Song Hye-kyo, 'The Glory' that made people laugh at prejudice and controversy

《Taeyuna’s Listening Bodbo》
Reporter Tae Yu-na and Ten Asia will properly cover all aspects of the drama based on what she heard and saw on the spot. We will be the eyes and ears of readers in an era where dramas are flooding in on numerous channels.

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This is the birth of a masterpiece. And at the center of it all is Song Hye-kyo. Quietly but powerfully, the prejudices, controversies, and entrenched images were all at once destroyed. Song Hye-kyo's face in the Netflix original series 'The Glory' is not only new but also surprising.

'The Glory', which was released on December 30, is a drama that depicts the story of a woman whose soul was broken by violence in her childhood, who risks her entire life to carefully prepare for revenge, and the story of those who fall into the vortex. This is a work in which writers Kim Eun-sook and Song Hye-kyo reunite six years after ‘Descendants of the Sun.’

Song Hye-kyo was given the nickname 'Mello Queen'. Her beautiful appearance, fatal charm, and sweet chemistry with the male leads led to the success of her works. Especially recently, there have been concerns and prejudices that only similar characters are played while portraying the cool romance of a successful career woman.

However, in 'The Glory', a revenge drama and her first genre work, Song Hye-kyo completely succeeded in showing a new face that she has never shown since her debut. Song Hye-kyo, who played the role of Moon Dong-eun, who suffered severe school violence in high school and was brought to the brink of death, risking her entire life to plot revenge for a long time, conveyed numerous emotions with a seemingly indifferent expression. The emotions that waver with anger behind the eerie yet sad, calm expression were completely expressed without any dialogue.

Also, the narration, which calls the perpetrator Park Yeon-jin (played by Lim Ji-yeon) in a friendly manner as 'Yeonjin-ah', is more creepy than any other line. The line that appears most frequently in the narration, as if reading a diary or speaking one's inner thoughts, is 'Yeonjin-ah'. The sight of Moon Dong-eun singing Happy Birthday to Park Yeon-jin on the rooftop caused even more goosebumps due to the irony of her lines and facial expressions.

Above all, in 'The Glory', Song Hye-kyo fully captured the character's difficult years with her raw skin. As a character who has been running for 16 years just for revenge, eats gimbap for his meals and even suffers from malnutrition, the dullness and fine wrinkles that come with age are revealed through realistic skin expression. Song Hye-kyo's face, after applying color makeup, contained a colorless coolness instead of colorfulness.

And this appearance made people laugh at those who had been attacking Song Hye-kyo over the 'skin correction controversy'. Before the release of 'The Glory', Song Hye-kyo was suspected of blocking the release of unretouched photos and videos of herself. Netflix posted a year-end message video of actors who appeared in works released this year, but it was deleted and then modified, and this was said to be due to Song Hye-kyo's unedited photo. The reason the character poster was re-uploaded was because of Song Hye-kyo's editing, and there were even rumors that she was requesting that photos from the production presentation site be edited as well. But this is not all true.

As if to prove this, Song Hye-kyo showed off her perfect presence in 'The Glory' with just her acting skills alone, without any skin correction.

'The Glory' is a combination of Song Hye-kyo's strong performance, writer Kim Eun-sook's solid script, director Ahn Gil-ho's detailed direction, and the synergy of actors who have no flaws in their acting. Once you start, the feeling of immersion is so great that you will keep driving until the end.

Accordingly, 'The Glory' successfully regained the top spot in Korean streaming in the TV show category, defeating 'The Youngest Son of a Chaebol Family' starring Song Joong-ki, which ranked first for 39 consecutive days. It also ranked 5th in global viewership. As favorable reviews pour in for 'The Glory' and Song Hye-kyo, expectations for Season 2, which will be released in March, are also growing.

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