The enduring theme of revenge

• Published date: 09 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

From the last several weeks up to now, Netflix's Korean drama "The Glory" has been very popular. I heard about it, so I searched for it on my smartphone. I clicked one video clip of that drama inadvertently on the video sharing platform YouTube with no idea what I would be drawn into. It was not intentional, it was totally inadvertent behavior for me.

Upon clicking the video, I became so absorbed in the drama of "The Glory" that I could not sleep that night. I found myself thinking deeply about many figures in that drama, sympathizing and empathizing with them. I was very impressed by the incredible ability of the drama writer as well as actors and actresses.

Usually I would not watch or have much interest in soap operas or dramas aired on TV, as most of them simply describe stereotypes and cliches, or are just extreme trash. However in this case, what stood out to me about "The Glory" was that some of its stories were based on real incidents of school bullying and violence recently reported by the media. Those cruel and horrific stories were beyond imagination. It is hard to believe that such terrifying things take place at regular schools.

No wonder most people would want to see the culprits brought to justice and severely punished. On top of that, everyone would want to see action taken against such heinous criminals even if they are teenagers. Sadly, it is not a coincidence that nowadays there are many dramas and movies depicting teenage bullying and crimes. We can see and hear of many such crimes happening in the mass media. We know that we are not supposed to take bloody vengeance on criminals nor are we in a position of judging and punishing...