Inspiration Behind “The Glory”? Man Plotted Revenge For 12 Years To Murder The Classmates Who Bullied Him
Content Warning
Netflix‘s dark Korean drama The Glory quickly rose in popularity while exposing the horrors of bullying. Viewers became aware of the real-life cruelty and demanded justice for the victim who inspired the haunting scenes. However, the reality of bullying in schools is much more deadly than viewers realize.
Years after surviving horrific abuse in high school, a woman puts an elaborate revenge scheme in motion to make the perpetrators pay for their crimes.
— Netflix’s summary for ‘The Glory’
Not only has a Korean school commissioner confirmed that the “reality is even worse,” there was a similar case to The Glory where a victim of bullying waited years to take revenge on the ones who bullied them.
Like South Korea, Japan also has serious issues with bullying in schools—to the point where victims commit suicide. A fifteen-year-old jumped in front of a train after being beaten every day by classmates; a thirteen-year-old hung himself in a classroom after being targeted for months by classmates during repeated games of blindfolded tag. One boy faced similar abuse but waited years to take matters into his own hands.
A boy from Kyushu, Japan was beaten every day by his junior high classmates. They would tear his clothes and embarrass him by stripping him naked in front of others. He reported the bullying to his teacher and parents but nothing was done to stop it—igniting his determination for revenge.
As the Kyushu boy moved on to high school, he began plotting his revenge by specializing in chemistry and later attending a college where he could do the same. After getting his degree, he then worked at a company that specialized in creating chemicals, gaining him access to the knowledge and resources he needed for his revenge.
Then twelve years later, the Kyushu man invited forty of his past classmates and five teachers to a class reunion he was planning. Without alerting anyone, he put arsenic in the beer bottles that would be served at the reunion and prepared homemade bombs to kill them. Despite his years of planning, his revenge plot didn’t end as he expected.
Because the Kyushu man was so focused on revenge, he quit his well-paying job the day before the class reunion, sparking his mother’s concern. She found her son’s diary where he detailed his elaborate plan to murder his classmates. She reported him to the police, giving them enough time to remove the poisoned beer, confiscate the bombs, and arrest her son.
Not only did everyone enjoy the reunion he planned without him, but the Kyushu man was charged with six years in prison for the attempted murder of his classmates and teachers. The case seemed familiar to those who watched The Glory, where the main character, Dong Eun (played by actress Song Hye Kyo), is in an extremely similar situation.
YouTuber Grazy Grace made the connection that the case could’ve inspired The Glory because Dong Eun was also brutally bullied by her classmates, waited years to plot revenge against her bullies, shaped her life around completing her plan, and detailed everything in a diary. It looks like The Glory has tried its best to base the plot on real events.
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