Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol – Episode 1 Recap & Review

Twinkle Twinkle

We begin episode 1 of Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol in 1997 with a history lesson. Ra-Ra’s Mother died giving birth to her. Ra-Ra’s Father remains convinced that his child is born with the gift of playing the piano. Only, Ms Gong is certainly not so sure.

Given her financial woes though, it’s just too tempting to take the money and she does so, deciding to help Ra-Ra hone her skills.

We then skip forward to 2001 where little Ra-Ra forgets the rest of her song and keeps repeating the “Do do sol sol la la sol” sounds from Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Despite messing up, her Father stands clapping and sporting his daughter which spurs her on to continue playing. She plays right the way through to her graduation where her Father once again remains the only one standing up to give her a round of applause.

Now that her graduation is done, Ra-Ra packs in the piano lessons. Ms Gong tries to talk her out of it but eventually Ra-Ra thaws her icy demeanour with a warm hug.

It turns out Ms Gong is heading off to Germany and gives no illusions that Ra-Ra was hard work to teach.

After quitting the piano, Ra-Ra and her pet dog Mimi are internet sensations and – it seems – can do no wrong. As she sits with her Father that evening, he suddenly asks if she wants to get married. “What?! To whom?!”

Well, that person happens to be Jung-Nam. He’s working at a hospital and he talks to Eun-Suk, a man who speaks fondly of flowers. Jung-Nam chalks this up to Eun-Suk being hungry though and hands over some food.

Jung-Nam is excited about his father-in-law financing a new clinic but Eun-Suk, by comparison, is getting divorced soon which dampens the mood. When he sees the name Ra-Ra on the wedding invitation though, Eun-Suk seems to recognize who she is.

Ms Im. and Ra-Ra go shopping, with the former desperate to know the schedule so she can plan accordingly. Only, as we soon find out Ra-Ra isn’t the sharpest girl and struggles to do basic math. Ms Im. is horrified and even more so when Ra-Ra compares herself to Mozart.

Meanwhile, a construction worker called Woo-Joon ends up in the right place at the right time. He catches a bouquet of flowers that whizz through the air, courtesy of a bike driver who skids across the floor.

Wincing in pain, he tasks the boy with bringing the flowers to the hotel. It turns out this bouquet is actually for Ra-Ra at her wedding. As he catches sight of her, he finds himself unable to tear his eyes away from the girl’s beauty… until she whacks him in the nose that is.

Unfortunately she gets blood all over her wedding dress and starts crying. Woo-Joon does his best to save the day though, making last minute modifications to the dress. As we soon see, Ra-Ra’s Father is caught in traffic and may not make it in time.

Back at the wedding, Ra-Ra casually thanks the man and the wedding begins. With her Father nowhere in sight, she heads up the aisle alone. Only, when Ra-Ra’s father arrives outside, he receives a call from Mr Kang calling him back for work. The pressure of this causes him to suddenly have a heart attack outside.

When Ms Im finds out, her dreams of financing her son’s dreams are shattered. She stands up, grabs Jung-Nam and charges out. As she does, Ra-Ra learns about her Father and races up to hospital to check on him. He passes away leaving Ra-Ra all on her own, mourning his loss in her wedding dress.

Only, Ra-Ra’s losses are worse than she may have realized. Her Father was having serious financial problems with the business. The house and everything in it has been auctioned off and creditors are after her. Because of this, she can’t even go to her Father’s funeral.

It’s not much but Secretary Moon manages to scrabble together enough money for her to get a house and move away from the city. He promises she can visit the grave when things calm down and leaves her in shock.

Elsewhere, Woo-Joon remains fixated on Ra-Ra. He wonders whether she’ll be okay but unfortunately he has bigger problems to deal with.

Two men arrive looking for him and manage to bribe their way into finding his room number. Thankfully he manages to break out before they grab him and he scrambles away. As he does, he overhears Ra-Ra playing the piano and finds himself sobbing outside while sitting against the wall.

Jung-Nam’s mother continues to control her son’s life, blocking Ra-Ra’s number and telling him he’s not married and to forget her. Ra-Ra meanwhile, signs a lease agreement for a new apartment and gets settled in with her dog Mimi.

Only, when she posts on her social media she receives an invitation from a handle named “Dodosolsollalasol.” Deciding to ignore it, she falls asleep.

We then cut forward one month later. Ra-Ra is still living in her apartment but she continues to find comments from “dodo”. Only, that’s the least of her problems. It turns out the real estate agent from before has completely scammed her and she’s now homeless and without any money to her name.

At the police station, Ra-Ra cradles Mimi while trying to speak to the detective about her situation. The officers are pretty frustrated by her insistence to stay there but given she’s homeless, she doesn’t really have anywhere else to go.

Eventually she does leave and instead heads up to see her father at his grave. It’s a touching tribute, with ginger tea and photos.

On the back of this, she figures out what the “Dodo” handle means and decides to investigate further, heading off to visit Eunpo City.

On the way though, she ends up crashing her car thanks to Mimi getting car sick. As the car skids, she accidentally clips Woo-Joon who falls down. He scrambles up to see her though and tries to pry open the car door. Suddenly he notices that Ra-Ra is the one sitting in the car.

The Episode Review

Following hot on the heels of Do You Like Brahms, Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol is a musical Korean drama predominantly revolving around piano playing. Unlike the former’s very melodramatic tone, this one is all about the quirky comedy.

In that respect, the humour is absolutely on-point and the editing is brilliant throughout. There’s shades of It’s okay To Not Be Okay as well, with the animated cutaways which lends itself nice to this story which is – so far at least – pretty good.

The preview for episode 2 seems to hint at more drama on the horizon too but in the meantime, this one certainly looks like it’s going to be a really fun watch.