This review will recap both parts of The Glory. I hope you had as much fun and enjoyment as I had watching this Korean drama (kdrama)!
Let’s hop in. Here’s my review of The Glory Korean drama.
The quick synopsis
If you already watched the kdrama, skip this section. If you haven’t, give it a quick read and please oh please go and watch it before reading any further.
The Glory is split into 2 seasons, each with 8 episodes.
Moon Dong-Eun is a high school student that wants to be an architect. Although she has a very unsupportive family, she tries to live life normally until she becomes a victim of high school bullying. This kdrama follows the journey of revenge of Moon Dong-Eun against several people who really abused her in high school.
Some quick fun facts that I actually didn’t know until after finishing the show:
- The kdrama writer was also the writer for Goblin and Descendants of the Sun, which Song Hye Kyo also acted in as the main female lead. Descendants of the Sun is like…a really good kdrama :)…
- The Glory is based on real life events. The bullying that you see in the kdrama happened in 2006 in Cheongju, Korea.
- It’s Song Hye Kyo’s first thriller series. Trust me…it’s awesome and a breathe of fresh air to watch her in this environment.
- It’s Lim Ji Yeon’s first villain role. I haven’t watched her before but I will be keeping an eye out for her dramas.
The good
Cinematography
The show’s cinematography did a great job capturing the dark and moody theme of this drama. The show has an ample amount of scenes shot at night or in low light environments.
Also, the show’s play with contrasting colors really elevated Moon Dong’s presence throughout the drama. For example, this scene where she attends Yeo-Jin’s wedding – she’s the only one wearing full black in a white and colorful scene. While the costume shows what she’s like in the inside (dead…), the contrast gives her an enormous presence in the scene.
I must say too that the scenes of Moon Dong standing far away and almost just stalking our antagonists were shot so well. Really gave that vibe of “She’s always watching. She’s everywhere”
A beautiful revenge carried out
The kdrama focused on revenge and the cast and plot delivered the revenge excellently.
The theme of revenge was always present in each episode in unique ways. The revenge wasn’t just Moon Dong-Eun killing off or trapping each of the antagonists. The revenge was in every part of her journey – from her relentless dedication to her goal (working and studying at night) to her planning it out with the help of friends to her actually executing her plan. Each part of her journey evoked so much sympathy for her struggle and fight to make her revenge come true.
I really respected Moon Dong’s character when she said this in episode 6 to show that she wasn’t going to change her heart on revenge because of Yeo-Jeong:
Her execution of her revenge was chaotic. If her plan of revenge went without flaws, I think the show would’ve been more boring. I’m glad Moon Dong Eun’s mom was brought back to haunt her and get her fired, which caused Moon Dong to rethink her plan. I’m glad Kyeon-Nam, her other partner in crime, got caught and ended up working for Yeon-Jin for a bit. These roadblocks added chaos that stirred up the intensity of her revenge in the second half this korean drama.
The other part – her execution was like a domino effect. All she had to do was push one of the friends to betray the others. After that, our antagonists started to fall apart without Moon Dong really needing to exercise any strength. It was a great way to showcase her revenge in action. It was like Zemo tearing apart the Avengers. He didn’t even lay a finger on them – he just made them turn on each other.
Overall, the revenge theme was executed and showcased so well.
The antagonists
The actors and actresses (young and old) who played the antagonists (during high school and as adults) did such a phenomenal job drawing out the evil and insanity in their characters.
The creepy smiles and unhinged behavior of the antagonists really made me think – these people deserve something worse than death. Thankfully, the show delivered on that idea with each of the antagonists. While some of them ended up dying, each character did not die from a simple stab or gun wound; each character suffered physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Their demise made the revenge that much sweeter.
I also have to give a huge shout out to the Mom. She played the character disgustingly well. I started to hate her as a character. She’s crazy, manipulative, and a drunk. While I hope I will never experience what it’s like to have your own Mom betray you, the Mom did such a good job conveying the pain and damage she imparted on Moon Dong.
Moon Dong Eun’s character development after revenge
The show does a great job realistically portraying Moon Dong’s character development after she gets revenge. It’s realistic in the sense that we see Moon Dong lose herself because she completed her life goal and didn’t know where to go next. She had nothing else to live for and thought it’d be best to kill herself. Thankfully, she was saved by Yeo-Jeong’s mother (which her catching Moon Dong on the rooftop before jumping off at that specific moment was completely absurd). She eventually found another reason to stay alive – to help Yeo-Jeong get revenge.
We also see her life start to move forward. She was not afraid to show her scars and the walls she put so high up to protect herself were gone. We see this when she accepts Yeo Jeong’s love.
On a completely separate note – I was actually super curious about her character development over the drama and I found this essay somebody wrote about it. Give it a read here!
The use of Go for plot and revenge
I thought they used the game of Go rather well to connect the characters and convey Moon Dong’s approach to her revenge. The chemistry between Moon Dong and Do-yeong when they first play was top notch. The game itself showed how both characters were smart and calculative in their playstyle.
We get to see Moon Dong’s approach to revenge come out in her playstyle. She makes seemingly normal moves at first, but when she executes her plan, she frustrates and defeats her opponents. When she’s playing or when she’s executing her revenge, she’s also extremely focused, calculative, and intense.
The bad
A confusing “I love you” ending
The last scene where they looked at each other and said I love you to each other COMPLETELY just confused me. It did not make any sense for how much romance they showed.
I’ve watched romance dramas that take 15 episodes just for the characters to come out and say “I love you”. Here, all of a sudden – you get a “I love you” from characters that barely spent any time together? It just didn’t make sense to me.
If they had just walked into the prison without saying anything or even cut to the scene where Yeo Jong meets his father’s killer in the new prison – that would’ve been better than this random “I love you” scene to end the drama.
How the show connects the episodes
I thought it was a bit confusing for the show to end on one scene in one episode and then start somewhere else in the next. There were so many revenge scenes going on concurrently that it was a bit hard to keep up with the shift in scenes between episodes. It would’ve been easier to follow the drama had each episode ended or started with the scene from the previous episode.
Music
It’ll be hard to re-listen to this kdrama’s OST because most of the music is eerie, angsty, dark, mysterious, or depression themed. Rarely any light or chill music. Nonetheless, I thought the selection of music was great.
The intro and endings songs were also pretty catchy. This is probably like the 2nd or 3rd kdrama where I watched the intro and ending just for the music.
Here’s my favorite song from this kdrama:
Quotes!
The writing in this drama was fantastic. Here are some of my favorite quotes from The Glory. There are SO many but I’ve included some of my favorites here!
“I’d like to stay faithful to my rage and vice” – Moon Dong Eun
“I’m not looking for a prince. What I need is not a prince, but an executioner who will join me in the hunt” – Moon Dong Eun
“You need to get punished. Criminal punishment if God’s on your side, and divine punishment if God’s on my side.” – Moon Dong Eun
“You know those moments? Those moments when you’re allowed to like someone? If those moments mean that you’re alive, then how many days do you think I have really lived?” – Moon Dong Eun
“Some hatred resembles longing. It’s impossible to get rid of.” – Moon Dong Eun
“I sometimes wonder. The solidarity between victims and the solidarity between perpetrators. Which of them is stronger?” – Moon Dong Eun
“Do you know what’s nice about not having a religion? You know where you’re going when you die. Hell.” – Moon Dong Eun
“Among the things that victims have lost, how many things do you think they can reclaim? It’s just their own glory and honor. Nothing more. Some regain those things through forgiveness, while others regain them through revenge. Only then can they reach the starting point.” – Moon Dong Eun
Life lesson – you are never alone
Throughout this kdrama, we see that Moon Dong was actually never alone in her journey for revenge. She secretly had people either rooting for her or helping her. For example, her landlord gave her cheaper rent. While she didn’t know why at first, I bet it helped her financially during her revenge.
I think the same thing goes for our life – you are never alone. You either have friends who are there to support you or you have strangers who are willing to help you.
What I watched last
This is a new section I decided to add because I thought it’d be helpful for anybody who wants to know what to watch next.
I watched Encounter (you can see my review here) before The Glory. I decided to watch the Glory primarily because of Song Hye Kyo. So the only thing that ties Encounter to the Glory is Song Hye Kyo – just in case anybody wanted to watch more of her.
Closing thoughts
I had a lot of doubts about watching this drama after Encounter. I heard about how intense it was in terms of showing the bullying and abuse scenes, but I gave it a go for two reasons: 1. Song Hye Kyo was in it and 2. It would be my first drama that revolves around high school bullying and revenge.
While it was slightly uncomfortable in the beginning, I’m glad I watched it all the way through. The buildup from the first 8 episodes was used extremely well to bolster the execution of her revenge in the second 8 episodes. The whole execution of the revenge was well done. The writing was also superb – Moon Dong lines really highlighted her emotions well.
Each character played their roles well. I’m glad Song Hye Kyo decided to do this project. For this being her first thriller, she played Moon Dong so well. The same goes for Lim Ji Yeon. She executed her role as the lead antagonist well.
I would recommend The Glory to anybody else. The only exception being is if you can’t handle abuse and intense bullying scenes.
Final score: 8.8/10. I hope you enjoyed this review of the Glory Korean drama!
