[K-Drama] Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol

[stroppyse]

It's in the middle of it's broadcast run, but we loved it so much we're doing an event, and @Tofu and @stroppyse recorded a podcast about their love for this drama. Please be warned that the recording does have some major spoilers if you are not already watching this drama.

 

 

 

Leave us a comment here, or join us on the Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol drama thread and on Lee Jae Wook's shrine for more discussions and fun!

 

And for anyone who has not started this yet, but want to jump in in the middle, here is a recap of this drama so far in the spoiler.

 

Spoiler

DDSSLLS is about a rather naive girl, LaLa who has grown up as the cherished only daughter of a Korean cosmetics magnate. Her mother had died at her birth, and her father had gotten a notion that LaLa was musical and had her trained in piano. LaLa studies the piano diligently for the sake of her father who she is very close to until her graduation recital. For her graduation recital, LL plays variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the first song that she had had to perform on piano for a concert when she was a young child. Unfortunately, she forgot the fingering and was about to cry when her father stood up and started applauding her. Since then, the song became of special importance to LL and her father. After the graduation recital, LL decides to give up piano and focus on enjoying her life and doing the things that she had not been able to do previously. She also starts to post to her personal instagram account.

Her father arranges a marriage for her to a young promising doctor. But on their wedding day, the groom’s mother gets word that LL’s father may be going bankrupt and literally grabs her son’s wrist to run him out of the wedding hall while her father receives some bad news and has a heart attack just outside. We are told that he dies at the hospital, leaving La La all alone except for her dog Mi Mi.

Jun is first introduced working a part-time construction job. Through an accident, he ends up with LL’s bouquet and takes it to her at the wedding hall and so witnesses what happens to LL there. We also see him later being chased by some thugs sent by his mother, but we don’t know know why.

LL is invited by a mysterious follower of her instagram named “DoDoSolSolLaLaSol” that if she is alone and way, she should come visit Eun Pyo City. After getting scammed of the only money that she has left, she leaves with MiMI for Eun Pyo City in her car JuJu. Yes, they really are LaLa, MiMi, and JuJu.

In Eun Pyo City, LL literally runs into Jun with her car. Jun had moved to Eun Pyo earlier, still on the run, and settled down with a number of part time jobs. Jun is relatively unscathed, however, LL suffers damages and is admitted to the hospital. Since LaLa has no money, she borrows it from Jun with the promise to pay him back as soon as she is better. MiMi is taken to the vet where she is being treated for her injuries as well. And, thus LaLa and Jun start their unusual relationship.

While in the hospital, her attending physician is Cha Eun Seok. Unbeknownst to LaLa, Dr. Cha is very aware of who she is since he is friends with her ex-groom. However, Dr. Cha does not reveal this to LaLa. Dr. Cha had been a promising pianist himself in his youth, but gave it up for the security of becoming a doctor and marrying into a rich family. That life left him dissatisfied, however, so he divorced his wife and left without asking for any divorce settlements. He then moved to Eun Pyo to get on with his life. Dr. Cha develops a crush on LL.  Dr. Cha’s wife is still in disbelief that Dr. Cha has actually divorced her and rejected their life together and takes to stalking him in EP.

After LL is discharged, Jun takes her to his home in Eun Pyo since she has nowhere else to go and no money.  Jun lives in what had been a flower shop. Given the space, LaLa determines that she will need to find other lodgings, and ends up renting a storage room in the house of the lady who runs a hairdressing salon next to the flower shop.

The hairdresser’s daughter Ha Young is a high schooler who has a very vocal crush on Jun. Hy has a friend and classmate, Seung Ki, who is in love with HY and is willing to wait for her to see him. In the meantime, SK is HY’s best friend and the two of them are inseparable.

The hairdresser also has a coterie of 3 women from Eun Pyo who hang out with her at the hairdressing salon, chatting and gossiping and supporting each other. The three women are married, but one or the other always talks about being fed up and wanting to get a divorce, though none of them would. The hairdresser is single, raising HY alone, and develops a crush on Dr. cha. This Greek chorus of women deliver expositions about the town and the various characters.

LL eventually gets better and finds a job as a piano instructor in town, but is unable to actually start her job since the piano school’s circumstances changed. So, Jun helps LL start her own piano school in the flower shop which is his home. He also builds LL a room of her own in the flower shop so that she could stay over whenever she wanted to. Jun also takes custody of MiMi since the hairdresser is allergic to dogs. LL continues to try to meet up with DoDoSolSolLaLaSol who mysteriously sends her gifts, but does not show up tp actually meet her.

Once her piano school, La La Piano Land, is open, her first students are Jun and Dr. Cha. This is shortly followed by a grandfather in town who she had befriended by playing A Maiden’s Prayer which had been a favorite of his deceased wife. He comes looking to learn to play it himself on the piano. There is also a child who is something of a piano savant named JaeMin who does not have the money to pay for lesson fees, but LL decides to give him piano lessons anyway since he’s so gifted.  LL also has a stalker who has printed copies of her instagram pictures to post on his walls. We do not know much about this character as yet, but he also starts to take piano lessons from LL.  

In the meantime, Jun’s mother and the men she has hired are still searching for Jun before Jun’s father comes back from his extended business trip. It turns out that Jun’s best friend had come to Jun’s house to help Jun wish his father a happy birthday. However, Jun’s parents had other plans and did not come that night. Jun’s friend finally decided he had to go home, but as he walks home, he is hit by a truck and dies. Jun is traumatized by this, but his parents, especially his father, have no sympathy for him, telling him to suck it up and get on with things, i.e. doing well in school and going to university to become a doctor. Jun is unable to deal with this and runs away from home. His mother has been trying to find him ever since.

In Eun Pyo, both La La and Jun learn to cope with their traumas and start forming a bond together as friends. LL thinks that they are the same age, because of a conversation they had had when he had delivered her wedding bouquet to her. However, it turns out that Jun is still a senior in high school. Jun is uncertain how to tell LL this secret. It had not been his intention to lie to her, but at the wedding hall, he had thought that he would never see her again, and given their exchange did not want LL to think that he was younger. Now, he doesn’t know how to fix his lie.

However, Jun has a crush on LL and starts to become jealous of her easy friendship with Dr. Cha. Dr. Cha himself does not care for the closeness between LL and Jun. HY is trying to help Dr. Cha get together with LL so that LL will not be able to attract Jun, however, SK fills Jun on HY’s machinations.

In the most recent episodes (eps 7 and 8)  Dr. Cha makes his move to hold LL’s hand after seeing a movie together and starts to ask LL to date, however, he is shot down by LL without even being to finish making his case. LL Is nice about turning him down, but firm. Just then, Jun comes to fetch LL and take her home.

LL and Jun, however, finally admit their feelings for each other, and on a cable car ride, they finally hold hands and exchange some sweet kisses.

 

So, that is the first half of this drama. Though, I do recommend seeing the episodes since this summary doesn't do it nearly enough justice in terms of how fun the episodes are. Anyway, can’t wait to see what will happen in the second half of this drama. Hope you all join us!

[Tofu]

Thanks for editing this, @stroppyse!! I'm sorry I laughed so much. Hahaha! 

 

If we couldn't convince you to watch the drama, maybe Jun will. 

[mademoiselle]

Hahahaha it's funny at one point you 2 were spazzing at Seol Ji Hwan in Search:WWW instead So cute.

[Tofu]

8 hours ago, mademoiselle said:

Hahahaha it's funny at one point you 2 were spazzing at Seol Ji Hwan in Search:WWW instead So cute.

We derailed a lot when we got to Lee Jae Wook/Jun. 

[JenL]

@Tofu and @stroppyse I actually listened to this awhile ago, but have been busy with work and catching up on dramas that I didn't get a chance to write how much I enjoyed listening to this podcast!  I was pretty impressed at how much you both covered. Hehe, you sound so cute when you laughed talking about LJW, Tofu! 

 

- I wanted to say I also think of Twinkle, Twinkle little star when I hear the name...but mostly it's so long and I can't even say it all out loud without messing it up...so impressed you both did it ok! I also found out recently that I had been spelling it Dol dol sol sol la la sol as opposed to Do do sol sol la la sol  Such a fail! I think it's like DDSLLS for me from now on 

-I also watched Brahms and liked that drama - I forgot this is the second musical drama I picked up this year. Very different look and feel. Brahms was super dramatic and slice of life, whereas DDSSLLS has been so much fun and craziness. I like both for different reasons.

-I thought it was interesting that you both thought episode 1 was heavy - I thought it was too farfetched since it was like huge dramatic events (wedding, groom running, father's death and bankruptcy, Lala eating dog food XD) ...and I was going to drop it. But then everything calmed down and fell into a fun, but more believable pace and now I'm super addicted. 

-I'm with you both - so in love with Junnnnnn 

-Hahaha, you both really sold Search WWW to me. I haven't seen it yet but have heard so much about it, so I think I'll watch it after DDSSLS ends to help with LJW withdrawals.

-Also loved how you both talked about Dr Cha's rejection. That was really funny when she shut him down fast. 

-I have to say that I laughed when Stroppyse named the truck accident trope "Getting hit by the truck of doom" 

-Haha, I loved how Tofu spoke about how we all told her that the drama was going to get weird!

- I forgot how many things were still left to cover in this drama - eg. the Ex-groom, the body washed up - I keep forgetting about these points. Hehe, thanks for refreshing all the main points  

-Totally agree with the idea of the Greek Chorus btw! TWD ladies are just magical - dictating things through their gossip  Also found your talk about Dr Cha 'finding himself' quite funny! I think it's true not just for Sth Korean society - but Asian society in general. No one 'finds' themselves!

 

Good discussion both! (Except for forgetting to mention Mimi till the end. Hahaha) 

Edited November 9, 2020 by JenL

[stroppyse]

3 minutes ago, JenL said:

-Hahaha, you both really sold Search WWW to me. I haven't seen it yet but have heard so much about it, so I think I'll watch it after DDSSLS ends to help with LJW withdrawals.

 

So, just a note that you may want a fast forward button in hand as you watch Search: WWW. The main OTP story dragged a bit, but I think it was because the director got a bit artsy with it when it came to filming the OTP. So, lots of interesting framing and long, lingering shots that get a bit tiring.

 

However, totally recommend watching the secondary romance of Scarlet and Seol Ji Hwan! Both characters are so cute!

 

Thanks for your comments and compliments!

[JenL]

15 hours ago, stroppyse said:

So, just a note that you may want a fast forward button in hand as you watch Search: WWW. The main OTP story dragged a bit, but I think it was because the director got a bit artsy with it when it came to filming the OTP. So, lots of interesting framing and long, lingering shots that get a bit tiring.

 

However, totally recommend watching the secondary romance of Scarlet and Seol Ji Hwan! Both characters are so cute!

 

Hehe, Thanks for the warning! Good thing it's all out so I can just binge at leisure and fast forward to the LJW bits   

[stroppyse]

@-StrongTower-, since you said you were looking for this podcast, I figured it was faster to just call you here in case you haven't found it yet. Hope you enjoy, though the story has progressed from when we recorded this podcast. 

[-StrongTower-]

Thanks @stroppyse! You must have read me getting lost in the Reviews section. Hahaha.

[Tofu]

@JenL - Thanks for your comments and compliments! We were planning on this being a short 15 minutes podcast, but it ended up be much longer. 

 

I agreed with @stroppyse on Search: WWW. If you're going to watch it, skip the main OTP's parts because at some point they became uninteresting. The LJW and LDH scenes were the cutest. I liked the part when he dropped the formality in his speech, even I was blushing like LDH during that scene.