The Glory (2022)

Disappointing

I came into this drama with high expectations. I was seeing it being hyped everywhere, especially that one scissors scene, and thought that I should try it. There were a couple of suspenseful scenes at the beginning of the drama, but the rest was just boring. It was so slow paced with too much talking and not much doing. I didn't like the fact that they didn't get into much detail about the actual revenge, it was more about the characters' adulthood and the relationship between them, which isn't what I came here for. And after having to force myself to keep watching, we didn't even get a proper end. I'm really skeptical about watching the second season now.

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Recomendo muito

The glory definitivamente não é um drama pra qualquer um, justamente por abordar temas muito sensíveis e de uma maneira bem gráfica, então se você não gosta desse tipo de coisa não assista.

Eu realmente fico feliz de abordarem bullying em dramas porque isso é um problema gigantesco na Coreia, na Ásia em geral, então abordar esses temas trás uma visão diferente para certas pessoas.
A atuação de TODOS os atores são muito boas, uma das que eu mais gostei foi a da atriz que faz a Yeojin, eu ficava com raiva dela mesmo não dizendo ou fazendo nada. Eu demorei um pouco para terminar o primeiro episódio, por conta da violência, mas depois disso a série me prendeu completamente e eu ficava ansiosa pra terminar e ir para o próximo episódio.

The glory é uma série muito boa e muito bem feita.
é isso ^3^

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House of cards

The Glory is definitely on the next level with the storytelling and character development. Although it recycles the old combination of bullying and revenge tropes, it is not your average revenge drama. It's dark, gripping, and with no promise of a happy ending.

Part 1 sets the stage for Moon Dong Eun's revenge. It weaves between the past and the present painting a complex picture of each individual character and uncovering a history of violent bullying. It also shows the source of the heroine's determination. Being a victim built up her character and gave her a purpose. She is no longer a downtrodden victim of violence, but someone who uses that victimhood to eventually push back against her abusers.

The story is a psychological game of chess. Dongeun concocts a careful plan to bring down her childhood tormentors' house of cards and illusions of a happy, carefree life. She uses their weaknesses, arrogance, mistakes against them. But, although revenge is her main objective, Dongeun is not someone who blindly aims to destroy her abusers. She carefully applies pressure on their weak points to reveal their true selves to the world, so they can be judged either in the court of public opinion or being held criminally responsible for past wrongdoings.

The story also draws parallels between individual characters. Dongeun matures from a meek and obscure teenager to an intelligent and calculating woman. She is level-headed, manipulative, and carefully plans ahead. But, the bullies did not change in the slightest. They are still the same bored, rabid, shallow clique of sociopaths and drug addicts who preyed on the weak in high school. And, this lack of maturity and extremely predictable behavior will contribute to their eventual downfall.

My favorite thing about this drama is Dongeun and Joo Yeo Jung's relationship. Yeojung first comes off as a care-free young doctor from a privileged family who does not know struggle. Dongeun even comments about him talking in platitudes without knowing life. In reality, Yeojung is just as broken as her because of past family tragedy. And this trauma is what develops their relationship and brings them close making Yeojung her ally and "executioner".

This is only part 1, but it is already one of my favorites. I am exited to see where the story goes in part 2.

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Hatred, romance and hope

With the premise that I was myself victim of bullying (even though not this cruel), I must admit the satisfaction of this drama. From the absolutely relatable hatred towards the bullies to her strength to actually seek revenge, I've loved everything about "The Glory".

The hope that the main character had in her adolescence made me rethink about my life: she was able to get out of that situation, and despite it all she became stronger day by day. I admire her so much, I wouldn't be able to save myself, especially if I was completely alone like her.

Apart from this, she had the mental sanity and clarity to plan a revenge, which even though we can't properly see in this first season, we can foreshadow it'll be fantastic. She remained strong even when confronting her bullies face to face, so strong that didn't snap and kill them right there and then. Even though, my personal opinion, it would've satisfied my need.

Although it was a very difficult journey she stayed loyal to her feelings of hatred and fury.

I love this kind of dramas, where the protagonist's only purpose in life is revenge. It shows that no life is pitiful, just different from ours. It dimonstrates that someone is born to accomplish great things, while others are born to live a miserable life. While the first ones are who, regardless of their dreams, purposes or positive or negative attitude towards life, usually achieve important aims (wether these will be economic or whatever), the latters are those who think everything and everyone own them, that they will conduct a happy life 'cause they have power and money to spend.

Our Dong-eun surely is one of those who are born to accomplish great things: in her case, revenge. There's something else that I love and admire of this types of dramas: the main characters don't have anything else to do after their plans end. Their "main task" is finished, so what do they do now? Either living in regrets for what they've done, or feeling relieved and trying to heal their wounds, or again just surviving until the day they'll die. I think however a character decides to carry on they're heroes nonetheless.

I honestly hope Dong-eun will focus more on her life and how to live as a (approximately, 'cause this kind of wounds will never heal completely) normal person, maybe with Yeo-jeong by her side. This is the kind of happy ending I hope she will get, along with all those people who are living the same hell, 'cause we all know there are more than what we are ready to admit.

Yeo-jeong is that kind of man who makes you feel loved and cared for even in your darkest times, even when you've lost hope in everything and everyone else. He's that kind of man that stays loyal until the very end and will do anything for you and your well-being. But he's also someone who can pretty much relate to Dong-eun's pain, even if for another reason (which is still incomplete in the first season).

They're two broken pieces of a picture, and together they form an artwork, a delightful painting. Maybe with too many dark colors around the edges, but I'm sure when they mix together they create those beautiful lights. They're just perfect for each other and I'm here for it.

Now, apart from the storyline, which is too complex but at the same time satisfying, the acting was superb. Just a look at the cast and I was sure it was going to be perfect. Even Jung Ji-so was amazing: her parts weren't surely the easiest! She portrayed her character so good that she got me goosebumps. It must've been hard...

Overall I'm giving a 9.5. That 0.5? Well, maybe the soundtracks... While they were perfect for the drama, I thought maybe something else would've gotten more effect. And you're asking why the rewatch value is lower than the rest? That's because I wouldn't be able to watch it a second time: too cruel. The first time is already traumatizing, I don't think I need to see it a second time.

And finally, just a last comment: I'm fortunate to have started and finished it when the second season is already out, 'cause otherwise I couldn't have waited that much to see how it would've ended.

One of the best revenge-plot dramas ever!

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1st half may be difficult for victims of bullying but the second half (revenge) makes it worth it

9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2022/2023 South Korean psychological thriller with revenge as a primary driver for the main character. There are 16, 47-72 minute episodes in two parts. The first part comprises the first eight episodes which is primarily where the revenge is set up. The last eight episodes center around enacting the revenge.


First I provide a unique synopsis then I review.

 
Synopsis


The entire story consists of multiple instances of true life bullying and revenge incidents. It is all based on true occurrences but not all of any one but rather elements of multiple true occurrences all melded into one. It is representational of the full range of bullying and provides an example of the most extreme cases. In this story, Moon Dong eun (Song Hye kyo) survived her school years most likely by dropping out of school at a critical moment to survive the bullies. Others that were targets of the same group of bullies were not so lucky. Her entire life after that is centered around earning enough money, and putting herself in the correct position to exact revenge on those that caused such suffering and misery. She bears the permanent physical and emotional scars of the actions of this bully group.  She becomes a teacher and steers the situation so she is assigned as the homeroom teacher of the leader of the bullies’, Park Yeon jin’s (Lim Ji yeon), daughter.  From that position, which puts her in close contact with her targets, she plays out her revenge. By fate or chance she meets Joo Yeo Jeong (Lee Do hyun) who falls in love with the troubled and mysterious Dong eun and offers to help her after seeing and learning the horrible things that were done to her. Kang Hyeon nam (Yeom Hye ran) is a housekeeper in the home of one of the subjects of Dong eun’s interest. Heyeon nam catches Dong Eun collecting and going through the garbage for clues and strikes a deal for mutual benefit. Dong eun is at first unwilling to accept the true friendship and caring from others as she is so damaged from her past. But as she widens her circle of supporters to help in punishing those who were not punished by the adults at the time, she begins to heal emotionally. Karma is coming to those that bullied helpless and innocent victims in the form of Dong eun. Can she survive her own revenge?

Review

This is hands down the best revenge show I have watched. For anyone that has been bullied or been in an environment where there are lots of bullies, this will definitely resonate. For me those parts were hard to watch because I am an empath to begin with but also because I was involved in a situation where I was minimally bullied where someone else was bullied so severely it drove them crazy and they wound up on drugs, out of their mind, and ran over a bunch of people on a sidewalk and they are now in prison. I did my best, when that was happening to protect that person but, as the show portrays, it is hard to effectively protect anyone when you are one of their targets. But that was not physical bullying like this show had where it was severe physical bullying with a psychological component.

The acting in this is phenomenal by both those playing the bullies, the victims and just everyone. It does roughly follow where the first eight episodes (first half) sets the stage and tells about the past, and the final eight are focused on the revenge aspects. I delayed watching it because I wasn’t sure how well I could take watching the severe bullying, as when something like that happens to you it is not something you ever fully forget or recover from, so I thought it might be too emotionally upsetting for me. But it is just mainly those first episodes and the way she gets her revenge is so satisfying.

 
In sum, I highly recommend this for anyone that likes the revenge trope. I would rewatch it readily if it was on as there is a lot of depth to it

Spoilers

The main detractors for me were some unnecessary things people did. I think what I liked the least was that the main bullies’ spouse, who had been a very likable character nearly to the end, wound up murdering his wife’s lover. The guy was a part of the bully group, and had done some horrible things, but that did not excuse him pushing him, now blind, off a building into a vat of cement. I did not want to see the little girl with her murderous mom, psychotic grandmother, nor her sociopath father and thought I would be glad to see her going with the father she grew up with, but he did that and I was like great she is still being raised by a murderer. I know they were alluding that he did it so the real dad would not continue to bother them, but that is no excuse to murder someone.

The other senseless murder was when the girl that was the main bullies’ assistant, finished off the injured, long haired, boy bully. It showed he had raped her and they all were obviously still bullying her, but murdering him by making that final blow took her from a sympathetic character to a person willing to murder someone when they were helpless. If he had been actively attacking her again I could have sympathized but it was not an act of self defense at that moment. It did not feel as good that the main bully went down framed with a murder she may not have committed. They were trying for an even deeper revenge, because of the irony that she is serving time for a murder one of her victims committed, but I thought there was plenty of opportunity for her to go down for the murder without turning the victim into a murderer. And it is based on true events, not a record of true events, so it isn’t like that was the way it really happened.

The other detractor, for me, was Do Hyun’s suicide attempt at near the end. During the bullying, at her young age, it showed a suicide attempt and I think they were trying to show that suicide was always an option for her and now she accomplished her revenge why not? She herself should have known how much that would hurt Yeo jeong. I mean I would hope she would know how much that would hurt all of the friends she had, however reluctantly, developed. it is just such a selfish act I have a hard time sympathizing. And, if she had gone through with it, it would have reversed a lot of her revenge as her main bully would have used it as a way to vindicate some of her actions. Like see “she was always like that.” I unfortunately know that is likely how that would play out as I spoke with the bully that drove the girl crazy and to prison and asked her about that incident and she pretty said “I know isn’t she crazy?” It was apparent from the very gleeful way she said it, that she was pleased with the outcome and did not feel any personal responsibility for the end result. That bully group destroyed one life and was, in my opinion, partially responsible for the death and injury that person that was bullied caused.

It would have been nice to have seen the main couple together longer than just the tail end of the last episode. Some say the romance element was completely unnecessary but I enjoyed the angel that two people with psychological scars can find healing in each other.

I think they left it open for another season by showing the male and female lead enter the prison where it was apparent they planned to exact revenge against the person who murdered the male lead’s father. And that wasn’t a bad way to end it. It didn’t wrap up that particular piece but that was okay because it wasn’t what we were there for anyway. Streaming platforms like to keep the piggy banks open and often end things very unclear. In this case that one piece was not even completely unclear. We know enough about our main girl by now that we can be sure she will help him get his full revenge.

#SongHyeKyo

#TheGlory

#LimJiYeon

#LeeDoHyun

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Intenso, real, cruel

Vamos lá, primeiramente, para alguém que entrou no mundo dos doramas através de Who Are You: School 2015, que também possui como centro da narrativa uma vítima de violência escolar, essa história foi muito importante para mim. Me lembro de ter ficado impressionada com esse outro dorama, mas com este eu senti emoções muito diferentes: ódio, inquietação, medo e satisfação - por um motivo bem específico. Diferente de outras produções que propõem o desejo de vingança como o objetivo principal da personagem, este nos leva por um caminho onde os planos de Dong Eun dão certo, por mais que imprevisibilidades apareçam. Os vilões não são tão espertos quanto ela, demonstrando uma veracidade ainda maior, tirando da produção o quê de novela das 9.
Para quem viu The Penthouse, o andar da carruagem é muito satisfatório. Só quem passou raiva vendo os vilões triunfarem em The Penthouse consegue entender como é bom ver os vilões de The Glory se ferrando com o passar dos episódios. Por isso digo que foi muito mais fácil de digerir esse título, mesmo contendo violência explícita, do que os outros mencionados anteriormente. A narrativa te faz ficar agoniado e aliviado logo em seguida.
Os personagens também são muito bem desenvolvidos, mostrando o que cada um está sentindo e o que cada um tem a perder se Dong Eun continuar com seu plano de vingança. É tão realista no ponto em que os valentões dos tempos de escola escolhem varrer seus crimes para debaixo do tapete e se fazerem de pessoas-modelo quando crescem, quanto no ponto de que a hipocrisia contida naqueles que estão em uma classe alta/na mídia é muito previsível.
Ansiosa para ver o que irá acontecer na segunda parte.

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复仇细节实在扯，宋慧乔演技很好。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

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Great show but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to

Dong-eun is cold, mysterious, and incredibly clever. This makes for an addictive watch because she constantly keeps you guessing.

If you’re the sort who loves clever schemes, this first season may also prove to be slightly disappointing. While Dong-eun’s plans were elaborate and highly complex, nothing about it was particularly clever in the first installment. In fact, parts of the revenge plot didn’t really make much sense in terms of the execution and timing (just too perfectly coincidental). But okay, I won’t nitpick the specifics.

Although audiences are meant to be rooting for Dong-eun, I didn’t really have any strong feelings about her in this season. There were other stronger characters, like Yeo-jeong (the young medical doctor) and heyonnam (the housekeeper), who I found really interesting.

Overall, I found The Glory a little absurd and unrealistic for my liking at times, but there were sufficiently compelling characters and cliffhangers to keep me invested until the end of it so this was definitely worth the watch.

Full review here: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2023/02/01/the-glory-2022-season-1/

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Depraved manipulation

Before I begin, I would like to address the plague of 10 star reviews on this site. What's the point of giving everything you watch and moderately think is ok 10 stars? It makes all reviews, yours and others completely meaningless. My Mister is the only drama I would give 10's across the board to as it is arguably one of the greatest works of art ever made. But if everything you like is a ten, then the whole exercise is pointless. I never read 10 star reviews because these people are simply untrustworthy shills and attention seekers

Rant over

This story shows the physical and physcholological torture of a high school girl at the hands of her sick and twisted classmates. The girl is further tortured and humiliated by the school principals who side with the sadistic students because it would reflect poorly on them if they allowed her reports of abuse to go forward. The show itself is sick and twisted and manipulative and cruel. This completely unrealistic and over the top introduction is supposed to set up the subsequent revenge plot coming in the next 16 episodes, with last 8 episodes to come in a later 2nd season, so even if you start watching this now, there will be no payoff till much later, so why bother? Why tourture oneself with this garbage? Dropped after 1/2 episode.

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