bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
4/5 stars
“Seek revenge and you should dig two graves, one for yourself.” As this famous quote – the provenance of which is unclear, though some attribute it to Chinese philosopher Confucius – suggests, the desire to get even after being wronged is powerful but you should be careful what you wish for.
In the hit Netflix series The Glory Song Hye-kyo plays Moon Dong-eun, a girl who was brutally bullied in school and grows into a woman whose sole purpose in life is to get back at her tormentors. It is the latest in a line of ferocious South Korean revenge dramas.


Revenge factors into many Korean dramas, such as the recent run of handsome vigilante stories like Vincenzo and Taxi Driver, but The Glory calls back to a slightly older and darker strand of Korean revenge stories, seen in classic films such as Oldboy, Lady Vengeance and A Bittersweet Life.
These are tales of people who seek revenge for themselves and understand the cost of doing so – forfeiting their own lives, figuratively, but often literally as well.
We do not know if Dong-eun will die at the end of her quest, should she complete it, and we likely will not find out until the end of season two, out later this year. Regardless, there is little doubt that she has no plans for any kind of post-revenge life.
The Glory: Song Hye-kyo leads fabulously OTT Netflix revenge K-drama
Yet the funny thing about life is that you cannot plan for it. You do not know what will happen or what new feelings and desires you may develop along the way.
After dropping out of high school, Dong-eun’s every move has been dictated by her epic vendetta, but this vendetta entails meeting new people and acquiring new skills and these add new variables to her life.
Dong-eun may think that her life ended during that terrible period in school and that everything she has done or felt since then has been intractably connected to it, but life is far more complex than that. Life does not care about your feelings, or how hurt or content you may be; it keeps laying new roots.

For Dong-eun, those roots include new passions that crop up as a result of her vendetta: playing go, and Joo Yeo-jung (Lee Do-hyun).
Go is the chess-like Korean board game that Dong-eun spends years mastering to draw the attention of Ha Do-yoon (Jung Sung-il), the husband of Park Yeon-jin (Lim Ji-yeon), the chief architect of her torment.
Speaking of architects, Dong-eun dreamed of being one before being consumed by revenge. Go is all about “building territories”, she explains to Do-yoon, a real estate tycoon, when she admits to him that she learned the game to approach him, and to herself that she fell in love with it along the way. Try as she might, that old architecture dream has not completely crumbled.

The person who taught Dong-eun about “building territories”? That would be Yeo-jung, the medical student who taught her to play go during weekly sessions in a park – the same park that Do-yoon converted in a tribute to the game he loves, and in which Dong-eun reveals to him her true intentions.
It might be a little too early to call Yeo-jung one of Dong-eun’s passions, but things certainly seem to be heading in that direction, if only she will allow herself it. For his part, Yeo-jung is clearly enamoured with her. “I’ll be your killer,” he promises, after Dong-eun disrobes to reveal to him her body full of scars.
The most positive relationship in Dong-eun’s life is one that emerges in one of her coldest moments.
8 new Korean drama series to look out for in January 2023
While searching through someone’s trash she is caught red-handed by housekeeper Kang Hyun-nam (Yeom Hye-ran). Hyun-nam has an abusive husband at home and, rather than report Dong-eun, the two become allies when Dong-eun agrees to kill her husband.
Despite the dark beginning to their relationship, the lonely Hyun-nam quickly grows attached to Dong-eun and tries to be her friend. Dong-eun is initially hesitant but eventually indulges Hyun-nam’s advances, which take the form of food, though she tries to close herself off again later, remembering the point their alliance is driving them to.
When it comes to dark Korean revenge stories, the protagonists generally seek the deaths of those who wronged them, but Dong-eun has yet to demonstrate the same kind of bloodlust. Her desire is more subtle and more in line with the pain she has been subjected to.

In Dong-eun’s case, “a life for a life” means destroying the lives of her former bullies rather than depriving them of them. She wants to pluck the people around Yeon-jin away from her, and leave her totally alone.
Yeon-jin and her posse of twisted friends, including sometime lover Jeong Jae-jun (Park Sung-hoon), take what they have for granted. It is only following the reappearance of Dong-eun in their lives that they come to realise the value of what they have, just as they are about to lose those things.
For Jae-jun, that is Yeon-jin’s daughter Ha Ye-sol (Oh Ji-yul), who he did not realise was his, and for Yeon-jin it is her husband, Do-yoon. She assumed theirs was a status marriage, and only figures out how much he cares for her just before her true face is revealed to him.

Dong-eun’s emotional revenge saga will continue later this year in season two of The Glory. Only time will tell if redemption is also on the cards for her.
The Glory is streaming on Netflix.


K-drama Doubt: Han Suk-kyu leads stylish and immersive murder mystery series

Disney+ K-drama Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born – Kim Tae-ri in evocative period music drama

Disney+ K-drama The Judge from Hell midseason recap: Park Shin-hye’s unholy resolve wavers

Netflix K-drama A Virtuous Business: Kim So-yeon plays adult-toys seller in rural Korea

Korean drama reviews

Netflix K-drama review: The Glory – Song Hye-kyo plays a bullying victim bent on revenge who discovers new passions in life

Song Hye-kyo as bullying victim Moon Dong-eun in a still from Netflix K-drama The Glory. 

Lee Do-hyun (left) as Joo Yeo-jung and Song Hye-kyo as Moon Dong-eun in a still from The Glory.

Lim Ji-yeon as Park Yeon-jin in a still from The Glory.

Song Hye-kyo (left) as Moon Dong-eun and Jung Sung-il as Ha Do-yoon in a still from The Glory.

Song Hye-kyo (left) as Moon Dong-eun and Yeom Hye-ran as Kang Hyun-nam in a still from The Glory.

K-drama review: Reborn Rich – Song Joong-ki fantasy revenge drama ends on an unsatisfactory note

Song Joong-ki in a still from Reborn Rich.

Song Joong-ki in a still from Reborn Rich. The Korean drama series has been entertaining, but came to a sloppy conclusion that will disappoint many viewers. 

Lee Sung-min as corporate chairman Jin Yang-chul in a still from Reborn Rich.

Yoon Je-moon as Jin Young-ki, eldest son of the late Soonyang Corporation chairman, in a still from Reborn Rich.

The 15 best K-dramas of 2022, from Extraordinary Attorney Woo and Alchemy of Souls to Little Women

Park Eun-bin in a still from Extraordinary Attorney Woo, the biggest global Korean drama series hit of 2022.

Kim Go-eun in a still from Little Women, one of our picks for the top 15 K-dramas of 2022.

Disney+ K-drama Big Bet: Choi Min-sik crime saga, the TV debut of The Outlaws director Kang Yoon-sung, is a gamble that has yet to pay out

Choi Min-sik in a still from Big Bet.

Choi Min-sik as shrewd entrepreneur Cha Moo-sik in a still from crime saga Big Bet on Disney+.

Lee Dong-hwi as Moo-sik’s right-hand man, Jungpal, in a still from Big Bet.

Choi Min-sik (left) and Lee Dong-hwi as Moo-sik and Jungpal in a still from Big Bet.

Choi Min-sik as Moo-sik (front) in a still from Big Bet.

Choi Min-sik as Moo-sik in a still from Big Bet.

Netflix K-drama review: The Fabulous – Chae Soo-bin, Minho star in vapid fashion industry drama that could use some tailoring

(From left) Park Hee-jung, Lee Sang-eun, Chae Soo-bin and Minho in a still from The Fabulous.

Chae Soo-bin in a still from The Fabulous, in which she plays a bubbly fashion PR in a love triangle. The show tries to strike a balance between fantasy and relatability. 

Park Hee-jung (left) as model Ye Sun-ho and Lee Sang-eun as fashion designer Jjoseph in a still from The Fabulous.

Minho as Ji Woo-min in a still from The Fabulous.

(From left) Park Hee-jung as Sun-ho, Lee Sang-eun as Jjoseph, Chae Soo-bin as Ji-eun and Minho as Woo-min in a still from The Fabulous.

Minho (left) as Woo-min and Chae Soo-bin as Ji-eun in a still from The Fabulous.

Who is Jung Hae-in, the star of K-dramas Connect, D.P. and Snowdrop with a tough yet sensitive screen persona?

Korean actor Jung Hae-in.

Jung Hae-in, star of Disney+ drama Connect and Netflix’s D.P., is known for playing gentle characters with a strong screen presence.

Jung Hae-in in a still from Connect.

Jung Hae-in and Son Ye-jin in a still from Something in the Rain (2018). Jung has made his name playing characters who are as green as they are handsome. 

Jung Hae-in in a still from D.P. (2021). Photo: Netflix

Jung Hae-in (left) and Jisoo in a still from Snowdrop (2021). Photo: Disney+

Jung Hae-in and Kim Go-eun in a still from Tune in for Love (2019).

Lifestyle

K-Pop

K-drama

Entertainment

Arts & Culture

Culture

Film & TV

In the hit Netflix series The Glory, Song Hye-kyo stars as Moon Dong-eun, who sets out to get revenge on her former school bullies and tormentors
Though she thinks her life ended during that terrible period, the skills she has learned and the people she meets to make her revenge a success prove otherwise


Song Hye-kyo stars as Moon Dong-eun, a bullying victim who sets out to get revenge on her former tormentors – only to discover new passions along the way.


K-drama news

What's hot in Korea

South Korean celebrities

Fame and celebrity

TV shows and streaming video

Netflix

Song Hye-kyo

Lee Do-hyun

An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

Review | Netflix K-drama review: The Glory – Song Hye-kyo plays a bullying victim bent on revenge who discovers new passions in life