ClickTheCity

Tag: The Glory

  • REVIEW: The stakes are raised in the first two episodes of ‘The Glory’ part two

    In the first part of The Glory, we saw Moon Dong-eun carefully lay out the foundations of her grand machinations to take vengeance on the bullies who made her teenage years a living hell. Relentless in her pursuit for revenge, Dong-eun is almost a completely cold-blooded machine with only tiny sparks of humanity on display when dealing with her accomplice, Mrs. Kang (a wonderful Yeom Hye-ran), and a young doctor who has fallen for her, Joo Yeo-jeong (Lee Do Hyun). By the end of episode 8, the trap is set and one of the bullies has gone missing, Kim Gun-woo, while the husband of the mastermind of the bullies, Park Yeon-jin has begun to suspect their child is not his and his wife is not the person she had led him to believe.

    The show, already intense as it is, gets even more heated in the first two episodes of its latest season. With Gun-woo missing, the bullies are starting to fall apart and turn against each other and this forces Yeon-jin to bare her fangs and fight back.

    Part One of ‘The Glory’ was enjoyable because we saw Dong-eun (Song Hye-kyo) weave a tangled web that put her former tormentors into a tailspin. The show gave us a chance to revel in her vengeance. The campy, one-dimensional brutality of their bullying earns the psychological terror she puts the bullies in and we derive joy from it, despite how it could possibly destroy Moon Dong-eun’s soul forever. 

    The Glory Part Two 1
    Photo: The Glory Part Two trailer

    But now that the pressure is on, Yeon-jin is fighting back and what was a one-sided battle has now become a head-on battle. And Yeo-jin is not without her means. While Dong-eun has had 18 years to prepare, at the heart of it all is a tortured soul. She’s still, inherently a good person seeking safety. Yeo-jin is pure evil and her opening salvo on episode 9 is directed at my personal favourite character, Mrs. Kang. 

    All of a sudden, Dong-eun’s plan is not as foolproof as we were led to believe.

    At the same time, Yeon-jin’s husband, Ha Do Yeong (Jung Sung-il) is not some simple puppet. He’s still a variable who may or may not go against his scheming wife. And the bully Jeon Jae-jun (played by the brilliant Park Sung-hoon) has plans of his own to take Park Yeon-jin’s daughter as his own.

    The Glory Part Two 3
    Photo: The Glory Part Two trailer

    With all these variables coming into play, episode 9 and 10 of ‘The Glory’ has raised the stakes and taken out the fun of taking revenge and made the battle very real and very dangerous for Dong-eun. The advantage of surprise is no longer there. It’s her against all her bullies and while her first strike has been decisive and brutal; it seems that the retaliation will just be as severe.

    What makes ‘The Glory’ so enjoyable was how we got to see these untouchable bullies suffer at the hands of the person they tormented. Now that it has evened out the playing field, it’s no longer a guilty pleasure. The show has managed to shift our desires from wanting to see Dong-eun’s comeuppance to just making sure she survives. This bait and switch, made possible by cutting the season in half and taking a 2-month break, is an interesting use of the medium to build momentum and to help the show gain its full stride.

    The Glory Part Two Review
    Photo: The Glory Part Two trailer

    Now, more than ever, her humanity is at stake and the show is now poised to reach a profundity that wasn’t available to it at the beginning. This is a promise made by the character of Mrs. Kang because Joo Yeo-jeong is very happy to be an accomplice to Dong-eun’s plan. His own dark backstory, as revealed in episode 10, has made him poised to be an even more frightening aspect of this story.

    As ‘The Glory’ returns to streaming with part two, we will all await with bated breath how this story will end.

    My Rating:

    5 stars - Don't Look Up review

    .

    —

    The Glory Part Two starts streaming on Netflix this March 10.

  • “The Glory” Part 2 Confirmed for March 10

    The Glory Part 2, which tells the story of a woman with a broken soul due to childhood violence, who dedicates her life to a meticulous web of vengeance to all the accomplices who brought her childhood nightmare, has been confirmed to be released on March 10. First look images provide a sneak peek into Part 2.

    TheGlory Unit 209 A04290077
    TheGlory Unit 211 07290008
    TheGlory Unit 212 06180089
    TheGlory Unit 213 06260047
    TheGlory Unit 213 07210069 b
    TheGlory Unit 214 06240092 b
    TheGlory Unit 214 07120056 b
    TheGlory Unit 216 06170075
    • Following its release on December 30, 2022, Part 1 of The Glory recorded a total of 148 million hours watched, ranked within the top 10 charts 3 weeks in a row, and stayed in the top 10 list of 34 countries on Netflix’s Top 10 Non-English TV list (top10.netflix.com), once again proving the standing of K-contents in the world.
    • Writer Kim Eun-sook states with confidence, “if you’ve watched Part 1, you won’t be able to resist Part 2,” and added, “Part 2 is refreshingly satisfying and shockingly intense.”
    • Director An Gil-ho fueled the hype by saying, “the fight between Dong-eun and Yeon-jin really takes off and the perpetrators dynamically meet their end. You won’t be able to take your eyes off of the screen. All elements of the story will now come full circle.” 

    Check out Part 1 which is currently available on Netflix, and join the heated hype of the series of how revenge unfolds in Part 2 of The Glory on March 10.

  • Revenge is Sweet: a review of the first 6 episodes of ‘The Glory’ with Song Hye Kyo

    After having seen over a hundred Kdramas in the last three years, it’s glaringly obvious that the new Netflix Kdrama ‘The Glory’ is unlike any I’ve seen before. As a Netflix original, it is direct to the streaming platform and so it can do away with certain things we’ve come to expect: it only has 8 episodes (and its part two will be released sometime next year around March), its adult themes include imagery of graphic sex and some nudity, and way more graphic displays of violence. The show doesn’t pull any of its punches and it doesn’t have to since it isn’t released on Korean television, it doesn’t have to abide by their television regulations.

    So the revenge story that is at the heart of ‘The Glory’ can get very graphic and detailed. There’s an almost campy way by which the bullies of the story, as they are depicted in the series, can appear one-dimensional and on the extreme side of evil. They have no redeeming factor and the victim, Moon Dong-eun, is a poor girl out of luck. No one is on her side and after a tremendous amount of bullying (as depicted in the first season), she has chosen to turn her whole life into an instrument of revenge against her bullies.

    The Glory 4
    Photo from Netflix

    This incident happened in 2004 and the story is set in 2022, so 18 years have passed and what unfolds is a dangerous game of vengeance that has been carefully planned for years. Dong-eun has been stripped off of all her dignity and her soul and she is ready to commit worse upon her tormentors. At the center of it all is her becoming the homeroom teacher of the daughter of the biggest bully of the group, Park Yeon-jin.

    The show is polished and slick. It can be campy in how evil the bullies are (after 18 years, they have not mellowed in any way; they are just as cruel only older) and how steadfast Dong-eun is set on her revenge. It revels in its formalist tone with great lighting, amazing set pieces, and fantastic drone shots that really create a sense of place and bigness to the show. The largeness of the filmmaking makes Dong-eun’s scheme to exact her payback seem biblical, almost divine, even when scriptwriter Kim Eun Seok (of ‘Descendants of the Sun’) writes a stirring narration from Dong-eun that she doesn’t believe in god. How could she? The narration, written as letters from Dong-eun to Yeon-jin, reveals the deep obsession she has over her tormentor. It’s almost like the dark side of love. It creates a frightening effect that can really put a chill down your spine when you realize how far someone will go for revenge.

    The Glory 5
    Photo from Netflix

    The show is quick to justify Dong-eun’s vengeance, you even root for her, but it also manages to temper that bloodlust with a sense of humanity. On her way, Dong-eun finds people who are keen on helping her in her path, whether intentionally or not. And this is when the show is at its best.

    Early on, she meets Mrs. Kang, who becomes a sort of partner. She also meets a young doctor Joo Yeo-jeong, from whom she learns the game of Go (the reasons of which are all part of her plan), who also falls in love with her. It’s in her interactions with these two people that Dong-eun finds herself in a moment of grace; a chance to feel like a human being and while she quickly holds her ground to maintain her purpose and determination to continue on her path of revenge, it’s in these moments where the show really shines.

    The Glory 3
    Photo from Netflix

    Song Hye-kyo’s last drama ‘Now We’re Breaking Up’ was not a good comeback for her as the character she played was flat and uninteresting and her performance didn’t help create any sort of texture for the character at all. Here, as Dong-eun, she is once again in that same vein – a person who is holding back, creating walls, and trying to look fierce as she goes head on against her former tormentors. In long stretches of scenes, she can play off on one note and so it becomes a breath of fresh air when she does have moments with Yeo-jeong (a very charming Lee Do-hyun) or with her interactions with Miss Kang (played excellently by Yeom Hye-ran), the two people who can bring out her softer side. It’s there where we can see the Song Hye-kyo of ‘Descendants of the Sun.’

    The Glory 2
    Photo from Netflix

    The bullies, on the other hand, Lim Ji-yeon, Park Sung-hoon, Cha Joo-young, Kim Hi-eora, and Kim Gun-woo, are having a blast being as evil as possible. They are chewing up the scenery at every turn and it seems they are having fun with it so we have fun watching their world slowly crumble as Dong-eun returns into their lives and turns the tables.

    The Glory 1
    Photo from Netflix

    With only 8 episodes on the first season, of which the first 6 does an excellent job at setting up the stakes and raising the tension, ‘The Glory’ is poised to be another daring Netflix original show that is set to explore the dark side of revenge. Strangely enough, it makes us root for the victim-turned-tormentor and gives us a space to really express our darkest thoughts against the topic of bullying and bullies. It’s not a comfortable feeling, this blood lust, but it’s an interesting one to explore and dig into as we enter a totally new year. How do we address the issues of bullying? And how long are we to accept a system that protects the rich and powerful?

    ‘The Glory’ shows us that revenge is sweet but also asks, “at what cost?”

    My Rating:

    5 stars - Don't Look Up review

    .

    —
    The Glory starts streaming on Netflix this December 30.

  • WATCH: Song Hye-kyo & Lee Do-hyun in ‘The Glory’ Trailer from Netflix

    K-drama fans, here’s a new thrilling Netflix title starring Song Hye-kyo and Lee Do-hyun! A trailer for the upcoming series The Glory has been revealed, teasing an intriguing tale filled with revenge, childhood trauma, and confrontations.

    Watch the trailer for The Glory below:

    In this new K-drama, Song Hye-kyo (Descendants of the Sun) stars as Dong-eun, who harbors the painful memories of her being bullied and subjected to violence in her school. Now, 18 years later, she begins to take her revenge by driving all of the perpetrators and the people around them to the brink of ruin.

    She encounters Yeo-Jung, played by Lee Do-Hyun (Sweet Home), who is another victim of a miserable tragedy. Circumstances will bring the two together, becoming co-conspirators in their own paths to exact revenge on the guilty.

    The Glory is an 8-episode drama directed by An Gil-ho (Stranger) with a story written by Kim Eun-sook (Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, Mr. Sunshine). The series premieres on Netflix this December 30.