Kdrama 2022 
Netflix Original

The Glory (Kdrama Review & Summary)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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• Genre:  Thriller, Melodrama
• Release Date: 30 December 2022
• Origin: South Korea
• Kdrama: 8 Episodes

Cast

• Song Hye Kyo as Moon Dong Eun
  • Jung Ji So as Moon Dong Eun [Young]
• Lee Do Hyun as Joo Yeo Jung
• Im Ji Yeon as Park Yeon Jin
  • Shin Ye Eun
    Park Yeon Jin [Young]
• Yeom Hye Ran as Kang Hyun Nam
• Park Sung Hoon as Jeon Jae Joon
• Jung Sung Il as Ha Do Young
• Kim Hi Eo Ra as Lee Sa Ra
• Cha Joo Young as Choi Hye Jeong
• Kim Gun Woo as Son Myeong Oh
• Lee Hae Young as Shin Yeong Jun [Senior superintendent general]
• Ahn So Yo as Kim Gyeong Ran [Siesta Shop clerk]
• Son Sook as [Eden Villa landlord / Owner of Semyong Real Estate]
• Kim Jung Young as Park Sang Im
• Yoon Da Kyung – [Park Yeon Jin’s mother]
• Kim Sun Hwa – [Lee Sa Ra’s mother]
• Lee Byung Joon – [Lee Sa Ra’s father]
• Park Yoon Hee as Kim Jong Moon [Sunghan High School teacher]
• Oh Ji Yul as Ha Ye Sol
• Heo Dong Won as Mr. Chu
• Park Sang Jong as Kim Shin Tae [School chairman]
• Park Ji Ah as Jeong Mi Hee
• Kang Gil Woo as Kim Soo Han
• Min Eung Shik – School Principal
• Choi Soo In as Lee Seon A
• Oh Min Ae – Ha Do Yeong’s mother
• Kim Kwon – Ha Do Yeong’s chauffeur
• Ryu Seung Hyun – Lee Seok Jae
• Kwon Bum Taek as Lawyer Choi

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Episode 1

9 March 2023

I have heard so much good reviews about this drama but somehow it is only now that I am going to check this out.  Apparently, Part 2 will be released all at the same time tomorrow.  So I am going to dive into this First Part.

2004

Poor Moon Dong Eun was from a dirt poor background and was made to realise from early on that there is a marked difference between rich and poor.

She was heavily bullied at school.  She was covered in bruises so she reported it to the police.

The police, however, were not interested and called her homeroom teacher to collect her from the station.

The teacher told the police that Dong Eun was a troublemaker. The police asked him to take Dong Eun away.

The teacher was so annoyed with her for going to the police.

This gave a license to the bullies to attack her more, They up their ante to another level.  They used a hair straighter/curler to sear her arms and legs.  But they did not stop. She was also sexually molested.  Then one day, they turned up at her house to be humiliated even more.  They used an iron to punish her more.

A school nurse saw her scars and bruises and told her to report it to her homeroom teacher.  But then, the bullies got to the nurse, who resigned immediately.

She tried to kill herself but then she changed her mind at the last minute.

She thought the best way was to transfer to another school but she was required to give a reason why she wanted to transfer.

She wrote about the bullying and enumerated the bullies and the homeroom teacher not listening to her.

The homeroom teacher slapped her repeatedly in the faculty room in front of the other teachers.  It got so violent, some of the teachers finally intervened.

Then, her mother was called for a meeting.  She sold out her daughter for a lot of money.

Without telling her daughter, she moved out leaving all her daughter’s things outside of their dingy room.

Poor Dong Eun was now alone in the world but she cannot be defeated.

She found herself a job in a textile factory, working and studying during her free time

She passed her GED.

She went back to the bullies and spoke to the leader of the bullies.  She told her that she was her dream.

Episode 2

Dong Eun managed to enroll in a teaching school.  She had also met a young medical intern, Yoo Yeo Jung who was so friendly and taught her to play Go, a chess game about building houses and protecting them.

Yeojung is a bit of a Dougie Howser.  He was so intelligent, he bypassed some of the classes at school.

Yeo Jung was protective of her because he found out that she was unwell with anemia and also saw the dreadful scarring on her arm.

Dong Eun’s favourite season is winter when the weather is cold which meant her scars are not so shockingly itchy.

It was now 2022.

Dong Eun’s apartment wall is full of collages of her bullies.  She started to carry out her revenge.

She rented an apartment overlooking Park Yeon Jin’s house with her husband and little daughter.  Yeonjin is now a weather girl but still a bully.

Dong Eun started to sort through the rubbish of Yeon Jin and would take shredded documents which she painstakingly glued together.

The last time, Dong Eun went to get more rubbish, she was caught by the housekeeper.

It was Kang Hyun Nam who told her that she will not report her, in fact, she was on her side.  She would help her.

Dong Eun knew that there must be a condition.

Kang Hyun Nam wanted Dong Eun to kill her husband for her.

Episode 3

Dong Eun had Kang Hyun Nam working for her. Hyun Nam was spying for her and seriously enjoying it.  She told Dong Eun that she was really a happy person.

Dong Eun intrigued Ha Do Young.  He was impressed with her skill in Go

Dong Eun went to visit Mr Kim, her homeroom teacher who was visibly shocked to realise that she was the girl he beat up before.  And now, she was visiting him at his house and seemed to be acquainted with his son, Kim Soo Han.

Dong Eun is also now in contact with Son Myeong Oh, the boy who forcefully kissed her when she was being bullied.  She was now using him to get information on Jeon Jae Joon, who owned the Siesta boutique.

She asked for a DNA sample of Jeon Jae Joon.

Episode 4

Dong Eun attended the alumni awards where she met her bullies. They saw that they have more to fear now than Dong Eun had with them.

It was the death anniversary of Yeojung. father.  It was rumoured that his father was killed by his own patient.

This drama does live up to its reputation.  It is so good.  Really worth a binge-watch.

Dong Eun became the homeroom teacher of Ha Ye sol, Park Yeonjin’s daughter.

Yeonjin was impotent with rage when she found out and told Dong Eun that if she so much as touched a hair of Ha Ye Sol..

Dong Eun asked her what else Yeonjin can do to her. Yeonjin had already broken her body and soul…  She added that if she transfer Ha Ye Sol to another school, she would just follow.

Still, Yeonjin warned her not to overstep.  She was just leaving when she heard that their former homeroom teacher had died.

This really shocked and worried her and asked Dong Eun if she did it.

Dong Eun said that if anyone did anything it was Yeonjin.

Actually, Mr Kim seemed to have been killed by Kim So Han after he found out from Dong Eun what his father did to her and allowed the others to bully her.  Kim So Han felt that he had no choice but to make his father die rather than become a source of negative publicity if the bullying news come out.  It would not be good for his career as a new school inspector to have such grim background.  So knowing that his father had extreme asthma, So Han refused to open the window to let air in to dissipate the pollen counts inside his apartment for the many congratulatory bouquets of flowers he received.

Meanwhile, Hyun Nam had been following Choi Hye Jeong.  One of the bullies is now a stewardess but has a sideline of being a call girl.

Before Dong Eun became the victim of the school bullies, there was one before her who ended up committing suicide.  Her body is still at the mortuary.

Wow!  the chemistry between Dong Eun and Ha Do Young is so 🔥🔥🔥🔥 scorching.

Episode 5

Wow! Ha Do Young is slowly seduced by the mysterious Dong Eun.

Park Yeojin was seriously worried about Ha Ye Sol so she went to the school to spy on her class.  Though she saw that Dong Eun was kind to her pupils, she later stayed and confronted Dong Eun.  She offered Dong Eun money to compensate for her physical and mental trauma.  But Dong Eun said that the compensation she wanted was of a different kind.

She then showed Park Yeojin’s Ha Ye Sol’s drawing which clearly expressed that the child is colour blind.  Yeojin was shocked and asked how Dong Eun knew that Ha Ye Sol is not really Ha Do Young’s daughter but Jeon Jae Joon.

Dong Eun met up with Lee Sa Ra at a church service.  Afterwards, she threw a big bag to Lee Sa Ra and told her to fill it up with dollar bills.  She had one week.

Kang Hyun Nam managed to steal Choi Hye Jeong’s phone.

It was another meeting between Dong Eun and Son Myeong Oh.  Son Myeong Oh confirmed to Dong Eun that he saw the bullied girl’s body at the mortuary. He asked Dong Eun who killed the girl among the four.

Later on, Son Myeong Oh called Lee Sara, Park Yeojin, Jeon Jae Joon and Choi Hye Jeong to come see him.

But then someone just killed him.

Episode 6

Son Myeong Oh had gone missing.  Dong Eun thought he was dead.

But brown envelopes have been sent to the four and also one to Ha Do Young from the missing Son Myeong.  Who is the killer?  A woman wearing green high heals was seen leaving the bloody body of Son Myeong Oh,

Jeon Jae Joo received a brown envelope with a paternity test confirming that he is a match to Ha Ye Sol’s DNA.

Meanwhile, Joo Yeoyoung told his mother that he had to resign from the hospital because he was moving to Samyoung (sounded like it) to be with the woman he likes.

Good move for him because Dong Eun turned up at his new place all hot and bothered.  She finally told him her story but despite it, he told her to just forget and move on.

But then she removed her clothes and stood in her underwear in front of him.  He saw the many angry welts all over her body.  He couldn’t help crying and immediately promised her that he was willing to be her executioner.  He asked her who he was to kill first.

Episode 7

Jeon Jae Joo found his inner father and wanted custody of Ha Ye Sol.  But he was told by his lawyer that it would not happen as Ha Ye Sol was registered as the biological daughter of Ha Do Young.  Only if Ha Do Yuong and Park Yeoh Jin should divorce that he could fight for child custody

Lee Se Ra gave Dong Eun a bagful of money.

Meanwhile, the hoods that purposedly bumped into Dong Eun’s car wanted money or they would go to the police.  Kang Hyun Nam found out that the hoods were working for Shin Young Jun, a police chief working for Park Jeon Jin.

Dong Eun really researched her revenge.  She was even friends with the future mother-in-law of Choi Hye Jeong.

During the father’s day event at school, both Ha Dong Young and Jeon Jae Joon turned up for Ha Ye Sol.

Jeon Jae Joon told Ha Dong Young that he was there for the teacher who was his school classmates

Ha Dong Young who was surprised to see Dong Eun as Ha Ye Sol teacher was not happy when Jeon Jae Joon said that he knew the teacher inside and out and even know how she looks naked

Episode 8

Ha Dong Young was really intrigued now.

He asked to see Choi Hye Jeong.  With a gift of a Hermes bag, Hye Jeong sang like a canary (who wouldn’t?🤣🤣🤣). Even a Mulberry bag will do for me.

Anyway, Choi Hye Jeong recounted how they first bullied Dong Eun.  It was pretty graphic but Hye Jeong said that it got much much worst.  And said that it was so heinous, he should talk with his wife about it.

Jeon Jae Joon demanded that Park Yeon Jin divorces Ha Dong Young.  They would then live as happy family with Ha Ye Sol.

Park Yeon Jin said that she really loves her husband.

Park Yeon Jin got more intel from her police thug.  He told her that Dong Eun had kept clean records over the years.  Then he told her where Dong Eun lives.

She went to see the place and quickly realised that from her little apartment, Dong Eun overlooks her mansion.

Inside, the apartment, she saw the collage papering the walls of herself and her friends and family.  Then her husband turned up after meeting with Dong Eun.

Joo Yeojung’s mother found out that the killer of her husband had been sending grim letters to Yeojung from prison.  She went to confront the killer who confessed that he was so bored so he did it.

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The Glory Part 2

• Release Date: 10 March 2023
• Kdrama: 8 Episodes

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Episode 9

Dong Eun moved in with Joo Yeojung.  He was so kind and cute, Dong Eun was moved into trying a romantic relationship with him.

He was so happy he could sing but Dong Eun told him not to bother.

What he did was go and tell his mother that he might do something with the woman he likes to help her exact her revenge

Yeojung’s mom agreed with his plan but told him to keep it strictly secret.

The Friends started to fight amongst themselves regarding the disappearance of Son Myeong Oh.

They were upset with Choi Hye Jeong for reporting it to the police.

And it got complicated because the disappearance became a side issue because it has now to be about drugs.

Lee Se Ra was not very happy because she would be implicated majorly plus her supplier is dead.

Dong Eun was also interviewed but Detective Choi ignored the fact that Park Yeon Jin had something to do with the disappearance.  The detective told her that they wanted information about the drugs.

Kang Hyun Nam hurried home to find that her daughter had been beaten up again by her husband.  She promised her daughter that it would be over soon.  She will go to the US soon to study and she will follow afterwards

Whoa, rather random, but Park Yeojn Jin got something on Kang Hyun Nam.  Will Kang Hyun Nam squeal?

Episode 10

Kang Hyun Nam was loyal to Dong Eun.  She told Dong Eun that she was going to play along with Park Yeojin for now.

Dong Eun had Hyun Nam’s daughter looked after by the nurse from her former school while Kang Hyun Nam was otherwise engaged.

Park Yeonjin found Dong Eun’s mother.  She paid the mother to create so much havoc so Dong Eun gets fired from the school.

Dong Eun had to contend with her annoying mother but at least people are now working with her.

Choi Hye Jeong was blackmailed by Dong Eun to do something for her otherwise Hye Jeong’s wedding scheduled for the following week would not go smoothly.

So at the behest of Dong Eun, Choi Hye Jeong introduced Park Yeojin to Joo Yeojung, who is of course a plastic surgeon.

Yeojin opted for a lip-filler but while she was given sedation, she mindlessly gave the story of how she attacked Son Myeong Oh.

Meanwhile, Dong En met up with the gorgeous Ha Do Young.  They went to an exclusive restaurant.  When the maitre d asked for her jacket, Dong Eun removed it revealing the pelts and scars all over her arms.

Ha Do Young was shocked

Episode 11

Dong Eun said that she wanted Park Yeojin to be alone in this world with no one to turn to.  She then asked Ha Do Young to leave Park Yeojin.

He disappointed her by saying that right at that moment, he doesn’t have any thought of leaving his wife.  But perhaps they should meet again.

The one who left was Kang Hyun Nam’s daughter.  She flew to America to study.

Kang Hyun Nam played her husband.  She showed him a lot of money which she said she had to return to someone because that someone was requesting something weird.

So her husband decided to take on the task and that was to harass Park Yeojin’a mother.

Meanwhile, Joo Yeojung bought an almost derelict funeral home which so happened that it is where Detective Shin was hiding the body of Son Myeong Oh.

His death looks like going to be revealed soon as both Choi Hye Jeong and Jeon Jae Joon received footage of the last moment of Myeong Oh’s life.

Episode12

They did find the body of Myeong Oh at the funeral house but told the caretaker to continue looking after it.

Dong Eun told Jeon Jae Joon that a male teacher was perverting on the little girls by taking photos while they were on a climbing frame.

Jae Joon beat up the teacher good.  Then Ha Do Young turned up later at the police station as Jae Joon had been arrested and forced to settle with the teacher otherwise Jae Joon will go to jail.

Jae Joon refused and said that they were arresting the wrong person.  But then Ha Do Young said what right does he have to lodge a case against the teacher for perverting on the children.  Ha Do Young said that he will sue the teacher as he was the father.

They ended up fighting.

Meanwhile, Dong Eun’s mother was trying to finish Dong Eun’s career.  So she started rolling her plans.

She had Se Ra high on drugs which was live-streamed while her father was giving a sermon.  Se Ra then started playing with herself.

Park Yeonjin turned up and told Dong Eun, that it was only Se Ra’s first offense so nothing will come of it but then Dong Eun smirked.

Episode 13

Park Yeonjin had been revealed as a bully but got buried under Se Ra’s scandal.

Jeon Jae Joon thought that to get custody of Ha Ye Sol, he should get married.  So he told Choi Hye Jeong to marry him.

Dong Eun found out about the many knives collection of Yoo Jaeyung.  Also, she started reading the many letters sent to him by his father’s killer.

Ha Do Young got the company lawyer to work on Park Yeonjin’s case but she said she had not done anything wrong.

Detective Shin said that he was taking an early retirement in Hawaii which should be funded by Park Yeonjin.  He told her that he had not disposed of Meong Oh’s body.

The body had just been found by the police.

Dong Eun had now left her work at the school.  She went to see her mother to evict her but her mother is drunk and unrepentant of all the bad things she did to her daughter.  Knowing that Dong Eun has a pathological fear of fire and yet she set the apartment on fire and demanded Dong Eun to apologise to her otherwise she will leave her in the apartment.

Dong Eun just smiled and told her mother that they should die together.

Episode 14

Wow, it is winding up nicely.

Se Ra was out of prison and raging to get her revenge on Yeonjin.

The body of Meong Oh had been found near where bullied Sohe died 17 years ago.  Park Yeon Jin went to Jeon Jae Jun to convince him to cover for her and that after the dust has settled they would live together as a family with their daughter.

This was Jeon Jae Jun’s dream but now he felt rather abhorred by the woman he loved for many years.

He called Ha Do Young and gave him the recording of Yeonjin with Meong Oh.  They both knew that Yeonjin was the one who killed Meong Oh.

Jeon Jae Joon told Ha Do Young to divorce Yeon Jin immediately as he doesn’t want Ye Sol to have a murderer as a mother.

Detective Shin gathered all his money ready to immigrate abroad but he got a last phone call from Yeonjin’s mother.

He was being driven by the mother when a body fell on the car.  It was Kang Hyun Nam’s husband pushed by the woman from the overpass.  The detective was worried and annoyed as the mother used him as a witness for a blatant murder.

The woman who pushed Kang Hyuh Nam’s husband was the shaman that Yeonjin’s mother relied on for fortune telling and bringer of good luck and warnings.

The woman was just going back to her house when she noticed a woman hidden in an umbrella.  It was Dong Eun.

Episode 15 – 16

Ha Do Young told Park Yeonjin to go speak to Sohee’s mother and accept her punishment otherwise they would divorce.

Park Yeonjin said she has nothing to apologise for, Sohee slipped and fell.  Ha Do Young was shocked and said Park Yeonjin was indeed at the scene of the crime.

Kang Hyun Nam went to identify her husband’s body.  She was crying and laughing all the way to his funeral at sea.

Yeonjin’s mother came to see her offering to settle the case out of court but Kang Hyun Nam laughed and said not to bother her anymore.

The mother was confused why the widow was laughing.

But then when she got home, the mother saw a woman waiting by the garage door.  The woman was Dong Eun who said that she knew the mother killed Kang Hyun Nam’s husband.  It was planned.

Dong Eun gave the mother two choices, first give her the evidence of Yeonjin killing Sohee or she will go to the police and tell them that the mother killed Kang Hyun Nam’s husband.  A choice of saving her own skin over her daughter’s.

Because it is a mother-like-daughter, it was a no-brainer.  The mother sold out her own daughter and gave Dong Eun whatever she wanted.

What I love most about this drama is that the ending was not rushed.  All the I’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed.  And it was not a cop out ending to the nasty characters.  They all got what they deserved without a token redemption because the lead has turned magnanimous.  Nope, it was evil begets evil🤣🤣🤣. More satisfying😭😭😭

How did the different characters end?

Park Yeon Jin ended up in prison and everything and everyone dear was lost to her.  Though she actually did not kill Son Myeong Oh, she went to prison for the double murder of Sohee and Myeong Oh.

It turned out Kim Gyeong Ran was at Siesta when Myeong oh was attacked by Park Jeon Jin.  When Park Jeon Jin left thinking that she had killed Myeong Oh, Kim Gyeong Ran went to see what had happened. She found Myeong Oh still conscious and asking for help. Because she was also a victim of bullying from the group previously, she picked the bottle that Park Yeon Jin used and finished off Myeong Oh with it.

Lee Sa Ra was so annoyed with Choi Hye Jeong for reporting Myeong Oh’s disappearance to the police because Myeong Oh’s disappearance became murder and drug-related.  So in her anger, she stabbed Choi Hye Jeong with her long hairpin on the neck.

Lee Sa Ra was arrested and so was her parents who were embezzling money from their religious cult.

Choi Hye Jeong was taken to the hospital but Jeon Jae Joon dumped her when she felt so pathetic as she can’t speak because of her injury.

Dong Eun visited her.  She encourages Choi Hye Jeong to take her revenge.   She left a vial with a needle and syringe for Choi Hye Jeong to use on Jeon Jae Joon.

So when Choi Hye Jeong was back on her feet, she went to Jeon Jae Joon’s apartment to collect her things.  While in his bathroom, she emptied his eye drop bottle and transferred the liquid from the vial given to her by Dong Eun.

So while Jeon Jae Joon was driving, he squirted eye drops into his eyes.  He then went blind and somehow ended up on a construction site.

He was teetering on the edge of the building when someone pushed him down into a floor where the cement flooring is still liquid.  He drowned in the cement mixture and will be part of the ground floor.  The man who pushed him was wearing a tie.

A tie just like what Ha Do Young was wearing on the way to the airport with young Ha Ye Sol in their new life in the UK.

As to Kang Hyun Nam, she found that her quiet life is boring so when she got a call from Dong Eun to go work for her, she grabbed the chance.

Yes, it is a happy ending for Dong Eun and Joo Yeo Jung.  They teamed up to punish the wicked.

 

 

The End