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Ki-duk Kim's assistant
Hoon Jang (or Hun Jang) debuted with
Yeong-hwa-neun yeong-hwa-da/ Rough Cut (2008),
based on a story by Kim Ki-duk,
and the blockbuster Ui-hyeong-je/ Secret Reunion (2010).
Gojijeon/ The Front Line (2011), written by Sang-yeon Park,
Taeksi Woonjunsa/ A Taxi Driver (2017), written by Eom Yu-na and based on a real story, and starring the great
Kang-ho Song,
is a story set during the Gwangju Uprising of 1980 during which South Korea's paramilitary forces kill hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Gwangju. The film is mostly the portrait of an everyman dragged into a historical event that is much bigger than him, and how he becomes an involuntary hero simply out of empathy and dignity. The film is both an uplifting tragicomedy and a moving melodrama.
During a student demonstration the taxi driver Man-seob is annoyed that he has to take a detour and that a student accidentally dents his car. He doesn't have money to fix the car, which needs a new engine.
Man-seob is a happy-go-lucky taxi driver who is raising his daughter alone after his wife died. The daughter always gets into fights with the boy of the landlady.
The landlady is married to a man who is actually Man-seob's best friend.
When the landlady demands that Man-seob pays the four months of rent he owes her, Man-seob shamelessly asks her husband to lend him the money.
While they are chatting, Man-seob
overhears another taxi driver bragging that a foreigner has offered a huge sum
to be driven to the town of Gwangju.
Man-seob quickly drives to the appointment and pretends to be the driver that the foreigner has booked, unaware that the foreigner, Peter, is a German reporter who intends to film the protests that are happening in Gwangju, kept secret by the government.
Man-seob starts driving and only much later realizes that something is going on in
Gwangju as they run into checkpoints and he sees the foreigner hide his videocamera.
Realizing that there is danger ahead, Man-seob would like to go back to Seoul but Peter tells him that he won't pay him unless they reach Gwangju, and Man-seob desperately needs the money.
Man-seob tells soldiers that Peter is a businessman who has forgotten important papers in Gwangju. The soldiers let him in but tell him he must leave before sunset.
As they enter the city, the streets are deserted and there are signs of rioting everywhere. The first people they meet are a group of students on a truck,
who welcome Peter because they want the world to know about their struggle against the dictator.
Man-seob realizes that he is getting into mortal danger and drives away, leaving Peter with the students, but then he helps an old woman get to the hospital where he witnesses the carnage going on, and meets again Peter and the protesters.
Peter is determined to remain in town and Man-seob is moved by the spirit of
the protesters.
Man-seob drives Peter and student Jae-sik to a protest that rapidly escalates into a massacre.
Peter films everything, risking his own life, but is spotted by a plainclothes officer.
Man-seob is a skilled driver and manages to lose the soldiers who try to stop them.
Man-seob's taxi breaks down and so he has no choice but to stay the night, worried that he cannot communicate with his daughter because the soldiers have cut off all telephone lines.
Later, Jae-sik and Peter ask Man-seob to drive them again to the scene of another protest. This time the evil officer and his thugs beat up Man-seob and capture
Jae-sik, threatening to kill him if Peter doesn't surrender the film.
Jae-sik shouts to Peter to flee and show the world the protests. Peter and Man-seob manage to escape and hear a shot, meaning that Jae-sik has been executed on the spot.
Man-seob has had enough and leaves Peter behind, thinking of his daughter.
The local taxi drivers give him Gwangju license plates so he can avoid capture, as now the soldiers are looking for a taxi from Seoul.
However, along the way he stops for food and watches a television report that is completely false. Man-seob makes a phone call to his daughter and then returns
to Gwangju where he finds Peter filming at the hospital. He sees
Jae-sik's corpse and encourages Peter to keep filming.
Man-seob and Peter witness an even worse massacre during which soldiers
indiscriminately shoot down civilians, even those trying to rescue the wounded.
The taxi drivers, including Man-seob, form a barrier with their cars so that
the wounded can be rescued.
The protesters themselves encourage Peter to flee so that he can show the footage. Man-seob tries to avoid the military roadblocks by taking side roads, but eventually they are stopped by soldiers. Peter has hidden his camera, but Man-seob has forgotten the Seoul plates in the trunk. A soldier sees them but doesn't say anything, helping Man-seob and Peter pass through. Seconds later the soldiers receive the order to stop all foreigners. The soldiers start chasing the car, but Gwangju taxi drivers show up to help the fugitives. They are all killed but manage to stop the soldiers.
Man-seob drives Peter straight to the airport. Peter has booked a flight for the following morning but takes an earlier one, thus avoiding capture.
Peter asks Man-seob for his name and phone number, but Man-seob misspells his name (intentionally?) and writes a fake number.
Man-seob drives home to his daughter. His car is all broken up but Peter paid his ride as promised.
Peter's footage of the protests and of the massacre shock the world (and it's the only reason that the world knew about them).
Years later, an aging Peter returns to Korea and looks for his taxi driver but can't find him. Man-seob is still a taxi driver and reads about Peter in a newspaper article that also mentions how Peter is looking for the heroic taxi driver.
But somehow Man-seob doesn't want to be found and Peter dies without ever finding Man-seob.
(Copyright © 2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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