Review of A Taxi Driver (2017) by Jluis_001 — 12 Jun 2021

One of the blackest pages in the South Korea that eventually rose to democracy is portrayed in this well-intentioned but not so thoughtful film.

A Taxi Driver tells a true story, as well as taking place in a real historical event.

The development of events narrates journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter's trip to South Korea to report and demonstrate to the world what was happening with the Gwangju Uprising that occurred in May 1980, during which citizens rose up against the then president Chun Doo- hwan and oppose his dictatorship.

Citizens were violently repressed, and it's estimated that more than 2000 people were killed by the military.

Now that's the background to other real story. Since Jürgen Hinzpeter was driven in and out of city of Gwangju with the same taxi driver who helped him during the time that he was in the city recording the incidents that occurred there.

This film portrays the events faithfully up to a point, and evidently fictionalizes others. That was to be expected.

However the transition that is made to develop the character of Song Kang-ho - the taxi driver - doesn't feel the most fitting.

That's not a negative criticism of Song Kang-ho's work, but let's just say the script doesn't allow him much.

Thomas Kretschmann plays Jürgen Hinzpeter, but the truth is that he doesn't have much to do. I mean his character is 100% relevant, but in terms of acting, the film belongs to Song Kang-ho.

Also, even though the film is a tribute to the reporter, and what he did, his story is ultimately anecdotal in front of the terrible event that he was reporting, and despite not trivializing what happened there in any way, I feel that the creators preferred not to be so openly critical, and perhaps it was necessary because from what I understand, they were harassed by the government during the filming.

I liked. I definitely liked it. But I also think it lacked more punch.