Graceful Friends

Graceful Friends (Korean: 우아한 친구들; Hanja: 優雅한 親舊들; RR: Uahan Chingudeul) is a South Korean television series starring Yoo Jun-sang, Song Yoon-ah, Bae Soo-bin, Han Eun-jung, Kim Sung-oh, Kim Hye-eun, Jung Suk-yong, Lee In-hye, Kim Won-hae and Kim Ji-young. It aired on JTBC from July 10 to September 5, 2020.[1]

Graceful Friends
Promotional poster
Hangul우아한 친구들
Hanja優雅한 親舊들
Genre
Created byJTBC
Written by
  • Park Hyo-yeon
  • Kim Gyeong-seon
Directed bySong Hyun-wook
Starring
Country of originSouth Korea
Original languageKorean
No. of episodes17
Production
Running time70 minutes
Production companies
JTBC Studios
DistributorJTBC
Release
Original networkJTBC
Picture format1080i (HDTV)
Audio formatDolby Digital
Original releaseJuly 10 (2020-07-10) –
September 5, 2020 (2020-09-05)
External links
Website

Synopsis

The peaceful life of a group of friends who have known each other for 20 years is suddenly broken when a murder takes place.

Ahn Goong-chul (Yoo Jun-sang) has a seemingly perfect life with his beautiful wife and son. He works diligently for a food franchise company and is a loving husband and father to his family. Goong-chul's wife, Nam Jung-hae (Song Yoon-ah) is a psychiatrist who works in a family hospital. She is intelligent and beautiful but hides a dark past from her husband. Jung-hae gets tangled in a blackmailing scheme.

Jung Jae-hoon (Bae Soo-bin) is a divorced urologist with a wealthy family background. He lives alone and seems to have a mysterious side. He has a past connection to Nam Jung-hae, of which Ahn Goong-chul doesn't know about.

Jo Hyung-woo (Kim Sung-oh) is an adult film director who is often mockingly called the "Bong Joon-ho" of adult film industry. His dream is to become a mainstream big budget film director but never had any luck with it. He is married to Kang Kyung-ja (Kim Hye-eun) who is a former adult film actress and now runs a luxurious bar. He is very depended on his wife's income. Kang Kyung-ja has a pro-golfer son named Kang Ji-wook.

Park Choon-bok (Jung Suk-yong) is an insurance company worker and part-time foreign car dealership worker. His wife Yoo Eun-sil (Lee In-hye) is a housewife and they have a daughter named Park Pu-reum. He looks comparatively older than his friends and wife, and people often mistake him as his daughter's grandfather. He struggles financially but his wife is very supportive.

Cheon Man-shik (Kim Won-hae) is a City Hall Tax Collection Division official with a wife and a teenage daughter. He is quiet and polite and suffers from depression. He and Ahn Goong-chul were roommates in college and consider each other best friends. He has been hiding a secret from his family and friends which is revealed only after his death.

Baek Hae-sook (Han Eun-jung) used to be friends with the five and they all used to have a crush on her in college. Due to some circumstances, she had to drop out of college and wasn't in touch with any of them until Man-shik's funeral. She bought a restaurant near the housing society where the five friends live, and seems to have a mysterious agenda.

Cast

Main

Supporting
A professional golf instructor who cons people to extract money for his gambling addiction.
  • Kim Ji-sung as Na Ae-ra / Kang Mi-ra
An adult film actress who is blackmailed by Joo Kang-san to help him scam people.
  • Yeon Je-hyung as Kang Ji-wook
Kang Kyung-ja's son and Jo Hyung-woo's stepson, he is a pro golfer. Like his stepfather, he also was Kang-san's blackmail victim.
Man-shik and Myung-sook's teenage daughter who studies in Canada.
  • Park Ha-joon as Ahn Yoo-bin
Goong-chul and Jung-hae's son.
  • Shim Hye-yeon as Park Pu-reum
Choon-bok and Eun-sil's daughter, she has an innocent crush on Ahn Yoo-bin.
  • Kim Seung-wook as Jo Tae-wook
Detective working on the murder case who also were in charge of Professor Park's murder case.
  • Kim Hee-ryung as Goo Young-sun
An Alzheimer patient whom Man-sik took care of. She is the wife of Professor Park Do-hoon.
  • Sa Kang as Do Do-hae
She is the caregiver of Goo Young-sun and liked Cheon Man-shik.
Jung Jae-hoon's ex-wife. She moved to America after their divorce and returned with a changed appearance.

Others
  • Lee Joo-suk as Professor Han Eung-shik
  • Jang Hee-soo as Oh Soon-jung, chairwoman of the hospital Nam Jung-hae works in.
  • Kim Ga-hwa as Geum Ha-na, Jung Jae-hoon's colleague.
  • Um Chae-young as Moon Ga-yeon, Ahn Yoo-bin's friend.
  • Kang Dong-ho as Seo Joo-won, Joo Kang-san's friend.
  • Kim Tae-young as Professor Park Do-hoon
  • Sung Byung-sook as Ahn Goong-chul's mother.
  • Kwon Hyuk as Ahn Goong-cheol
  • Jeon Eun-mi
  • Yoo Gun
  • Kang Nam-gil
  • Lee Geung-young
  • Kim Jun-hyun as himself, Goong-chul's friend and brand ambassador of the chicken franchise where he works.

Production

On January 18, 2020, it was reported that JTBC picked up the series which had already wrapped up filming.[2]

Viewership
Graceful Friends : South Korea viewers per episode (thousands)
SeasonEpisode numberAverage
1234567891011121314151617
1702596876812844930826926859100573789477110059899421037868
Source: Audience measurement performed nationwide by Nielsen Media Research.[3]
Average TV viewership ratings
Ep. Original broadcast date Title Average audience share
(AGB Nielsen)[4]
NationwideSeoul
1 July 10, 2020 Confession 3.197% 4.061%
2 July 11, 2020 That Woman 2.685% 3.299%
3 July 17, 2020 Inappropriate Relationship 4.126% 5.176%
4 July 18, 2020 A Secret More Horrifying Than Death 3.732% 4.316%
5 July 24, 2020 Confessions 4.553% 5.417%
6 July 25, 2020 Lie 4.429% 5.192%
7 July 31, 2020 First Love 4.320% 4.904%
8 August 1, 2020 The Beginning of a Crack 4.333% 4.872%
9 August 7, 2020 Pandora's Box 4.441% 4.959%
10 August 8, 2020 After The Play Is Over 4.711% 5.549%
11 August 14, 2020 Perfect Strangers 4.005% 5.060%
12 August 15, 2020 Truth Behind the Incident 1 4.454% 5.328%
13 August 21, 2020 Things You Cannot Undo 3.953% 5.358%
14 August 22, 2020 The Man Who Knelt 4.737% 5.578%
15 August 29, 2020 A Dramatic Twist 4.865% 5.834%
16 September 4, 2020 In The Mood For Love - Most Brilliant Times 4.785% 5.898%
17 September 5, 2020 The Truth Behind The Case 2 5.081% 6.388%
Average 4.259% 5.129%
  • In the table above, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.
  • This drama aired on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).

International broadcast

The series is available on iQIYI with multi-languages subtitles in South East Asia and Taiwan.

References
  1. Jang, Woo-young (May 26, 2020). "Yu Jun-sang and Song Yoon-ah's "Elegant Friends", a Successor to "The World of the Married"". HanCinema. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  2. Park, So-young (January 18, 2020). "[단독] '우아한 친구들', JTBC 6월 금토극 편성..제2의 'SKY캐슬' 예고". Osen (in Korean). Naver. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  3. "Nielsen Korea". AGB Nielsen Media Research (in Korean). Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  4. "Nielsen Korea". AGB Nielsen Media Research (in Korean). Retrieved July 10, 2020.
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