The Glory - How to craft the perfect revenge

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What is The Glory about?

A woman played by Moon Dong-Eun has been spending the last 20 years of her life plotting revenge for everyone who tore her life apart as a child. Friends are made along her journey as the evildoers recieve their just desserts.

You probably shouldnt bully others in high school.

[Quick Info] The Glory KDrama 2022

The Glory Cast

Moon Dong-Eun

Actor: Song Hye-Kyo

Joo Yeo-Jung

Actor: Lee Do-Hyun

Park Yeon-Jin

Actor: Im Ji-Yeon

Kang Hyun-Nam

Actor: Yeom Hye-Ran

Jeon Jae-Joon

Actor: Park Sung-Hoon

Ha Do-Young

Actor: Jung Sung-Il

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Where can I watch it

Netflix. Thats your only legal option to my knowledge; Unless you embrace your inner One Piece Kaizoku and head over to the "Special Sites", nod nod, wink wink

• [ On Netflix ]

The Glory Review, Thoughts and... (Some spoilers)

What would you do if you’re bullied by the school’s most popular students? Be the bigger person and move on? For Moon Dong Eun, she’d rather dedicate her entire life to make them never forget.

Early this year, a South Korean kdrama series topped Netflix’s most viewed Non-English Language Series list for weeks, rivalling popular English language titles like You and Shadow and Bone.

The now Netflix Original kdrama, The Glory, stars South Korea’s biggest television queen Song Hye Kyo. This shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The global popularity of South Korean entertainment - dubbed the Hallyu Wave - has only grown year-on-year. K-Pop groups like BTS and Blackpink are global superstars.

Meanwhile Parasite the movie has snatched Best Picture Oscar in 2020, this is the first year ever a non-English film has done so. Have you heard of a small series called Squid Game? Now, The Glory is continuing the hot streak. And it does so in the genre that the country has perfected in recent years: revenge drama.

The Glory 2022

The Glory revolves around Moon Dong Eun (Song), a woman who spends 20 years of her life plotting revenge on the rich kids who bullied her in high school.

After being forced to drop out of school, she dedicates what little resources she has to achieve a position where she can execute her plan flawlessly.

In her quest for revenge, she finds unexpected allies in the form of an abused housewife and a charming doctor with a traumatic past.

Dong Eun’s revenge mission unfolds over 16 episodes, split in two parts. They are both essentially a whole story broken in half with a definitive conclusion by the end.

With its sharp-edged writing, the drama details not only the extent of Dong Eun’s lasting psychological trauma, but also the failures of Korea’s educational and criminal justice systems in handling bullying.

It’s a dark, dark show, but boy if it ain’t delightful.

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The show joins an ever-growing list of Korean media addressing the severe school bullying problem in the country. One particularly harrowing scene shows the bullies hold down Dong Eun while one of them scorches her arms with a curling iron, laughing gleefully while doing so. And they do it openly in the school’s gym.

THAT was based on a real life case.

The drama also sharply criticizes the lack of punishments for bullying perpetrators.

News of public figures being exposed for past bullying are a dime a dozen in Korea.

The scandals revealed that these perpetrators had received school warnings for their behaviours, yet still managed to get ahead in their careers for so long without any repercussions.

Parasite 2019

Much like Parasite, the dives directly at lesser qualities of Korean culture; particularly exposing how Korea deals with punishing individuals and the inequalities between class's of people.

The main character, Dong Eun, has her bully getting away free, untouched and unscathed because their wealthy parents can afford to bribe affluent figures being teachers, police, even the victim’s mother - into silence.

Forget serving justice; After surviving the impact of the torture itself, the protagonist makes it her sole purpose to see her bullies be toppled off their ivory towers. No, this show does not preach the usual “be the bigger person and move on”.

Instead, it channels the angers of so many real-life victims by fashioning a sort of dark fairytale where they get to take down their bullies. Kudos need to be given to screenwriter Kim Eun Sook for her excellent writing. The legendary scribe is famed for her romantic dramas, but she’s achieved new heights with this elegantly visceral tale.

This is lead star Song’s second time working with Kim, who also wrote her blockbuster 2016 romance K-Drama Descendants of the Sun. While her superstardom gave this drama an air of prestige, she also managed to completely reinvent herself as an actress.

Here, Song shed her good girl image and turned in a career-best performance which earned her tons of prestigious awards.

With top-notch credentials behind and in front of the camera, no wonder this series resonates so much within Korea and the rest of the world.

Given The Glory’s phenomenal success, one might wonder: will there be a continuation to Dong Eun’s story? Will it succumb to the kdrama endless of curse where production promises a new season but never deliver?

Truth be told, the ending leaves no stones unturned for all its characters, with all the baddies punished and the protagonists walking off into the sunset. A sequel is unlikely.

Unlike American shows, it’s also not the norm for K-Dramas to get a second season.

However, given the current climate in the streaming industry and the show’s massive success - who’s to say?

• By  Jennifer AJ
• 2023/11/18

• the glory
• thriller
• revenge