“The Glory” has taken the world by storm just 3 days after the release of Part 2, showing a much more explosive performance than during Part 1.
According to a report from FlixPatrol on March 11th, “The Glory” Part 2, which was released on March 10th, climbed to 3rd place in Netflix’s TV category after just one day of release.
As a result, interest in the official ranking of “The Glory” has increased, and as of March 14th, it has recorded 124.46 million viewing hours in three days, taking first place in the non-English Netflix TV category. In addition, the drama also recorded first place in 23 countries, including South Korea, and made it to the top 10 in a total of 79 countries.
When Part 1 was released, “The Glory” did take first place in the non-English category in just two weeks, but this was unable to confirm the series’ status as a global hit. At the time, it didn’t get much attention in Western countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, and France, which have the largest markets.
In contrast, the series received positive responses in Asia and South America, where Song Hye Kyo’s previous hit work “Descendants of the Sun” was well-received.
This seems to be largely due to the subject matter, story, and characters of “The Glory”, which
did not appeal much to Western viewers. In particular, some North American viewers found it difficult to understand why Moon Dong Eun (played by Song Hye Kyo) would dream of revenge for such a long time, given the frequent occurrences of gun violence in their nation.
However, in January when only Part 1 was released, reporter Chris Vognar of the San Francisco Chronicle praised the work, saying, “‘Visually arresting and carefully constructed, “The Glory” sharpens its central theme to a fine point, reveling in Moon Dong-eun’s maneuvers the way a heist film might delineate the steps of a grand robbery.”
After the release of Part 2, explosive reactions are coming from the Western world. In particular, it is attracting attention by ranking third in the United States and the United Kingdom, raising curiosity about the different responses compared to Part 1. At the same time, it is known that Part 2 marks the beginning of the actual revenge, while Part 1 focuses on the buildup for revenge.
Writer Quinci LeGardye of pop newspaper The A.V. Club praised Part 2 as having “can’t-miss-a-second plotting” and “can’t-look-away framing”, while Jeol Keller from Decider recommended the work, saying, “‘The Glory’ isn’t quite as dark as we anticipated it to be, there’s still a lot of moments when Dong Eun’s revenge plan is at the forefront of the action, which is where the show is at its best.”
Even if they don’t fully empathize with the Korean sentiment, it is speculated that the protagonist’s revenge against school violence perpetrators and the catharsis it brings attract more attention.
However, a common point in overseas media reviews is that there is no mention of director Ahn Gil Ho’s controversy over school violence.
In South Korea, there have been criticisms that the work’s significance has faded since director Ahn Gil Ho admitted and apologized for school violence allegations back on March 12th. Some argue that the work should be taken down due to this, but the issue has not attracted much attention in the Western world
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Decider, The A.V Club, Daum
