I have to say that I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I first began watching the first episode of The Glory, Netflix’s newest K-Drama starring Song Hye-kyo and Lee Do-hyun, The premise of the series revolves around Song Hye-kyo’s character Moon Dong Eun, who was severely bullied in high school.
The depiction of the violence can be very graphic and comes close to the edge, but never really crosses the line and becomes gratuitous. Things get very intense very early on, and The Glory is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Scarred in more ways than one. She picks herself up and plows through her difficult, ultimately achieving a better life for herself, all the while never forgetting the classmates who made her life miserable. And yes, you guessed it, once she’s ready, she’s out to get even.
That last part of the plot is similar to the American Television show, Revenge, only like I mentioned above, much more intense.
Moon takes her time, being very methodical in her revenge schemes. The show takes its time as well, to lay down the groundwork properly, and a large part of the satisfaction is seeing how all the seeds planted in the beginning slowly bear fruit as the show goes along.
Though the show doesn’t move at break-neck speed, it never falls too slow to be dragging either. No scene is wasted or treated trivially Everything is a set-up for later, or a fulfillment of something laid down earlier.
The one confusing aspect would be the flashbacks, as they can come without warning, and it can often be confusing to connect the high school characters to their adult counterparts.
The show turned out to be more psychological than I expected. The show makes a very strong case for Moon’s revenge, and never passes on a chance to remind the viewer why she’s doing what she’s doing, However life is more nuanced than that, as reflected in Moon and those around her coming to terms with what exactly they are involved with. How far do you go? How far should you go? What is justifiable and what is just born out of rage? These questions go through the viewer’s mind as well, and help keep them involved. What will be interesting is that every viewer will have to come up with their own answers.
At the end of the 6th episode, I found myself surprisingly hooked and invested, eagerly awaiting the last two. The Glory is a worthy addition to your K-Drama binge list, now streaming only on NETFLIX.