Lee Moo-saeng ,Shin Ye-eun's rediscovery in the box office success of 'The Glory'

The passionate performances of the actors in the Netflix series 'The Glory' are a hot topic every day. Above all, the transformation of actors who shed their existing images and replace them with completely new faces is being 'rediscovered'. At the center of the play is Song Hye-kyo, who quietly but fiercely pursues revenge, but what gave strength to this narrative was the passionate performances of actors who gave goosebumps, from child actors to brief special appearances.

'The Glory', which was released on the 30th of last month, is a work that depicts the story of a woman, Dong-eun Moon (played by Song Hye-kyo), whose soul was broken by violence in her childhood, who risked her entire life to carefully prepare for revenge, and the people who fall into the vortex. It is the first genre work by writer Kim Eun-sook, who wrote 'Lovers in Paris', 'Secret Garden', 'Goblin', and 'Mr. Sunshine', and actress Song Hye-kyo, who played 'Mello Queen'. This is the two people's reunion 6 years after 'Descendants of the Sun'.

The fact that it is Song Hye-kyo's first genre work and a revenge drama raised both expectations and concerns. However, 'The Glory', which was unveiled, was so proficient that these concerns were for naught. The emotions that waver with anger behind the eerie yet sad, calm expression were completely expressed without any dialogue. The scenes where the perpetrators were friendly called ‘Yeonjin-ah’ and ‘Jaejun-ah’ were even more frightening due to the irony of the dialogue and facial expressions. It was an unfamiliar face, but that made it even more surprising. This is because all of his acting skills so far were incorporated into ‘The Glory.’

This, coupled with the solid script, detailed directing, and the synergy of actors with no flaws in their acting, created an extremely immersive feeling that would keep you glued to the end once you started, and received a great response. Accordingly, it is ranked first in Korean streaming in the TV show category, beating Song Joong-ki's 'The Youngest Son of a Chaebol Family', which was ranked first for 39 consecutive days, and also ranked as high as 5th in global viewership. There was also rave praise from foreign media.

At the same time, interest is growing in Ji-so Jeong, who played the younger version of Moon Dong-eun, Shin Ye-eun and Lim Ji-yeon, who played the role of the perpetrator Park Yeon-jin, and Lee Moo-saeng, who played the psychopathic serial killer Kang Yeong-cheon.

Shin Ye-eun and Lim Ji-yeon portrayed the ‘clear-eyed madman’ so well that it was hard to believe that they were their first villains. Shin Ye-eun, who has shown a bright and lovely charm so far, plays an unforgivable villain in 'The Glory' by adding viciousness to her innocent face, soft tone and profanity, and creepy smile, adding strength to Moon Dong-eun's personal revenge narrative. added. Lim Ji-yeon also increased immersion in the work with her cool expression that crushes the person below her and her accurate delivery of lines.

Lee Moo-saeng appears in the latter half of the play as the perpetrator who murdered Joo Yeo-jeong's (Lee Do-hyun) father, showing off his brief but powerful presence. In particular, even though he pretended to regret his sins and apologized in front of Joo Yeo-jeong's mother, he was unable to hold back the laughter that escaped his eyes, unlike the tears in his eyes. It was truly shocking to see that there was no trace of guilt. This is a surprising turn of events for Lee Moo-saeng, who previously earned the nickname 'Lee Moo-Saint Laurent' for his gentle and warm image.

'The Glory' ignited a syndrome craze with the start of 2023. I'm already looking forward to March when Part 2 will be released to see how Moon Dong-eun's personal revenge will punish the perpetrators.

Taeyuna, Ten Asia Reporter youyou@tenasia.co.kr