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From Wikipedia: “The Glory” is a South Korean streaming television series written by Kim Eun-sook and directed by Ahn Gil-ho. Song Hye-kyo, Lee Do-hyun, Lim Ji-yeon, Yeom Hye-ran, Park Sung-hoon, and Jung Sung-il round out the ensemble cast. Part 1 was released on Netflix on December 30, 2022, and Part 2 was released on March 10, 2023. Genre: revenge, melodrama, murder mystery.
In the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards (TV Drama Categories), “The Glory” won the following awards: Best Actress - Song Hye Kyo; Best Supporting Actress - Lim Ji Yeon; Best TV Drama.
Two days after its release, “The Glory” ranked ninth globally on Netflix’s TV shows category. On its third day, it reached fifth place on the most watched shows on Netflix worldwide. The series debuted at number three on the Netflix’s Weekly Global Top 10 in non-English tv show category for the week December 26 – January 1, with 25.41 million hours viewed and subsequently ranked number one of the same list in the following week, January 2–8, accumulating 82.48 million viewing hours.
The series now ranks among the top 10 all-time Non-English TV series at #9 with 289.24 million hours watched in the first 28 days of release.
Writing for Forbes, Joan MacDonald praised Song Hye-kyo for her “nuanced portrayal of Dong-eun” as well as Jung Ji-so who played teen Dong-eun, and wrote “The Glory features a fair share of unexpected plot twists, veering the story from almost horror to melodrama to murder mystery.”
How I wrote these episode summaries with no spoilers
1. I assumed that you will be reading these summaries and watching the videos chronologically.
2. I narrated some of the main actions in each episode without revealing the plot’s twists and turns.
3. At the beginning of each summary starting with Part 1, Episode 2, I placed in a table a recap of the major twists and turns of the previous episode. But because you have already watched the video of the previous episode, they aren’t spoilers anymore.
4. I followed this structure all throughout, except for Part 2, Ep. 8 (Finale) where I included spoilers. Reason — most people want to know if the drama has a good/happy ending or a sad ending before they invest the time in watching it.
Part 1, Episode 1
2022 ... After moving into her new apartment, Moon Dong-eun puts up on a wall the pictures taken from newspapers, magazines, and social media of the people who bullied her during her high school days. She imagines exacting her revenge and erasing the smug look on the face of Park Yeon-jin, the bullies’ leader.
2004 ... As a 17-year old high school student, Dong-eun’s life becomes a nightmare when she gets bullied by her fellow students Park Yeon-jin, Jeon Jae-joon, Choi Hye-jeong, Lee Sa-ra, and Son Myeong-oh. After she reports the bullying to a police station, Teacher Kim Jong-moon arrives at the station and presents himself as her legal guardian.
When the bullying doesn’t stop, Dong-eun applies to drop out of school, citing the bullying as her reason. But afraid of being sanctioned by the principal, Teacher Kim Jong-moon orders her to change her reason for wanting to drop out.
Part 1, Episode 2
| Part 1, Ep. 1 recap:
Yeon-jin and the other bullies use a curling iron and a flat iron to burn Dong-eun’s arms and legs. The school nurse offers to help Dong-eun report the bullying but backs out after finding out that the bullies are led by Yeon-jin. In front of the other teachers, Teacher Kim Jong-moon beats up Dong-eun. Later, he asks Dong-eun’s mother to change the reason for Dong-eun’s request to drop out to “maladjustment” in exchange for a large amount of money from Yeon-jin’s mother. Abandoned by her mother, Dong-eun does odd jobs, first at a small restaurant and later at a textile company. In despair, she thinks of taking her own life by drowning herself in the Han River. But she changes her mind and determines instead to take revenge against Yeon-jin and the other bullies; she confronts them at the gym. After passing the GED, Dong-eun qualifies for college and later graduates with a degree in education. In Semyeong, she becomes the teacher of Yeon-jin’s young daughter. |
2012 ... With the help of Seong-hee, her friend from the textile company, Dong-eun monitors on social media what Yeon-jin and the other bullies are doing. Myeong-oh is active on social media, posting pictures of his tattoos; Sa-ra is a painter; Hye-jeong is a flight attendant; Jae-joon runs a luxury items store as he waits to inherit his father’s golf course. Yeon-jin, meanwhile, is getting married to the CEO of Jaepyeong Construction.
Coming from a tutoring job, Dong-eun faints on the street and is taken to a hospital. On the bed next to hers, she sees a young man with bruises on his face.
2015 ... Dong-eun passes the teacher qualification test.
2021 ... Dong-eun pieces together the connection between Chairman Kim Shin-tae, who has donated over 30 billion won to the Semyeong Foundation, and someone named Cho Su-yeon. Later on, she goes to Jae-joon’s luxury items store.
Part 1, Episode 3
| Ep. 2 recap:
Dong-eun asks Song-hee if her friends are willing to kill for her revenge. Later, at a bookstore, she reads a book on Go (Korean chess); on the aisle behind her is Ha Do-yeong, Yeon-jin’s prospective husband, who’s also reading books on Go.. The young man with the bruises on his face is Joo Yeo-jeong, an intern in the hospital. After studying Dong-eun’s medical chart, he goes to her college and befriends her; he also teaches her how to play Go. Later on, however, Dong-eun disappears without saying goodbye. Jae-joon berates Myeong-oh and hits him for stealing part of the marijuana meant for Sa-ra. On the other hand, Yeon-jin finds out from her husband Ha Do-yeong that Hye-jeong badmouthed her; she and Sa-ra humiliate Hye-jeong for pretending to own lots of fashionable clothes. In Jae-joon’s store, Dong-eun offers Myeong-oh a way of getting back at Jae-joon, Yeon-jin, and Sa-ra. Later, she meets her sunbae, who’s the son of Teacher Kim Jong-moon. Dong-eun rents a unit in an apartment that overlooks Yeon-jin and Ha Do-yeong’s mansion. As she has been doing for the past several months, she checks the garbage bins of Chairman Kim Shin-tae’s house for whatever discarded documents she might find. When the housemaid catches her and says that she has taken pictures of her rummaging through the garbage bins, she offers her money. But the housemaid says that she wants help in having her husband killed. |
Dong-eun hires Kang Hyeon-nam, the housemaid, to dig up information on Chairman Kim Shin-tae, Yeon-jin, and the other bullies.
From some of the pictures provided by Hyeon-nam, Dong-eun remembers how Jae-joon beat up one of their classmates in high school.
In his golf club, Jae-joon meets a member who wants her friend to be accepted into the club; the friend turns out to be the mother of Ha Do-yeong, Yeon-jin’s husband.
At a Go club, Ha Do-yeong meets Mr. Choi, who has worked out the administrative problems with Jaepyeong Construction’s new project. He also sees Dong-eun playing for money against an old man. At home, he becomes intrigued on why Dong-eun dragged out the game when she had already clearly won.
On the train from Semyeong, Dong-eun and Yeo-jeong meet again.
From the video taken by Hyeon-nam, Dong-eun finally realizes what the connection is between Chairman Kim Shin-tae and Cho Su-yeon.
Note: The video clips below might contain some spoilers that could ruin your viewing of the full episode.
Part 1, Episode 4
| Part 1, Ep. 3 recap:
Dong-eun finds out that Ha Ye-sol, Yeon-jin’s daughter, is possibly Jae-joon’s child because she and Jae-joon are both color blind. She also finds out that Cho Su-yeon is Chairman Kim Shin-tae’s chauffeur and male lover. Yeo-jeong is now a plastic surgeon at the hospital where his mother is the director. Dong-eun visits Teacher Kim Jong-moon and surprises him by telling him who she is and that she’s now a teacher herself. Teacher Kim Jong-moon is mortified when his son arrives and Dong-eun calls him sunbae. When Myeong-oh threatens to throw her off from the rooftop, Dong-eun reminds him that it was exactly how So-hee, one of their high school classmates, died. After Myeong-oh gives her several strands of hair, she says that once she has confirmed her suspicions, she will give him the evidence he can use to extort money from the person who killed their classmate. Dong-eun blackmails Chairman Kim Shin-tae into getting her assigned to the Semyeong school district and becoming Ye-sol’s homeroom teacher. During the alumni awards ceremony at their former high school, Dong-eun meets Yeon-jin, Jae-joon, Sa-ra, and Hye-jeong. As Yeon-jin receives her award, she looks uneasily at Dong-eun. |
Dong-eun leaves Yeon-jin and Jae-joon stunned when she alludes to his color blindness.
Jae-joon orders Myeong-oh to find out all about Dong-eun. Meanwhile, at the hospital, an intern gossips with a nurse about how Yeo-jeong’s father, the former hospital director, was murdered by a patient.
Yeon-jin rushes to Semyeong after finding out that Dong-eun is her daughter Ye-sol’s new homeroom teacher. Later, as she walks away from Dong-eun, she gets the message in her group chat that Teacher Kim Jong-moon is dead.
At a restaurant, Dong-eun meets someone from her high school days and remembers So-hee, who was bullied by Yeon-jin and her friends and later died in an apparent suicide.
Part 1, Episode 5
| Part 1, Ep. 4 recap:
To the stunned surprise of Dong-eun’s sunbae, Teacher Kim Jong-moon uses the flowers that Dong-eun brought to beat her up. After pushing his father into the house, Dong-eun’s sunbae finds out from Dong-eun what his father did when she was a high school student and that she’s planning to publicize it. Later on, he refuses to help his father as he collapses to the floor. The mop haired Teacher Chu Jeong-ho becomes suspicious that Dong-eun and Chairman Kim Shin-tae are having an affair. Dong-eun threatens Yeon-jin that whatever school Ye-sol transfers to, she will also transfer to that school. Myeong-oh gives Dong-eun the journal of Sa-ra’s drug transactions and the info on the man Hye-jeong is currently interested in. In return, Dong-eun confirms that Jae-joon has a love child. Following up Dong-eun’s lead, Myeong-oh finds out that the body of So-hee has been kept in storage at a mortuary because her parents wouldn’t pay the bills, believing that she was murdered. As he leaves the mortuary, he passes by Yeo-jeong. After finding out from Hyeon-nam that Do-yeong has been frequenting the Go club, Dong-eun goes there and baits him into playing with her. |
At a convenience store, Do-yeong gives Dong-eun his business card and asks if they can play Go again.
Hyeon-nam tells Dong-eun that she may be able to steal Hye-jeong’s phone. When they meet one evening, she also reports that Yeon-jin’s mother and a man have been visiting the same shaman every two weeks. But Dong-eun warns her not to tail the man.
Yeon-jin finds out from the principal that Dong-eun personally knows Chairman Kim Shin-tae; she sweet talks him into allowing her to look at Dong-eun’s CV. As she confronts Dong-eun in her classroom, the mop haired Teacher Chu Jeong-ho passes by and sees them.
Yeon-jin pleads with Do-hyun to send Ye-sol to study abroad; she also asks him to help her meet Chairman Kim Shin-tae.
Part 1, Episode 6
| Part 1, Ep. 5 recap:
The man who goes with Yeon-jin’s mother to the shaman is the police officer who helped Yeon-jin when Dong-eun reported the bullying during their high school days; he’s now a senior superintendent general. Dong-eun secretly sends Ye-sol’s toothbrush to Jae-joon. Later, she threatens Sa-ra that if she doesn’t fill up a big duffel bag with US dollars within 15 days, she will expose her use of illegal drugs. After Hyeon-nam gives her Hye-jeong’s phone, Dong-eun decides to meet Yeo-jeong. She tells him that what she needs isn’t a prince but an executioner who can help her in the hunt. Sa-ra becomes outraged over Dong-eun’s demand for money, but Yeon-jin tells her that Dong-eun isn’t looking for a bribe. While they’re talking, Jae-joon isn’t concerned about Dong-eun but keeps asking questions about Ye-sol. When Myeong-oh says that the “memento mori“ tattoo on his neck is Latin for “death is inevitable,” Dong-eun says that during their high school days, he used to cover up only part of his tattoo, showing only “me mori.” After Dong-eun tells him who killed So-hee, Myeong-oh becomes flush with money and decides to book a one-way trip to Vladivostok. While trying on a fur coat, he calls up Hye-jeong and asks her out on a date. But somewhere, someone batters the side of his face, and he collapses to the floor. |
Yeo-jeong tells his mother (the hospital director) that he’s resigning from the hospital to establish a private practice in Semyeong.
At the shaman’s house, Yeon-jin’s mother tells her that she will take care of Dong-eun; she also tells her to look at the present, not in the past, for the solution to her problems. Later on, Yeon-jin pressures Chief Shin Yeong-jun to hurry up with his investigation into Dong-eun.
At the school, as Dong-eun scrolls through the pictures on Hye-jeong’s phone, Teacher Chu Jeong-ho walks up to her; he smirks as he sees a picture of a young man in the phone and says that he thought she was interested only in older men.
Dong-eun finds out from Hyeon-nam that she can’t find Myeong-oh anywhere. On the other hand, as she tends to a wound on her foot, Yeon-jin finds out from their group chat that Jae-joon’s house has been ransacked, Sa-ra can’t find Myeong-oh, and Hye-jeong is looking at engagement rings.
Hyeon-nam frantically warns Dong-eun that someone’s following her. Dong-eun speeds up, but the person following her chases after her. After making a hard right turn, she hits her brakes, and the car of the person chasing her slams into her car.
Note: The video clip below might contain some spoilers that could ruin your viewing of the full episode.
Part 1, Episode 7
| Part 1, Ep. 6 recap:
The two men who were following Dong-eun demand money from her for the damage done to their rental car; after getting Dong-eun’s phone number, they say that they will call her. Later on, when Dong-eun questions Hyeon-nam why she was following her, Hyeon-nam explains that she was following Jae-joon who was watching Ye-sol in school. When Dong-eun passed by in her car, she saw the two men following her. Jae-joon fails to contact either Myeong-oh or Yeon-jin; he surprises Hye-jeong when he tells her that he could be Ye-sol’s father. Do-yeong gets an envelope via express delivery; inside it are Myeong-oh’s business card and a picture of him and Dong-eun at the convenience store. Failing to contact Myeong-oh, he visits Jae-joon at the golf club. As they’re talking, he notices that Jae-joon and Yeon-jin have the same brand of cigarettes. Hye-jeong gets an envelope by express delivery; inside it are pictures of her, Jae-joon, and Myeong-oh. The DNA test result confirms that Jae-joon is Ye-sol’s father. While enduring her craving for drugs, Sa-ra paints what looks like a woman’s high-heeled shoe; on the floor of her studio is the duffel bag full of money. Meanwhile, someone wearing heels similar to that of Yeon-jin’s rushes out of the room where Myeong-oh lies dead. Dong-eun reveals to Yeo-jeong that she was bullied and her plans for revenge. When Yeo-jeong tells her that she’ll ruin her life if she seeks revenge, she takes her clothes off to show him the burn marks all over her body. Aghast by what the bullies did to Dong-eun, Yeo-jeong tells her that he will be the executioner she needs. |
Yeon-jin sees Do-yeong looking at her wedding picture with her friends Jae-joon, Sa-ra, and Hye-jeong; after Do-yeong asks about Myeong-oh, she searches the GPS records in his car and finds out that he went to Jae-joon’s golf club.
Director Park Sang-im (Yeo-jeong’s mother) finds out that the man who murdered her husband has been sending threatening letters to Yeo-jeong.
While accompanying Hyeon-nam’s daughter Sun-a to a college assessment center, Dong-eun gets a text message from the men who crashed their car into her car as they were chasing her.They tell her to place the money in a storage locker in a bus terminal.
Yeon-jin barges into Jae-joon’s house. After seeing Jae-joon’s text giving Myeong-oh’s address to Hye-jeong, she calls him up demanding to know if he met Do-yeong. But Jae-joon hangs up on her, saying he’s busy; as he looks out his car window, he sees Ye-sol walking home from school with her nanny.
Hye-jeong asks Yeon-jin and Sa-ra if they got a call from Myeong-oh a day or two before he disappeared. But Yeon-jin and Sa-ra both become evasive.
As Hyeon-nam reports on where the men went after taking the money from the storage locker, Dong-eun remembers what she told Myeong-oh about who killed So-hee and what she wanted in return for this information.
Part 1, Episode 8
| Part 1, Ep. 7 recap:
In Semyeong, Yeo-jeong imagines himself stabbing Kang Yeong-cheon, the man who murdered his father. When Ye-sol hesitates in crossing the street, Jae-joon realizes that like him, she’s color blind. Later on, he consults a lawyer on how he can gain custody of Ye-sol. Dong-eun plans to use the money from Sa-ra to send Hyeon-nam’s daughter Sun-a to study abroad. Hyeon-nam reports to Dong-eun that the men who took the money works for Chief Shin Yeong-jun, the man who goes with Yeon-jin’s mother to the shaman house. Dong-eun told Myeong-oh that Yeon-jin killed So-hee; she saw So-hee’s body after it crashed to the ground from the rooftop, with So-hee clutching Yeon-jin’s name tag. She told Myeong-oh that he can have all the money he can extort from Yeon-jin, and all she wanted was a record of Yeon-jin’s confession. After having an OB-GYN check-up that her prospective mother-in-law demanded, Hye-jeong goes to a temple to give her the results. But she’s shocked to find out that her prospective mother-in-law is friends with Dong-eun. Jae-joon chokes Yeon-jin, demanding to know why she didn’t tell him that Ye-sol is his daughter. After he kisses her passionately, she kisses him back. During the fathers-only open class, Do-yeong is surprised to see Jae-joon inside Ye-sol’s classroom. He’s even more surprised when Dong-eun walks into the classroom and introduces herself to the fathers as their children’s homeroom teacher. After telling Do-yeong that he knows what Dong-eun looks without her clothes, Jae-joon asks if he has ever had anything taken away from him. |
Hye-jeong pleads with Dong-eun not to tell her prospective mother-in-law about everything that happened during their high school days.
At the school, Jae-joon asks Do-yeong if he has gotten hold of Myeong-oh. But Do-yeong replies that he doesn’t need to see Myeong-oh anymore. Later, Jae-joon confronts Dong-eun, warning her not to do anything to Ye-sol.
Do-yeong asks Yeon-jin if Dong-eun is the teacher whom she wanted to get kicked out of school. But Yeon-jin pleads with him not to open a box that should stay closed; she promises that she’ll make sure that nothing inside that box will ever come out into the world and that she’ll protect Ye-sol.
As Yeon-jin prepares for a broadcast, Jae-joon calls her up. At the TV studio’s parking lot, he tells her to file for divorce so that he can be Ye-sol’s father.
At home, as Yeon-jin frantically wipes her green stiletto heels with hydrogen peroxide, she gets a call from Chief Shin Yeong-jun.
Part 2, Episode 1
| Part 1, Ep. 8 recap:
At the temple, Dong-eun orders Hye-jeong to report Myeong-oh’s disappearance to the police. Hye-jeong reveals to Do-yeong how Yeon-jin abused Dong-eun during their high school days. Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s men keep Dong-eun’s mother under surveillance. Hye-jeong admits to Sa-ra and Jae-joon that it was her who reported Myeong-oh’s disappearance to the police. Sa-ra becomes outraged because she’ll be the first person who the police will question; as she starts pulling Hye-jeong’s hair, Jae-joon remembers something and walks out. Based on Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s report, Yeon-jin is stunned that Dong-eun has been living in the apartment complex in front of her and Do-yeong’s mansion. Yeo-jeong finds out that the locker in the mortuary that’s supposed to hold So-hee’s body is empty. Meanwhile, after talking with Dong-eun at the Go plaza, Do-yeong finds Yeon-jin inside Dong-eun’s apartment. |
Flashback ... As he ransacks Jae-joon’s closet and steals his luxury watches, Myeong-oh calls up Sa-ra, who’s stealing all the money from a safe; he asks her why she didn’t do anything when So-hee died. He then calls up Jae-joon and threatens to expose his shady business deals if he doesn’t transfer bitcoins into his wallet; he also mentions that he (Jae-joon) was Yeon-jin’s alibi when So-hee died.
Present times ... As Yeon-jin and Do-yeong confront each other inside Dong-eun’s apartment, Dong-eun watches them through a CCTV camera that she installed on a book shelf. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Yeo-jeong finds out that on his father’s orders, So-hee’s body was hidden in the freezer, rather than in the morgue.
When a police detective questions him about Myeong-oh’s disappearance, Jae-joon says that, with a crazy look in his eyes, CEO Han Do-yeong of Jaepyeong Construction was looking for Myeong-oh.
At a coffee shop, Dong-eun confronts Yeon-jin with the video of her breaking into her apartment, copies of the police incident report and her dropout form, and pictures of the burns all over her body. She gives her one last chance to turn herself over to the police and confess everything that she has done.
Note: The video clips below might contain some spoilers that could ruin your viewing of the full episode.
Part 2, Episode 2
| Part 2, Ep. 1 recap:
Do-yeong finds pictures of Ye-sol at an eye clinic and of Jae-joon talking with Ye-sol. At the TV station lobby, Yeon-jin’s assistant panics when she sees Dong-eun. As Yeon-jin and Dong-eun walk off to a coffee shop, she fumbles with putting Yeon-jin’s clothes into the car. When she stoops to pick up a dress she dropped, the burns on her forearms can be seen. Yeon-jin begins to think and feel that Jae-joon, Sa-ra, and Hye-jeong are turning against her when they become evasive about So-hee’s death. She goes to the rooftop and remembers how, in fighting with So-hee, she pushed her off the rooftop. Dong-eun talks with the police detective who’s investigating Myeong-oh’s disappearance and reveals how she manipulated Myeong-oh through Yeon-jin’s fake name tag. (When she was in high school, she had anonymously submitted Yeon-jin’s name tag to the police, hoping that they would reopen the investigation into So-hee’s death. But Chief Shin Yeong-jun suppressed the evidence and gave the name tag to Yeon-jin’s mother.) The police detective says, however, that she doesn’t have any real evidence against Yeon-jin and her involvement in Myeong-oh’s disappearance. Yeon-jin’s mother has kept the genuine name tag all these years in a highly secure safe. Dong-eun asks the former school nurse to hide and keep safe Yoon-hee’s autopsy report; the report, which she got from a chance encounter with So-hee’s mother in 2011, shows that So-hee was eight weeks pregnant when she died. Through the picture of Hyeon-nam’s abusive husband on Dong-eun’s wall and the report from Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s men, Yeon-jin tracks down Hyeon-nam. |
Do-yeong confirms to himself that Yeon-jin and Jae-joon had an affair.
Yeon-jin smacks Hyeon-nam around and threatens her daughter Sun-a if she doesn’t do everything she’s told to do. Later, Hyeon-nam and her daughter Sun-a rush out of their house, get into the car, and drive off into the night.
After failing to contact Hyeon-nam, Dong-eun calls Hye-jeong and tells her to get Yeon-jin to visit Yeo-jeong’s clinic. As she ends her call, one of her co-teachers warns her that somebody’s messing with her car in the parking lot.
While leaving the police station, Chief Shin Yeong-jun sees that his men are being led into the station after having been arrested for illegal gambling.
After finding out that Hye-jeong’s new Hermès bag came from Do-yeong, Yeon-jin confronts him about taking Dong-eun’s side. But Do-yeong punches the tabletop in anger and says that he’ll only take Ye-sol’s side.
Note: The video clip below might contain some spoilers that could ruin your viewing of the full episode.
Part 2, Episode 3
| Part 2, Ep. 2 recap:
Yeon-jin bribes Dong-eun’s mother to get Dong-eun kicked out of the school. Dong-eun’s mother subsequently creates scenes at the apartment complex and in the school. While Dong-eun and her mother are talking inside her apartment, Dong-eun’s landlord tends to the Devil’s Trumpet flowers on her veranda. After agreeing with Hyeon-nam on what to do next with Yeon-jin, Dong-eun brings Sun-a to the house of the former school nurse; she tells her that she’ll be safe in the US and that she should study hard there. Jae-joon finds out from his employee at his luxury items store and from the CCTV footage that Do-yeong visited the store several days ago. Do-yeong meets Dong-eun in a hotel in Seoul. When Dong-eun takes off her jacket, Do-yeong, the hotel concierge, and some people are shocked to see the numerous burn scars on her body. At the clinic, Yeo-jeong puts Yeon-jin under anesthesia and makes her talk about how she met Myeong-oh and how she smashed the side of his head with a wine bottle. |
Flashback ... Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s men clean up the room where Yeon-jin killed Myeong-oh. After throwing his cellphone into a river, they dispose of his body.
Yeon-jin frantically staggers out of Yeo-jeong’s clinic; meanwhile, at the Seoul hotel, Dong-eun asks Do-yeong to leave Yeon-jin.
Yeon-jin’s mother finds out that Yeo-jeong is looking for So-hee’s body and that So-hee’s body is in the freezer rather than in the morgue. She becomes even more concerned when she learns that Myeong-oh also visited the mortuary.
Hye-jeong tricks Jae-joon’s chauffeur into giving her the tablet that Myeong-oh showed to her before. On the other hand, Jae-joon pays an IT expert to recover the CCTV files from the reformatted hard drive.
On the day that Sun-a is supposed to leave for the USA, Hyeon-nam waits for Dong-eun’s go-ahead before leaving for the airport. But Yeon-jin and Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s men have already tracked her down.
Part 2, Episode 4
| Part 2, Ep. 3 recap:
To Dong-eun’s disappointment, Do-yeong says that he won’t leave Yeon-jin. Chief Shin Yeong-jun asks one of his police officers to research whatever laws a hospital may have broken by keeping a dead body inside a freezer for several years now. When Yeon-jin demands to know why he was spending time playing Go with Dong-eun and accuses him of practically cheating on her, Do-yeong retorts that he has not inquired into her affair with Jae-joon. Yeo-jeong tells Dong-eun that he can get rid of most of the scars on her body. But Dong-eun replies that it’s pointless. Hye-jeong finds on the tablet an audio recording of Myeong-oh’s fateful meeting with Yeon-jin. Hyeon-nam’s abusive husband blackmails Yeon-jin’s mother. As he follows her along a busy street after texting her, Dong-eun passes by them. As an insurance policy, Chief Shin Yeong-jun doesn’t burn or bury Myeong-oh’s body; he bribes the caretaker of an abandoned funeral home to keep Myeong-oh’s vacuum sealed body in storage there. Unknown to him, however, Dong-eun and Yeo-jeong are on their way to the funeral home. |
Flashback ... Dong-eun and Yeo-jeong find Myeong-oh’s body inside the mortuary of the abandoned funeral home. Later, Yeo-jeong asks Dong-eun if there’s a way she can get Yeon-jin into his clinic.
Yeon-jin panics when Hyeon-nam reports to her that the man Dong-eun is seeing is the plastic surgeon who did a procedure on her and whose family owns the Seoul Joo General Hospital.
After rushing to Ye-sol’s school, Jae-joon confronts the mop haired Teacher Chu Jeong-ho; he gets the SD card from Teacher Chu Jeong-ho’s camera and uses the camera to beat him up. After Ye-sol sees what’s happening, she calls up her father Do-yeong.
Hyeon-nam gaslights her abusive husband that the daughter of the woman whom he has been blackmailing killed two people. As her husband rushes off, she sees Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s men watching from across the street.
The police officer who’s conniving with Chief Shin Yeong-jun tells Director Park Sang-im (Yeo-jeong’s mother) that a civil complaint has been filed against the hospital; he says that the hospital could have been conducting illegal experiments on the corpse and demands that the corpse be transferred back to the morgue.
Sa-ra goes berserk when her parents refuse to let her go to the Netherlands and insist that she go into rehab.
The parents of the children in Dong-eun’s homeroom class accuse her of accepting bribes. Later, she finds out that her mother has numerous new luxury bags and clothes.
Note: The video clip below might contain some spoilers that could ruin your viewing of the full episode.
Part 2, Episode 5
| Part 2, Ep. 4 recap:
Finding out from Dong-eun that Teacher Chu Jeong-ho is a sex pervert who preys on children, Jae-joon beats him to a bloody pulp. On the police station parking lot, later on, he engages Do-yeong in a fistfight as he claims that Ye-sol is his child. Director Park Sang-im (Yeo-jeong’s mother) stands firm and tells the police officer that the hospital will not move So-hee’s body from the freezer. Kim Gyeong-ran, Jae-joon’s employee at his luxury items store, keeps in her closet the wine bottle that Yeon-jin used to kill Myeong-oh. Dong-eun gets heroin and a hypodermic needle from Song-hee’s acquaintances. Before the start of the worship service, she sends Sa-ra pictures of the heroin, which she placed on a basement chapel. After using the heroin, Sa-ra hallucinates about Myeong-oh and does some sexual acts, which the shocked church members record on their phones. Dong-eun posts on the Internet allegations of school violence against “Weather Forecaster A.” |
After social media explodes with speculations that “Weather Forecaster A” is none other than Yeon-jin, Do-yeong’s legal team at Jaepyeong Construction meets with Yeon-jin to plan how to prevent the company’s stocks from free falling in value. Meanwhile, Sa-ra is brought in for questioning by the police.
Jae-joon is surprised when the IT expert says that nothing can be recovered from the CCTV hard drive because it’s a brand new drive, not a reformatted drive. Later on, Hye-jeong plays for him the audio recording of Myeong-oh meeting Yeon-jin.
Dong-eun confronts Kim Gyeong-ran about how she knows that Myeong-oh is dead and that Yeon-jin killed him. She advises her not to stand in her way.
Yeon-jin’s mother sees a man along the street; she hurriedly goes into her driveway but then gets a text message saying that Yeon-jin killed not one but two people. The next day, as she rushes into the shaman house, she bumps into Hyeon-nam.
Hye-jeong visits Sa-ra in jail and tells her not to expect Yeon-jin or Jae-joon to visit her. She also says that the scandal over whether Yeon-jin is “Weather Forecaster A” has cooled down because of a new scandal that her painting exhibitions were just a cover for tax evasion.
At the house, Dong-eun sees Yeo-jeong’s collection of scalpels and knives. Meanwhile, Yeo-jeong goes to Cheongson Prison and asks a former army comrade to help him get a job there.
Note: The video clip below might contain some spoilers that could ruin your viewing of the full episode.
Part 2, Episode 6
| Part 2, Ep. 5 recap:
Yeon-jin ordered Kim Gyeong-ran to change the CCTV hard drive with a new drive. Hye-jeong plays for Jae-joon the audio recording of Myeong-oh meeting Yeon-jin at his house. But the recording is incomplete. Jae-joon offers to marry Hye-jeong as part of his plan to gain custody of Ye-sol. Yeon-jin’s mother wants the shaman to curse to death the man who has been blackmailing her. At Cheongson Prison, Yeo-jeong meets the man who killed his father. He promises the man that he will return and create for him a hell that he will live in for the rest of his life. Chief Shin Yeong-jun finds out that the abandoned funeral home has been sold; the caretaker tells him that he should move the body that he placed in the morgue. The police officer who’s investigating Myeong-oh’s disappearance goes to the TV station and asks Yeon-jin her whereabouts the day Myeong-oh disappeared. Later, when she wants the investigation stopped, Chief Shin Yeong-jun asks her for enough money to buy a house in Hawaii. When she refuses, he reveals that Myeong-oh’s body has not yet been buried. Myeong-oh’s body is found on the street in front of an abandoned building. After resigning from her school, Dong-eun orders her mother to leave her apartment. But her mother refuses to leave and threatens to follow her wherever she goes. As they argue and shout at each other, her mother sets fire to the apartment. |
Chief Shin Yeong-jun orders his sister to sell his motel, empties the safe of all his cash, and tells his men to continue working with Yeon-jin. Meanwhile, Yeo-jeong goes to Dong-eun’s apartment and sees the damage caused by the fire.
After being temporarily released from jail, Sa-ra remembers a cellphone video she took of Yeon-jin and So-hee.
After seeing the statement of the mother of the student bullied by “Weather Forecaster A,” Do-yeong asks Dong-eun if the mother’s claim that her daughter died after falling off from a roof is true. Dong-eun replies that it depends on whether he want to know the truth or to bury it.
Yeon-jin visits Jae-joon at his office and blames Dong-eun fot everything that has been happening; she also tells him that So-hee’s body is in Seoul Joo General Hospital.
In her walk-in closet, Yeon-jin notices something missing from the handbag that she used the last time she met Chief Shin Yeong-jun. Meanwhile, at his luxury items store, Jae-joon gives Do-yeong a copy of the audio recording of Myeong-oh and Yeon-jin.
Yeon-jin’s mother takes the one billion won from her secure safe and then asks someone to call and set up a meeting with Hyeon-nam’s abusive husband.
Note: The video clip below might contain some spoilers that could ruin your viewing of the full episode.
Part 2, Episode 7
| Part 2, Ep. 6 recap:
At the abandoned funeral home, Chief Shin Yeong-jun is shocked to see that Myeong-oh’s body is missing. In anger, Yeon-jin smashes her handbag against the table numerous times, detaching her handbag’s fancy ornament and sending it flying into a corner. Myeong-oh’s body is found in front of the building where So-hee fell off to her death. Sa-ra’s cellphone video shows Yeon-jin bullying So-hee on the street for wearing the same clothes as hers. Yeo-jeong is surprised when Dong-eun’s landlord tells him that Dong-eun saved her life. Later on, when he asks Dong-eun about it, she says that if she can’t save her own life, she could’t have saved anybody else’s life. Dong-eun gives Do-yeong the name and address of So-hee’s mother. Jae-joon tells Do-yeong that Yeon-jin killed Myeong-oh using an expensive bottle of wine as a weapon. He tells him to divorce Yeon-jin and give up custody of Ye-sol. Yeon-jin’s mother stages the death of Hyeon-nam’s abusive husband as a vehicular accident and forces Chief Shin Yeong-jun to be her witness. Dong-eun catches up with the shaman to whom Yeon-jin’s mother entrusted the one billion won and the name tag. Meanwhile, at the abandoned funeral home, Yeo-jeong gives Yeon-jin the missing fancy ornament from her handbag. Flashback ... Using her lighter, Yeon-jin burns part of So-hee’s clothes. As they struggle, she pushes off So-hee, who falls off from the roof. Acting on Dong-eun’s tip, the police officer investigating Myeong-oh’s disappearance gets the lighter from the evidence room and brings it to the National Forensics Service for DNA testing. At the shaman house during a ritual, Yeon-jin becomes stunned when the shaman turns to her and says that she’s So-hee. As she turns around, realizing that her mother murdered the man she claimed to have accidentally hit with her car, she sees Dong-eun. |
Chaos erupts at the shaman house when the shaman collapses and dies.
Do-yeong gives Yeon-jin an ultimatum — meet So-hee’s mother and accept her punishment; if not, their marriage ends right then and there. When Yeon-jin refuses and denies having killed So-hee, he orders his lawyer to file his petition for divorce and to send Ye-sol to the UK.
Dong-eun blocks Yeon-jin’s mother from going into her driveway; she tells her to surrender Yeon-jin’s name tag to the police.
Yeon-jin holds a press conference where she admits being a bully. But she sends the reporters into a frenzy when she says that So-hee was pregnant and chose to end her life rather than have the baby. Later on, she goes to Myeong-oh’s funeral wake to confront Sa-ra; when she arrives, she sees Sa-ra and Hye-jeong fighting with each other.
Part 2, Episode 8 (with spoilers)
| Part 2, Ep. 7 recap:
Yeon-jin resigns from the TV station after Sa-ra posted the video of her bullying So-hee. At Myeong-oh’s funeral wake, Sa-ra stabs Hye-jeong on the neck with her pencil. Hye-jeong survives but, with her vocal cords damaged, loses her ability to speak. Jae-joon is the father of So-hee’s baby. While at the laundromat, Dong-eun remembers how she met her landlord back in 2004; she was working at a public bath when she gently reminded an elderly woman not to do her laundry there. One of her fellow employees told her that the elderly lady owned the building nearby and had just lost her son who was hit by a drunk driver. Sa-ra is charged for attempted murder while her father, the pastor, is arrested for embezzling tens of billions of won from the church offerings. Dong-eun sets up Yeon-jin to witness how her mother betrays her by handing over the name tag to her. She deflates both Yeon-jin and her mother by saying that the name tag could not have been used as evidence because it was found some time after So-hee and the place where she died had been processed by the police forensics unit. Dong-eun asks Yeo-jeong why he had listed himself as the legal guardian of So-hee’s mother even before they met on the train. |
Yeo-jeong tells Dong-eun that he found out that she and So-hee knew each other when he followed her to the mortuary after she ran away from him in the emergency room.
With Dong-eun’s advice, Hye-jeong spikes Jae-joon’s glaucoma eyedrops. Later on, after finding out that Ye-sol has been transferred to a school abroad, Jae-joon’s vision becomes blurry, and a dump truck smashes into his car.
Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s men turn against him, try to break open his safe, and hammer him to death.
Yeon-jin is arrested after the police forensics team find bloodstains on the floor where Myeong-oh died and the bottle of wine that she used as a murder weapon.
Yeon-jin’s mother is arrested for the murder of the man (Hyeon-nam’s husband) who was blackmailing her.
Dong-eun invites Yeo-jeong to go to the ocean. They spend some happy time near the lighthouse. While at a convenience store to buy some more beer, Yeo=jeong gets a text message from Dong-eun saying goodbye.
Flashback ... Kim Gyeong-ran heard the commotion between Myeong-oh and Yeon-jin inside the fitting room. Looking at the monitor for the CCTV cameras, she sees Yeon-jin at the parking lot. As she opens the door of the fitting room, she sees the bloody Myeong-oh crawling towards her. When he grabs her foot, she flashes back to the time when Myeong-oh molested her. She grabs the wine bottle and strikes him on the head.
On the rooftop from where So-hee fell to her death, Dong-eun thinks about ending her life. As she teeters on the ledge, she hears someone calling for help. It’s Yeo-jeong’s mother.
Six months later, 2023 ..
Yeo-jeong becomes the medical officer in Jisan Prison, where his father’s murderer has been transferred.
Dong-eun calls up Hyeon-nam and offers her a job as her assistant.
Historical / cultural backgrounders and other information
1. 2006 Cheongju Curling Iron Case - Real Story Behind “The Glory”
2. “#MeToo-style reckoning over school bullying rocks South Korea” (NBC, March 2021)
South Korea has been rocked in recent years by high-profile deaths of students following severe bullying by schoolmates. Suicide has been the No. 1 cause of death among adolescents in the country for eight consecutive years, according to a government report last year. Bullying and violence in school are understood to be one of the biggest reasons for the high suicide rate.
2. “Of kids bullied at school, 1 in 3 targeted ‘as a joke’: survey” (The Korea Herald, January 2020)
The most common reason behind the bullying was “just as a joke” (29.4 percent). Some 19.2 percent of the bullying took place “for no special reason” or “because the victims’ behavior and appearance were weird” (14.7 percent).
3. “S. Korea struggles to save students from bullying” (AsiaOne)
School bullying is grabbing national attention after a 15-year-old student killed himself early this month, listing the names of schoolmates who allegedly abused him for two years. It was the 14th suicide believed to be caused by bullying in Daegu in less than two years.
Nearly 1 in 10 students at Korean primary and secondary schools has suffered from various forms of violence at the hands of their peers, according to a survey by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
4. “Past school bullying claims spread like wildfire to S. Korean entertainment scene” (Yonhap News Agency, February 2021)
Starting from professional volleyball, the recent school bullying scandal has now engulfed the South Korean entertainment scene, with names of a number of K-pop stars and film and TV actors making headlines across the country.
5. YouTube videos on bullying in South Korean schools
Lessons in photography from “The Glory” with in-depth analysis of its visuals, cinematography, and editing
Index: A. (1) Visual symbolism of the cross created by the light streaming through the gym curtains behind the young Dong-eun; (2) Part 1, Ep. 4: Dong-eun crawls away from Yeon-jin towards the “cross” — Kim Eun-sook’s most powerful symbolism of the futility of believing in religion or believing in a Deity or deities? B. The most brilliantly composed shot in the whole drama? Part 1, Ep. 1: Dong-eun comes back to the gym to confront Yeon-jin and the other bullies — visual cue and foreshadowing; C. This drama’s techniques of depicting or reinforcing emotional or psychological tension, showing a character in crisis or coming to a decision, or depicting a pivotal moment: (1) breaking the 180-degree rule or crossing the line; (2) shooting against the light with or without lens flares (a character is shot with the sun or a light source behind him/her); (3) handheld shots/shaky cam; (4) from long siding to short siding or vice-versa; (5) pan, tilt, pedestal, arc shot, rock focus to reveal another character in the scene, thus changing the scene’s dynamics; D. Visual cues (characters are framed within doors or windows to depict or reinforce their emotional or psychological tension); E. Transitions; Match dissolves; J-cut: most commonly used editing transition in this drama; F. Miscellaneous observations: (1) Song Hye-kyo’s standard clause in her contracts requiring the use of ALEXA cameras in filming her; (2) Central framing; (3) Camera roll to depict or reinforce Hyeon-nam’s terror at the prospect of being beaten up again by her abusive husband; (4) The symbolism of shoes in the movies; (5) Bokeh; (6) Wide angle shots to show Dong-eun opening up emotionally?; (7) Nitpicking observations about (a) Yeon-jin being filmed from behind during critical scenes, (b) the unimaginative transition from young Dong-eun to adult Dong-eun, and (c) the sometimes confusing editing.
A. (1) Visual symbolism of the cross created by the light streaming through the gym curtains behind the young Dong-eun; (2) Part 1, Ep. 4: Dong-eun crawls away from Yeon-jin towards the "cross" — Kim Eun-sook’s most powerful symbolism of the futility of believing in religion or believing in a Deity or deities?
“The Glory” has numerous religious symbolisms (Eden Apartments, Devil’s Trumpet, serpents, etc.) and dialogues such as that of Dong-eun in Part 1, Ep. 6: “Once upon a time, I believed in all the gods. I kneeled in front of them, praying for salvation. I was like a patient with a terminal illness, latching onto the smallest bit of hope. That’s when I realized that God doesn’t exist; we are all just pretending.”
Christianity’s most easily recognizable symbol is the cross. In the following images, you can see the cross created by the light streaming through the gym curtains.
(1) Myeong-oh drags Dong-eun towards Yeon-jin.
(2) The young Dong-eun confronts Yeon-jin and the other bullies.
In Part 1, Ep. 4, Dong-eun is brutalized yet again by Yeon-jin and the others. She starts crawling on her hands and knees towards the gym door — towards the “cross” — to escape. But due to her injuries, she collapses and fails to reach the door. Notice the cross-shaped pattern of the light streaming through the gym curtains.
From “10 Brilliant Symbolism Examples: Symbolism in Screenwriting”:
Symbolism is a device used across literature, art and film. But arguably, film is one of the art forms where symbolism can have the most powerful effect. Films can contain symbolism examples that express complex hidden meanings and stay with the audience long after the film has finished.
Relevant resource: “What is Symbolism? Definition, Examples in Literature & Film” (Studio Binder)
B. The most brilliantly composed shot in the whole drama? Part 1, Ep. 1 Dong-eun comes back to the gym to confront Yeon-jin and the other bullies — visual cue and foreshadowing.
You can see in the picture below that the students in the gym are divided into two groups. The group on the left is composed of Yeon-jin, Jae-joon, and Sa-ra; the group on the right is composed of Dong-eun, Myeong-oh, Hye-jeong, and Kim Gyeong-ran. The blue line on the gym floor is a visual cue that depicts the conflict or division between the two groups, between the haves and the have-nots. The blue line dividing the two groups also foreshadow the time when, through Dong-eun, Myeong-oh, Hye-jeong, and Kim Gyeong-ran will turn against Yeon-jin.
(I will discuss “visual cues” in more detail below.)
Relevant resources:
“25 Times Movies Foreshadowed What Would Happen, And Yet We Had No Inkling At All” (BuzzFeed)
“20 Ingenious Moments Of Foreshadowing In Films” (Buzzfeed)
“What is Foreshadowing — Definition, Examples in Film and Literature” (Studio Binder)
C. This drama’s techniques of depicting or reinforcing emotional or psychological tension, showing a character in crisis or coming to a decision, or depicting a pivotal moment: (1) breaking the 180-degree rule or crossing the line; (2) shooting against the light, with or without lens flares (a character is shot with the sun or a light source behind him/her); (3) handheld shots; (4) from long siding to short siding or vice-versa; (5) pan, tilt, arc shot, rock focus to reveal another character in the scene, thus changing the scene’s dynamics.
(1) Breaking the 180-degree rule or crossing the line to depict or reinforce emotional or psychological tension, or to signify a change of “beat”:
I discussed in detail what breaking the 180-degree rule aka crossing the line is in my discussion titled How “My Liberation Notes” used “breaking the 180-degree rule” aka “crossing the line” to create emotional or psychological tension in a brilliant scene from Ep. 8.
Here are two examples of breaking the 180-degree rule from “Heat” (blockbuster 1995 action movie starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro) and from “Parasite” by Bong Joon-ho.
In the “Heat” scene, the character played by Robert De Niro (a big-time bank robber) is in a bar when a woman starts making small talk with him. He is frame left while the woman is frame right. He becomes suspicious about the woman but lightens up a bit later when the woman explains that she has been seeing him in the bookstore. To signify that change in the scene’s mood (aka “beat”), the camera breaks the 180-degree rule or "crosses the line" such that Robert De Niro’s character becomes frame right while the woman becomes frame left.
In Part 2, Ep. 7 of “The Glory,” Dong-eun asks Yeo-jeong why he had listed himself as the legal guardian of So-hee’s mother even before they met on the train (Part 1, Ep. 3). At the beginning of the OTS (over the shoulder) shot, Dong-eun is frame left while Yeo-jeong is frame right. The camera trucks (moves parallel) to the right such that Dong-eun becomes frame right.
(2) Shooting against the light, with or without lens flares — a character is shot with the sun or a light source behind him/her — to depict or reinforce tension, crisis, or to indicate a pivotal moment:
Perhaps the clearest example of this technique is in Part 2, Ep. 5. Dong-eun finds the letters that the killer has been sending to Yeo-jeong, describing how much he enjoyed killing Yeo-jeong’s father. As the camera pedestals up, the sunlight behind her blooms.
Part 1, Ep. 1: Dong-eun meets Ye-sol for the very first time. The bright sunlight obscures Dong-eun’s face; as the camera arcs clockwise, there are lens flares and then we have a clear view of her face.
Part 1, Ep. 4: Myeong-oh decides to help Dong-eun in her revenge against Yeon-jin.
Part 1, Ep. 7: Yeo-jeong is comforted by the sound of medicine dissolving in a glass of water. Apparently, this was caused by his suicide attempt of trying to drown himself. Notice the ball of light above and behind him.
Part 1, Ep. 2: Dong-eun meets Do-yeong in the university for the first time after they met in the hospital. Notice the lens flare that’s created because the camera is shooting against the light.
Part 1, Ep. 1: The young Dong-eun reports the bullying to the police station. To her surprise, Teacher Kim Jong-moon arrives and presents himself as her legal guardian.
Part 2, Ep. 6: Yeo-jeong is surprised when Dong-eun’s landlord tells him that Dong-eun saved her life.
The flashback scene in Part 2, Ep. 7 is perhaps the best image from “The Glory” where shooting against the sun or the light source is used to indicate a pivotal moment. We can see Dong-eun sketching the houses, with no burn scars on her legs and arms. The sun shines brightly in the background while her sneakers and uniform are drying in the foreground. Things become dreary when after meeting her friend Gyeong-ran in the hallway, she’s shown now with burn scars. She tries to help Gyeong-ran, who walks away from her.
(3) Handheld shots or shaky cam:
From “The Handheld Shot in Film — Definition and Examples” (Studio Binder):
What is a handheld shot?
A handheld shot is a shot taken with the camera being supported only by the operator’s hands and shoulder. Handheld camera work entails camera shake from the operator’s movements. According to the hand held camera definition, the shot relies only on the operator’s body. However, over time as cameras have evolved and grown, operators have utilized a few rigs to achieve the same effects of a handheld shot.
Depending on the camera’s weight and size, operators also utilize minimal rigs such as a shoulder mount or easy-rig to ease the physical burden of an operator as well as give them more control over the amount of camera shake.
Why is a handheld shot used?
- To establish subjectivity
- Heighten intensity or chaos
- Create intimacy between the characters
Part 1, Ep. 5: At the church, Dong-eun mocks Sa-ra’s belief in God; Sa-ra retorts that Dong-eun is being blasphemous.
Part 2, Ep. 2: After so many years, Dong-eun’s mother comes back into her life; notice that as the camera focuses on Dong-eun, the camera is shaky or wobbly.
Part 1, Ep. 7: Yeon-jin barges into Siesta’s fitting room to confront Jae-joon. But Jae-joon has already confirmed through DNA testing that Ye-sol is his child.
Part 1, Ep. 8: Dong-eun tells Hyeon-nam that they have to send Sun-a to the US for her own safety.
Part 2, Ep. 6: Yeon-jin is unnerved when the shaman seems to have been possessed by So-hee’s spirit.
Part 2, Ep. 6: After being unnerved by the shaman, Yeon-jin turns around and sees Dong-eun.
Part 2, Ep. 5: After having been forced to resign from her teaching job, Dong-eun confronts her mother. Notice that the shakiness of the camera is much more obvious.
Relevant resource: “The 15 Best Movies Shot With a Hand Held Camera”
(4) From long siding to short siding or vice-versa:
In my analysis of the cinematography of “A Business Proposal” and “Healer,” I pointed out several shots where the character is at first long sided (with looking space or nose room) and then becomes short sided. In “The Glory,” there are several shots where a character subtly goes from being long sided to being short sided, or vice-versa.
Part 1, Ep. 2: On a river bank, Dong-eun thinks about her planned revenge against Yeon-jin through her unborn child (Ye-sol). From being short sided, she becomes long sided.
Part 1, Ep. 4: Dong-eun speaks sternly with Ye-sol and her classmates about not bullying others. From being short sided, Ye-sol becomes long sided.
(5) Pan, tilt, pedestal, arc shot, pull out, or rack focus to reveal another character in the scene or to reveal the setting, thus changing the scene’s dynamics:
From “How filmmakers manipulate our emotions using camera angles and movement”:
The effect of the pan and tilt is most often to guide our eyes and attention towards a certain aspect of the scene. Because it’s often revelatory in nature, it tends to build a certain kind of anticipation in us as we subconsciously ask ourselves “What’s about to happen?”
Part 1, Ep. 7: Yeo-jeong tells his therapist that he will no longer see her because she failed to cure him. The camera then arcs counterclockwise around him to reveal his father’s killer on the sofa beside him.
Part 1, Ep. 2: At Siesta, Myeong-oh tries on a hat and looks at himself on the mirror. When the camera arcs clockwise around him, the mirror then shows Dong-eun’s reflection as she tries out the high heeled shoes similar to that of Yeon-jin’s.
Part 1, Ep. 8: The camera pans right, showing Myeong-oh; as the camera then pulls out, we see Hye-jeong and then Dong-eun (in her very first meeting with the bullies). As Dong-eun turns around, Yeon-jin enters the frame.
Part 2, Ep. 5: Yeo-jeong visits his friend, who’s the medical officer of Cheongson Prison. When he hears someone calling his name, he turns. The camera pushes in on him and then pans to the left to reveal that it’s his father’s killer who called him.
Part 2, Ep. 6: Under the rain, the shaman rushes back to her sanctum. When her assistant notices someone else there, the camera pulls out to show partially someone watching them from afar. In the next shot, the camera pedestals down and then pushes in to show that it’s Dong-eun.
Part 2, Ep. 7: Dong-eun wants to pay the hospital fees for storing So-hee’s body in the freezer all these years. But the doctor tells her that the fees have already been paid for. As she leaves, the camera pushes in on the doctor and then pans right to reveal that Director Park Sang-im (Yeo-jeong’s mother) is also in the room. This scene sets up the meeting between her and Dong-eun on the rooftop in Part 2, Ep. 8.
Part 2, Ep. 8: Dong-eun stands precariously on the edge of the rooftop, thinking of ending her life. But then she hears the voice of someone from behind her. When she turns around, she’s in focus, while the background is out of focus. When she becomes in focus and the background becomes in focus, she sees Director Park Sang-im (Yeo-jeong’s mother).
Part 1, Ep. 8: The camera tilts down, showing the facade of Eden Apartments; at the end of the tilt, we can see Yeon-jin standing in front of the apartment complex.
Part 1, Ep. 4: Hyeon-nam monitors Hye-jeong inside the bus. After making her call, Hye-jeong notices the reflection on the bus window of someone watching her. As she turns around to see who it is, the camera whip pans to the right to show Hyeon-nam snoring.
Part 1, Ep. 1; As she has done in the past, Seong-hee tiptoes to the room so as to avoid distracting Dong-eun who’s studying on the bench. But she stops on her tracks; the camera pushes in on her and, as she walks on, the camera pans left to show an empty bench.
Part 1, Ep. 2: Do-yeong sits down after picking out some books on Go. The camera pulls out and then seems to truck (move parallel) to the bookcase, revealing Dong-eun, who’s also reading books on Go.
Part 2, Ep. 4: After Hyeon-nam’s husband hurriedly leaves her in the clothing store, the camera trucks (moves parallel) to the right to reveal the reflection on the glass window of Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s men.
Part 2, Ep. 3: The camera zooms in on a street and then whip pans to the left to reveal that Chief Shin Yeong-jun’s men are watching Hyeon-nam’s house.
D. Visual cues (characters are framed within doors or windows to depict or reinforce their emotional or psychological tension):
“Visual cues” are explained in an excellent series of articles from “My Drama List” by someone with the username “3GGG.”
“Popular Visual Cues found in K-Dramas, Part 1: visual ways to establish a conflict, division, or fight between two or more characters”
“Popular Visual Cues in K-Dramas, Part 2: boxing to establish a character’s vulnerability, solitude, or fear; comfort and respite; change; danger; showdown”
“Popular Visual Cues in K-Dramas, Part 3: Dutch angle”
“Popular Visual Cues in K-Dramas, Part 4 Interpersonal cues (using cues simultaneously or one after another)”
The YT video “The Brilliant Cinematography of Parasite” by Thomas Flight (5:04 mark) shows how director Bong Joon-ho used lines to depict the division between the social classes, between the rich family and the poor family.
Part 2, Ep. 8: Yeon-jin is serving her sentence for killing So-hee and Myeong-oh. In a foreshadowing of her mental breakdown, she’s boxed in by the steel bars of the window.
Part 2, Ep. 8: Jae-joon becomes angry at the parents for not immediately telling her that Ye-sol is no longer enrolled in the school.
Part 2, Ep. 6: At the police station, Chief Shin Yeong-jun walks away after being forced to testify that the death of Hyeon-nam’s husband was an accident.
Part 2, Ep. 6: Yeon-jin is cornered like a rat in the abandoned funeral home.
Part 2, Ep. 6: Chief Shin Yeong-jun and Yeon-jin are dumbfounded to find out that Myeong-oh’s body is missing from the abandoned funeral home.
Part 2, Ep. 6: After sending off his wife to safety, Chief Shin Yeong-jun gets a threatening phone call from Yeon-jin’s mother.
Part 2, Ep. 5: Ye-sol looks on perplexed as Dong-eun walks away after resigning from the school.
Part 1, Ep. 4: After finding out that Dong-eun is her daughter Ye-sol’s new homeroom teacher, Yeon-jin rushes back to Semyeong.
When two or more people are boxed in within a single frame, it could mean either conflict or unity, depending on the context.
Part 1, Ep. 2: Dong-eun is boxed in by the glass window of the door in the computer room where she’s digging into what’s happening to Yeon-jin and the other bullies.
Part 1, Ep. 2: Dong-eun studies the shredded documents that she found in the garbage bins in front of Chairman Kim Shin-tae’s house.
Part 2, Ep. 7: After finding out that Yeo-jeong had listed himself as the legal guardian of So-hee’s mother even before they met on the train, Dong-eun walks towards the hospital exit (where she meets Yeo-jeong).
Part 2, Ep. 4: Yeon-jin’s mother gets a text message from the blackmailer.
Part 2, Ep. 4: Sa-ra goes berserk when her parents refuse to let her go to the Netherlands and insist that she go into rehab.
Part 2, Ep. 4: Dong-eun warns Yeon-jin that she has posted the report of bullying committed by "Weather Forecaster A."
Part 2, Ep. 3: Dong-eun refuses Yeo-jeong’s offer to use his medical expertise to remove the burn scars from her body.
Part 2, Ep. 3: Ye-sol throws her computer into the bathtub after realizing that she can’t distinguish between colors.
Part 2, Ep. 3: Sun-a embraces and thanks Dong-eun for sending her to school in the USA.
Part 2, Ep. 3: Hyeon-nam anxiously waits for Dong-eun’s call that it’s safe for her to go to the airport to see Sun-a off.
Part 2, Ep. 3: The relationship between Yeon-jin’s mother and Chief Shin Yeong-jun begins to crack as the pressure mounts.
Part 2, Ep. 2: Yeo-jeong begins to carry out his plan to make Yeon-jin talk about what happened to Myeong-oh.
Part 2, Ep. 2: Yeon-jin bashes the side of Myeong-oh’s head with a wine bottle.
Part 2, Ep. 1: Do-yeong and Yeon-jin are surprised to see each other in Dong-eun’s apartment unit.
Part 2, Ep. 1: Dong-eun becomes disappointed when the police investigator says that she doesn’t have any evidence that Yeon-jin is involved in Myeong-oh’s disappearance.
Part 1, Ep. 8: Yeon-jin and Do-yeong are boxed in to depict and reinforce their conflict.
Part 1, Ep. 6: After collapsing at the garage because of PTSD, Dong-eun goes to Yeo-jeong’s house.
Part 1, Ep. 7: Dong-eun’s despair is reinforced by the window that boxes her in.
Part 1, Ep. 2: Jae-joon berates Myeong-oh for doing drugs.
Part 2, Ep. 7: Dong-eun blocks Yeon-jin’s mother from going into her driveway; she tells her to surrender Yeon-jin’s name tag to the police.
Part 1, Ep. 8: The conflict between Dong-eun and Jae-joon is depicted by the lines of the water pipe that divides them. (Notice that they’re also shot with a Dutch angle.)
E. Transitions; Match dissolves; J-cut: most commonly used editing transition in this drama:
(1) Transition by match cut or match dissolve
From “Match Cuts & Creative Transitions with Examples – Editing Techniques” (Studio Binder):
“A match cut is any transition, audio or visual, that uses elements from the previous scene to fluidly bring the viewer through to the next scene. They also have the ability to do so with both impact, and subtext. They differ from regular cuts because they provide a thematic connection between two separate events or concepts.”
The Studio Binder article also discusses the different types of match cuts:
Graphic Match Cuts — shapes, colors, compositions
Match on Action Cuts — action, movement
Sound Bridge — sound effects, dialogue, music
Relevant resources: Graphic match cuts from classic movie “Citizen Kane” by Orson Welles and Match Cut: The Art of Cinematic Technique (Vimeo)
Part 1, Ep. 1: Dong-eun and Ye-sol are framed by the steel bars of the maze in the playground. The shot cross dissolves into the shot of the teenaged Dong-eun coming home, who’s framed by the iron bars of the windows.
Part 1, Ep. 2: The shot of the shaman dancing wildly with her arms outstretched is followed quickly by the shot of Myeong-oh moving aside the gym’s curtains with his hands and arms.
(2) Transition by cuts
Part 1, Ep 2: The passing of the seasons as Yeo-jeong teaches Dong-eun how to play Go is marked by cuts of the different seasons. You’ll notice that with each image of the seasons, the camera pulls out slightly.
(3) Multiple shots stitched together, making them look like one continuous panning shot
In Part 1, Ep. 1, Dong-eun works at a small restaurant. The camera pans clockwise around the restaurant as the seasons change. (I don’t think this was done in camera; in post production, several shots were stitched together and given a cross dissolve effect.)
(4) J-cut: most commonly used editing transition in this drama
In a J-cut, the audio from the next scene begins playing even while viewers can still see the image in the present scene. For example, in Part 2, Ep. 5, as Yeon-jin raises her voice at Chief Shin Yeong-jun after he says that he didn’t bury Myeong-oh’s body, we, the viewers, hear the call from the poilce dispatcher to the police officers in their squad car to investigate a dead body that has been found on the street.
Another example: In Part 1, Ep. 2, Dong-eun and Yeo-jeong are lying near each other in the hospital. Even as we, the viewers, still see the image of Dong-eun and Yeo-jeong’s hands, we can already hear Mendelssohn’s wedding march. (In the next scene, Yeon-jin and Do-yeong have just gotten married.)
F. Miscellaneous observations: (1) Song Hye-kyo’s standard clause in her contracts requiring the use of ALEXA cameras in filming her; (2) Central framing; (3) Camera roll to depict or reinforce Hyeon-nam’s terror at the prospect of being beaten up again by her abusive husband; (4) The symbolism of shoes in the movies; (5) Bokeh; (6) Wide angle shots to show Dong-eun opening up emotionally?; (7) Nitpicking observations about (a) Yeon-jin being filmed from behind during critical scenes, (b) the unimaginative transition from young Dong-eun to adult Dong-eun, and (c) the sometimes confusing editing.
(1) Song Hye-kyo’s standard clause in her contracts requiring the use of ALEXA cameras in filming her:
The 2016 article “ALEXA in South Korea” states that Song Hye-kyo has a standard clause in her contract that she can only be filmed with an ALEXA, which is the top of the line camera brand for cinematographers.
For example, the Alexa 65 model has been used as “the primary system on over 70% of the top 100 grossing films since 2016.” Some movies that have been shot with an Alexa 65 are “Skyfall,” “Sicario,” “Blade Runner 2049,” “Roma,” and “Parasite.” (Wikipedia) For Song Hye-kyo’s drama "That Winter, the Wind Blows," an ALEXA Plus was used.
(Other things that the article discusses include the use of an ALEXA XT camera in “Scarlet Heart: Ryeo.”)
(2) Central framing aka center framing:
In numerous shots, the cinematographer center frames the character, as you can see in this GIF. (By center framing, I’m not referring to dead center framed shots like that in Wes Anderson’s movies; if the character is within the middle vertical section of the Rule of Thirds, that’s center framing.)
(3) Camera roll to depict or reinforce Hyeon-nam’s terror at the prospect of being beaten up again by her abusive husband:
In Part 2, Ep. 3, Yeon-jin mocks Hyeon-nam that her abusive husband will be coming home soon. The cinematographer uses a camera roll to depict and reinforce Hyeon-nam’s despair of failing to see her daughter off at the airport and her terror at the prospect of being beaten up again by her abusive husband.
(4) The symbolism of shoes in the movies:
We know that Yeon-jin, Dong-eun, and Hye-jeong all had the same green high heeled shoes. While craving for drugs, Sa-ra paints a huge image of a green high heeled shoe. (The opening credits also feature these shoes prominently.)
I was intrigued by what those shoes symbolized. But Kim Eun-sook has stated in an interview that the shoes don’t symbolize anything. That’s a total bummer.
Relevant resources:
“18 Shoes From Movies That Were So Iconic, They Were Basically Another Main Character”
“The Most Iconic Shoe Moments in Film”
“The symbolism of shoes in the movies”
(5) “Bokeh” (aesthetic quality of the blurred areas of a photograph): I love how the out of focus lights in the background contrast beautifully with the catchlights in Dong-eun’s eyes.
(6) Wide angle shots to show Dong-eun opening up emotionally?
In at least two shots, it seems that Dong-eun was shot with a wide angle lens. My theory is that this was the director’s way of showing that Dong-eun was opening up emotionally to the kindness and affection shown to her by Yeo-jeong and Hyeon-nam.
(7) Nitpicking observations about (a) Yeon-jin being filmed from behind during critical scenes, (b) the unimaginative transition from young Dong-eun to adult Dong-eun, and (c) the sometimes confusing editing:
(a) In the scene where Yeon-jin finds out that Dong-eun is Ye-sol’s new homeroom teacher, there’s a wide shot of Yeon-jin with her back to the camera. This shot should have been edited out.
(b) Part 1, Ep 1 shows the transition from the young Dong-eun to adult Dong-eun. At the textile plant, the adult Song-hee calls out to someone, and when that someone turns, we see the now adult Dong-eun. It’s such an unimaginative transition. I’ve seen more imaginative and memorable transitions in K-dramas such as “The Moon That Embraces The Sun,” “The Flower in Prison,” “Dong Yi,” and “A Tree With Deep Roots.”
(c) In Part 1, Ep. 2, there’s a nighttime shot of a house with the address “70 Semyeong.” The next shot, also at nighttime, shows a mansion, which we find out later on is Do-yeong and Yeon-jin’s mansion.
I thought all along that Dong-eun has been rummaging through the garbage bins in front of Do-yeong and Yeon-jin’s mansion. When Dong-eun pieced together that shredded document, I thought that Chairman Kim Shin-tae was somehow related to Do-yeong and Yeon-jin. I checked some YT reaction videos, and the reactors also had the same misconception I had, that is, Dong-eun had been rummaging through the garbage bins in front of Dong-eun and Yeon-jin’s mansion.
Also, right after we see Sa-ra painting the green high heeled shoe on her canvas, the next image we see is a shot of someone wearing green heels scurrying away from the place where Myeong-oh lies bloodied on the floor. I thought, what’s happening? Did the killer return to the crime scene? It was so confusing.
My guess is that the director and editor of “The Glory” wanted to emulate the intentionally jarring editing style of Park Chan-wook in his multi-awarded movie “Decision to Leave” (2022).
