Rivalry Leads To Love And Revenge In K-Drama 'Love Your Enemy'

Jung Yu-mi and Ju Ji-hoon star in the love-to-hate romance 'Love Your Enemy.'

The male and female leads in Love Your Enemy both happen to be called Ji-won. There’s Seok Ji-Won, played by actor Ju Ji-hoon and Yoon Ji-Won, played by actress Jung Yu-mi. These k-drama characters were born on the same day and in the same town. They have the same name, but not because their parents were friends. Their families have been feuding for generations.

Both Ji-wons went to the same schools, engaging in a continuous battle, first using their fists and later competing with their grades. After school they mostly avoided each other, Seok Ji-won working in his father’s business and Yoon Ji-won teaching physical education at her father’s school. However, when Seokban Construction buys out the financially floundering Dokmok High School Foundation—with plans to turn the land into a golf course—these former rivals must face each other and get caught up in the family feud.

At first Seok Ji-won is not interested in his father’s plans for revenge. But then he hears that Yoon Ji-won does not remember him, something his ego cannot abide. She’s lying, but his reaction to the possibility is thunder-and-lightning intense. He volunteers to execute his father’s revenge at the school while Yoon Ji-won refuses to quit in the face of his new management. The stage is set for these two rivals to fight the way they used to in high school. As in any hate-to-love romance it will take a while for them to warm to each other, but considering how long the hate part of their relationship went on, it might take longer than most. The characters are quite a bit older and supposedly more mature than they were in high school but something about seeing each other takes them right back to their own rivalry.

There’s a lot of romcom experience behind this love-to-hate drama. It was directed by Park Joon-hwa, who directed Alchemy of Souls, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Because This Is My First Life and Bring It On Ghost. The screenplay was written by Im Ye-jin, who wrote The Tale of Nokdu, Love in the Moonlight and Who Are You: School 2015.

Ju Ji-hoon, who previously demonstrated his comedic skills in Hyena, is wryly funny as a man who is detached about most things, but not his rival Ji-won. He previously starred in Jirisan, all three seasons of Kingdom and the films Project Silence, Hunt and both Along With The Gods films. Jung Ju-mi appeared in the dramas The School Nurse Files, Discovery of Love and I Need Romance, as well as the films Sleep, Kim Ji Young: Born 1982 and Train to Busan. Yoon Ji-won is a character that is not only good at lying to others but quite skilled at lying to herself.

The 12-episode tvN drama also stars Lee Si-woo, Kim Ye-won and Kim Kap-soo.It airs on Viki.com in the U.S.

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