Vagabond

Incomplete by design!

As per usual, such dramas start with abroad locations and a big budget just to serve us with whatever later on. While the drama had action later on but it wasn't on the same level of its earlier episodes. The plot itself couldn't compensate for that. There was a certain level of carelessness and ridiculousness in a non-comical setting from the director that's impossible to explain other than being intentional to maintain the dumb action vibes like a B grade action flick. It got progressively challenging to tolerate regardless of its "supposed" entertainment value. After what they had done in this 16-episodes runtime, they had the audacity to keep all threads as open as possible for a direct sequel, which will never happen! Was it some kind of a practical joke? Other than some of the action scenes and a handful of selected moments, I can't see much value in this drama.

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Kdrama Action Genre when it's peaks !!! Truly Action Cinematic Experience

Vagabond raised my standards in Action Dramas.


The drama is about a stuntman named Cha Dal Gun (played by Lee Seung Gi) who teams up with an NIS (National Intelligence Service) agent named Go Hae Ri (played by Suzy) in order to uncover the truth behind the plane crash that killed his nephew.

Action and Plot Work :-

Drama primarily runs with the investigation of Cha Dal Gun trying to reveal the truth of the plane crash, but in the background the story extends with big twists and turns power scandals of S Korea.
As an action lover, Vagabond is a great action epic drama for me. If you are into fights, gun battles, and car chases, then this is for you. I'm sure Vagabond wouldn’t bore you. Behind Every action scene there is a plot behind it and a convincing storyline for why things happen the way they do. The story looks small but after getting ep by ep the storyline unfolds a big puzzle. The drama has enough suspense and fast-paced action to keep us on the edge of our seats every episode, and that’s largely thanks to the incredible acting talent of Lee Seung Gi, Suzy and other co actors and also this drama offers a solidly entertaining take on the sub-plots ( government, politics, scandals, middle power, NIS).
Vagabond has an intricately crafted plot and decent production quality of Netflix and SBS.

Actors:-
This is my first Lee Seung-gi drama watching his action scenes can't control myself to fan for him.
He was fantastic by delivering so much intense emotion combined with some seriously awesome action. He was just impressive in every way.
Suzy ( Go Hae ri ) one of my favourite actresses after Vagabond, as a rookie NIS agent who is working overseas and fallen love with Cho Dal Gun ( Lee Seung-Gi) to try to help him given phenomenal acting, her raw characterization suited very well. Hopefully, she will return soon to the action genre again.
Primarily this is not a complete clean rom-drama, but the chemistry between Lee Seung-Gi & Bae Suzy carried the whole drama with action and swoon-worthy.
Also it already forms the outlines of a classic love triangle between its two leads and another male character.


Camera work:-

The filming took place in several locations; Portugal, Morocco and South Korea. The cinematography of ‘Vagabond’ was really well done. The action scenes were well shot. I love the fact that they hardly used shaky cams, yep shaky cam work in action chasing dramas is an important aspect, Watched first shaky cam work in kdrama in vagabond, it's really the best camera work.


Finally :-

I would recommend a watch for Vagabond despite its open ending. This Korean Drama is indeed an action flick that delivers excellent story telling ! The plot is brilliantly developed with solid climax and high octane twists and turns. With actors like Lee Seung-Gi and Suzy, it portrays a decently constructed plot, and gripping action scenes, Vagabond offers a reliably entertaining experience to K-drama fans.

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Great action but shaky cameras

Soo here I am once again to write a review about a great production that has amazing cast, a lot of work put in the scenario and the plot and yet again I feel somewhat angry at the end for 2 reasons. Let me back up from the start - the concept with the plane crash and discovery of the twisted truth with the help of a few NIS agents was great. Not knowing who to trust, who not to... it was very thoughtful. The cast did their job perfectly from sad scenes to sexy ones to the action ones. Everyone really. The plot twist in the last few episodes was something that I really enjoyed. Unfortunately what was not enough for me to give the drama 9 or 10 starts was mostly this - you cannot tell you have one of the most expensive productions ( 25 billion Korean won from what I've read) and have shaky cameras on nearly every action scene. I swear it was like the people behind the cameras were not shooting with professional cameras but with their phones with stabilization turned off. It really messed up with me and I couldn't enjoy those well-thought of fight scenes due to the fact it was all moving around like there's ongoing earthquake. The other, smaller though, reason I was disappointed is I am finishing this drama in 2024 and it is clear that they won't have season 2 so the ending really bugs me. If they do another season after all I will probably update my rating with some minor increase but still I cannot let go of whoever thought this camera works was good enough for the amount of money they were given. And I really have to ask the question, does Geon sells himself too? Cause I understand the concept about infiltrating and revenging but to be part of the organization and that deep into cover, he must have had to kill a number of innocent people too, so is he no longer innocent and goodie? I am really confused once again about the end

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Exciting and explosive

Wow — this is hands down, the most heart-pounding, stress-inducing drama I've watched. From the very first episode, I was super invested in the backstory and in the backgrounds of the two main leads. This was, in a sense, the perfect underdog story — the "us against the world" vibe runs throughout all the episodes in the best way. Especially in the first half, the pacing of the story was perfect; it was fast-paced and we were finding new developments all the time. In term of plot points, this is a drama that really requires you to suspend disbelief — I've seen a lot of reviews saying that it became hard to believe, but in my opinion that's just the nature of a conspiracy thriller and I found myself still able to immerse myself completely in the story. There are some political and financial aspects that I was a little less interested in, maybe a little confused by, but in the bigger picture it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the series.

Even with the insane plot, it was really interesting how this drama still managed to get its laughs and rom-com moments in. The chemistry between the leads is really great, and I love how their personalities meshed together even amidst all the tragedy.

With all that being said, however, I think this drama desperately needs a second season. The ending leaves a lot to be desired, especially since the last few episodes packed a lot of new information that wasn't explained and also changed a lot in the dynamic between our two leads. As much as I loved everything I already watched, it really leaves me craving more — and it feels almost as if I only watched three-fourth of a drama.

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Nope not happening.

You can lookup the plot any where, i wont waste your time here so i will be quick. As the producers say, this show's ending was made with season 2's production in mind and since there is no season 2 or even any confirmation of it, this show lost its worth. Everything was going fine but the climax is super disturbing.

Spoiler *******
Theres a big mistake in the show, if only the lady before dying had told the M.C about the evidence most of the show wouldn't have happened nd i dont see any reason why she couldn't tell him since her life was in danger??? Lol.
This show doesnt deserve this 8.3 rating it currently has.

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Likes: Lee Seung gi. Seung gi as an action hero. Seung gi’s flashback mullet hair. Production Value. Fast paced editing.

Dislikes: There is not one instance where I believed Suzy was a NIS agent. Sorry, but no.

You can tell that they shelled out the big bucks on this kdrama because the production value was high. With lots of fast paced action scenes, this kdrama reminded me of a cross between Jason Bourne and Homeland.

There were some definite glaring flaws (secret government missions…pffffft…yeah, not so secret. Apparently you can reveal classified info to regular citizens as long as you are on the “good side”). And some of the acting (ahem, Suzy) will require some overlooking, but overall the suspense and action made this an enjoyable watch. Seung gi really gave his all to the action scenes and to the emotional scenes as well. I can’t remember any other kdrama that has done action scenes to this degree so it was a nice change.

There wasn’t too much romance in this drama and the chemistry wasn’t the sizzling kind, but Suzy and Seung gi worked well together so it wasn’t too much of a bummer. The ending will make you wonder if there will be a season 2?

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