Dear My Friends

Dear My Friends (Korean: 디어 마이 프렌즈) is a South Korean television series starring Go Hyun-jung, Kim Hye-ja, Na Moon-hee, Go Doo-shim, Park Won-sook, Youn Yuh-jung, Joo Hyun, Kim Young-ok and Shin Goo.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} It aired on cable network tvN on Fridays and Saturdays at 20:30 (KST) for 16 episodes from May 13 to July 2, 2016.

Dear My Friends
Promotional poster
Hangul	디어 마이 프렌즈
RR	Dieo mai peurenjeu
MR	Tiŏ mai p'ŭrenjŭ
Genre	Drama
Written by	Noh Hee-kyung
Directed by	Hong Jong-chan
Starring	Go Hyun-jung Kim Hye-ja Na Moon-hee Go Doo-shim Park Won-sook Youn Yuh-jung Joo Hyun Kim Young-ok Shin Goo
Narrated by	Go Hyun-jung
Theme music composer	Choi In-hee The Chairman Yoo Young-jun
Opening theme	"Go Go! Picnic" by Martin Smith
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language	Korean
No. of episodes	16
Production
Executive producers	Bae Jong-byung Jinnie Jin-hee Choi Kim Kyu-tae
Producers	Lee Jong-ok Lee Jeong-mook
Production locations	South Korea Slovenia Croatia
Production companies	Studio Dragon GT Entertainment
Original release
Network	tvN
Release	May 13 (2016-05-13) – July 2, 2016 (2016-07-02)

Synopsis

The stories between friends in their golden years of their lives. People who say some words like "It is not the end, we're still alive".

Cast

Main

• Go Hyun-jung as Park Wan – age 37, a Japanese translation writer
• Kim Hye-ja as Jo Hee-ja – age 72
• Na Moon-hee as Moon Jeong-ah – age 72, Hee-ja's classmate, Seok-gyun's wife
• Go Doo-shim as Jang Nan-hee – age 63, Park Wan's mother, Hee-ja and Jeong-ah's classmate and successful owner of a jjamppong shop
• Park Won-sook as Lee Young-won – age 63, Nan-hee's classmate, a former actress and advertising model
• Youn Yuh-jung as Oh Choong-nam – age 65, Nan-hee and Young-won's senior
• Joo Hyun as Lee Seong-jae – age 72, a former attorney, Hee-ja and Jeong-ah's school friend
• Kim Young-ok as Oh Ssang-boon – age 86, Nan-hee's mother
• Shin Goo as Kim Seok-gyun – age 75, Jeong-ah's husband

Extended

• Zo In-sung as Seo Yeon-ha – age 32, Park Wan's friend, Slovenia resident
• Lee Kwang-soo as Yoo Min-ho – early age 30, Hee-ja's youngest son
• Nam Neung-mi [ko] as Gi-ja – age 72
• Baek Seung-do [ko] as Yang Joo-young – Choong-nam's parental nephew
• Byeon Woo-seok as Son Jong-sik – Choong-nam's outside nephew
• Yeom Hye-ran as Soon-young – Jeong-ah's first daughter
• Kwon Hyuk as Oh Se-oh – Jeong-ah's first son-in-law
• Kang Eun-jin as Kim Ho-young – Jeong-ah's second daughter
• Han Jeong-hyun as Soo-young – Jeong-ah's third daughter
• Kim Jeong-hwan as Jang In-bong – Ssang-boon's son, Park Wan's uncle
• Cha Jong-ho [ko] as Pal-dal – Nan-hee's jjamppong shop employee
• Jeong Eui-soon as Nan-hee's jjamppong shop employee
• Ji Yi-soo as Sang-sook – Nan-hee's jjamppong shop employee
• Go Bo-gyeol as Ha-neul – Hee-ja's youngest daughter-in-law
• Lee Kwang-soo as Bong-yi – Seok-gyun's elementary school alumni
• Go Jin-myung as security colleague
• Kwak In-joon [ko] as professor Yang
• Kim Tae-hoon as professor Lee

Supporting

• Joo Boo-jin as cathedral congregation member
• Choi Jae-seop as Hee-ja's son
• Jo Seung-yeon as Hee-ja's son
• Park Sung-yeon as Hee-ja's daughter-in-law
• Park Soo-bin as Hee-ja's daughter-in-law
• Kang Moon-kyung
• Yoo Pil-ran
• Kim Pil
• Kim Hak-yim
• Jo Hye-won
• Kim Kyung-ae [ko]
• Kim Byung-choon [ko]
• Kim Hak-sun
• Ok Joo-ri
• Park Gwi-soon [ko] as taxi driver
• Noh Nam-seok
• Kwon Jae-hyun as Soon-cheol
• Lee Jeong-goo as priest
• Baek Eun-kyung
• Goo Bon-young
• Kim Yeon-hee
• Shin Shin-beom as Seok-gyun's younger brother
• Kim Mi-ryang as Seok-gyun's sister-in-law
• Kim Jeong-soo
• Jin Seok-chan
• Woo Sang-wook as young Kim Seok-gyun
• Nam Jeong-hee [ko] as elderly nursing home care helper
• Kwon Hyuk-soo as nursing home care helper
• Kim Ya-ni

Cameo appearances

• Shin Sung-woo as Han Dong-jin – early age 40, a publisher representative, an editor-in-chief
• Sung Dong-il as professor Park
• Jang Hyun-sung as Il-woo – Nan-hee's jjamppong shop regular customer
• Lee Won-jong as Jang Ho-jin – Nan-hee's father
• Song Yong-tae [ko] as Yoo Jeong-cheol – Hee-ja's husband
• Daniel Henney as Mark Smith – Hee-ja's male neighbor, photographer
• Chae Gook-hee [ko] as Seo Yeon-hee – Yeon-ha's older sister, Slovenia resident
• Ha Jae-young [ko] as Dae-cheol – Young-won's ex-husband
• Lee Soon-jae
• Kim Ji-young

Original soundtrack

Part 1

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Baby Blue"	Kevin Oh	3:15
2.	"Baby Blue" (Inst.)		3:15
Total length:			6:30

Part 2

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Wonderful (얼마나 좋아)"	Jannabi	3:01
2.	"Beautiful"	Jannabi (잔나비)	3:01
3.	"Beautiful" (Eng Ver.)	Jannabi	3:01
Total length:			9:03

Part 3

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Want to Be Free (바람에 머문다)"	Lyn	3:27
2.	"Want to Be Free (바람에 머문다)" (Inst.)		3:27
Total length:			6:54

Part 4

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Don't Go (떠나가지마)"	Park Ji-min	3:16
2.	"Don't Go (떠나가지마)" (Inst.)		3:16
Total length:			6:32

Part 5

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Go Go! Picnic"	Martin Smith	3:37
2.	"Be My Side"	Da-eun	3:09
3.	"Paso a Paso"	Edan	3:37
Total length:			10:23

Ratings

Average TV viewership ratings

Ep.	Original broadcast date	Title	Average audience share
			Nielsen Korea[7]		TNmS
			Nationwide	Seoul	Nationwide
1	May 13, 2016	Sorry, I'm Not Curious About You Guys. (미안하지만, 난 당신들이 궁금하지 않아요)	4.895%	4.386%	4.0%
2	May 14, 2016	I Can Do It Alone. I Can Live Alone. (혼자 할 수 있어요. 혼자 살 수 있어요.)	4.000%	3.729%	4.1%
3	May 20, 2016	Down to the Braless Street with a Torn Jeans (노브라에 찢어진 청바지를 입고 길 위에서)	4.676%	4.875%	4.1%
4	May 21, 2016	Please, I Beg Everyone, Don't Say You Know Everything About Us. (부디, 부탁하건대 당신들, 우릴 다 안다 하지 마세요.)	3.420%	3.124%	3.0%
5	May 27, 2016	Don't Be Lonely. I'm Beside You. (외로워 마세요. 그대 곁에 내가 있어요.)	4.489%	4.648%	4.5%
6	May 28, 2016	The Way You Can Return, The Way You Can't Return (되돌아 갈 수 있는 길 되돌아 갈 수 없는 길)	3.874%	4.119%	3.5%
7	June 3, 2016	The Wind Blows. The Waves Are Hitting. (바람이 분다. 파도가 친다)	4.989%	5.888%	3.9%
8	June 4, 2016	As If Nothing Had Happened (마치 아무 일도 없었던 것처럼)	3.970%	4.053%	3.2%
9	June 10, 2016	Life Is Really Very Beautiful, Isn't It? (인생 정말 아름답지 아니한가)	5.211%	5.328%	4.5%
10	June 11, 2016	Honing the Sword of Revenge 1 (복수의 칼날을 갈며 1)	4.486%	4.550%	3.8%
11	June 17, 2016	Honing the Sword of Revenge 2 (복수의 칼날을 갈며 2)	5.467%	5.909%	4.6%
12	June 18, 2016	What I Was Aware Of, A Hundred of My Sins. What I Was Unaware Of, Tons of My Sins. (내가 알고 지은 죄, 백가지. 내가 모르고 지은 죄, 천가지 만가지)	5.294%	5.015%	4.1%
13	June 24, 2016	Like a Mother to the End, Like a Fighter to the End 1 (끝까지 엄마답게, 끝까지 투사처럼 1)	5.942%	5.744%	5.1%
14	June 25, 2016	Like a Mother to the End, Like a Fighter to the End 2 (끝까지 엄마답게, 끝까지 투사처럼 2)	5.383%	5.972%	4.4%
15	July 1, 2016	When Did We Ever Look at You This Long? (우리가 언제 당신을 이렇게 오래 바라봐 준 적 있었나?)	8.087%	9.259%	6.8%
16	July 2, 2016	Our Love Story (우리들의 러브 스토리)	6.870%	7.222%	6.0%
Average			5.066%	5.239%	4.4%
In the table above, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings. This series 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).

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2016	9th Korea Drama Awards	Best Screenplay	Noh Hee-kyung	Won
	tvN10 Awards	Best Actress	Go Hyun-jung	Nominated
			Kim Hye-ja	Nominated
		Best Content Award, Drama	Dear My Friends	Won
		Two Star Award	Shin Goo	Nominated
			Youn Yuh-jung	Nominated
		Best Kiss Award	Zo In-sung and Go Hyun-jung	4th place
2017	53rd Baeksang Arts Awards[8][9]	Best Drama	Dear My Friends	Won
		Best Director	Hong Jong-chan	Nominated
		Best Screenplay	Noh Hee-kyung	Won

Remake

A Chinese remake of the same name aired on Hunan TV in 2017.