I almost passed on this story because I thought it would be gory and senseless. Don't get it wrong though. I love gory shows, but I'm stuck at the first episode of Connect, a Kdrama that stretches goriness beyond the stretch of my imagination.
I will still get back to that though, but I'm not yet ready. Haha. On the side of senselessness, goodness knows that I've seen a lot of revenge stories which were senseless and poorly written. I didn't want to spend hours watching something of such quality.
I checked the synopsis for this show, The Glory, and a part of me was like; I don't think I'm ready for a revenge story at the moment. Thankfully, the overwhelming netizens of Kdrama lovers on AsianWiki, Twitter and YouTube did a good job of whetting my appetite with their ratings for this show. That was when I decided to finally fit it into my watchlist and check it out.
You know the interesting part, it only took the first 15 minutes of the show for me to get hooked. That opening sequence was a pure work of art. I saw that and paused the show, jumped onto my usual site and got hold of all the episodes of this Kdrama.
Imagine that... There was no going back from that action. I already knew I will be watching every freaking minute of the whole 16 episodes of the show.
Drama: The Glory
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Melodrama, Revenge.
Network: Netflix
Episodes: 16
Excerpts from this Kdrama show that it is a story that started as a very diabolical treatment a teen got during her high school days. She was bullied and brutalized by her classmates and there was no one she could turn to for help. Not her Mum. Not the Police. Not the teachers and not her classmates. It got to a point where she had to quit school because of the brutality of the bullying.
That's when the story nicely transitioned into a nicely strategized revenge story... A revenge story where those involved can't stop or avoid it. Everyone involved had to suffer massively for it to end. The exact scene when Dong Eun (the lead character) declared war on her bullies is such a phenomenal scene. Knowing what she passed through to get there, that scene would make you feel catharsis.
I particularly love when the main character said that "This is Not a fairytale, but a fable". That was so poetic and it's the least of the poetic lines used in this show. This goes without saying that the scriptwriter for this show did such an amazing job. It was a very tight script and the dialogues are part of the best bits about the show.
Whet your appetite with this teaser video which is officially released on Netflix's YouTube channel;
From all indications, the lead character declared war on her bullies, but she wasn't looking for a poetic Justice from the law nor was she waiting for karma to punish her bullies. She took it upon herself to land the blows and she perfectly described that action as "An eye for an eye, a took for a took. A fracture for fracture". An outcome that she ironically describes to be too fair for her bullies.
Think about that...
It sends a very strong message and it's important to note that this show is based on a true life story of a girl that got bullied in 2006. I watched the girl's interview this morning and it was heart-wrenching. It genuinely makes you think about cases of bullying and how seriously we ought to start taking them. Like I always say, there is nothing trivial about bullying. The bullies may forget after some days, but the bullied will always live with the scars forever.
The storyline. The casting. The directing. The acting. All the camera shots. The soundtracks. The dialogue. Everything about this Kdrama is nicely executed and I particularly love how it didn't end with the usual "Revenge is bad" notion. Nope. There was no need to "Be the bigger person or forgive". She got her revenge on all those involved and it got served at a very sweet spot.
You've gotta love every bit of this Kdrama cus I enjoyed it to a tee and I'm looking forward to more shows like this.
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop Or Comma
All pictures are taken from the gallery section for this show on MyDramaList