TAXI DRIVER

Genre: South Korean Historical/ Action/ Drama

Rating: 5/5

This is a movie that pleasantly surprised me. I thought this would be a fun, light-hearted flick judging by the poster itself, but it turned out to be more than just that.

Based on the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea in 1980, it narrates the tale of a taxi driver who accidentally gets involved in the protestations. A German journalist, Peter, gets a tip-off about an uprising in Gwanju and hires Kim Man-Seob, a struggling cab driver for a day's trip to Gwangju. The film begins like a comedy as Man-Seob whose primary focus is to provide for his daughter, deliberately avoids political involvement, which he believes isn't his problem. However, as he spends the day assisting Peter with his journalistic investigations, he is emotionally affected by the plight of the locals being persecuted by the government. He willingly stays on in Gwangju, feeling it is now his duty to help Peter take the reports of the crisis to an international platform which could help bring about some resolution.

The performances in this movie was absolutely brilliant and the gradual mood change was cleverly directed. In fact, I don't remember a dull moment in this movie. But what did have me breaking down was the ending when it was revealed that the real Jurgen "Peter" Hinzpeter spent the rest of his living years searching for his Korean friend and died without ever finding him.

A beautiful movie that brilliantly displays that there are some heroes who remain nameless and would never be celebrated.