The Glory review: Brilliant Song Hye-kyo plunges into the abyss and takes you down with her in this disturbing revenge drama

The Glory is a brutal, gory revenge drama through and through and the first part that comprises eight episodes shows that there is no space for redemption, forgiveness or peace. The old saying holds true, ‘When you begin a journey for revenge, start by digging two graves, one for your enemy and one for yourself.” Song Hye-kyo’s Moon Dong-eun has been long dead inside as she says—-the only thing that has been keeping her alive is the insatiable thirst for revenge. She was tortured, tormented and sexually assaulted by a group of rich children in school in scenes that are so entirely graphic that viewers discretion must be advised. She’s on her journey to destroy, and the circumstance of her becoming the homeroom teacher for the child of the woman who commandeered the torture is no co-incidence; she has been meticulously plotting for long. You can see the thirst for destruction consuming her, especially in the eerie silences—she hasn’t steered away from the thoughts of murder either.

She has been watching the woman Yeon-jin (Lim Ji-yeon) have her fairytale wedding, and achieve the life she has always wanted, just waiting for the opportunity to strike. Song Hye-kyo exhibits superb cold snark as she meets the people who left her physically scarred——she enjoys her moment as they writhe in discomfort and struggle to understand what her plan is. But nothing is easily handed over to them or us as the audience, The Glory is a slow-burn of a revenge drama that can be rather stretched and contrived at points. The first few episodes set up the backstories and establish the characters——there is no space for any sort of nuance and complexity in the antagonists; they’re downright ghoulish. While it’s understandable that the show runners want to leave absolutely no leeway for justification when it comes to them, at times their dialogues are rather outlandishly villainous, somehow jarring the effect. The show could do even better without excessive exposition relaying Moon Dong-eun’s state of mind and let the audience observe her actions, calculated words, because that’s more than enough. There are other chunky sub-plots in the middle, and hopefully they all fall into place and look far more seamless in the next part that will come in March, this year.

While Song Hye-kyo’s performance in The Glory uplifts a flailing story at points, the stunning cinematography and music also play saviours, thus crafting quite an engaging, riveting show, even if rather flawed.  There are sweet moments peppered sparsely, where there promises to be a love story of sorts. However, the male lead, played by Lee Do-Hyun has vouched to stay by her side through the darkness. The Glory is not an easy watch by any means primarily owing to its brutal depictions of bullying, it shows the scarring repercussions of bullying, torture and how it brutally corrodes a person’s soul. It’s a jarring glimpse at the abyss a person can experience.