Bae Suzy Action Drama

Two of the Korean entertainment industry’s biggest names—Bae Suzy (of girl group Miss A, better known mononymously as “Suzy”) and Lee Seung-gi (of Brilliant Legacy, The King 2 Hearts, and more)—are back in the spotlight with a new conspiracy drama. With episodes hitting Netflix worldwide every Friday and Saturday for eight weeks starting Sep 20, 2019, Vagabond is the latest big budget K-drama with international ambitions. The series certainly feels like a blockbuster, in ways both positive and negative. Vagabond offers good entertainment value while showcasing South Korea’s status as a middle power, but doesn’t necessarily push the envelope beyond standard K-drama tropes.

In its first episode, Vagabond spins the web of an elaborate, global conspiracy that ensnares its two leads and beyond. Lee Seung-gi plays Cha Dal-gun, a down-on-his-luck stuntman who single-handedly raises his nephew Cha Hoon. Dal-gun’s world turns upside down when Hoon dies in a plane crash on the way to a taekwondo demonstration sponsored by South Korea’s embassy in Morocco. Devastated, Cha Dal-gun travels to Morocco along with other bereaved families, and inadvertently discovers evidence that the crash may not have been an accident.

Meanwhile, Suzy plays Go Hae-ri. On the surface, Go is a ditzy intern at the embassy, assigned to shepherd Cha and other relatives of the plane crash victims. However, we—and Cha—quickly learn that Go is actually a covert operative for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. Cha enlists Go to help uncover the truth behind the plane crash, and we start seeing hints that Go has even more secrets beneath the surface.

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While we haven’t seen a K-drama that opens with a massive plane crash before, conspiracy K-dramas are a tried and true sub-genre, with past hits like City Hunter as examples. Vagabond offers a solidly entertaining take on the sub-genre. At least judging from the first two episodes, it has an intricately crafted plot and decent production quality.

The show cultivates multiple subplots in a manner that doesn’t feel overwhelming, and leaves audiences hungering for answers to a bevy of intriguing questions. Fair warning for viewers who want more suspense though: Vagabond reveals the conspiracy’s broad outlines and rationales pretty early on, making the show more focused on discovering how deep that conspiracy really goes. The show still has plenty of mystery—just of a different kind.

Vagabond also initially spends significant effort on Cha Dal-gun’s character development. Cha gets the most screen time in the first two episodes; this lends itself to a lot of great action scenes given his stuntman skills. Regrettably, this also means Go Hae-ri has slightly less screen time than we’d expect—though presumably we’ll see a lot more of her in later episodes.

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Much like other recent big-budget, internationally-minded K-dramas (ex. Memories of the Alhambra or Descendants of the Sun), Vagabond also takes many opportunities to film in beautiful Mediterranean locations (i.e. Portugal and Morocco). This results in some amusingly similar aesthetics with different K-dramas—apparently K-drama characters really love driving jeeps (especially red ones) alongside sunny coastlines regardless of whether they’re in Descendants of the Sun or Vagabond.

This isn’t the only place where Vagabond draws from existing precedent. While fortunately its first two episodes don’t show much flirtation, Vagabond already forms the outlines of a classic love triangle between its two leads and another male character. After all, this is still a drama that needs to attract viewers, and the producers are probably keen on not letting the Suzy and Lee Seung-gi pairing go to waste.

Beyond romance and star power, Vagabond’s premise also reinforces South Korea’s ascendant geopolitical clout. Along with other recent K-dramas like Designated Survivor: 60 Days, Vagabond hints at Korea’s own version of the military-industrial complex.

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Early on in the show, we learn that a shadowy defense contractor called John and Mark (perhaps inspired by Lockheed Martin with its compound name) likely caused the plane crash, in an effort to discredit top rival Dynamic Systems (seemingly an amalgam of General Dynamics and Boeing) in a competition to provide South Korea’s next generation fighter jet. Vagabond also contains various scenes set in the Blue House (Korea’s presidential office), hinting at how high the conspiracy might reach.

Conspiracies of such juicy nature—involving global defense contractors—only happen when countries with enough geopolitical and economic clout come into play. The fact that South Korean TV writers can naturally craft these conspiracies perhaps reflects the country’s middle power status in the real world. In fact, allegations of influence peddling clouded South Korea’s decision to select the F-35 as its next generation fighter, and top aerospace contractor Korea Aerospace Industries made headlines in 2017 and 2018 over corruption charges.

With Suzy and Lee Seung-gi headlining, a decently constructed plot, and gripping action scenes, Vagabond offers a reliably entertaining experience that’ll please K-drama fans. Even those who enjoy political science lectures more than K-drama tropes might derive pleasure from the geopolitical undertones, not to mention the amusing (if not entirely accurate) portrayal of South Korean diplomatic proceedings. While the show may not be a classic that pushes genre boundaries, it probably never intended to be.Stuntman Cha Dal-geon [played by Lee Seung-gi] uncovers a huge-scale corruption scheme behind a plane crash that kills his nephew and 200 other passengers en route to Morocco. His hunt for the truth intertwines with Go Hae-ri (Bae Suzy), a covert operative who works for the National Intelligence Service. Along their quest, there are adrenaline-pumping action sequences, espionage, political intrigue, comedy and a sprinkle of romance for good measure.

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That sums the plot of Vagabond, a new South Korean series on Netflix. GURU chats with Lee Seung-gi and Bae Suzy, leading man and lady of the action-packed series to find out how far they would go to discover the truth.

Lee Seung-gi: We spent two-three months training together at an action school. On a personal level, both of us work a lot on managing our stamina and learning the necessary skills for the series. For the fight scenes, I trained in krav maga and other martial arts. There's a lot of running scenes so I had to work hard to get my body into the condition that's right for extensive running, as well.

Bae Suzy: I also learned a lot about martial arts. I play a secret agent so I had to be trained in gun shooting, kicking and the likes.

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Lee Seung-gi: When Suzy decided to take the role, the producers and I were so happy. We felt the series was finally being completed. It was nice working with her six years ago and she went on to build her career as an actress, so it's easier for us to work together as actors. We already have a friendship, too so it was the easiest experience to work on set.

Bae Suzy: I was really excited that I was able to work with him again. And we had such good memories from the past project so I had high hopes for this. We were able to meet up after years of growth so we were able to work together even better.

Lee Seung-gi: There are many questions around that. In the traditional action series, the protagonist is usually a professionally trained agent who loses their memory or retired or a killer who gets betrayed or something like that. But this series, Cha Dal-geon is a stuntman, an inexperienced civilian, who's involved in this huge conspiracy. And he and Go Hae-ri, an NIS secret agent, start to uncover the truth behind it. So I think protagonists are the biggest difference between Vagabond and other action series.

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Bae Suzy: I agree. I find the aspect of civilians uncovering the truth behind a conspiracy interesting. Both characters work together but his character at some points in the series would act more like a spy more than my character. There's also interesting chemistry between them.

Lee Seung-gi: I've given this question some thought and this is my personal take. The concept of good and evil can be interpreted and accepted differently from an individual to another. And in the midst of a conflict of interest, I believe respect for one another and right of individuals shouldn't be violated. But when such elements are being sacrificed for a bigger good of society or bigger cause -- that's going to happen in the series -- the viewers will question what actually is justice then. That I believe is the message Vagabond tries to convey.

Bae Suzy: We're playing the roles of regular people. And these two people are going to fight the bigger power and I believe viewers can relate to them. While shooting, I thought a lot about the choices we have to make -- big or small. Both our characters and others in the series are making certain choices throughout the series and those choices are making difference to their world. And I think the message of the series lies in such changes that result from our choices.

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Lee Seung-gi: In the teaser, you can see that I jump from a rooftop and onto a car. The director assumed that I was going to use a stuntman for the scene