This review may contain spoilers
Satisfying and Thorough, but also Horrific
Everything about this drama is good--acting, story, production, suspense. I watched a dubbed version on Netflix and I usually hate dubs, but even the VO acting was good enough not to detract from the tension and depth of the story and acting.
Moon Dong Eun is just one victim of 5 kids who spent their high school years and beyond terrorising anyone they deemed unworthy. And, apparently, that meant almost everyone around them. The bullying is intense. It's not just words, it's physical torture that leaves deep scars, physical and emotional, on their victims. They push one victim to suicide, and another to drop out of school. Dong Eun isn't a pushover, however. She resists, she fights back, she reports them to everyone around her.
But as bad as the children are, the adults in this world are worse. Teachers, police, even her own parent, either disappoint, or enact their own bullying tactics. There should have been a straw to break Dong Eun's back, but the reality is that there was more than one. Her pleas, her avenues for justice are all slammed shut and the only option she has is to muster her inner strength and get her own revenge.
It takes her 18 years.
Over the course of those years, she finds kindred souls--others who faced injustices and understand her desire for revenge (though, once you see the extent of the abuse Dong Eun suffered, this won't surprise you at all). With the help of these people and with laser-focused attention, she gets a revenge that will please EVERYONE. I love the fact that she uses her abusers' own flawed personalities to bring them down. I love the fact that the screenwriters tied up all the loose ends (though I am a bit confused about the body of Yoon So Hee and why moving it was such an issue).
However, the depiction of the abuse is truly horrific. Is this normal? How is it possible that a child can be physically tortured to such an extent and NO adult will come to her aid (also, the sheer number of burns should have had her hospitalised)? How is it that a teacher is allowed to beat a student in full view of the entire school staff and no one will help her? How is it that the police ignores a student's testimony in a possible murder case?
Is this level of apathy truly what our societies have now become? This is a far more terrifying lesson from the drama than the abuse itself. I'm all for great revenge stories, and this would never have been written if just one person in young Dong Eun's life had a pair of balls. This is this story's greatest tragedy.
Moon Dong Eun is just one victim of 5 kids who spent their high school years and beyond terrorising anyone they deemed unworthy. And, apparently, that meant almost everyone around them. The bullying is intense. It's not just words, it's physical torture that leaves deep scars, physical and emotional, on their victims. They push one victim to suicide, and another to drop out of school. Dong Eun isn't a pushover, however. She resists, she fights back, she reports them to everyone around her.
But as bad as the children are, the adults in this world are worse. Teachers, police, even her own parent, either disappoint, or enact their own bullying tactics. There should have been a straw to break Dong Eun's back, but the reality is that there was more than one. Her pleas, her avenues for justice are all slammed shut and the only option she has is to muster her inner strength and get her own revenge.
It takes her 18 years.
Over the course of those years, she finds kindred souls--others who faced injustices and understand her desire for revenge (though, once you see the extent of the abuse Dong Eun suffered, this won't surprise you at all). With the help of these people and with laser-focused attention, she gets a revenge that will please EVERYONE. I love the fact that she uses her abusers' own flawed personalities to bring them down. I love the fact that the screenwriters tied up all the loose ends (though I am a bit confused about the body of Yoon So Hee and why moving it was such an issue).
However, the depiction of the abuse is truly horrific. Is this normal? How is it possible that a child can be physically tortured to such an extent and NO adult will come to her aid (also, the sheer number of burns should have had her hospitalised)? How is it that a teacher is allowed to beat a student in full view of the entire school staff and no one will help her? How is it that the police ignores a student's testimony in a possible murder case?
Is this level of apathy truly what our societies have now become? This is a far more terrifying lesson from the drama than the abuse itself. I'm all for great revenge stories, and this would never have been written if just one person in young Dong Eun's life had a pair of balls. This is this story's greatest tragedy.
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