off if you're not that fussed either - this drama treats the Piano as it should be, everyone's instrument, whether it's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Flight of the Bumble Bee.

The first 15 episodes of this for me are a solid 10, if I could go to 11, I would, I couldn't wait for each new episode to come out and watched it as soon as I could.

Then episode 16 happened.

I won't go any further because spoilers. But... i'll just say that a drama that I was a massive fan of took a nose dive and crashed firmly into the ground in a blazing ball of fire with the ending.

I am so gutted. I've given it a 7 because I loved so much of the previous episodes and I can't face giving it a lower score because of that... but that ending is just...

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not even bothering to finish this.

IF YOU WATCH... only watch up until episode 12-13.

i have loved this drama from episode 1 to 12 and some of 13. the story was refreshing, quirky, and cute. emotional at times, but for the most part this was just such a feel-good drama! it was a nice break from some of the heavier dramas i've watched recently. HOWEVER...

the writer has completely RUINED this drama. in the last three to four episodes, they started to lean into super dramatized and ridiculous plot twists. seriously, it felt like watching american soaps like one tree hill or gossip girl or worse, actual daytime soap operas... the plot became far-fetched and became a rollercoaster of both plotlines and emotions. and on top of that, these plotlines were out-of-character.

this drama should have ended with the beach scene, after jun stole her from her fake wedding to dr. cha.

i didn't even watch the finale, but i saw the preview and knew right away they were going to either kill off jun or have it seem like he died... so i googled. if he died, i didn't wanna finish. but even worse than him dying, i learned they made him FAKE HIS DEATH. that is extremely out of character for him. bad enough they threw in A LEUKEMIA PLOTLINE in the very end, but they have him do the MOST out of character thing and have him lead his friends and rara to believe he DIED for five years? no. absolutely not.

what was a nice, feel-good escape became a nightmare.

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Many people are not happy with the ending which I don't object. But it's a drama you can not expect 100% satisfaction from a TV series.
What I LIKED : I liked how rara was a naive kid of a rich family who couldn't do anything alone except driving. She did not have any kind of reality check of the outside world but after the bankruptcy, she developed herself into a hardworking woman who is still that naive girl. I think writers have done an amazing job of keeping her innocence as it is and developing her othersides.
I liked the Male lead. Being a high schooler and this much maturity. I think the Male lead has impressed me the most.

What I had hard time accepting: Yeah I liked and loved the drama and ending but it's also true that the male lead could have told her the truth instead of saying "he is dead" . But then also every relationship has its own color and so does every person. So I don't have any complaint.

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This Drama was adorable *_* (but...)

To tell the truth I didn't have many expectations about this drama, I thought I'd drop it and instead ...
From the very first episode it caught me! Such a lovely, light and funny drama * _ *
The chemistry of the two protagonists, despite the age difference, was fantastic. Great acting for the whole cast. The photograph was so cheerful that it all seemed like a fairy tale. But, as in all fairy tales, there were many obstacles for the two protagonists to face. It seemed that the main mystery was finding out who "Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol" was, but after the tenth episode the plot has completely changed. It becomes a tragedy! totally unexpected. It could have been avoided, the story did not need to include a fatal disease. 10 episodes laughing and the rest of them crying were not what I wanted from this drama. (watching the trailer you would never have imagined). Fortunately, in the end (it's not clear how) everything falls into place and we have our "happy ending". But, it doesn't satisfy as it should. Many answers have not been given and we will always remain with doubts. However, it is worth seeing it all. You will fall in love with Rara, Mi Mì, Jun-Ahhhhh and all the others. :)

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Lovable characters and very heart-warming, extremely questionable in the last 4 episodes

This is not a drama where you look for realism but one which you choose for fluff and fuzzy feelings! I really wanted to rate this drama higher then I did. Believe me, I would eagerly wait each week for a new episode to come as each episode was fluffy, sweet and heartwarming. There are several reasons as to why I would recommend the show:

-Each actor fit their role extremely well.
-Leads had great chemistry.
-Healing quality the show had due to the fantasy land setting that Eun Po created.
-Character dynamics between each character on the show (Special shout-out to the mother-daughter duo, Jun and Mr. Kim, Ra Ra and Dr. Cha)
-Jun and Ra Ra selflessly loving and growing with one another.
-Dr. Cha's mature character fit into this fantasy world perfectly as he finds his happiness there.
-Individuality of ALL the characters in the support cast as well.
-Seung gi and Ha-yeong, they were simply too cute!

You might wonder after all this complimenting where did the show go wrong? Well it was the last 4 episodes that had its problems, particularly the last 2. Don't get me wrong, the ending is happy, but it seemed like they used all clichés and possible drama tropes in these episodes and frankly it was unnecessary and could have been handled better. Issues that arose did get solved pretty quickly in the next episode to come however these episodes lower the quality of the drama more than they should.

However, I would still recommend this drama for all the reasons I mentioned if that suits your taste! Do not look for logic and realism and simply hop on the ride it intends to take you in!

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