The Glory Review: A Slow But Inexorable Carburetion K Drama
Cast: Song Hye-kyo, Lee Do-hyun, Lim Ji-yeon, Park Sung-Hoon, Jung Sun, Yeon Hye-Ram
Creator: Kim Eun-sook, An Gil-ho
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The streaming giant seems to have decided to settle all the outstanding scores by the end of 2022. The brand new Netflix original k-drama The Glory which has just landed on the platform tells a story of revenge. The protagonist of this 8-episode show is Moon Dong-Eun, a woman who has invested her life in planning a detailed and inexorable plan to take her own (tremendous) revenge against the bullies who persecuted her in high school. Playing this victim who turns executioner is Korean actress Song Hye-Kyo, who reunited with screenwriter Kim Eun-sook six years after the Descendants of the Sun series.
As we will see in our review of The Glory, this new k-drama slowly reveals itself to the viewer as we enter the heart of the events only from the fourth episode – proving to be as subtle as it is implacable, well-supported by elegant writing and a mass seductive stage. The Glory Netflix Years after a life of high school bullying. A woman begins a cunning operation of revenge. To punish the person who hurt her… to hurt even more It stars Song Hye Kyo and Lee Do Hyun, screenwriter Kim Eun Sook of Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, and director Ahn Gil Ho of Stranger.
The Glory Review: The Story
Central to the plot of The Glory is Moon Dong-eun (Song Hye-kyo): a girl raised in poverty by a single mother who is subjected to torture, physical and psychological, by a group of bullies at school. Young people demonstrate a level of cruelty and sadism without limits, taking pleasure in inflicting violence and humiliating their victims, economically less well-off and without parents ready to defend them. The girl never gets, except with the exception of a young nurse, protection and comfort from the adults around her, being abandoned by those who should instead support her.
The situation is so extreme that it leads her to think that the only solution is to take her own life, but Moon Dong-eun, right at the moment of greatest vulnerability, decides to react and devote herself totally to a plan that will lead her to take revenge on her captors. To do this, many years of preparation will be necessary which will lead her, for example, to become a teacher of the daughter of Park Yeon-jin (Lim Ji-yeon), the leader of the group of bullies, and to get to know the son of the head of the school that didn’t stand up for her, on the contrary, when she was just a teenager.
Moon Dong-eun (Song Hye-kyo) is a high school girl who is subjected to very serious bullying by a group of peers led by the cruel Park Yeon-jin (Lim Ji-yeon). Due to the constant harassment, the indifference of the teaching staff and the betrayal of her family, the young girl leaves school to put an end to the terrible oppression and be able to support herself. Sixteen years later, Moon Dong-eun managed to redeem herself socially, graduating and becoming a primary school teacher. However, this is not enough for the woman, who has never stopped thinking about her captors. And she did much more than think about it: in fact, she spent all the previous years developing a sadistic and meticulous plan to take revenge on all those who made her suffer. especially Park Yeon-jin (Shin Ye-eun) who is now married to a construction magnate, has a daughter and works as a television meteorologist. A difficult path in the desperate search for justice will lead the woman to transform herself from victim to perpetrator.
The Glory Review and Analysis
The Glory can be said to tell a story of redemption, albeit not in a positive sense of the term. Her protagonist is blinded by such a thirst for revenge that she sees nothing but her target, with the result of having completely dedicated her life to her sadistic retaliation. Retaliation, if possible, will prove to be even more terrible than the damage suffered; especially since the plan will end up involving people who have nothing to do with past events. Therefore, although at the beginning it is instinctive to side with Moon Dong-eun, slowly as the series progresses, we can only feel compassion for a person who cannot find peace, making revenge an obsession and ending up becoming an innocent victim of a ruthless executioner. But also, to wonder what will happen when he has achieved his goal. Sometimes, it is she who wonders about how many days of her existence she has lived; but this is just her fleeting thought that she can’t distract her from her plan, which will also involve a woman who is brutally beaten by her husband and a man from her past who seems to be just another of her pawns.
The Glory is like a puzzle: initially, the pieces all seem disconnected from each other but, slowly as you proceed, each element finds its place, eventually forming a recognizable image. Similarly, the first episodes of the show created by Kim Eun-sook could disorient the viewer, due to the continuous alternation of present and past and the lack of contextualization of many characters brought to the screen. A dynamic that, however, does not discourage the vision, on the contrary, it intrigues and makes it impossible to interrupt the vision at least until one understands what is happening. From the fourth episode, then, all the strings are pulled and we finally enter the full action, slowly but surely discovering completely unexpected implications.
There are two stars to shine in this k-drama: we are talking about the protagonist Song Hye-Kyo and her ruthless opponent, played by Shin Ye-Eun. Both performances manage to make the first difficult episodes magnetic, above all thanks to the power of their gazes. Moon Dong-Eun’s eyes carry all the weight of past traumas but also shine with her strong determination; Park Yeon-jin’s, on the other hand, are vivid and malevolent, both as an adult and as a teenager. Another deeply successful role, albeit secondary until the last few episodes, is that of Yeo-Jung (Do-Hyun), a young plastic surgeon with a soft spot for the protagonist who, after learning of the harassment she has suffered, decides to join his revenge plan.
The villain in this story is consistently bad from childhood until growing up very well. It’s called a villain that has no other dimensions at all. There is no goodness in him to be seen at all, every scene is doing only bad things. The opening story is extremely bad. After all, growing up is just as bad as before. It also has the power of money. Position in society all look good. Until I felt that the script was deliberately made to be too bad to make the heroine look justified in pure revenge. This is fine because this is a full-blown revenge series with no point in getting distracted. Even the love story is very light. which is an advantage that makes the heroine look firm with serious revenge
In addition, the story also has a secondary storyline of a doctor who falls in love with the heroine. He has a story about his father being killed by a murderer who is now in jail and constantly sending derisive letters. Until making him becomes a person with a double personality, always dreaming about killing and following him. In which the story has come a little bit but has not yet revealed how the doctor’s revenge will connect with the heroine again. The series has 8 episodes and is not finished yet. The sequel will come in March 2023, which makes the story now just a pure plot. and also projected the image of God that had just been put onto the board It is recommended that if you can wait and see it in one go, it’s better than coming to stay!
The Glory Review: The Last Words
The Glory is a k-drama that slowly reveals itself to the viewer, then proves to be as subtle as it is relentless, well supported by elegant writing and seductive staging. A revenge-style series written in which the heroine was treated as a child was too exaggerated. Until I didn’t see it at first but when he grows up, the story about the dimension of revenge is interesting by revealing himself directly. Makes the story so intriguing that it’s unpredictable how she’ll take her revenge to the next level. Unfortunately, the story ends so unresolved that it doesn’t get to the point of actually getting revenge on someone. Have to wait for March 2023, which makes the story now just a pure plot.
