Five long, highly anecdotal, and wildly bipolar takeaways from A Taxi Driver:

1. Song Kang-ho truly deserves the international attention that he’s finally receiving, and it warms my heart that people around the world are now familiar with the hilarious mannerisms of the stereotypical Korean ajusshi archetype: a persona he perfectly embodies in nearly every role he’s ever played.

Though an ajusshi strictly translates to “middle aged man”, the term, which can be used interchangeably in contexts of endearment or condescension, carries an avuncular connotation: in that it resembles the associations we have with the ‘uncle’ epithet in the West.

About three months into my five year tenure in Korea, I met an ajusshi named Jae-il while hiking. Quickly, we…

Wow. Was so unbeschwert mit einem nachgesungenen Popsong beginnt, endet als ergreifende Geschichtsstunde und Loblied auf die Menschlichkeit. Hier trifft die fiktionalisierte Geschichte eines sich durchs Leben mogelnden Taxifahrers auf die echte Geschichte des Reporters Jürgen Hinzpeter, der als einziger westlicher Journalist Bilder vom Gwangju-Massaker im Mai 1980 aufnehmen und außer Landes bringen konnte.

Den Taxifahrer gab es, so viel ist überliefert. Ob er wirklich ein Witwer war, der weder die Miete, noch Schuhe für seine Tochter zahlen konnte, ist wohl pure Spekulation. Aber diese wird von Song Kang-ho (Memories of Murder, JSA, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) wieder mal großartig gespielt. Wie er sich immer wieder empört, sobald er sich überführt fühlt und sich trotz allem, was sein Leben und…

Also ich gebe es gleich mal zu Beginn zu, ich habe vom Aufstand in Gwangju, einem katastrophalen Ereignis im südkoreanischen Kampf um Demokratie, vor diesem Film noch nie etwas gehört. Ich wusste nicht einmal, dass es die Stadt Gwangiu überhaupt gibt.

Regisseur Jang Hoon zeigt uns diesen Aufstand vom Mai 1980 und seine gewaltsame Unterdrückung durch die Militärdiktatur mit den Augen von Kim Man-seob (Song Kang-ho), einem Taxifahrers aus Seoul. Er half einem deutschen Journalisten (Thomas Kretschmann) dabei, Beweise für dieses Massaker an die Weltöffentlichkeit zu bringen.

Der Taxifahrer ist zunächst ein zufälliger Teilnehmer an den erschütternden Ereignissen. Er ist Witwer aus Seoul mit einer kleinen Tochter, der Schwierigkeiten hat, über die Runden zu kommen. Um seine Schulden bezahlen zu…

As far as political events go upon Korea’s history, I am pretty much ignorant of the steps and tragedies that have been taken to have gotten to this point. Hun Jang’s A Taxi Driver goes back to the Gwangju Uprising that took place in 1980 where martial law was declared after the assassination of Chung-hee Park - a fact that I researched prior to writing this review. As protesters begin to rise, many of which were young university students, Gwangju was in lockdown with all of its entry/exit points barricaded and guarded, covering the scandal of its climbing deaths caused by excessive force from the South Korean army.

A German reporter, Peter (Thomas Kretschmann), desires to capture the happenings taking…

My heart is very, very full.

This is the kind of cinematic marvel that I could write about for pages if I wasn't so completely emotionally drained from the viewing experience. I have so many thoughts that I don't know how to begin to organize them. I also don't think I could do it justice. This film is so incredible that it should have easily broken down the Oscar barrier that Parasite would go on to do a couple years later.

This is likely my new favorite Korean film, which is really saying something considering a solid handful of Korean films populate my overall top50 or so. Song Kang-ho is absolutely incredible, but anyone who has watched him already knows…

BEST FILM OF 2017.
There's a moment during this film where Song Kang ho's character had to choose between the right thing and the easy thing. He went for the former and it made all the difference. Here's hoping whenever life puts us in that situation, we do the same.
As I said before, this is the BEST film of 2017. I don't think anything would come close. Song Kang ho is the best actor in the world right now. If you want to know why, go straight to 1:54:10 of the film run time. That would do it.
The cinematography is so exquisite. The design of car is such that it's of green color and it has to go…

This was wonderful. Totally didn’t expect this after seeing a meme of it but so impressed in every way. 

Song Kang-ho is wonderful in this, and I can’t believe people outside of America didn’t realize he was this good until Parasite. I’d say he was better in this because he gets more time to showcase his range and explore his character more. The rest of the cast is just as dedicated. 

The cinematography is so exquisite. The design of car is such that it's of green color and it has to go through a lot of country side areas in various scenes with lots of greenary and I thought it's incredible how the director pulled it off but the color…