Asia is becoming more open to the topic of same-sex love, thereby opening up a new territory for BL (male-male love) and Yuri (female-female love) films. Young audiences welcome this openness, appreciating the international integration trend of Asian countries. In particular, members of the LGBTQ+ community are also very excited when they see characters who are similar to themselves appearing in mass media such as movies.
These changes also bring breakthrough opportunities for the actors playing the main roles in these films. If the plot is logical, the character setting is unforgettable, the appearance and setting are eye-catching, then surely the main couple will shine as A-list stars. Some typical examples are Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan from the film The Untamed (2019), Bright Vachirawit and Win Metawin from 2gether: The Series (2020), Keita Machida and Eiji Akaso for Cherry Magic (2022), LingLing Kwong and Orm Kornnaphat for The Secret of Us (2024).
Although same-sex romance films are relatively popular in China, Japan, and Thailand, this genre is still very rare in Korea. The last time a film came close to this boundary was Kill Me Heal Me (2015), starring Park Seo Joon and Ji Sung, but they did not play a real love interest, but only interacted because of the character's psychological disorder. However, this combination was still enough to help both of them receive the "Most Popular Couple" trophy at the annual MBC Drama Awards that year.
It seemed like this country would never "cross the line", but the work Friendly Rivalry released in early 2025 created an incredible fever in early 2025. What attracted viewers to the film may have been the thrilling plot with layers of conspiracy in school, but what made them discuss and linger on this work was the love story of two female students Jae Yi (Lee Hyeri) and Seul Gi (Jung Soo Bin).
Win-win situation between Friendly Rivalry and Lee Hyeri
Lee Hyeri was a K-pop idol, active in the girl group Girls' Day. In her fifth year of her career, she decided to venture into the film industry. The idol actress quickly proved her suitability for acting by starring in quite a few successful films such as Reply 1988 (2015) and Entertainer (2016).
Therefore, even though Friendly Rivalry was only shown on the small streaming platform U+Mobile TV with a cast that did not have much acting experience, the film still received attention before its broadcast mainly thanks to Hyeri.
On the contrary, Hyeri also had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with Friendly Rivalry to escape the cheerful character cocoon that she has been stuck in since Reply 1988 with the character Yoo Jae Yi in the film - a surprising and different "queen bee" in the Korean school drama series.
Hyeri's character, Yoo Jae Yi, is the top student in school, with a powerful family background, sharp looks, and unpredictable thoughts. Her first impression is that she is also a typical "school queen". So what will she do next? Bully the female lead Seul Gi with the school's caste system? Hide behind evils and use family power to cover up?
Not at all. On the contrary, she befriended and protected Seul Gi from bad rumors, even helping her with her studies. Until the end, through many “false alarms” that showed Jae Yi’s danger, she still had sincere feelings and goodwill towards Seul Gi.
But throughout the 16 episodes, Jae Yi's formidableness is still shown through the fear and rumors from those around her, along with hidden details such as the fact that she knows too much about her classmates' family background. That makes the audience constantly wonder: How dangerous is Jae Yi really? What is her plot? And what is her true motive?
It is this ambiguity that makes Jae Yi a more mysterious “queen bee” than other evil school queens disguised as good girls, confusing and always making people impatient to find out her true motives, glued to the screen until the final conclusion. Besides, Yoo Jae Yi also has internal conflicts rarely seen in other “queen bee” images, making the audience even more attracted to this unique character setup. When Jae Yi was revealed to be genuinely good to Seul Gi, the audience also gave her the title “green flag disguised as red flag”.
Yoo Jae Yi’s inner depth and personal story have helped Hyeri show off her new acting skills. This character has the intelligence and coldness to attract the audience during the movie, but at the same time is a good character with sincere concern for Seul Gi – something that will leave an impression and nostalgia for the audience after the movie ends. Many viewers have praised: “Even better than the role of Deoksun in Reply 1988 ”; “The role was written for Hyeri”…
According to statistics from GoodData, a site that tracks the discussion of TV shows and online programs, Hyeri ranked 4th in the top 10 most discussed actors in the last week of February and early March, the highest-ranking female star on the list thanks to her role in Friendly Rivalry . This is the second highest discussion ranking in her entire career, only behind her role in My Roommate is a Gumiho (2021).
In Vietnam, on the day of the final episode, the keywords Hyeri and Friendly Rivalry attracted more than 140,000 posts, entering the hottest keywords ranking in real time. Several personal fanpages for Hyeri were established and actively operated on Facebook after the drama.
In China, on Douban, Friendly Rivalry achieved a score of 8.6 – a sky-high number, surpassing films of the same genre/theme such as The Pyramid Game (2024) (with a score of 7.5). This score also puts the film in the same quality ranks as The Glory (2023 – 8.9 points), Trauma Code: Heroes On Call (2025 – 8.3 points) in the eyes of Chinese audiences. Under Hyeri’s Instagram posts, many Chinese fans have “crossed the line”(*) to leave comments supporting her. You can see Chinese comments or English comments introducing themselves as being from China, overwhelming the number of Korean comments.
In China, on Douban, Friendly Rivalry scored 8.6 points – an impressive number, surpassing many films of the same genre such as The Pyramid Game ( 2024) with 7.5 points. This rating also puts the film in the ranks of highly rated works, alongside The Glory ( 2023) with 8.9 points and The Trauma Code: Heroes On Call ( 2025 ) with 8.3 points in the eyes of Chinese audiences.
The love for the drama is also evident on Hyeri’s Instagram, where many Chinese fans have found a way to “cross the line”(*) to leave comments in support of her. It is not difficult to find comments in Chinese or English, along with the introduction that they are from China, even overwhelming the number of comments in Korean.
(*) China blocks apps like Instagram, Facebook... so to use these platforms, Chinese netizens have to use many tools to help remove the blocking signal. This shows that they love Hyeri and are willing to show their affection despite many restrictions.
Although not as explosive as Hyeri, Jung Soo Bin, the actress who plays Woo Seul Gi, has also had the biggest commercial success of her career to date. The number of followers on her official Instagram account has surpassed 500,000, up 150% compared to when the drama first aired.
Together, Hyeri and Jung Soo Bin make the hottest couple in early 2025
Not only are they personally famous, Hyeri and Jung Soo Bin's interactions as the two main female characters of Friendly Rivalry also brought the two girls a large number of fans, or here we can call them "shippers" (fans of the couple).
Most of their fans are women between the ages of 20-30, who are influenced by idol culture and actively support and spread the influence of their idols, such as making movie subtitles, conducting interviews, creating keyword trends on social networks, etc., thereby helping to spread their names even further.
In Vietnam, the appeal of the couple Jae Yi and Seul Gi in Friendly Rivalry is demonstrated by the appearance of many fanpages dedicated to the two characters, with a total of nearly 30,000 followers in just one month - an impressive number when the film has almost no official promotional activities in Vietnam. Among the romantic dramas broadcast since the beginning of 2025, no couple has had such a large and active fan community.
In Korea, many newspapers also used the phrase “Hyeri’s Woman” (혜리의 여자) in articles about Jung Soo Bin’s role in Friendly Rivalry , reflecting the strong attraction of the love line between Jae Yi and Seul Gi on screen. After the success of the drama, Soo Bin also became a guest in the episode of Hyell’s Club hosted by Hyeri, released on March 14 – right on White Valentine’s Day. Currently, the teaser of the show has received 148,000 likes on Jung Soo Bin’s personal Instagram post.
There was a time when the teaser about Jae Yi and Seul Gi's same-sex kiss aired before Friendly Rivalry was released, the film made a bad impression when it was labeled as queerbaiting - that is, using LGBTQ+ elements for commercial purposes to attract attention.
However, the current popularity of the couple in the film is proof that Friendly Rivalry does not need to do that. Not only the kiss, throughout the 16 episodes, Jae Yi's silent but meaningful actions for Seul Gi have affirmed that the feelings between them do not stop at physical closeness, but are also built deeply and have emotional depth.
The ups and downs in the relationship between the two characters touched the hearts of the audience, showing a serious investment in the emotional line instead of simply relying on kissing scenes with the color of homosexual love. The open ending, with signs that the two characters can reunite after all the events, is also a subtle and weighty affirmation for fans of this couple.
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