Is ‘The Glory’ still just as glorious?

Netflix concluded their K-Drama psychological thriller series “The Glory” on March 10.  Moon Dong-Eun (Song Hye-Kyo) returns to her hometown of Semyeong after 20 years, with a purpose.

At  18 she endured horrific suffering at the hands of five of her classmates: Son Myeong-Oh (Kim Gun-woo), Choi Hye-Jeong (Cha Joo-Young), Lee Sa-Ra (Kim Hieora), Jeon Jae-Jun (Park Sung-Hoon), and the ringleader Park Yeon-Jin (Lim Ji-Yeon).

This sociopathic quintet did more than just bully her. They beat her.   They degraded her.  They humiliated her, and Park even made use of her trademark curling iron.

What’s worse was not only was Moon not their only victim, but Moon’s own mother instead of standing by her own daughter just takes the settlement and skips town.

Having both nowhere and no one to turn to Moon, withdraws her complaint after enduring physical abuse by her homeroom teacher as well. She drops out of school, works stressful jobs for low pay, and then puts herself through college only to come back for that one purpose, revenge!

Using her newly acquired wits and the aid of both a battered wife, Kang Hyun-Nam (Yeom Hye-ran) and a troubled young doctor who fell head-over-heels for her back in college, Joo Yeo-Jung (Lee Do-Hyun.) She targets each of the five that ripped apart her innocence one-by-one, starting with the weakest link. And all that Moon had to do was use and exploit their weaknesses against them all through her communication skills, and then the domino effect took  over the weight of their ego crushing them.

Throughout the first half of the series (Episodes 1 – 8), I kept on the edge of my seat like a housewife enjoying her soap opera. But when the second half (Episodes 9 – 16) premiered, like other Korean dramas such as “The Good Detective” (2020-2022) and “Strangers from Hell” (2019), I found myself taking breaks in between as I was enduring the meaning of the term “slow burn.”

Some scenes didn’t necessarily need to be there and I found myself fast-forwarding, skipping or just standing up to go make myself some coffee through those scenes, like the budding romance between Yeo-Jung and Dong-Eun..

The ending overall was satisfactory, and many questions were not left unanswered. Her starving appetite for revenge did not just stop at the five, but also extended to their families as well. But was it enough?

Let’s just say that any of her compassion left that was salvageable was sacrificed.

This story was a longer version of Park Chan-wook’s crime-thriller “Lady Vengeance” (2005), but with a more watered-down tone of ultraviolence. There was less gore and more psychological bondage and physical pain. While each scene was important, I tended to get bored and some of the plot I didn’t agree with. It didn’t overstay its welcome. But it did make me question if some people are just plain cruel.

Should you decide to give this series a look and you find yourself despising the villains, then director Ahn Gil Ho and writer Kim Eun-sook did their jobs justice well deserved. But be fair warned, you must be patient when watching as the saying goes, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Grade: B+