Are The Car Windows Tinted? AKA I Created an MDL Account Just to Review This

I just came from watching Signal, which for me was quite literally the greatest drama I've ever watched and if I could I would give it a 12/10. Having quite enjoyed Lee Je Hoon's acting in it and enjoyed the break from romantic themes, I searched for a drama that would hopefully produce similar results. I read through comments, choosing to disbelieve the nay-sayers because i OH-SO wanted to love this drama, but i cant, I just cant. Episode 14 is the episode that broke me.

What frustrates me so much about this series is the fact that the plot devices are SO inconsistent. Furthermore, the characters don't learn and make the same mistakes, they just aren't always caught by the plot unless it's convenient to the writer. Most of all, despite appearing so invincible and intelligent, they do things that make absolutely no sense. I want to give several examples below:

SPOILERS BELOW:
•Are the deluxe taxi's windows tinted? In every scene so far the deluxe taxi's windows were tinted pitch black. So dark that when all those news vehicles and helicopters were after it no one could see inside. So WHY OH WHY when it's convenient to the plot for the Prosecutor lady to drive by him at night to perfectly be able to look into the vehicle and see the male lead's face? It makes no sense.

•When the second female lead finally gets her hands on the cellphone of the perp who ruined her sister's life, she steps on it, crushing it. I'm just like DOES THE PHONE NOT HAVE A MEMORY CARD OR CLOUD BACKUP STORAGE? Like isn't this girl a hacker? Shouldn't she have confiscated the phone to delete the manual and cloud forms of the video as well instead of just stepping on it?! Like they literally blew up servers for that case but they couldn't do a tiny bit more due diligence? I got so upset.

•When our parallel universe batman male lead just came from saving an important character, he turned his back to the villain and got STABBED because of it. He's not wearing any protective gear despite getting stabbed several times before. THEN, RIGHT AFTER this event, he goes to save another important character (ep. 14), punches the bad guy (who is still perfectly conscious and able) and GETS STABBED AGAIN. I just want to know...IS IT SO HARD TO RESTRAIN THE BAD GUY BEFORE MOVING ON TO SAVING THE INNOCENT?

•Why are they always giving their names and identities/faces to the perps? If something goes wrong in the mission they have their identities and wont be able to know how the perps will demand retribution. Which leads me the stupidest part when Jang Sung Chul got stabbed by that other dude I was like "this man's family was murdered and he has NO home security systems?" also it didn't make sense that the guy who stabbed him didn't go for the kill, like why? There was nothing in that character's characterisation that would indicate he would spare him.


The show makes the male lead out the be this invincible character who solves all his problems by dropping bodies, but for a show with so many complexities this isn't SUPPOSED to always solve his problems and yet it conveniently always does. It's SO incredibly frustrating.

The other concern I have about this show is about the themes of revenge and philosophy of justice. It felt so lackadasical for Jang Sung Chul's character to think he had the answer to all of morality. The revenge schemes were also highly dissatisfying for me because they literally basically involved beating people up then throwing them in that makeshift prison. The reasons prisons exist is first and foremost to keep those who are harmful to society away from society. How are you going to trust a CRIMINAL to keep other CRIMINALS and think everything will be okay.

I just feel like the writer thinks this drama is smarter than it actually is, but there are SO many plot holes, philosophical holes, judicial holes, criminal holes, character-identity holes, conflict resolution holes they might as well have called this drama "HOLES."

What I Liked:
•The acting. The rag tag bunch of vigilantes had excellent chemistry together and really felt like they worked as a team. I thought they worked so well together that I actually feel invested in their relationship, despite the fact that I didn't love the story.
•The initial story--I liked the idea of a group of people coming together to support one another in a unique way which could have made for a more interesting story, but instead it just wasted a lot of potential on messiness.
•The PURSUIT of philosophy. I did NOT like at all Jang Sung Chul's moral condescending nature, but I did APPRECIATE his PURSUIT of morality and at least realising that even though the judicial system is flawed, he on his own cant be responsible for "reforming" criminals/ "fixing" them.

In any case I will probably still finish it. I might even try to watch the second season next year. But I most CERTAINLY wont be rewatching season 1.

4 stars 14.5 episodes in. Will update after finishing.

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Excellent Cast; Lackluster Story/plot

Im a lover of great stories and faithful characters. To be honest I actually quite liked the first 8 episodes of AOS part 2. It has more of a rom com vibe and i don’t really understand why the writers kept trying to input conflict into the show when that clearly isn’t their strong suit. Every major conflict the show presented was solved so easily— there was no journey, no trepidation or wondering whether things would work out, and nothing significant lost or taken from the characters. The writers literally took no risks. Even if I didn’t watch the ending I could have told you that all the bad guys die and all the good guys live… and that’s exactly what happened.

I’m completely underwhelmed with the ending of AOS part 2. There was so much bulld-up concerning so many different plot lines:
- the fire bird that’s going to destroy the whole world “oh no!”
- the evil unanimous assembly who were greedy for the ice stone even from part 1.
- Jin mu pursuing his only character trait “im evil muahahaha”
- The protection of jinyowon and powerlessness of the jin family
- naksu/cho yeon/ jin bu yeon is definitely going to die— she definitely is..the story promises it! (spoiler…she lives)

The resolutions to the plot’s “major conflicts” were all solved SO QUICKLY it made me wonder what was the point of having them as conflicts in the first place? Especially the fire bird scene, the build up of that was across the ENTIRE part 2 show yet was resolved in less than 5 minutes… its just SO underwhelming.

Even that funeral they held for the “death” of the 3 main characters was also resolved almost immediately and then never addressed again. It was just so frustrating. Because I enjoyed the first 8 episodes enough, that made watching the final 2 episodes so shockingly disappointing. Sure its a happy ending, but how can you have a “world is going to end” scenario where all the main/ “good” characters survived no problem and fight scenes were over with a overwhelmingly crushing defeat to the opposing side? I think the writers really should have just stuck to the rom com concept. Also i gave up on the plotline of naksu as a fierce strong assassin from part 1. I felt like the writers themselves just didn’t want to write a fierce female character so i’m not going to put down the show for that plot line.

Ultimately the best part of the show was the actors and what they did with the characters they were given. Basically i liked the friendship chemistry with the characters and felt annoyed that the writers kept trying to push ‘love’ unto Cho Yeon where friendship suited the relationships better. Ultimately I did mostly enjoy the show before the last 2 episodes, so i cant rate it too harshly.

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Excellent Subversion of Expectations and Wonderful Overall Execution

The movie definitely subverts expectations until the very end. How I thought the story would progress and what I thought the story would focus on was absolutely not the case; however, the movie executes this in a way that is unsettling yet deeply hopeful. I was surprised that in the backdrop of such a hopeless setting, the story that was told focused on the unforgettable love of one’s family, and how each person hopes that love will set their loved one free. I think this is a must watch.

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Spoilers below

The Love of a Mother and Daughter
(this was the original title of my review, but I felt it might spoil the premise of the movie)

I found the theme of how the mother (Jung E) did all she could to save her daughter’s life, but even then 40 years later the same problem of cancer still plagues her daughter AND now she, Jung_E is trapped to a life where she is abused by the system and can’t even truly ‘rest in peace’.

Initially I was definitely more focused on the dystopian horror setting and how they were going to win the war more than I focused on the heart of the story, which centred on the love of a mother for her daughter and love of a daughter for her mother. I think the execution of the movie was flawless in subverting our expectations but also drawing out spectacular performances from our two female leads.


Also want to say RIP to the main lead actress, Kang Soo-yeon. Jung_E was both her comeback performance and her final performance. She really did a phenomenal job. Great work by all the production and team members— “Jung_E” really captured my attention!

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Riveting to Watch, but Intentionally Amoral (Morally Grey)

I stayed up to watch part 2 of The Glory the moment the clock hit 3:00 am and boy, was it a Journey.

The Glory (pt. 2) is meant to be a completely satisfying revenge story between a victim against her abuser and we somewhat know the story’s end from its beginning. From part 1 we know of our female lead’s tenacity and dedication towards getting her resolute end, we just aren’t quite sure how things will unravel.

The Glory in many ways feels like sort of a revenge expose to its audience as well. I got this feeling that any audience member who had ever bullied a person in the past would think of their own victims while watching it. It felt like it was pointing a finger to the audience saying, “I know what you’ve done, and I’m coming for you.”

Ultimately, The Glory pt. 2 continues from its first part to serve as an extremely slow burn revenge story. It was like Dong Eun was metaphorically thrusting a knife very slowly into her abusers, perhaps paralleling the slow torture she faced as a child by these abusers. Like the game of “Go,” She takes territory from her enemies little by little. They are aware of her plays yet completely helpless against her overall strategy.

What is interesting is that even as we witness this metaphorical knife penetrate deeper and deeper, we aren’t given a very clear sense of what revenge looks like “in real life.” What does it look like to “win” in revenge? The police system was portrayed as incompetent at best and corrupt at average. Every opportunity to rectify the violence inflicted upon victims through “formal” channels was obsolete. The worst thing about this concept of ineffective justice pipelines is that they are inconsistently applied and often feel as though the greatest effort of “the law” doesn’t truly bring justice for those whom need it the most.


My Thoughts on The Glory’s Philosophy:
I personally don’t particularly agree with The Glory’s philosophy of direct retribution carefully planned out in a way that consumes one’s own existence. I also found it difficult to stomach that revenge was Dong Eun’s entire heart. What is most unfortunate of all, though, is the fact that if Dong Eun did not become the executor of revenge, there is little clear path as to how any form of legal justice would be served against said abusers. Again, the Glory left me with the question “what does true revenge look like?”



SPOILERS FROM HERE ON BELOW:

My Thoughts on the State of the Abusers Pre-Revenge:
Something I thought was particularly significant about the set-up of the story is in how Dong Eun views Yeon Jin by way of her brand image rather than her reality. Yeon Jin appears to have things set out pretty well for her, but in reality: Yeon Jin appears to have a college degree yet no knowledge on a field she actually enjoys working in. She’s so incompetent that she has to have her husband pay multiple times her salary to keep her job—she isn’t good at her job because she didn’t study hard, which is entirely her own fault. She supposedly has a pretty decent husband yet cheats on him. She would literally be nothing without the looks and money she inherited from her parents, but on her own she has nothing.

What’s worst is that I think Yeon Jin is aware of her own pathetic-ness, but chooses to hide behind money and a pitifully mean personality. If others don’t bow down to her she can’t distinguish herself as being at the top because she knows that without money and fake-pride, she is nothing. Yeon Jin’s only real pride and joy is her daughter, yet she fails at this, too, by literally falsifying circumstances surrounding her birth father. She seeks atonement through her daughters eyes, not through actually atoning in her actions. Most of all, she fails her daughter almost automatically by way of being an inherently unrepentant person.

Even though the reality is that all Dong Eun’s abusers are pitiful people at best, how could this thought be of “comfort” to her in the midst of exceptionally deep longstanding pain. This kept bringing up the question for me as to “what does true revenge look like?” And “could there have been another way?”



On Repentance and Forgiveness:
I think The Glory did a decent job at acknowledging that revenge didn’t fulfil any life meaning for Dong Eun, yet it also somewhat backtracked on this premise by rededicating her life to a new purpose— which is helping her BAE to get revenge, too. To me, this journey of healing in Dong Eun’s life still feels incomplete and especially incomplete without her love interest, which I find dangerous in their specific dependance on one another rooted in revenge. I don’t think revenge is all there is to their relationship, yet it almost feels like their love is majorly sidelined because revenge is the priority. It's the concept that revenge is meaningful enough, but not love on it own. This feels like a dangerous concept.

Most of all forgiveness, which is usually more about the victims inner healing rather than the abusers, was completely absent from the Glory. This made our protagonists journeys feel even more incomplete because inner healing was deemed as impossible without revenge. This facet of the story felt pretty one dimensional for me, but then again, I am a Christian and therefore believe in the fruits that forgiveness and repentance bears. It appears as though Dong Eun was 'merely' matching up evils against evils, but in reality she took on the role of a wicked person herself in order to gain physical justice she could bear witness to. I thought of this in particular when she "tempts" Hye Jeong with the opportunity to permanently blind Jae Joon. Yes Hye Jeong took the "temptation" but Dong Eun was the tempter to begin with. This was a theme constantly repeated throughout the show.


Vengeance Fulfilled? (story ending spoiler):
One scene that I thought was particularly revealing was when both Yeon Jin and her mother were in prison they cross each other’s paths. It felt like the truth of the revenge story became exacerbated in that scene— Yeon Jin’s mother wasn’t actually sorry for committing murder and neither was Yeon Jin sorry for committing two murders. Yeon Jin’s mother hardly even glanced in her direction, offered her no apologies or desire to restore their relationship. Yeon Jin’s abandonment was made complete in that scene, but so was Yeon Jin’s mother’s formal abandonment of her rights as a mother. Rather than that scene having anything to do with Dong Eun, however, it felt clarifying to see the effect that amoral parenting can have on replicating amorality in children. It also felt like a powerful testimony in making different choices than our environments sometimes negatively influence.

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