A revenge drama about someone who has carried the memory of school bullying for years. Its two-part structure, what to watch for and what to know first.
It is a revenge drama about a woman whose life was shattered by violent bullying at school and who spends years preparing to pay her tormentors back. Part 1 was released on Netflix in December 2022 and Part 2 in March 2023. It has the tension and catharsis of the revenge genre, but underneath runs a question about how long harm stays in a person's life, and about how the adults around it chose to look away.
The writer is Kim Eun-sook, known for lavish dialogue and romance in Descendants of the Sun, Goblin and Mr. Sunshine. Here she turns the force of that dialogue cold and sharp, so the more you know her earlier work, the more unfamiliar the texture feels. Many lines are short, clipped sentences written to linger, so even with subtitles there is pleasure in catching their rhythm. The director is Ahn Gil-ho of Stranger. Lead actress Song Hye-kyo reunites with the writer after Descendants of the Sun, alongside Lee Do-hyun, Lim Ji-yeon and others.
Parts 1 and 2 have eight episodes each, sixteen in total. Part 1 spends its time setting up the characters and the board; in Part 2 those preparations begin to move in earnest. On release there was a gap of a few months between the parts, but now you can watch straight through. Rather than judging it on Part 1 alone, treating it as one continuous story makes the design easier to appreciate. The first time round, it is worth watching up to the end of Part 1 in one go.
The board game Go appears again and again throughout the series. Its nature, calculating each move at length and reading where the opponent will play next, is written to mirror the way the protagonist prepares her revenge. You do not need to know the rules to enjoy the show. Still, knowing that Korean has a word for reading ahead to your opponent's next moves, and noticing how that idea surfaces in the dialogue, gives the scenes extra depth.
Rather than just waiting for the revenge to land, paying attention to the details of the process reveals far more. Keep these points in mind the first time through.
Scenes of school bullying are shown in concrete, direct detail. For anyone with similar experiences, simply watching can be very painful, so check the age rating and do not push yourself. If difficult memories surface while you watch, it is fine to stop and take a break. The revenge on screen is a device for the story, not a way to solve things in real life. If you are dealing with bullying or school violence right now, do not carry it alone: reach out to your school, a counselling service, the police or another official channel. In Korea, the 117 school violence report centre also takes calls for advice and reports.
In Korea, a history of school bullying is treated seriously long into adulthood, and allegations about public figures' past bullying can become major controversies. Knowing this helps explain why the show depicts harm that does not end with time so relentlessly. The attitudes of the teachers, police and parents in the story can also be read as a critique of how Korean society has handled the issue. Paying attention to who saw the violence and stayed silent shows that the story is not only about a handful of perpetrators.
It suits viewers who enjoy tightly plotted revenge stories and tense psychological battles. If you only know Kim Eun-sook from her romances, there is the added interest of seeing a completely different side of the same writer. On the other hand, if you are sensitive to depictions of violence or have memories connected to school bullying, check in with yourself first rather than forcing your way through. The heavy scenes keep coming, so pacing yourself with breaks instead of bingeing is a good option too.
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