Writer Kim Eun-sook unveils her first revenge game through the OTT platform. It’s revenge for school violence, not revenge for lust, power, or money.
The end of 2022 was “the youngest son of a chaebol house”. If prominent actors, including Song Joong-ki and Lee Seong-min, built a tower of high ratings and topicality with bloodthirsty acting, but turned the tower into a sand castle with an absurd ending, the beginning of 2023 it is “The Glory” by writer Eun- Soak Kim and Hye-kyo Song with luxurious lines. With its extraordinary beauty, it will build a tower of problems to resist school violence.
I previewed the sixth episode of “The Glory”, which will be released on December 30th on Netflix. “School violence” has already been an issue across the media for several years and many characters, victims or perpetrators, have apologized, reflected or run away, so I thought it was a household word. However, the school violence seen through “The Glory” refused to be familiar. This drama realistically depicts why victims still cannot escape the shadow of violent behavior even after an enormous amount of time has passed and why perpetrators of violent behavior need to be criticized.
Most of the revenge I’ve seen so far is retaliation for what was taken and the return of what was taken, but the revenge of “The Glory” is a more original and desperate fight for survival. No matter how much they talk about school violence, what are those words for? It can be seen through this work that “one hundred thousand words, one look”.
Writer Kim Eun-sook revealed plans to plan this work at the production presentation, saying, “I’m rooting for the victims of this world.” He said: ‘I’ve seen victims of school violence and what they have in common is that they want a sincere apology from the perpetrator rather than realistic compensation. I got a realization. I thought that was where to start and go from there when I received an apology for losing invisible things like human dignity and honor. I support them for their ‘origin’.” This intention of the artist burns with fierce momentum from the beginning to the end of the work without tarnishing or deteriorating.
Maybe that’s why Kim Eun-sook’s Revenge is different. First off, every episode is a feast of famous jokes. Not beautiful words, but the right words flow as if hitting bones and brains. The main character’s thoughts about the authors’ shamelessness are embedded in the minds of the viewers as an expression that makes them feel beautiful beyond euphoria.
Song Hye-kyo recites such famous lines. Whenever Song Hye-kyo, who is cute just to be there and even more beautiful when she smiles, she talks like that, she touches my heart so deeply. The spectators naturally support Song Hye-kyo without making any effort and wish her revenge success. In the background are good jokes, which are the talent of writer Kim Eun-sook, and the liveliness of the surrounding characters.
Added to this is PD Ahn Gil-ho’s specialty, optimized direction for thriller, to let you watch all the episodes in an instant, as if you were watching an hour-long drama. In addition to Song Hye-kyo, the acting of actors such as Lim Ji-yeon, Park Seong-hoon, Kim Hee-ra, Cha Ju-yeong and Kim Gun-woo is so good that I hate them, and actors such as while Yum Hye- ran, Lee Do-hyun and Jeong Seong-il play their part.
A total of 16 episodes, 8 episodes will be released on December 30, and the rest will be released in March 2023. In fact, after watching Part 1, you will get angry. You should be angry about ‘Moon Dong-eun’s bad luck, and even more angry that the part was cut here. It is an anticipated work that suggests that it would be better to reveal everything even before its release.
Netflix can’t even capture the screen, so how should viewers keep and share the famous lines of “Moon Dong-eun” coming out in the future? It seems that “The Glory” will become the topic of the new year to the extent that it makes me think about it in advance.
‘The Glory’, in which a woman falls into a whirlwind of revenge planned for her life, will be released on Netflix on December 30th.
Kim Kyung-hee / Photo courtesy of Netflix
