REVIEW: The Glory (Part 1)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Re-watch value: 2 out of 5 stars
SYNOPSIS
*From AsianWiki*
A high school student dreamed of one day working as an architect. She became a victim of high school violence perpetrated by her fellow students. She dropped out of high school because of the bullying. She then planned revenge on her tormentors and also the bystanders who did nothing.
That student is now an adult. She has waited for the leader of her tormentors to get married and have a child. That child is now an elementary school student. The women who was once a victim of school violence, is now the homeroom teacher of her tormentor's child. Her cruel revenge plot begins in earnest.
RAMBLING
*beware of spoilers*
Let me start by saying that I believe in female rage. And I support revenge. So The Glory is right up my alley.
I’d heard from a lot of folks that the episode 1 bullying scenes were extremely difficult to watch, but I got through them quite easily. It felt a bit par for the course when it comes to South Korean bullying, which is featured heavily throughout K-dramas, in general. It’s a pervasive problem over there, and I can never quite wrap my head around that. Dong-Eun as a teenager is played by Jung Ji-So. She’s phenomenal and heartbreaking and just feels so, so vulnerable. (I really liked her in Imitation.)
Something I appreciated about the show is that it’s taking its time building her revenge plot, how she lived her life leading up to her developing the plan—how she hustled to get her GED and get into college while working full-time, how she stalked her aggressors on social media for years. She wasn’t this polished avenger right out of the gate; she had to work at it, learn new things (like switching to Instagram, which made me nostalgic for when I did the same in my life), and carefully create a strategy. Nothing about this happened overnight.
Let’s talk Song Hye-Kyo. She’s had such a long, illustrious career. I think loads of new K-drama watchers don’t realize what a legacy she already has, and how she’s an OG queen of K-drama. I remember watching her first in Full House with RAINNNN, and I thought she was brilliant. I always thought she was pretty standard, baseline great. She was really good as a blind heiress in That Winter, the Wind Blows and as a charming but resolute doctor in Descendants of the Sun. Imagine my confusion when people all over social media started saying she couldn’t act at all based on her flop era (i.e., Encounter, Now We Are Breaking Up). I admittedly haven’t watched either show, and I don’t feel like I need to, but here’s my final word on the Song Hye-Kyo slander: she’s got the chops, but she just hasn’t chosen the right projects. She probably got a little lazy or a little typecast as the beautiful but rather stoic female lead.
I think her role in The Glory, which sees her team up with winning screenwriter Kim Eun-Sook from Descendants of the Sun again, is still within her typecast wheelhouse. But I think the plot is so very juicy, the audience is on her side, and like I said at the top, her detached and calm demeanor when doling out twisted justice works when you think about how she’s seething on the inside. I don’t like when female rage is portrayed as this cryfest or explosive emotions. I think more often than not, female rage, as written by woman writer Kim Eun-Sook, is righteous indignation, patient and calculating—not a frenetic tantrum, like the male gaze would have you believe.
A couple of moments and lines that stood out to me:
When Dong-Eun blackmails drug addict Sa-ra for money and ends up yanking her by the hair and tossing her around a bit? “You’ve never been threatened, have you?” SLOW CLAP.
“Some hatred resembles longing. It’s impossible to get rid of.”
“Sometimes I wonder [about the] the solidarity between perpetrators, and the solidarity between victims. Which one is stronger?”
Dong-Eun’s scenes with Teacher Chu and his awful hairstyle. Just… ::chef’s kiss::
I wonder if Part 2 will see Dong-Eun bond more with ahjumma Hyeon-Nam (played by Yum Hye-Ran). Ahjumma so obviously feels a kinship with her, both victims, both looking to right some wrongs. She keeps wanting to share a meal with her (the eggs), which seems very culturally significant, but Dong-Eun keeps drawing a line with her. The quote above about solidarity between perpetrators and victims seems so important and profound…
Loads of people on TikTok have zeroed in on weather-bitch Ji-Yeon’s rich CEO husband, played by Jung Sung-Il. He certainly gives off zaddy vibes, but I can’t see how people can ship him and Dong-Eun together. Their scenes are strong, definitely some sexual tension, as he’s interested in this woman who frequents Go parlors and seems so mysterious. But there are a couple of things that give me pause.
The way he reacts to his driver asking him to hold the umbrella so he could get the wine out of the backseat. The husband Do-Yeong was subtly indignant, like he was above just holding an umbrella. And then he gives the humble driver attitude because the driver wouldn’t accept the expensive wine, claiming he wouldn’t even know how to drink it. With a calm edginess, he tells him to buy cheap wine, drink that, and then drink the expensive wine. He should taste the obvious difference and know how to properly drink the wine, then. Do-Yeong is an elitist, and I can’t remember which character says that he’s just as much of an ass hole as his wife, but he’s just not overt about it.
I adore that Dong-Eun learned how to play Go just to square up against Do-Yeong, whether to attract his attention or for some grander purpose. I think Dong-Eun will be facing off against Do-Yeong more in part 2. Perhaps he is the linchpin to her whole plan.
Let’s talk Lee Do-Hyun’s Yeo-Jeong. He’s fantastic. (Needless to say, I will be looking into more of his filmography ASAP.) I love his character. From their meet-cute in the ER to him appearing in her class, then meeting by chance at the Go park… it’s pitch perfect. He’s so adorable when she finally texts him back after YEARS, and he jumps up out of his seat and freaks out. So precious! I thought one of the best scenes was when she opens up to him and shows him her scars. This is huge for her! It’s her trauma and history but also her drive and future. She won’t stop her assault on those bullies, and she needed him to understand that.
He’s quite gentle with her as well. I appreciated when he walks over with a blanket and says, “I might touch you, don’t get scared” as he wraps her in it. So much was shown about his character in that moment and with that line.
Now, I found it surprising that Yeo-Jeong was attending therapy. It’s uncommon in Korea for people to prioritize and seek out mental health help; it’s still pretty taboo to go to therapy, so that was a bit of a shock. (Check out Itaewon Class if you’re into exploring a bit of mental health and taboo subjects in Korea.) I knew that he was struggling because of his dad’s brutal murder by a patient. I knew that ~something~ went down the day they met in the ER, which was why he was all busted up, like he’d been in a fight.
Then that scene happens. The one where Yeo-Jeong is in his new house/private practice, and he’s perusing a row of surgical knives. The camera pans right across these gleaming knives and suddenly the knives look like Bowie knives and cleavers and loom large and frightening in the frame. It ROCKED me. He picks up a knife and soon he’s envisioning his father’s killer in the room with him. He stabs him brutally over and over, blood spurting all over him. But the violence is all in his head. So… Yeo-Jeong has ISSUES of his own, and he’s got scores to settle himself.
We do see the murderer when Yeo-Jeong’s mother goes to visit him in prison. She reads one of his disgusting, provoking letters addressed to her son, and she confronts him about it. The actor Lee Mu-Saeng dominated that scene. (I’ve actually seen Lee Mu-Saeng in a bunch of stuff! Heartless City, Prison Playbook, The Crowned Clown, Chocolate, The Silent Sea, and most recently in the movie Broker!) At one point, he timidly starts talking to her, and then he abruptly stops and sort of chokes on his words as he looks to the side slightly with FULL ON CRAZY EYES. I lost it, OMG. He was perfect acting like an actual crazy person. It was riveting. He tells her he actually likes prison life and that he just writes those letters to her son out of boredom. Idk what’s more sinister at this point.
Why the name The Glory? I believe that in voiceover, Dong-Eun says, “There will be no mercy. There will be no glory.” In my mind, the show will eventually show that Dong-Eun’s revenge will bring a kind of catharsis, and she might feel vindicated, relieved, or… glorious? I hope that the completion of her grand plan gives her, at the very least, satisfaction.
I can’t wait to see how the rest of this plays out. I’m with you, Dong-Eun girlie.
Me going into Part 2 of The Glory in March.