If you’ve opened Netflix in the past few days, chances are you’ve seen the trailer for The Glory, a Korean miniseries. Unfortunately, it will be difficult to explain the incongruities of the series, without revealing a few elements. So: spoiler alert.
Discrepancy between technology and mores
Lest the reader be surprised, let’s say it right now: the only thing I know about South Korea is food and an Instagram account of household products. I don’t know their political system, I don’t know their customs, society, etc. If you are more knowledgeable than me, it is likely that the following lines will make you jump.
South Korea is one of the more technologically advanced countries than many others. They have a real lead in technology and curiously, when you are tech, you tend to take a shortcut, namely that a technically advanced society is necessarily socially advanced. Just as we imagine that a person who has a great mastery of technologies is superiorly intelligent.
Proof that the writers did not pay attention to technical details (nor to others for that matter): towards the end of the series, there is talk of a hard drive, which would have been erased, but in reality replaced. Except that we see the Windows file explorer, which reports a single hard drive, which would have been replaced overnight. Having replaced a hard disk, on which was the operating system, I can certify that it does not take a single night to recreate an “environment” exactly identical, even having taken notes.
If we had to give something to The Glory’s credit, it’s to totally break this prejudice. In terms of customs and society, we are in ancient times.
Corruption at all levels
What is very surprising in The Glory is that there are criminal acts that are accepted, from the most “trivial” to the most serious. So, it seems completely acceptable to punch a student or walk into a teachers’ break room and beat up a teacher. The summary of The Glory talks about school bullying, except it’s not school bullying.
When you start torturing a student with a curling iron or burning her, it’s an act of barbarism. But, as the main aggressor belongs to a rich family, everyone is silent, especially the adults. Just like the police, who receive bribes, shut up, close their eyes and of course take the money.
We can be reassured by saying that it is a certain conception of authority. Slapping a store clerk is not authority. It’s being a redneck. To think that money can buy everything is deeply vulgar.
Where it gets downright silly is when one of the characters finds themselves in an awkward position because we find out they’re gay. Given the amount of criminal acts committed throughout history, why does being gay appear to be a problem?
Inconsistent story
The main concern of The Glory is that the story is neither coherent nor realistic. Moon Dong-eun, the one who was tortured, plots revenge for 18 years. Sorry, but in the real world, who does that? Who decides to dedicate their life to punishing people who have made you suffer? Especially since she doesn’t wait for purely technical questions. New technologies are used. In the real world, if we fall back on the people who made us suffer, we react in the moment. But, no one is going to spend 18 years making plans. Especially when we see how season 1 ends. All that for this ? Really ?
The other inconsistency is the relationship between Moon Dong-eun and Lee Do-hyun. The guy gets dumped all the time and yet he welcomes Moon Dong-eun into his home, takes care of her. He is in love with her and it seems that she too develops feelings over the episodes. And absolutely nothing happens. You could believe it if they were 15 years old. Not being of a romantic nature, I find it very difficult to believe that two adults, in full possession of their faculties and having an attraction for each other, can cohabit in a platonic way.
As for Jeon Jae-joon, we look at him wanting to say “but what is your problem? “. Officially, he is an heir, already wealthy. For some perfectly unknown reason, he is involved in drug trafficking and shenanigans of all kinds. On the part of Son Myeong-oh, we understand it since he does not seem to belong to a rich family. Just as we understand why Lee Sa-ra remains in the wake of others. Along with Ha Do-yeong and Kang Hyeon-nam, they are the most realistic characters.
We pass on the fact that Son Myeong-oh wants to go hide in Russia, while the story is happening in the present day or that no one is wearing a mask while the COVID continues to circulate happily. Even in NCIS they incorporated COVID into the latest season available on Prime.
Stupidity goes to Park Yeon-jin’s mother, who runs to her guru as soon as she breaks a fingernail. I freely admit that I have a rejection towards people who are totally addicted to cults and the mother is insufferable. She covers up the “mistakes” – if indeed one can speak of nonsense for acts of torture and a homicide – of her daughter, by showering all the stakeholders with money, but, at no time, does she catch her daughter by the collar to tell her “now, that’s enough”.
Overall, if you manage to overcome a certain reluctance – I had to fast forward on certain scenes – The Glory can be watched. The story doesn’t really hold up when you add up all the inconsistencies. It’s a background noise while you’re doing the dishes, but don’t expect anything more. I’ve seen boobs in horror movies that were much better built. Just as I’ve seen less unhealthy honor films, but which at least directly announced the color. The Glory is available on Netflix.