The Glory part 2 review: Deftly made thriller delivers on promises

The Glory part 2 continues Moon Dong-Eun’s revenge plan as it shifts gear into the final stages and the tormenters finally come to contend with their sins.

Story

The Glory part 2 begins with Myeong-O’s death creating rifts in the group as Dong-Eun tries to give her arch nemesis a chance to avoid all the pain she’s going to suffer through. She refuses, obviously, before launching investigative efforts of her own.

Yeon-Jin goes after Dong-Eun’s vulnerabilities and to a significant extent, exploits them to weaken her a little. However, Dong-Eun manages to defy all that can drag her down, and gets on working for the last phase of her revenge plan.

The in-fighting between the group of bullies starts to tear them apart, as they all suffer losses in their professional and personal lives. Dong-Eun finally exacts her revenge on Yeon-Jin, but the time comes for her to aid one of her biggest support systems throughout her ordeal.

In the process, Dong-Eun finds love, good people, and a reason to live.

Performances

Song Hye-Kyo continues to play the lead with a dexterity that only comes with the experience of a seasoned professional. Even when she’s nothing but a straight face with only subtle inflections of the facial muscles to spare, she’s articulate in what she needs to communicate.

Dong-Eun’s tortured past has rendered her emotionless for the most part, with a perennially stern expression sitting on her face, eyes that glower with rage, and a smile that appears mostly out of snark. That only makes the increasingly frequent moments near the end of The Glory that see her emoting genuinely.

Playing the antagonist to the aforementioned actor’s role in the show, Lim Ji-Yeon delivers a performance worth all the praise.

A truly diabolical character, Ji-Yeon’s Yeon-Jin is great at offering an enemy who inspires every real emotion in the viewer, no matter how animated and mustache-twirling their deviousness may come across sometimes.

Positives

The Glory part 2 resumes Dong-Eun’s revenge quest with a somewhat similar pace as the first part, albeit the finality of events this time makes the experience much more gratifying and cathartic.

The acting talent in the cast adds a major plus point as the highs and lows of the emotional turmoil at the story’s center can’t be portrayed better.

The biggest strength of The Glory is its characters, who are all compelling in their own rights, as they inspire a varied range of emotions through their relatable, grounded, toxic, and wholesome ways.

Negatives

There are certain characters who end up feeling unnecessarily crammed into an already busy narrative handling so many central characters and subplots.

With the amount of suffering that the antagonists put Dong-Eun through, their turn at the pain and misery ends up feeling somewhat tamer than expected, which might detract from some of the potentials for catharsis.

Verdict

The Glory part 2 is a successor worth holding on to the edge of the seat for, with a varied range of emotions to inspire. Great acting elevates a material already compelling enough and makes the payoffs at the end all the more cathartic.

The Glory part 2
The Glory part 2 review: Deftly made thriller delivers on promises 1

Director: An Gilho

Date Created: 2023-03-10 13:30

Editor's Rating:
4

Also Read: The Glory part 2 ending explained: Does Dong-Eun get her revenge?

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