The Glory—Forgiveness vs Revenge?

The Glory is a sixteen-episode Korean revenge drama about high school bullying and associated  trauma. Eighteen years later an elaborate, convoluted plot is conceived by the beautiful, scarred victim, Moon Dong-eun.  Her obsession is to destroy the two girls and two guys who brutalized her and caused her to drop out of high school at the age of fourteen.  She has been waiting eighteen years to mastermind their annihilation and humiliation.

Dong-eun, abandoned by her drug-addicted, alcoholic mother at the age of fourteen, works menial jobs for years, earns her high school and college diplomas and then maneuvers her way into the elementary school where her primary tormentor, Yeon-jin, has a second-grade daughter.  Yeon-jin is somewhat of a celebrity as a “weather girl” on local television.  Married to a highly successful real-estate developer, Yeon-jin considers her extravagant life perfect.  Dong-eun’s fever dream is to destroy every shred of Yeon-jin’s mental and physical health as she herself has been (almost) destroyed.   As the homeroom teacher for Yeon-jin’s daughter, Dong-eun’s elaborate revenge plan is launched and rapidly and furiously gains momentum.   

Flashbacks to the social hellscape that Dong-eun endured as a freshman in high school triggers a moribund imagination of  this young student’s daily existence at the whims of four popular, arrogant, and extremely wealthy classmates.   Her tormentors consider themselves above convention, so special that the rules and norms of society only apply to everyone else.   With the confidence that any cruelty can be inflicted upon the less fortunate, the gang of four triumphantly play a game of  torture.  

Traumatized and obsessed with wreaking karmic justice on the gang of four who now seem happily ensconced in their adult lives, Dong-eun’s scheme unfolds.  She  practices  to be a brilliant Go player in order to attract the husband of the primary brutalizer (”weather girl”)  who loves Go.  She  records and surveils evidence for anonymous tips to the police for crimes unsolved.  She posts old letters, documents, and video clips to social media, and engages accomplices to execute her plan:   an abused spouse and a young doctor with a traumatic past.

The viewer has to keep track of the evidence, each bully’s backstory, and the suspense of the revenge plot and its pending success or failure.  Cultural features such as the metaphor of the Go game for a strategy equivalent to playing the game of chess, and glimpses of shamanism contribute to this revenge drama’s interest for an international audience.  The weaponization of social media, corruption by law enforcement, and the power of the wealthy cross over cultural boundaries. Bullying by the powerful on the powerless is a universal theme, at least in affluent countries.  The Glory is “Squid Game” (see my October 13, 2021 review) in the present, not the future.

Korean dramas continue to surprise foreign audiences with their  electrifying, shocking, sometimes endearing narratives in highly original, often disturbing ways.  The Glory is violent, brutal, and often delicately lacerating.

Availability:  Netflix streaming

Note: Subtitles run fast. Concentration is required to follow the intricate subplots and evidence trail.  Since Korean names are unfamiliar, it can be confusing.  Stay with it, but only if you are intrigued by trauma porn!