[비즈한국] What if everyone had a gun in their hands? This is the provocative question posed by the Netflix original series 'Trigger.' In a South Korea that is already burdened with extreme levels of stress, isn't it obvious what would happen if guns were easily accessible? While entirely unrelated to the show, the recent homemade firearm tragedy in Incheon might be a horrific answer to this very question.
Here is a man. Yoo Jung-tae (Woo Ji-hyun), a man living in a gosiwon (small study room) while preparing for the civil service exam for nearly 10 years, reaches his breaking point. People bringing girlfriends into the gosiwon—where outsiders are strictly prohibited—to have sex; people openly smoking in their rooms with the doors wide open; someone stealing the side dishes he labeled in the shared refrigerator; and the gosiwon manager who turns a blind eye to it all... Everything pulled the man's trigger. Even the psychiatrist counseling him said it, didn't they? "Everyone has a trigger inside their heart." The problem was that this man had a gun.
'Trigger' depicts the lives of people who come into possession of guns thanks to someone distributing them with malicious intent, and follows Lee Do (Kim Nam-gil), a soldier-turned-policeman trying to stop them, along with the mysterious Moon Baek (Kim Young-kwang) who joins him. The people who receive the guns are diverse: the long-term gosiwon student Yoo Jung-tae, a sex offender wearing an electronic anklet, a thug who runs errands for gangsters, a mother staging daily one-person protests following the wrongful death of her contract-worker son, and a boy suffering daily school violence. While their characters and situations differ, they share a common thread: each of them has steadily accumulated enough rage and stress to have their trigger pulled at any moment.
As you know, South Korea is a "gun-free" country where it is virtually impossible for civilians to possess firearms. Yet, as we also know, it is a sickly country with the highest suicide rate and the highest prevalence of depression. In "Hell Joseon"—a term used so much that it has become cliché—how many people must be muttering to themselves, just like the characters in 'Trigger,' "You people keep ignoring me to the end," "Damn it, I want to kill everyone," or "How pathetic did you think we were!"? Therefore, the core of 'Trigger' is not the gun itself. Talk of "glorifying gun violence" is like looking at a finger when told to look at the moon—a misinterpretation. We must look at the bottom of a chaotic world where the safety catch has been removed, the very thing that made them pull the trigger.
In the first four episodes of 'Trigger' released to the press, Lee Do, who developed firearm trauma during his military service, tracks a mysterious shooting case, and starting from episode 3, Moon Baek joins him to unfold the story in a buddy-cop format. Since the stories of the people Lee Do must stop are far from light, it's hard to enjoy it like a typical action flick, but the performance of Lee Do, who appears to have been a sniper in the military, is on par with John Wick. It’s a role well-suited for Kim Nam-gil, who is known for his aptitude for action and is often called an "action master" among his diverse acting spectrum. Kim Young-kwang, playing Moon Baek, who already showed a unique, crazed aura in 'Somebody' and 'Evilive,' seems to have much more to reveal in the latter half. While veteran actors like Gil Hae-yeon, Kim Won-hae, and Park Hoon enrich the story, Woo Ji-hyun, who plays Yoo Jung-tae, stands out early on. He meticulously expresses the image of an ordinary South Korean person with anger management issues (?).
What’s important is the story that follows. In episodes 1-4, the targets of those who obtained guns varied. What about the others? If everyone receives a gun, will they all start shooting? Is Lee Do okay as he fires guns to stop those dying by gunfire? What is the story of the mysterious Moon Baek, and who is the person distributing the firearms? Since the first four episodes provided a high level of immersion without any major issues in narrative pacing, it makes one look forward to how it will conclude.
'Trigger' is directed and written by Kwon Oh-seung, who won an award at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada for his debut film 'Midnight.' It consists of 10 episodes. Whether this show can sound an alarm in this harsh society that keeps pulling people's triggers is something for you to judge after its release on July 25.
Who is the writer Jung Soo-jin?
She has worked for various magazines, covering and writing about movies, travel, and pop culture. She doesn't want to fall behind on trends, but she has become an "old person" who watches the latest dramas only to predict nothing but obvious clichés in the next scene. She is trying to regain her lost edge by drifting through the vast world of OTT, and her current wish is for a bundled OTT subscription plan.