In May 1980, students in the South Korean city of Gwangju rose up in revolt against the country’s authoritarian government. A Seoul taxi driver, hoping to earn some quick money, drives a German reporter clandestinely to the town, which has been blocked off by the military. What follows is a harrowing experience for both, spread over two days, during which the unwitting driver finds himself helping the reporter cover the uprising that saw the death of 2,000 protesters in a brutal crackdown by the military police.
A well-mounted, big-budget production, A TAXI DRIVER (South Korea, 2017) by Jang Hoon, despite some sentimentality, offers gripping viewing. And of course, Song Kang-ho (of Broker, Parasite, Memories of Murder fame, among so many others) holds the film together with his stellar performance as the vivacious taxi driver.
A TAXI DRIVER (South Korea, 2017) is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Check out the trailer here:
Ranjan Das is a Mumbai based filmmaker&faculty
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