“Friendly Rivalry”, released in 2025, with 16 episodes, categorized as High School, Youth, Thriller, and Mystery; adapted from a webtoon of the same name; streaming on both Netflix and Viki.
SUMMARY: One girl is the president of the student body who enjoy popularity and influence and of course, everyone wants to be her “bestie”. Another girl was raised in an orphanage and was only transferred to this private school because her father found her. On her first day, the student body president chose to “hold hands” with her. All of the other girls are green with envy. At this school there’s something called “friendly rivalry”. But is it really friendly?
♦ A New School With a New Friend, a New Rival, or a New Friendly Rival?
“Friendly Rivalry” is set in Chaehwa Girls’ High School, a prestigious private all-girls high school that ranks Number One in the country.
MEET Woo Seul-Gi
Woo Seul-Gi is a child who has always gone unnoticed. She was unimportant her entire life. When she was just a little girl, she went on a field trip with her class and insisted on dressing up like a princess so that she would be noticed. All the other kids were dressed in the same outfit and looked like they were in the same group. When the bus was loaded with all of the students, nobody noticed that she a missing. Woo Seul-Gi ended up in an orphanage, and even in the orphanage, nobody noticed her. Sometimes she didn’t even get her meals because she wasn’t at the table, and nobody noticed.
Once she was a teenager, she got noticed, but for the wrong reason. Nam Byeong-Jin, a criminal, hired her along with several other girls from the orphanage to get drugs for him. But the guy wasn’t all bad. He gave her some good advice by telling her to study hard, otherwise she’d end up just like him. Woo Seul-Gi got serious about studying, and her grades went through the roof! All of a sudden, people began to notice her. Before long, an opportunity presented itself. Woo Seul-Gi told her criminal boss that she had found her dad and was moving to Seoul. Once there, she started attending Chaehwa Girls’ High School.
MEET Yu Je-I
Yu Je-I never had a problem being noticed. She’s beautiful, intelligent, wealthy, and the president of the student body at Chaehwa Girls’ High School. She also has a generous and kind heart. There was an old flower woman who wanted to sell her flowers. Somehow, she got into the school auditorium, and they tried to make her leave. But the old lady said she wouldn’t leave until she sold her flowers. Yu Je-I bought all of the flowers. Now wasn’t that super nice of her?
All the girls in her class want to be her “bestie”. They’ll even pay to have a seat next to her in class. But guess who she chose to sit next to? The new girl. Not only did she choose to take the seat next to Woo Seul-Gi, but when it was lunch time, she grabbed her hand and led her off so they could go eat together. No doubt all of the other girls are wondering … WHY HER?
For a girl who spent most of her life never being noticed by anyone, nobody is more surprised than Woo Seul-Gi. She surely wants to know why the school’s most popular girl took notice and wants to befriend her.
Main Characters:
- Yu Je-I (played by Lee Hyeri, “Monstrum”,“May I Help You”, “Moonshine”, “Schoolgirl Detectives”)
- Woo Seul-Gi (played by Chung Su-Bin, “Revenge of Others”, “Rookie Cops”)
- Ju Ye-Ri (played by Kang Hye-Won)
- Choi Gyung (played by Oh Woo-Ri)
- Yu Tae-Jun (played by Kim Tae-Hoon, “Kingdom Season 2”, “My Demon”)
-
Nam Byeong-Jin (played by Choi Young-Jae)
Where to Watch: Viki AND Netflix
Viewership and Rating:
- IMDb: 8 of 10 stars
- My Drama List: 7.7 out of 10 stars
- Viki viewers rated this series 9.4 out of 10 stars
- Letterboxd: 3.9 out of 5 stars
My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewers.
“Friendly Rivalry” get high marks for creating a great HOOK in the very first episode. Although it turned out to be GL and I don’t like GL or BL storylines. However, it isn’t often that the first episode of a K-drama piques your interest and your mind is loaded with questions as to which direction the main characters are going to take.
Will they be:
-
genuine friends?
-
ruthless foes?
-
rivals?
-
friendly or unfriendly rivals?
In competition, there can only be one Winner. Will the competition be fair or unfair? Nobody wants to TIE or BE EQUAL. There can’t be more than one Number One. They both want to be THE BEST, don’t they? What will they do to be THE BEST?
At the end of the first episode, I was very wary of the true intentions of both girls toward each other. In a prestigious private school where being at the top is everything, how can anyone develop a sincere friendship in a cutthroat environment like that? If you saw the way these two girls connected on the first day they met, wouldn’t you want to know the answers? My antennas went up. I was very suspicious. I didn’t trust either one of them.
Also, “Friendly Rivalry” is categorized as a mystery thriller, and you have to figure out what the mystery is. This Korean drama generated a lot of buzz.
LINKS OF INTEREST:
Friendly Rivalry review: Is the Lee Hye-ri and Chung Soo-bin starrer worth watching? | Sportskeeda
Lee Hye-ri returns for buzzworthy role in ‘Friendly Rivalry’ | The Korea Herald
TRAILER/TEASER:
K.-WORLD HIGHLIGHTS. “FRIENDLY RIVALRY (2025) Korean Drama.” YouTube, 6 Feb. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tm2NJhZwMMQ.
♦
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