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…

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…

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…

At first amusing then heartbreaking but riveting throughout its runtime, A Taxi Driver brings an infamous incident from South Korean history to cinematic life in an upsetting, hard-hitting & powerfully moving manner, and benefits a lot from another rousing performance by the ever-reliable Song Kang-ho.

The story follows a Seoul taxi driver who decides to drive a foreign passenger to a small town for a generous sum. Taking the job without being aware that his customer is a German journalist with a hidden agenda, he finds himself accidentally involved in the commuter’s reporting of the events unfolding in that town.

Directed by Jang Hoon, the film takes its time to pave the necessary groundwork before bringing the heavy elements into the…

"There aren't enough coffins in Gwangju."

This had been on my watchlist for a while, but had got pushed up to the top at the glowing recommendation from my professor who taught my modern East Asian history course as he taught about the Gwangju Uprising and the general democratization process that South Korea underwent in the 1980s.

Anyway, this movie follows Kim Manseob, a taxi driver (roll credits) who is largely unconcerned and generally unaware of contemporary political events, opting to focus on his daughter and his job, in that order. He takes up the job of driving German reporter, Jurgen Hinzpeter who is on a mission to investigate and film pro-democracy riots being violently suppressed by the military in…

"A Taxi Driver" is South Korean Oscar bait. A well produced film about an important event of their history that seems tailor made to garner critical praise. This film was a very interesting viewing experience in a sense that I was very clearly a foreigner while watching it. The film was developed for a very specific audience and being outside of it made me really pay attention to the way the story itself is told and presented. Like the myriad of Oscar bait films produced in Hollywood, "A Taxi Driver" is genuinely well made with high production value and solid filmmaking, but stumbles into similar trappings that make limits the level it can rise to.

"A Taxi Driver" follows the…