translating bullying to the screen in a way that captures the severity of its lasting effects is no easy feat. theres a lot of films specifically out of east asia i can think of that fell flat trying to take the extreme, relentless route, which by no means voids accuracy, but often just ends up as the laziest means to an end, losing out on what ought to be the most crucial element.. the victims perspective.

what makes the glory a success is in how it manages to go about it as extreme as you can go, straight up sadist levels, while using clever time-jumping storytelling to juxtapose the effects of it across different points in the victim, our leads, life. we don’t get a hero here, we get a shell of a person so fundamentally chewed up and spit back out that any instinctual human drive to continue existing is replaced with the sole emotion of desire for revenge.

to do ALLL of that without going full soap opera, with a lead who doesn’t put up any kind of facade when engaging with the perpetrators, openly telling them how they broke her, how they’re the only thing on her mind, how they essentially succeeded in owning her. like to the point where i as viewer became irritated at moments like girl why are you giving them the satisfaction still .. just to realize again who the bigger person is

or isnt, actually. because again. nothing particularly righteous about her arc. the intents are as on the table as can be. she essentially gives them a head-start by making things crystal clear. literally putting herself in positions of weakness again doing so.

you could peel down a lot of layers of the human psyche at play here, while still packaged in something ultimately as straightforward as can be. i can’t think of any revenge related piece of media that gets as straight to the essence of this uniquely human emotion. long-game sh*t. more drained than cathartic by the end creds.