<sub><sub>[Andrea Piacquadio](https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-with-a-bowl-of-popcorn-watching-tv-at-home-3811867/)</sub>
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If there is one thing I have not failed to make clear, it is my love for Korean drama. They have a knack for portraying human emotions with startling accuracy, one of the things I love about them. I watch a lot of K-Drama, mostly action and suspense though, but from time to time I might indulge in a bit of romance.
Many times, I have watched some dramas that stuck with me and got me thinking for a long time, other times I watched some that even inspired me to write something or the other. This one is no different. This time around, I watched a Korean drama that just reminded me of just how humans can be and how far they can be willing to go for what they believe in.
So, I happened to watch the *Vagabond* series last week. This is my second time watching it though, one of my friends had it and I thought I should revisit it. And it was just as interesting as it had been the first time.
For those who have not watched it, Vagabond is an action Korean drama. It has all the perks I love in a movie, espionage, butt-kicking action, humor, and suspense. It is a series that is sure to keep you glued to your seat for a long time until you are done watching it.
It basically tells the story of a stunt man called Cha-Dae-Geon who lost his nephew in a plane crash. Then he discovers that the plane crash was no accident, and instead the ploy of a nefarious cabal. He sets about getting to the bottom of the crash, and with the help of NIS agent Go-Hae-Ri, they uncover deadly secrets that put them in harm’s way, tumbling all over the place from Morocco to Seoul.
<sub><sub>[Cha-Dae-Geon and Go-Hae-Ri]()</sub>
In the entire season, one episode stood out for me though. And for those that have also watched and enjoyed it, it might be their favorite episode as well. But mine is for a different reason. And that is the twelfth episode of the series.
In this episode, Cha-Dae-Geon and Go-Hae-Ri have managed to smuggle a prisoner by boat from Mexico to Korea, and then have to move him from the docks to the courthouse so he would testify. The entire episode is adrenaline-charged, right from the first scene and it doesn’t die down until it ends.
The heroes get help from other good agents in NIS, but of course, there are the bad agents who do not want the prisoner to get to the court. So they do everything within their power to stop them. Bullets are flying all over the place.
Now, what really captivated me about the episode was just how far people were willing to go, even in the face of danger.
To Cha-Dae-Geon, his nephew was his world. He had raised him after his elder brother had died, and his life was centered on the young boy. He literally had nothing to lose, and he felt he had to know why his innocent nephew had to die for the whims of a few sets of people. And he was going to bring them to justice, even if he was going to die trying. That was why he was risking even bullets to get the prisoner to the court because he knew once that was done, it would be over. And justice would surely be served.
For Go-Hae-Ri, she wanted promotion more than anything, but even that paled when it came to this. She could have chosen the easier route and buried the matter as her superiors wanted. But she had a father who had also served in the force, one who had died doing good and she could not bear to soil his legacy. Also, she had never really been accepted as an agent, many of her peers were looking down on her and didn’t believe she had what it took, this was a great way to show that she had the chops for it.
And then, there are the other bereaved. The family of those that had died in the plane crash. They had put themselves out there and at great risk. One had used his truck to block a hail of bullets from the police, another set had fought off heavily armed men with their bare hands, and some even used their bodies as human shields when they realized there was a sniper who was aiming at the prisoner. They were willing to risk it all just so he went into court, made his confession, and put those responsible for their grief behind bars.
And then, on the flip side, we have the people who were actively trying to kill our heroes.
The NIS chief was only after his pocket and would kill even his mother if it put him in the good graces of the people in power. He didn’t do bad because he liked it, he did bad because he saw it as a necessary tool for survival. He knew that having powerful people in your corner made you invincible to an extent, so he was willing to go all out. and his great test came in that episode when he tried his best to kill that prisoner.
<sub><sub>[NIS Chief]()</sub>
And then, the President’s secretary. He is the one who believes he has to be the bad guy so that everyone else can afford to be good. Anything he does, good or bad, he believes he does it for his country and for his president. And he was the one that showed me what power can really do. In minutes, he had rallied the entire police troops in Seoul and they were after the one car that had the heroes and the prisoner. And not just usual police, he also had SWAT that was heavily armed as if they were going into a battlefield. The secretary also banned all forms of media coverage, every news chopper in the air was banned, and he did this by commanding the owners of the news channels. He believed that the prisoner getting into that court would be bad for his president, and he was willing to do everything in his power to see that the prisoner did not make it.
<sub><sub>[President's Secretary]()</sub>
And then, the president. I don’t really have much to say about this man because he was just a pawn in the game of someone smarter than he was and he paid the heavy price for that. Too sad.
That episode is like the tipping point of the entire series for me, I got to see how people would throw themselves hard into anything at all to make sure they achieve what they believe in.
And I realized that we too, in reality, are no different. Once we have a belief in something, we would find it hard to give up. We would put everything at stake if it would mean that we would get what we want. We would take risks and endure danger, not minding they might be life-threatening. And this is because we have a sure hope that it could work out for the better for us if we are to finish it.
Good or bad, we give more effort and life to what we believe most in. If your belief is shaky, then your effort will suffer for it as well, if you start having doubts, then you will find yourself slowing down as a result. But when it is rock steady, when you have it planted firmly, you will find that there is ridiculously little that can sway you from your path.
And that is a given.
<sub><sub>[Elīna Arāja](https://www.pexels.com/photo/here-is-a-light-that-never-goes-out-quotes-3309775/)</sub>
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<sub>Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, I would love to know what you are thinking. Till we meet in the next post.</sub>
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<sub>All images that are not sourced are screenshots of scenes of the movie from my laptop.</sub>
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