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There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

author:How happy people are on the journey
There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars
There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

A still from "Dark Glory"

At the end of 2022, the new drama "Dark Glory" received a high score of 8.9 on Douban after it was broadcast, and became the fifth series on Netfilx's global list.

The story of this time is the story of Wen Dongen, the protagonist who has been bullied since childhood, after forbearance and lurking for many years, he uses his intelligence and patience to take revenge on the abuser. We have seen many stories of revenge, why does Song Huiqiao's new drama cause such a big response this time?

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The story begins with a long-lasting school violence: in high school, the heroine Moon Dong-eun played by Song Hye-kyo was frequently bullied by Park Yeon-jin, Lee Sarah, Jeon Jae-joon and others. They burned Wen Dongen's body with an electric hair rod, beating and humiliating her several times.

Wen Dong Eun tried to call for help from the police and the teacher, but the teacher's neglect and beating intensified the bullying. In an application for withdrawal from school, Moon Dong-eun wrote the names and actions of several abusers in the column of the reason for withdrawal, and then Park Yeon-jin's mother used money as a bargaining chip to easily persuade Moon's mother to change the reason for withdrawal to "unable to adapt".

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

A still from "Dark Glory"

In more than ten years of forbearance, Wen Dongen continued to covertly pay attention to the life and work of the abuser, and began to gradually approach their lives in his own way, and began to implement a plan of revenge. In addition to school violence, medical troubles, domestic violence, etc. are also topics discussed in this series, where the abuser finds pleasure in the victim's wounds, while the victim habitually even controls and converges his smile.

If you only look at "Dark Glory" as a cliché revenge drama on the surface, it is a waste of a lot of excavation in the play.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

Because I was warm myself, I didn't know how cold it was outside

At the meeting of "Dark Glory", screenwriter Kim Eun-sook once told reporters the story of the birth of this series. The daughter in her second year of high school asked Kim Eun-suk, "Mom, will it make your heart hurt more if I beat others to death, or will it hurt your heart more if I am beaten to death by others?" "This question is difficult to answer: the person who beats loses his humanity, and the person who is beaten loses hope in humanity. After being asked this question, Kim Eun-sook began to write the story "Dark Glory".

The school bullying at the beginning of the story is rooted in the soil of class. In Korean literary works, this is a recurring issue.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

"Parasite" stills

Kim Eun-suk, the screenwriter of "Dark Glory", Bong Joon-ho, the director and screenwriter of "Parasite", and Park Hye-young, the screenwriter of "My Liberation Journal", were all born in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century. After experiencing the historical upheaval of the 80s of the last century, they can find "breadcrumbs" on class issues in their works.

In the short story of the same name in the book "Shikawa Has a Lot of Dung", his brother Jun-sik starts as a handyman, becomes a teacher, buys a small house, and marries a beautiful woman by entering night school.

Following this step, it seems that one day he will be able to get rid of the undignified memories and life of his childhood. But the appearance of his younger brother Min-woo, who is an idealist, upsets this balance, and in front of Min-woo, his older brother Jun-shik looks vulgar.

"Why are you so righteous? How did you still fight for justice and morality at this age? Why don't you look around like me to provide for your family and fight for the workplace? What qualifications do you have to be high and above everything? ”

Jun Sik's words to Min-woo are not the roars of those who struggle on the edge of the survival line, twitching to get up and stand up, facing those who have abundant conditions and energy to think about metaphysical problems. Although there is only a word difference between life and survival, the distance between them is not easily bridged.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

A still from "Dark Glory"

"It is said that winters with temperatures higher than those of previous years are called warm winters... They are warm because they are warm, so they don't know how cold it is outside, they are relaxed, and they are innocent. Park Yeon-jin, Jeon Jae-joon and others brought burns, itching, and humiliation to Moon Dong-eun, for them, it is a pastime of a rich life, a memory that can be completely ignored, and even when she grows up, Park Yeon-jin will ask her friend Lee Sarah very suspiciously: "What did we do to Moon Dong-eun at that time?" For the group Wen Dongen represents, it is a trauma that is difficult to escape and erase.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

Relative class, absolute humanity

The first Internet celebrity in 2023 is a boy who is positioned on the short video platform in Beijing's mansion "Wanliu Academy", and some netizens refer to him as "Young Master Wanliu" in the comment area and refers to himself as "Old Slave".

Netizens don't know much about the boy in the video, but with the distinguishing label of "Wanliu Academy", you can worship a boy who has never met and does not know any other specific information like an idol, because the other party has money and status.

In the logic of flattering wealth, when social individuals look at each other, they pay attention to each other's worth and status, and people's hobbies, qualities, and morals have become unimportant, but the important part is the part that is objectified.

The villain Five in "Dark Glory" follows the same logic when bullying others: they are friendly to the rich people who buy paintings at high prices at the exhibition, and they speak ill of the assistants and clerks around them, saying with disdain: "I just spent a little money, but I became her god." ”

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

A still from "Dark Glory"

So why was Moon Dongen chosen by the abuser group to be the target of violence? Park Yeon-jin's answer in high school was: because she didn't have to bear any consequences for hurting her.

Living in a monthly rental house, my father never showed up, and my mother made the grins of male customers in the barbershop a regular thing. This status makes Wen Dongen the safest choice for violent groups, and as a vulnerable group, she will not be protected by anyone.

But if Moon Dong-eun is distinguished together with Park Yeon-jin, Lee Sarah, Jeon Jae-joon, Son Myung-woo, and Choi Hye-jeong, Moon Dong-eun, who has a poor family and no power, is obviously incompatible with the five of them, and they are two distinct groups; And when Moon Dong-eun was expelled, there was actually another class division in the original group of five abusers: Park Yeon-jin, Lee Sarah, and Jeon Jae-joon did not actually regard Son Myung-woo and Choi Hye-jeong as members of their circle, and the two looked glamorous on the surface, but they were actually climbers of class and money.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

There are hidden hierarchies in the groups of abusers. / "Dark Glory" stills

Sun Mingwu and Cui Huiting could not truly achieve a class jump due to the relationship of their original families, but they envied the life of Quan Jaejun and others who arrived in Rome as soon as they were born.

If this is not obvious in high school, when everyone wears the same school uniform, the difference in class after entering the adult world is gradually reflected: Son Myung-woo is Jeon Jae-joon's follower, responsible for chores such as driving and taking care of Jeon Jae-joon's pet dog; During a meeting, Cui Huiting stole a brand-name dress from the laundry to support the scene, and after the meeting, he found that it was Li Sarah's clothes and was ridiculed and ridiculed.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

A still from "Dark Glory"

On the ladder of classes, there is no highest but higher. When Park Yeon-jin was asked by Moon Dong-eun if her dream in the future was to become a good wife and mother, she said to everyone, including Son Myung-woo and others: "Dreams are such things, only you need them, and when you realize your dreams, I will use money to make you call." ”

From "Parasite" to "Squid Game" and "Dark Honor", the profound criticism of social class issues has become one of the most "poking" places in Korean film and television works.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

Revenge drama with female narrative

Unlike many revenge dramas that present school violence, "Dark Glory" is not a frivolous revenge drama, it shows the audience how Wen Dongen is fierce and pressing to punish the abuser group and achieve revenge, but also allows the audience to see that in order to achieve revenge, Wen Dongen must also pay for himself - this cruel and real, not as smooth and beautiful as the protagonists of other revenge dramas who turn over all the way.

In addition, "Dark Glory" is also more biased towards female narratives. In this drama, the roles played by women are contradictory and complex: Park Yeon-jin and Lee Sarah, the main abusers who left Moon Dong-eun with great physical and mental trauma, are women, but at the same time, the aunt and factory worker who helped Moon Dong-eun are also women.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

In this drama, the roles of women are complex and contradictory. / "Dark Glory" stills

In the podcast "When You Pick Up the Pen, They Become Themselves" that she talked to Zhang Li and Sangerge, Zhang Li once said when talking about women in literature:

"They are all women, and you can't generalize just because they have something in common. Every woman's perspective is determined by many things behind her, such as ethnicity, class, cultural differences, and other factors. White-collar women in big cities and women in factories have different understandings of the world and survival. ”

Gender and class issues often go hand in hand. In the originally unfair gender structure, relatively disadvantaged women can erase this injustice through the addition of capital and social status. The two female abusers in the play, as women who already enjoy vested interests, have become accomplices in evil to other women.

But we can find that screenwriter Kim Eun-sook does not only present the malice in this gender, she also presents mutual help and hope between women.

After the aunt who was subjected to domestic violence joined the revenge team, she gradually became acquainted with Wen Dongen, would joke with her and send spicy cabbage, even if she would quickly withdraw her smile, but Wen Dongen also began to be amused by her aunt; The girl who took off her shoes during her part-time job in the factory to not affect Wen Dongen's exam also became friends with Wen Dongen.

As an adult, Wen Dongen often said that he would fall into darkness, but it was precisely these moments of mutual support and mutual hope that her path of revenge did not lack signals of goodwill to the outside world.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

In the play, the nudity of the female body shows more the pain caused by the scars. / "Dark Glory" stills

In addition, visually female screenwriters also give the audience enough comfort. When confessing to the male protagonist Zhou Ruzheng that he had been hurt in the past, Wen Dongen, played by Song Huiqiao, stripped off his clothes, leaving only underwear, and scars burned by electric hair rods appeared everywhere on her body. Although there is nudity at this time, it does not make people associate with eroticism at all, and there is no uncomfortable gaze when male directors shoot women's bodies.

Not only that, the screenwriter borrowed the mouth of the male protagonist of the other gender to present the possibility of support between different genders. When Wen Dongen showed his scars to the male protagonist and asked him if these scars were ugly, the male protagonist said, "No, these are wounds."

If it only provides the thrill of revenge, "Dark Glory" may not be able to jump to the fifth place on Netflix's global list. The value of "Dark Glory" is that it shows how the victim drags the broken soul, calmly and fiercely fights in silence, showing the festering that will happen sooner or later to the evil deeds that lie in people.

At the same time, it leaves people with a precious hope, like the brilliant sunset that the aunt accidentally glimpsed when she secretly photographed the current situation of the abuser.

There are many stories of revenge, why this time Song Huiqiao's revenge drama is worth five stars

Even on the road to revenge, there is a beautiful sunset. / "Dark Glory" stills.

Author丨Zhang Wenxi

(Excerpted from WeChat public account hardcore reading club)

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