Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 6, 2025
Netflix’s latest South Korean series, Trigger, comes from writer/director Kwon Oh-seung (Midnight) and stars Kim Nam-gil and Kim Young-kwang. The premise is deceptively simple: What happens when guns are introduced into a country that has essentially been gun-free? Where annual gun deaths can be counted on one hand?
The series plays out like a grim social experiment. Someone is anonymously shipping firearms — packaged like Amazon deliveries — to everyday South Koreans who are bullied, marginalized, unseen, or simply fed up. What happens when they’re handed the power to kill their tormentors? In most cases, they use it. A country virtually untouched by gun violence is suddenly awash in mass shootings.
What makes the premise especially effective is that there’s no supernatural force at play — no curses, threats, or mandates. The guns arrive with no instructions. The recipients are free to make their own decisions. And what they choose, again and again, is violence. These aren’t villains; they’re ordinary people pushed past their breaking points, and when they’re given the option to end their torment, they take it. The American slogan “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is flipped on its head. In South Korea, people don’t shoot because there are no guns. When the option doesn’t exist, the decision never needs to be made.
The show revolves around two central figures: the righteous Lee Do (Kim Nam-gil), a former military sniper turned police officer, and the mysterious Moon Baek (Kim Young-kwang), the man behind the gun distribution. Lee Do, traumatized by his military past, despises guns. Moon Baek, on the other hand, is effectively a Korean avatar of American gun extremism — a man raised in a human trafficking ring until he was adopted by a gun-obsessed American who taught him that firearms are the ultimate equalizer.
The satire of American gun culture isn’t subtle, but then again, neither is the violence. Within weeks of the first gun shipments, South Korea devolves into familiar chaos: debates about arming teachers, panic-buying of weapons, public polling in favor of gun legalization. Watching it unfold in another country makes it feel surreal, absurd, even. But the absurdity lies in the fact that Americans live this reality every (f**king) day. The only real fantasy here is that Trigger imagines a way out.
Despite the weighty themes, Trigger is first and foremost a cool action thriller packed with John Wick-style violence, some brilliant and fun fight choreography, and engaging performances from both leads, particularly the bad-ass Kim Young-kwang. It’s also, arguably, too long. Ten episodes stretch the concept thin, with some mid-season repetition. But the pacing is saved by a steady drip of new developments and unexpected turns that keep things in motion over the last three or four episodes.
It would’ve worked better as a tighter, six-episode miniseries with a bleaker ending. But maybe that’s just my American pessimism talking. In the U.S., any hope of gun reform feels naïve, and the villain of Trigger — a man spreading weapons across a peaceful nation — would be hailed as a patriot in certain corners of this country. It’s a good action series, but from the perspective of a citizen living in a country where the good guys have already lost, it’s also depressing as hell.
