Kdramas Like Trigger: It’s been three days since Trigger dropped on Netflix, and let me tell you — I couldn’t get it out of my head. What started out as a mission to take down some dubious gun runners soon became a whole lot more complex and heartbreaking. With Kim Nam-gil and Kim Young-kwang leading the cast, this kdrama 트리거 (Teurigeo) features trauma, betrayal, secrets, and enough bullets whizzing around to have you huddled behind your screen.
That finale hit me like a freight train. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going, the twists were nastier, the violence was nastier, and the emotional fallout cut deep. And once I’d survived that last episode, with my heart around my neck, I knew I’d only just begun. I craved more.
And lo and behold, here I am, shell-shocked post-thriller, still attempting to analyse the mayhem and searching for something else that can compete on the same level of intensity and flair. If you’ve been left craving more gun-wielding melodramas with dark histories, morally ambiguous agents who get their hands dirty for the “greater good,” then you’re in luck. Here are 5 Korean dramas like Trigger that are filled with the same gritty intensity, explosive action, and morally ambiguous characters. No fluff. All adrenaline.
Best Action Kdramas Like Trigger
Vincenzo
Forget what you think you know about the mafia because Vincenzo flips the genre on its head, with a dash of satire and a whole lot of blood. Song Joong-ki stars as a Korean-Italian consigliere who returns home and finds himself fighting a corrupt conglomerate in the best of traditions.
What makes this one hard to land is the unpredictability. You’re laughing one moment, watching a straight-up execution the next. Like Trigger Kdrama, the narrative is propelled by morally complex characters, slick production, and an unstoppable desire for justice, no matter the cost of reducing everything to rubble.
The Veil
It is a slow-burning spy thriller that punches you in the gut when you are least expecting it. Namkoong Min stars as a NIS agent suffering from amnesia following a mission gone wrong, and then follows a dangerous labyrinth of lies, secret agendas, and suppressed memories.
The paranoia never ends. You can never know who’s on whose side, or how far it goes into conspiracy. For anyone looking for Korean dramas similar to Trigger that escalate into psychological warfare and spycraft but never abandon their emotional centre, The Veil is a knockout.
My Name
Revenge doesn’t come much more vicious than this. My Name tracks the progress of Yoon Ji-woo, played by Han So-hee, now a member of one of the world’s most notorious drug cartels, as she infiltrates the police to track down her father’s murderer. It is brutal, violent, and emotionally intense in whatever way you can imagine.
What stings the most is the brutality of it all. Ji-woo does not get the indulgence of fight scenes on screen; she’s thrust into survival mode. If you enjoy Kdramas such as Trigger that have anti-heroes, side switching, and high-stakes undercover action, then this is a must-see. And Han So-hee’s transformation is downright jaw-dropping.
Also Read: Trigger Review: Gripping Shot of Action and Emotion That’s Worth Every Minute
Awaken
Not your average procedural, Awaken explores deeply a string of disturbing deaths tied to a dark past. Starring Namkoong Min, Kim Seol-hyun, Lee Chung-ah and others, Creepy is the constant mood, twisty the plot, and the emotional punches land a harder-than-anticipated blow.
It’s got that same low-key feeling of unease and moral grittiness that you’d find in Kdramas Trigger. You never know whom to trust or what’s really going on under a placid surface. And if you like protagonists with demons of their own to fight with a fierce reserve, this one will hook you early on.
Bad Guys
If the law can’t handle it, let the bad guys run their course. Bad Guys brings together an outlaw gang of a gangster, an assassin, and a psycho, bound together by a desperate cop who wants to clean up the streets his own way.
Starring Ma Dong-seok, Park Hae-jin and others, this kdrama is raw, unapologetic, and loaded full of combustible tension. Like Korean Drama Trigger, it teeters on the borderline between justice and revenge. And it never apologises for the violence; it just lets the characters strip themselves bare for you, fight by fight, showdown by showdown. A genre classic.
Kdramas such as Trigger give you gut-churning excitement, the suspense that has you glued to the screen, the anti-heroes whom you can’t help but love despite yourself, and the plot turns that have your jaw on the floor. So set aside your plans, dim the lights, and get to work; these dramatisations will have you believing you’re right there in the thick of it all, episode after episode.
Also Read: Trigger Ending Explained: Who Was Sending the Illegal Guns? Was Lee Do Able to Stop the Violence?
