Trigger (2025)

Trigger: Strong Start, Weak Finish

Trigger starts strong with good acting especially the first few episodes. Woo Ji Hyun shines as a student showing why ordinary characters are given those guns—highlighting their personal struggles and moral dilemmas. This setup makes you care about their choices.

The gang internal struggle later ruins it, shifting to pointless violence and losing focus on ordinary people’s motives.

A plus is how the series exposes gun sellers profiting from chaos.

The ending feels unrealistic and unsatisfying, lacking depth or buildup.

I would have preferred a deeper look on how guns would affect the society, through government measures similar to COVID-19’s lockdowns, mask mandates and fear-driven policies, panic buying of essentials .

Exploring more of governments imposed strict controls. This approach might have better reflected the ripple effects of gun violence on both personal lives and public behaviour.

Read More

Good action scenes cannot make up for lackluster story and characterization

Before I'll elaborate any further on this drama, keep in mind that this is NOT a spoiler free review. Proceed with caution. Also, I want to apologize in advance for my poor English, it's not my first language so I'm sorry if I repeat myself or if my opinion is not clear. Feel free to ask any questions.

I got introduced to Kim Nam-Gil in Through The Darkness, which became one of my most favourite kdramas, while I first saw Kim Young-Kwang in Evilive (which I haven't finished but I'll watch it again). Both of them were great in their series so when I learned that they would be the main leads to a new thriller, you can imagine my excitement.

I LOVE thrillers. Give me a good and gripping plot with well-written characters and my money is yours. The premise of Trigger, albeit common and not that groundbreaking, caught my interest immediately. As someone who loves in a gun-free country (Greece), I cannot even fathom what would happen if people got handed guns like sweets. I was very curious to see how the series would explore this matter and based on what I had heard, I expected an intense action-packed thriller, with psychological and philosophical aspects.

Alas, I soon realized that I should had lowered my expectations.

First of all, the plot as a whole was A MESS. We have the main story between the main leads, Lee Do and Moon Baek and then other subplots that are connected to the whole gun flood. Which is totally logical. They needed to show different people who chose to "pull the trigger" under different circumstances. A mentally unstable student, a man charged with sexual assault, a wronged mother, a bullied kid, gangsters...But the problem is that due to the changes regarding the settings and the characters, the pacing became inconsistent. One moment, your attention would be focused on these characters and then the story would shift to that character, then another etc.

At one point, all of that felt pointless. The most unnecessary subplot was definitely the one regarding the gangsters, who found themselves tied to the organization that provided the guns. Too much screen time was wasted on them when they could have used for more efficient parts of the story or better character development. Because of the many different stories and characters, most of the mini arcs fell rather flat and the characters' emotions and struggles were explored in a superficial way.

The best subplots were the one with the mother (Oh Kyeong-Suk) who sought justice for her dead son, the bullied kid (Park Gyu-jin) who wanted to defend himself against his bullies and Lee Do's chief (Cho Hyun-Sik) who wanted to avenge his daughter who had committed suicide because of scammers. I actually cared about these people and I caught myself thinking about how emotions and difficult circumstances can influence our judgement.

The action scenes were one of the better parts of the series. The fighting sequences were intense and fun to watch, watching Lee Do and Moon Baek fighting and shooting was really entertaining and I had a blast. On episode 6 (one of the best by the way), the school shooting part had me at the edge of my seat. I was so anxious to see what would happen.

But good action scenes cannot make up for a lackluster story. Yes, it was cool seeing Lee Do soloing all of these criminals and thugs but I wanted something more. I wanted more exploration regarding people's psychology and despair which leads them to violence. I wanted to see more of the ethical aspects regarding guns and their use for self-defense and justice. At the drama, Lee Do got suspended for killing the sexual offender, even though he did it in order to defend other police officers. And yet we never saw how that affected the public's opinion. It would be a great opportunity to see the common mind being divided into two categories, the ones defending his action because he is a police officer and he had to kill a criminal and the others who would see that as an act of power. But that never happened.

Another aspect that was flat was the characterisation. The main leads were obviously the characters we spent more time with and yet even them were underutilized. And I say that as someone who overall enjoyed watching them (either as a duo or separately). Both actors did a great job at portraying them, Kim Nam-Gil conveyed Lee Do's softness yet ruthless character while Kim Young-Kwang killed it with Moon Baek. The acting saved the characters for me because the writing, on the other hand, was disappointing.

Lee Do was pretty complex. As a child, he saw his family getting killed and later, he had the chance to kill the murderer by pulling the trigger of a gun. But Cho Hyun-Sik stopped him. That event played a tool on his character and shaped his own ideology. When he served in the military as a sniper, the weight of the people he had killed haunted him and he joined the police as a detective to help the public without having to use a gun (I'm not going to comment on that). But in the drama he had to use a gun to take another life (the sex offender's) in order to save another one. His actions came in contrast to his believes but the series barely touched his inner conflict and it didn't explore his trauma that much. At the end, Moon Baek called him out for that and that was it. In addition, I don't think that his trauma was handled that great. In Through The Darkness, Nam-Gil's character had more depth and we saw how his traumatic experiences and the weight of dealing with all of these criminals got the best of him. In Trigger, we didn't get to see it a lot. His character remains complex but on a surface level mostly.

Speaking of Lee Do, I'm sorry but his plot armour became too ridiculous. I could excuse the fact that common citizens like the mentally ill student or the sex offender couldn't hit with weapons. I could excuse him being able to take down whole groups of thugs who were armed with knives. But taking down Moon Baek's guards who held guns while recovering from his injuries? Having people shooting at him from many places without hitting him not even once? Unbelievable. And yes, this is an action series we're talking about, of course realism is not the priority here. But so many things were over the top to the point I couldn't take them seriously.

And now, Moon Daek. A wasted potential of a villain. He had a tough childhood: being raised from people involved in child trafficking, having his eye ripped off, getting sent to US only to end up at the hands of another child trafficking organization...Of course he would want to seek revenge and it's logical that he grew up to believe that violence is the key for justice and vengeance. But the way he was written was superficial.

For the majority of the series, he was either behaving like an energetic puppy (before his reveal) and then he settled at serving face and smugness. Which was fine by me, I still enjoyed him but I wanted more. We saw that he is meticulous and dangerous but his character wasn't given more depth. If anything, the way he explained his motive was ridiculous which again, makes sense, his sense of justice is kinda ridiculous in the first place but since he was supposed to mirror Lee Do, he should have been written better. After the reveal, the writing for his character felt lazy.

The ending was just all over the place. In the last two episodes everything was happening too fast and the final climax was not a satisfactory pay-off after all of this buildup. Some of the side characters were not provided a good conclusion either. Like, what happened with Gyu-jin and his bullies? Was Oh Kyeong-Suk arrested for killing the politician? The ending was wrapped up too roughly and at this point, I really hope that a second season will be made.

Even though the premise of a society where everyone can get to hold a gun is not groundbreaking, the questions that arise about this matter could be great food for thought. To what extent can people have the freedom of self-defense and how much does it require to be pushed off their limits in order to snap? The series tried to explore these themes but it did it very superficially. Instead of focusing on the action, it should have focused more on the political and psychological part. The first two episodes had this direction and the rest should have been the same. We wasted too much time on side characters, of "telling and not showing" and in the end, I don't think that the goal was achieved.

All in all, I do not regret watching Trigger. It's by no means a terrible drama and I would strongly recommend it to fans of action and thrillers. But if you expect a deeper exploration of guns violence and justice, you might be disappointed. I think that a second season is possible to happen since the organization responsible for the guns trafficking is still on-going and since we didn't actually see Moon Baek get killed. So let's hope for that because that ending was not worth it.

Read More

What Could’ve Been a Firestarter Flickers Out in a Cloud of Smoke

Trigger, stylish and laced with social commentary, is a dystopian thriller that explores the psychology of rage and anarchy.

Lee Do, a former military sniper turned police officer, is our moral anchor. Haunted by gun trauma, he clings to his taser like a lifeline, refusing to become what he once was. His calm, empathetic conviction makes him a kind of hero who saves lives not through brute force, but through sheer will. But when massacres erupt across the nation, even he is forced to take up arms again, dragged into a war he never wanted to fight.

Moon Baek is the man who lights the match. He floods Korea with firearms not for profit, but for ideology. Flashy and grinning, he believes every human secretly longs to kill those who’ve wronged them. A character built on contradiction, his unnerving calm hides a tragic past that makes every scene with him electric.

At its best, Trigger gives us glimpses into painfully mundane, disturbingly relatable lives: ordinary people who find in guns a twisted kind of emotional release. Armed with tools of destruction, the overlooked morph into agents of terrifying power, unleashing retaliatory violence on the very systems and people that once made them feel powerless.

The action is tense, visceral, and unpredictable, with hand-to-hand combat that is fluid, brutal, and strikingly grounded. And at its heart, this is a story about broken, angry, and desperate people finally given the means to act. Some pick up guns out of rage, others out of fear, but the same fury hums beneath their skin, waiting for a single moment, a single spark.

But just as the show starts to ask the right questions, it veers off-course. A bloated and bewildering subplot involving two rival gang factions pulls focus, dragging the story into the realm of banal gangster drama. Their arc feels disconnected from the central thesis, undercutting the sharp social commentary at its core. It's as if the show loses its nerve, backing away from its most provocative ideas in favor of more conventional thrills.

Even its solution to systemic rage feels dangerously naïve. Compelling, yes, but emotionally oversimplified.

What begins as a searing parable about repression, power, and moral collapse ends up diluted. The show explodes out of the gate with a riveting premise, only to sputter into a muted, lackluster whimper by the end.

Read More

Trigger is a story about what happens when stress, inequality and buried trauma collide with easy access to guns.. But it’s not just about the weapons, it’s about what drives someone to reach for one in the first place.. When grief, injustice and silence build up over time, anyone can reach a breaking point.. It’s less about who’s holding the gun and more about what pushed them there.. Trigger explores a bold and unsettling scenario.. How quickly chaos spreads once a long standing taboo is shattered.. I liked how the main leads are shaped by their contrasting beliefs and personalities.. They are people on opposite ends of a moral line..

I think the drama presents a really interesting moral dilemma and plays it out in a provocative way.. The concept itself is terrifying.. What Trigger does well is show the darker side of human nature and what people are capable of when pushed too far.. And honestly the scariest part wasn’t the drama itself, it was the thought that something like this could actually happen.. Hopefully it never will.. Right?

" If you want to be loved.. Always wear a smile.. "

Both MLs were great.. Kim Nam Gil really stood out.. His action scenes had an aura that's undeniable and everything he did felt natural.. Him with a gun was too good, looked professional.. Kim Young Kwang as Moon Baek was menacing.. I really liked his character.. He was quite good as the antagonist, bringing a Joker like joy to his madness.. But his English accent was a letdown.. I think he could have worked on it more.. It didn’t feel convincing..

" I want to live in a utopia of equality where everyone owns a gun."

I liked how they paced the first episode.. Slowly building the world and introducing the characters.. By the end of it, it was intriguing enough to keep you going.. Its 10 episode length is both a blessing and a curse.. It’s a fairly breezy watch and doesn’t feel draggy but because of that, the story ends up feeling a bit underdeveloped.. We don’t really get much characterization for anyone besides Lee Do and Moon Baek.. Some characters completely disappeared by the end and I am not sure why.. They could have been used better.. Especially during that riot scene..

Not saying this was the right way to handle things.. But people do need to be held responsible for their words and actions.. You can’t just go around hurting others and get away with it.. There has to be consequences.. Is it really that hard to treat people with basic decency?? I felt like the message of the drama is clear, Be Good To Others..

From a darker perspective, many of the people who were killed deserved it?? And honestly, the one person who probably deserved some serious reckoning but didn’t die was Kang Seong Jun, the bully.. I just hope whatever happened has given him enough trauma and shook him enough to think twice for the rest of his life..

Bullying.. It’s something we have seen in so many Korean dramas and movies that it almost feels like a normal day to day thing over there.. And that’s what makes it even more disturbing.. You can’t help but wonder why is no one ever seriously punished or held accountable??

It was a bit disappointing how the show portrayed the Government as hopeless and the cops as completely tactless in the final ep.. Realistically you would expect the authorities to handle a situation like that much better.. I get that it’s a drama and things need to be exaggerated for impact.. But still it felt a bit too far fetched..

Like I said, the drama started off good stayed good all the way through.. Until the final episode.. That’s where it lost me.. The conclusion was not satisfying at all.. After everything that built up, it felt like the story ran out of steam right when it mattered most..

Overall, it’s an impressive drama with Kim Nam Gil delivering a stellar performance.. Is it perfect?? No.. But for me, the issues I had, some unrealistic scenes, a bit of awkward dialogue here and there.. Don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things..

Read More

Interesting premise, well-done development, bad ending.

I feel the premise itself led to more interesting plot beats, and made the antagonist role shine very much which it's nice, considering the cartoon-ish villains that usually appears in kdramas. However, I don't know if it was a mix of the script or if it was the lead actor performance, but the lead character was... Underwhelming.
I connected more with Mrs. Oh and Sargent Cho(?) than with him, even though his backstory was explored. The actor didn't sold me enough to be an ex mercenary and a police who hates guns. I mean. That would be easy to do. The lead actor doesn't have enough presence to sell it. The issue with his character build, in the script, was that he was too one dimensional: he wanted to stop the guns, yes, but does that mean he must pull some moves that doesn't makes sense (like the hug with the boy at the end, wtf?)? Or that his trauma very much was screaming white saviour (and guess what? His backstory involves Middle East).
Frankly, it was a very much cop propaganda, that doesn't even explore how guns are only a symptom of a global mindset that classifies every country in first or third world countries, and this involvement with police corruption, over-militarism, and government vs narco-state control.
Also, a lot of the lead's fighting scenes were so cartoon-ish that it made me recall John Wick by how outlandish they were and the choreography was too antiquated to be part of the narrative of the series. What happened in there?
Moon Baek was the best part of this kdrama. Wish the ending was better specially because it awfully clashes with the tone of the rest of the series, but kdramas will never deliver strong enough in this aspect. Maybe if this was a urban fantasy a la Chainsaw Man, with Moon Baek being the Gun God, or that the ending said, instead, that nothing was solved even with guns out of the picture. If you're going to show a potential reality, finish it with a realistic ending.

Read More

"Everyone has a trigger"

What is the trigger for a person that will cause them to throw away their future for a moment of vengeance wrapped in the cloak of justice? What is the tipping point for a society lured into self-destruction? Trigger challenges the angel on a person’s shoulder to do the hard thing even as the devil on their other whispers for them to do the thing that will feel good in the moment.

Due to his violent military past, Officer Lee Do has given up on guns and only carries a taser when on patrol. He seeks to show compassion to victims and enforce the law with criminals. South Korea’s stringent gun and ammo laws are suddenly being flouted by everyday citizens as well as criminals leading to numerous deaths and causing panic to incur in society. Do is determined to discover the source of the weapons and the plans of the dealers before Korea falls headlong into gun culture.

Trigger asked pertinent questions and addressed timely problems. While there were criminal elements getting their hands on guns, the more sinister elements involved the stressed-out citizenry clandestinely led down the path to their own annihilation. Bullied children and adults, the daily slings and arrows of casual cruelty, mental illness, and corporate greed and corruption drove people to their trigger points. When there was no recompense, no justice, no recourse for the downtrodden, desperate people with little to lose turned to vigilante justice with a gun. Trigger asked the audience to contemplate whether guns made people safer or less safe.

The production values were high and the story kept a stringent pace. That’s not to say you won’t have to suspend disbelief on occasion. I was relieved a drama finally showed the drawback to the first bullet in an officer’s gun being a blank. Most of the acting was excellent. Kim Nam Gil can always be counted on for a strong performance. I prefer him with facial hair and a devil-may-care grin, but we all have to suffer for his art at times. Kim Won Hae gave a nicely balanced performance as Do’s supervisor and father figure. He was utterly heartbreaking in one scene. Kil Hae Yeon played another distraught and vengeful mother, knowing how to hit all the emotional beats. I quite liked the music as it was neither intrusive nor overly wrought. My biggest complaint was the lighting and makeup that showed every pore on people’s faces and often the theatrical makeup itself.

Lessons I learned: 1) Always check your horoscope. 2) When holding a gun on a person, never stand too close. 3) Never bring a boxcutter to a gun fight. 4) It pays to know who your employees are. 5) A sincere apology could save your life. 6) “You can’t justify your actions with some sort of grade school philosophy.” You can, but it might not work out so well.

Guns are like cockroaches. Once a home is infested you are never going to get rid of them even if you burn the place to the ground. When trust is lost and people live in a state of fear, they are capable of abhorrent actions. And at least in Dramaland, if reminded of their humanity and shown compassion, people in a broken and suffering world can choose a path to a brighter future. I found Trigger entertaining, though it did bog down near the end. I only hope these forms of entertainment can help societies make choices that result in their children never having to practice active shooter drills at school.

25 July 2025
Trigger warnings: Numerous shooting deaths even of children. Because when guns are plentiful, the most vulnerable all too often fall victim.

Several comely nekkid buns at a gangster sauna.

Read More

Double-edged guns

A premise that looks cool on paper and jam packed with actions, the setup of the two contrasting leads is great but how the story progresses at the latter stage is a little unconvincing, those manipulation plans are just far from reality. The whole politicized guns distribution situation at the end is even harder to believe, but what it does right though is the rage shown on suppressed individuals that is valid enough to keep the storyline moving. It's just that it became a bit too ambitious on the world building side of things, where logical reasoning slowly fades away and never recovers.

Read More

Ridiculous and Very Disappointing

So disappointing with a great actor like Kim Nam Gil, but wow this was bad. It had cartoon-character villains, extreme sentimentality, silly dialogue, a caricature of a psychpathic villain, and ethically inconsistent views (both that guns are terrible and that even so when you see a horribly abused person use one you feel rather happy he/she got their revenge). The lead character is portrayed as heroic to the point of being angelic yet is also described as a former mercenary who has killed 99 people (what exactly was he doing then that makes him so morally pure today)? The sentimental twists are blatantly forecast and must have been embarrassingly bad for some of the good actors to play, and the failure of the police to arrive at or effectively cope with ongoing emergency situations was very implausible given what is shown in other k-drama thrillers.

Read More

Interesting plot which sidelined to hero gangster drama with poorly developed ML and acting

Firstly you really need to suspend a lot of logic to watch this drama. A low-level patrol cop is the male lead who plays the role of a detective, leads operations and has no operational oversight. The police is incompetent and every other role in the drama basically has no role other than playing fiddle to the male lead.

The drama title is “Trigger” and starts off exploring a few characters emotional world and what lead to them pulling the “trigger” then meandered into a gangster busting plotlines before the third half where it agains explores the antagonists emotional world and how his upbringing shaped his worldview.

It’s illogical on many fronts, and one would be hard pressed to know if it’s a drama exploring the human condition, or an action flick because the male lead basically is more like a not-so-believable hero that never dies. I guess it can be both, but it aims too high and falls flat in both fronts.

Acting by the ML is passable. I was more impressable by the captain, but his daughter’s passing was merely a plot to get him to pull the “trigger” as well so both his death and his daughter’s were not explored nor meaningful.

It’s still interesting enough for me to finish the drama, but was a dread towards the middle and the end. For a 10 episode drama, it feels long and draggy. Watch if you have nothing else better to watch and watch and pause and fast forward.

I did that to be able to finish it.

Read More

Overall Worth The Watch

I feel like it was a strong start with the gusiwon (sorry if that’s misspelt) guy battling his internal struggle to crash out, and the high school students being bullied wanting to end the torture. But, it got a bit lost in the sauce with making such a big deal out of the gang plot. I thought it would be more geared towards how ordinary citizens would act when faced with owning a gun, not a bunch of gang fighting over guns, as anyone would expect to happen.

I’m glad the gang plot only lasted a few episodes and the show came back around to circling the choices of regular citizens, but that part felt a bit rushed since they focused so much time on the gang plot. As I saw someone else say, the end felt kinda rushed and not as explosive as it could’ve been. It would have been nice to see more societal corruption and how the government tries to handle it, because realistically, everyone isn’t giving up their guns after seeing one heartwarming moment at the end of a riot. It rushed coming to the “happy ever after—there’s no more guns” when it would be a much bigger issue that takes way longer to handle.

Now Moon Baek—I love the the layers of his character. I know he was a bad person, but I could understand his thought process because of everything he went through. I’m not justifying it, I’m just saying I understand why he went a bit crazy. I loved his personality when he was playing Lee Do’s silly little sidekick, though.

The acting was absolutely wonderful, other than the “Americans”. I might be nitpicking, but it bothers me that they use people with heavy British accents to play Americans in K-dramas. They’re also super robotic and speak in a way that no one actually speaks.

Overall—it was a good watch with well shot action scenes. It was definitely worth the time, I just wish it wouldn’t have focused so hard on the gang plot.

Read More

Ending was unsatisfying

Ending was rushed at the end and was left open. I didn’t like that part. could have been better with 12 episodes to flush out the ending. But acting was amazing I enjoyed watching
but I knew who the “bad guy” was because I knew the actor but he was still good
but wouldn’t watch again because of the ending it was wasted deserved better and the actors to
very good
I have the keep writing for 500 character limit it that’s dumb but anyway dramas good …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Read More

it was pretty intense from the start. The shootout scenes especially... Super tense, had me holding my breath a few times. One of the most interesting parts for me was the core concept, what happens if guns suddenly circulate in a country like Korea, where firearm control is super strict? Felt like watching a social experiment play out in real time.

On the other hand, the backstory of the two main characters both shaped by past trauma, felt a little cliché. Not bad, just something we’ve seen quite a bit in this genre.

Honestly, I expected a more intense climax between them. Their relationship and conflict had been building for a while, so when the ending came... it felt a bit underwhelming. Still meaningful, just not as explosive or emotionally charged as I hoped.

Overall, it’s definitely worth watching, especially if you’re into thrillers with a bit of social commentary.

Read More