Overview of Graceful Friends
‘Graceful Friends’ is a South Korean drama series aired from July 10 to September 5, 2020. The South Korean television series was written by Park Hyo-yeon and Kim Gyeong-seon and directed by Song Hyun-wook. This pretty good murder mystery K-drama features 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 in lead roles.
The series reflects on a friendship story that revolves around the life of some friends and couples in their 40s who have known each other for 20 years. Each one is different in their profession and their peaceful life was cracked and disturbed after the sudden death of one of their friends. After this unexpected murder, their lives took a dramatic roller coaster and things have changed.
The drama seamlessly portrays how beautiful friendships get intertwined with death. The series has an engaging story with the most unforgettable plot twists.
Profile
- Drama: Graceful Friends
- Director: Song Hyun-wook
- Writers: Park Hyo-yeon and Kim Gyeong-seon
- Network: JTBC
- Episodes: 17
- Release Date: July 10 – September 5, 2020
- Language: Korean
- Country: South Korea
Cast
- Yoo Jun-sang as Ahn Goong-chul
- Kwon Hyuk as young Ahn Goong-chul
- Song Yoon-ah as Nam Jung-hae
- Joo Da-young as young Nam Jung-hae
- Bae Soo-bin as Jung Jae-hoon
- Han Min as young Jung Jae-hoon
- Han Eun-jung as Baek Hae-sook
- Choi Soo-jung as young Baek Hae-sook
- Kim Sung-oh as Jo Hyung-woo
- Choi Dae-han as young Jo Hyung-woo
- Kim Hye-eun as Kang Kyung-ja
- Jung Suk-yong as Park Choon-bok
- Lee In-hye as Yoo Eun-sil
- Kim Won-hae as Cheon Man-shik
- Park Sung-joon as young Cheon Man-shik
- Kim Ji-young as Ji Myung-sook
Supporting
- Lee Tae-hwan as Joo Kang-san
A professional golf instructor with a gambling addiction. - Kim Ji-sung as Na Ae-ra / Kang Mi-ra
An adult film actress who is blackmailed by Joo Kang-san to scam people. - Yeon Je-hyung as Kang Ji-wook
- Kim Ji-young as Cheon Soo-ah
- Park Ha-joon as Ahn Yoo-bin
- Shim Hye-yeon as Park Pu-reum
- Kim Seung-wook as Jo Tae-wook
- Kim Hee-ryung as Goo Young-sun
- Sa Kang as Do Do-hae
- Lee Yeon-doo as Choi Mo-ran
Synopsis
The story opens with a mysterious murder. Joo Kang-san (Lee Tae-hwan), a professional golf instructor was found dead in the shower room of his apartment. Joo Kang-san used to extract money from people for his gambling addiction.
Another person is introduced, Ahn Goong-chul (Yoo Jun-sang), a happy family man who is living a seemingly perfect life with his wife and son. He works for a franchise company. Ahn Goong-chul upon rushing towards Kang-san’s place fearfully discovers the lifeless body.
His three friends Jung Jae-hoon (Bae Soo-bin), a divorced urologist, Jo Hyung-woo (Kim Sung-oh), an adult film director and Park Choon-bok (Jung Suk-yong), an insurance company worker arrive at the spot in a few minutes following the discovery of the dead body.
These men were interrogated as part of the cops’ investigation, but Goong-chul is suspected to be the killer. However, the police set him free due to the lack of proper evidence against him.
Flashback to a year ago, the five friends Ahn Goong-chul, Jung Jae-hoon, Jo Hyung-woo, Park Choon-bok, and Cheon Man-shik were happily living their ordinary lives. The gang gather once in a while to hang out to drink away all their burdens and woes.
Ahn Goong-chul is a manager at a big food company. Jung Jae-hoon is an efficient doctor specializing in urology. Jo Hyung-woo is an adult film director who struggles to get his big break. Park Choon-bok works as an insurance agent who works hard to survive.
Cheon Man-shik (Kim Won-hae), is a City Hall Tax Collection Division official. With depression disorder, this underpaid government officer lives with his wife and a teenage daughter. Man-shik suddenly died from a heart attack and his death was a shock to all.
A beautiful girl Baek Hae-sook (Han Eun-jung), unexpectedly appears at Man-sik’s funeral. They have known Baek Hae-sook from their college days as she used to be in contact with five of them. She was everyone’s college crush because of her beauty and charisma.
Things get tangled up when someone secretly captures Goong-chul and Hae-sook having a casual talk during the funeral and anonymously sends the photo to Goong-chul’s wife, Nam Jung-hae (Song Yoon-ah). Goong-chul’s peaceful family life gets affected as Jung-hae turns suspicious of her husband.
Being affected by the photos, she leaves for a bar and becomes unconscious when Joo Kang-san secretly puts drugs in her drinks and he takes her to his place. Later, he started to threaten Jung-hae to extort money using her naked photos.
Jung-hae confronts everything with her husband, Ahn Goong-chul and he leaves in fury to Kang-san’s apartment but is shocked to witness his lifeless body in the bathroom.
An Untold Past
Nam Jung-hae and the divorced urologist Jung Jae-hoon were in a secret romantic relationship when they were studying abroad.
However, Jung-hae calls off the wedding and Jae-hoon becomes devastated. He turns out secretly vengeful of her perfect married life. Jae-hoon is the one who prodded Hae-sook to re-appear and they both plan to tempt Goong-chul for an extra-marital affair.
One day, Goong-chul and Jung-hae’s son, Yu Bin get into a hit-and-run accident but luckily Jung Jae-hoon saves the kid’s life. Later, Jung Jae-hoon felt sorry and admitted that he killed Joo Kang-san to take revenge on Nam Jung-sang. His aim was to make Nam Jung-hae’s husband Goong-chul the suspect and he thought, in that way, her family life would definitely be ruined.
Ending Explained
Jumping forward in time, the couples’ broken relations seem to be sorted. Goong-chul donated blood to save Jung Jae-hoon when Jung Jae-hoon was stabbed by Kang-san’s friends to avenge his death.
Solid pieces of evidence of the murderer Jung Jae-hoon’s confession were missing. The cops failed to prosecute the real culprit and set Jung Jae-hoon free. Later, it is revealed that Goong-chul destroyed pieces of evidence. The drama ends by showing Ahn Goong-chul throwing all evidence of the murder into a lake and the four men cheerfully walk towards better days leaving their troubled past behind.
Theme
The drama features a murder case that happened in a largely inhabited town. The engaging story of couples in their 40s can keep the audience’s interest at its peak enough to watch till the end.
‘Graceful Friends’ highlights some essential issues. The main topics such as loyalty, family, and relationships are brought to the foreground and the series becomes consistently entertaining. The drama also spotlighted the subject of men’s mental health.
Awards
No information is available.
Interesting Facts about Graceful Friends
- Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the filming schedule has been delayed and the drama series premiered on July 10, 2020, instead of June 2020.
- ‘Graceful Friends’ takes over the JTBC’s Friday & Saturday 22:50 time slot previously occupied by the drama series ‘The World of the Married’.
- The 15th episode of the drama was initially scheduled to air on Friday, August 28, 2020, but instead, the episode was aired a day later on Saturday, August 29, 2020, because of a special program aired during the COVID-19 outbreak.
- The mystery drama features 10 prominent actors from South Korea in lead roles.
FAQs
- Who is the director of the drama ‘Graceful Friends’?
The brilliant thriller series is directed by the popular film director Song Hyun-wook. - What is the genre the drama ‘Graceful Friends’ belongs to?
‘Graceful Friends’ is a pretty good murder mystery. - How many episodes are there of the Korean drama ‘Graceful Friends’?
Graceful Friends has 17 episodes, each around 70 minutes long. - Is the K-drama ‘Graceful Friends’ worth watching?
This pretty good horror mystery series with intriguing character portrayals is worth watching and definitely keeps you guessing until the end. - What are the Instagram IDs of the lead actors?
songyoona2015 is the Instagram ID of Song Yoon-ah and yujunsang1128 is the Instagram ID of Yoo Jun-sang.Â
