This Korean drama came out on the last day of 2022, but I only started watching close to half a year later. No particular reason for the delay. I was just watching other shows before that until I heard at least three friends who had praises for “The Glory”’s plot. If you have Netflix and you live in Singapore, I’m sure you would have heard about this Korean drama from your acquaintances or random people on your daily commute.
Let me attempt a one-liner synopsis: a bully victim returns for revenge on her perpetrators 18 years later.
There are a total of 16 episodes. Each episode is around 45 minutes to 1h (last episode runs the longest at 71 mins). The show was directed by PD Ahn Gil Ho and I’ve watched a couple of his shows like “Memories of Alhambra (2018)”, “Record of Youth (2020)” and “Happiness (2021)”. Here’s the main cast of The Glory:
Song Hye Kyo (acting as Moon Dong Eun)
Lee Do Hyun (Joo Yeo Jeong)
Lim Ji Yeon (Park Yeon Jin)
Cha Joo Young (Choi Hye Jeong)
Kim Hieora (Lee Sa Ra)
Park Sung Hoon (Jeon Jae Joon)
I’ve categorised my post-show thoughts into the following topics (click if you want to skip to the one you’re interested in):
SPOILER ALERT! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Would I recommend others to watch?
Yes, but trigger warning: school bullying, violence, sexual assault, nudity, drugs and a lot of vulgarities in Korean. I would say that it’s not a typical Korean drama because it feels kinda westernised with the themes of violence and sex. It’s rated M18, so definitely not a show to watch with young children around. Overall, I enjoyed the show for its filmography, screenwriting and cast. Glad that the director was able to enjoy the freedom of expression with this work.
I like the fact that the show packs many scenes with information for you to make your own inferences. They don’t directly reveal info through the actors’ speech. For instance, in episode 9, Ha Do Yeong just got home and is about to change out of his clothes in his walk-in closet. He catches sight of a bright blue shopping bag from Siesta. Suspenseful and eerie music plays in the show’s background as he looks around the closet and notices bags and bags of the same sickening Siesta shopping bag.
It’s a simple 1 min scene to show Do Yeong’s painful realisation about the actions of his unfaithful wife, but done so beautifully - the actor was not required to say anything, they found a suitable sound track and put in Dong Eun’s one liner voiceover. Since the actor doesn’t say anything, it’s up to your imagination to interpret the scene. I take it that the number of bags could potentially represent the number of times his wife hooked up with Jae Joon. Do Yeong is so pissed off that I can imagine him saying “Wow, that bitch” without him actually saying it.
Apart from that, the show uses a lot of foreshadowing which contributes to a certain degree of eeriness. You may not have noticed them but if you rewatch, you’ll catch those scenes. For example, in episode 4, Dong Eun visits her ex-homeroom teacher and her senior is surprised to find out that she knows his dad. The scene ends with a close-up to her senior’s wrist. He is holding flowers and wearing that watch (the one that the teacher took off before hitting her 18 years ago). Later, the senior takes off the watch and places it on the table when he visits his dad at the hospital. The same watch is seen on the ex-homeroom teacher’s wrist as his dead body is being wheeled into the ambulance.
A nightmare that you can’t wake up from
Isn’t it scary what one can do with lots of money and power? Colluding with the teachers to get access to an empty hall after hours and treat it like a club room. Getting the school nurse fired because she meddled and showed some concern to the bully victim. I want to say that whatever Dong Eun went through in school is exaggerated and impossible, but who really knows for sure the kind of things that actually happen in this world.
Dong Eun’s life was terrible. I remember feeling myself tense up when the 5 bullies showed up at Dong Eun’s house. Home is supposed to be everyone’s safe place and it’s just freaking scary to know that the bullying follows you wherever you go. There’s already so much physical and emotional torment that Dong Eun goes through from the bullying, but it gets worse when the adults she thought she could count on turn their backs on her or disappear. Teachers? Not on her side. School nurse? Fired. Police? Nothing they can do. Mother? Ready to sell her away for money and booze.
I teared up around 30 minutes into episode 1 - Dong Eun asked her homeroom teacher how he would feel if his son got beaten up by his friends and in response to that, he got up from his seat, whacked her on the head with a thick file and proceeded to slap her continuously in the staff room. She did not fall to the ground at any point, but faced him and looked him in the eye after every slap. None of the female teachers went over to help. A few male teachers tried to stop him around 3 slaps in, and even when the scene abruptly cuts off to the next, it didn’t seem like he wanted to stop.
Tbh, I don’t know what I would do if I were in Dong Eun’s shoes. I don’t know if I could be as brave as her to choose life in those circumstances. Her view of the world had inevitably been tainted by those experiences, but in that moment when she’s standing on the ledge in the snow, she makes an amazing decision that if nobody’s going to seek justice for her, she’s going to do it herself. She then dedicates the next 18 years to plot and execute her revenge (which btw was amazing because she didn’t kill anyone with her own two hands). Well, she’s alive because of that goal and she proved to herself that nothing is impossible in that journey (e.g. becoming a teacher even though she dropped out of school). Nonetheless, I still hope that nobody in reality has to go through what she did.
Side note: In Singapore, teachers are not allowed to carry out physical punishments to students in private (though public caning may still be practised in some schools). Physical aggression towards teachers by the students is also not tolerated. News travels really fast here, so I can imagine watching/reading about it if there were serious altercations between student and teacher in the presence of others.
Song Hye Kyo’s portrayal of the character Moon Dong Eun
Guys, I have to admit that I did not watch Descendents of the Sun, but I know that many people were so in love with Song Hye Kyo and Song Joong Ki. It was quite a popular show and the two main leads even got married in real life! Not to burst any bubbles but, they are now divorced. Song Joong Ki is now remarried and has an incoming kid with his current wife. Well, after watching The Glory, I'm looking forward to watch DOTS for Song Hye Kyo's acting!
Okay, back to The Glory. I find Song Hye Kyo’s acting really good in this show. Her character has this “I’ve been through hell already and nothing fazes me now” look but it’s not like too much because there are scenes when it shows that there’s still a soft side to her which makes her less robotic than she could potentially have been (like purely acting out a script and not turning the character into a human). There’s this softness in her eyes when she’s interacting with the ahjumma (Kang Hyeong Nam). Sometimes, she can also be seen holding back her tears when recounting the past incidents. A scene that got me tearing up was when she confronted her mum in episode 12 for siding with Park Yeon Jin again. Sigh, family problems always hurt the most - You don’t have to love me and provide for me, and I’m happy if you could just live your life quietly, but you choose money over family ties every single damn time. You choose to torment me together with my tormentors. Her performance in this scene actually got me again as I’m rewatching to type this post.
Moon Dong Eun and her two potential love interests
Dong Eun teaches us “the art of seduction” in her conquest to pique the interest of Yeon Jin’s husband. You don’t use beauty to seduce a smart man, you use your wits! He was enamoured by her, but realised soon that she had intentionally approached him. She was pretty upfront about it and even showed him her scars. Oh man, he had no idea that his wife could be such a frightening person. Some hot soup she’s dragged him into. Wow, I was impressed when he initially decided to stand by the woman he married. Oh but then it gets messy… like someone throwing shit into the ceiling fan just when you switched it on to air the stinky fart smell.
BAM! Yeon Jin has been cheating on him with her friend, Mr Jeon Jae Joon.
BAM! This friend (or joker) starts showing up at his daughter’s school, acting like her father and trying to take her away from him. For all he knows, she really might be this joker’s biological daughter. Wth, Yeon Jin?
BAM! Both Yeon Jin and her mum (aka his MIL) are potentially murderers?!
Hey man, I really don’t know if it’s worth it for you to stick it through with this woman and her messy life. Ha Do Yeong is too busy coming to terms with and dealing with his life that his potential romance line with Dong Eun is completely out of the question. Merh.
So then, we have Lee Do Hyun acting as Joo Yeo Jeong who is the male lead. He is also apparently older than Dong Eun in this show. It’s really weird hearing Dong Eun call Yeo Jeong “sunbaenim” and everytime she does that, I snap out of the show and am suddenly looking at Song Hye Kyo (41yo) and Lee Do Hyun (28yo) instead of the characters. I mean Lee Do Hyun just looks younger than Song Hye Kyo. Moreover, the way Yeo Jeong behaves when he’s with Dong Eun gives me the impression that he’s younger than her. In the show, he is romantically interested in her, but it’s really difficult for me to feel that. They are just linked because both of them want to get revenge on the people who have hurt them in the past. Merh.
I don’t exactly know how to explain what I’m sensing, but I’ll try. Lee Do Hyun’s acting seems to be lacking in depth and experience when compared side to side with Song Hye Kyo’s. He appears to be less intentional with his facial expressions and it’s almost like there’s a piece of Lee Do Hyun in Yeo Jeong. When I watch Song Hye Kyo’s portrayal of Dong Eun, I can sort of understand and experience the kind of person Dong Eun is. It’s like I think I know her and her actions make sense to me because they are in line with her personality. However, with Lee Do Hyun, I know what kind of person Yeo Jeong is supposed to be based on the plot, but at the same time, I don’t really know who he is as a person. Some of his actions come off fresh and unexpected to me. In a way, his character seems serious but hiding behind a goofy facade, and maybe that’s why they casted him for this role? I don't know man.
My favourite character
I love the ahjumma, Kang Hyeon Nam so much! She is played by Yeom Hye Ran who is a familiar face in many Korean dramas. The show is generally grim and serious, but Hyeon Nam’s personality and interactions with Dong Eun are heartwarming. Her journey to upskill from a housekeeper to a private investigator is so comical. I love seeing how happy she was when she successfully attained her driving licence! Her excited giggle whenever she achieves something is so cute. And hello, how can anyone not spot this obvious ahjumma going around and taking their pictures? Help luh! I just love her friendship with Dong Eun and wish that they can continue existing in each others’ lives after everything settles down.
Oh, the fragility of life
Just wanted to add in a random counter because many people died in this show.
IIRC a grand total of 8 people died: So Hee (yes, she was in Singles Inferno 2), Yeo Jeong’s dad, ahjumma’s husband, Myeong O, corrupted police chief, ex-homeroom teacher, Jae Joon and the shaman lady.
Sorry for not posting in the past 2 weeks! Had been on a family vacation and wanted to be physically and mentally present during the trip. Who's ready for some Japan/holiday content?
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