The Glory Part 2: ‘Revenge has just started and it’s brutal’
MANILA, Philippines — Part 2 of Netflix’s The Glory is finally dropping on March 10. What can viewers expect from the continuation of the South Korean revenge- thriller series starring Song Hye-kyo?
After its premiere last Dec. 30, 2022, the first installment of the drama stayed five weeks in the Global Top 10 TV (Non-English) and a total of nine weeks in the Philippines, four weeks of which, it was the most-watched title for the international streamer’s Filipino subscribers.
During the K-Immersion event last month at the Seoul headquarters of Netflix Korea, The Philippine STAR and press from other countries were able to talk to Don Kang, Netflix’s vice president for content (Korea), about how the second half of The Glory is going to play out.
“Dong-eun’s revenge just started and it’s brutal! So, I’m really looking forward to that,” the Netflix executive teased.
Written by Kim Eun-sook (Descendants of the Sun, Mr. Sunshine) and directed by An Gil-ho (Stranger), The Glory tells the story of a former victim/survivor of high school violence and brutality. Since then, her only drive in life is to exact revenge on the perpetrators.
Song Hye-kyo stars as the vengeful protagonist Moon Dong-eun, while Lee Do-hyun plays the “love interest” Joo Yeo-jeong.
Lim Ji-yeon is the “leader” of the posse who bullied Dong-eun, named Park Yeon-jin, alongside co-stars Park Sung-hoon, Cha Joo-young, Kim Hieora and Kim Gun-woo. Even within the group of bullies, there’s hierarchy and power dynamics that Dong-eun capitalizes on to carry out her long-planned revenge plot.
The Glory also stars Yeom Hye-ran as Kang Hyeon-nam, an abused wife who becomes Dong-eun’s unlikely “spy” and “sidekick,” and Jung Sung-ill as Ji-yeon’s powerful but mysterious husband Ha Do-yeong.
In Part 1, viewers are introduced to Dong-eun who, behind her preschool teacher persona, is a woman hardened by her ugly scars and deep emotional wounds, and who is hellbent on making her bullies’ life a living hell.
Every move she makes is carefully calculated to push her towards her end goal of achieving vengeance. No detail is spared and all possible players are taken into account so much so no person comes into her life without serving a “purpose” in her master plan.
When she meets the good boy-doctor and hospital heir Yeo-jeong, she “uses” him to teach her to play the Korean board game Go, said to be the “the favorite pastime” of business tycoons in Korea. She eventually brings out the duality in Yeo-jeong that he has been hiding as he takes up her offer not to be her Prince Charming or Knight in Shining Armor, but “executioner.”
“(My favorite line in the series is), ‘Your life will be in ruins once your revenge is over.’ I think this is the first and last time that he earnestly cares for and gives advice to Dong-eun. He wants to help the person he loves get her revenge because she has an ultimate goal in sight, but he’s still worried about her. He goes back and forth between those two conflicting thoughts,” Do-hyun said of his character.
Meanwhile, the game of Go is how Dong-eun enters the radar of Do-yeong, who as mentioned is the rich, powerful and seemingly impenetrable husband of Yeon-jin.
As Do-yeong, the actor Sung-ill has electrifying scenes with Hye-kyo, including a wordless sequence where they’re playing Go. Their onscreen chemistry is just off the charts. In a recent virtual presscon, he hinted at his character development in the next episodes: “He thought his life was picture-perfect, but then there’s a crack that happens. Then he has to make a big decision.”
Providing some light, if not comedic, moments during the first half of the series is the character of Kang Hyeon-nam, who somehow earns the trust of our anti-heroine and bets her life on this equally broken person.
“I was very pressured to appear lovable. And because I was the fresh breath in the show, I had to show different facades of my character. It was challenging but it was also very exciting for me to take on,” Yeom Hye-ran also said during the presscon.
Of course, what’s going to happen next between Dong-eun and main object of her revenge, Yeon-jin, is most anticipated in The Glory Part 2.
In Part 1, Yeon-jin appears to have the perfect life, marrying well and enjoying a TV career. But more than just fame and money, her idea of “glory” is apparently family. So when Dong-eun manages to become the teacher of her only daughter and then gets close to her husband — close enough for him to find out about his “perfect” wife’s horrible past — Yeon-jin’s sheltered world starts to crumble.
Ji-yeon said of her character: “Yeon-jin lived an easy life of wielding money and power without putting much effort in, and thinks that family is also necessary for her. But as these things become threatened, she finds her own glory fading. That’s why I think Yeon-jin’s version of glory is money, power and family. The Glory as a title poses a question for all of us. To some, glory could be an object; it could be love; or it could be an emotion. I think the title asks all of us the question: What is your version of glory?”
One of the iconic scenes in Part 1 is when things come to a head and Yeon-jin and Dong-eun get physical during an alumni “reunion” at their old school.
The actress Ji-yeon recalled the confrontation: “It was a very tough scene to portray the emotions of Yeon-jin because I was wondering, how would this woman feel? She came face to face with someone she was so mean to and she had bullied as a teenager. And I remember director An said, we cannot make mistakes in this scene. Let’s do it in a single take. Let’s just go in one go. So, I remember Hye-kyo and I, our faces were pretty red afterwards.”
But if Dong-eun is determined, Yeon-jin is shaken but undeterred, based on the latest trailer for The Glory. Everyone appears to be descending into madness — but the question now is who goes down first? There’s also a telling scene in the teaser where Dong-eun gets asked if she will find happiness once her revenge is over.
“There were many lines that struck me (in the series), but I thought the most about the line, ‘There is no forgiveness, no glory, either.’ Though she is a victim of extreme violence, she can become a perpetrator through her revenge. I interpreted this line as Dong-eun wanting her perpetrators to be punished, and at the same time, accepting her own consequent punishment,” reflected Hye-kyo about her character in the production notes.
As for the impact of the The Glory’s story and characters on viewers, director Gil-ho believes they “will be able to feel a catharsis seeing (the characters) drive each other into destruction,” while writer Eun-sook said that “these characters will make you question whether a higher being truly exists.”
“It will be interesting to look for who is punished first, and when that will happen. I believe that good prevails over evil, and that what comes around goes around,” she further said.
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