Don't die. Get revenge. Call us.
Taxi Driver is a 2021 Korean television series which stars Lee Je-Hoon as the titular taxi driver named Kim Do-Ki, a graduate from the Korean Military Academy who found his mother murdered when he was young. Unable to get justice against his mother's killer, he is invited by an enigmatic philanthropist named Jang Sung-Chul, to be a "taxi driver" for his company which specialises in "revenge" vigilante services for the individuals who were wronged by their tormentors and ignored by the legal system by helping them get the revenge and justice they needed.The series first aired on April 9th 2021. The second season aired on February 17th 2023.
Has nothing to do with Taxi Driver or A Taxi Driver.
Tropes:
- Abusive Workplace: Maria is beaten by her boss for questioning why she has to do physical work at a fish factory (when she was told she would be doing computer work) and then forced to sit in an oil barrel for hours. On top of that, she is sexually abused by the company owner who takes advantage of her disability. Maria is Driven to Suicide, but at the last minute she sees an advertisement for the Rainbow Taxi company, and decides to get revenge. They completely demolish the company.
- A Father to His Men: Jang Sung-Chul to his Rainbow Taxi group. They're all younger than he is and he guides them, and he even takes Maria under his wing since she's good with computers.
- All Men Are Perverts: A good chunk of the antagonists are men in positions of power that are also rapists, sexual abusers or perverts that hoard revenge porn.
- Big Bad: Baek Sung-Mi turns out to be this for the first season.
- The newcomer Oh Ha-Joon turns out to be this for the second season, when he is revealed to be a member of a corrupt group that also owns an illegal nightclub called "Black Sun" and only joins Rainbow Taxi Company in order to take down Do-Ki and his group.
- Broken Bird: Kim Do-Ki, especially due to the loss of his mother and the circumstances around this which triggers his PTSD.
- Ah Go-Eun as well. Due to her sister's suicide caused by U Data's leak of her disturbing videos.
- The Bully: The antagonists of Case 2 are a Gang of Bullies that sexually harass women and have revenge porn of female students they dislike. They come to the Rainbow Taxi's attention when they torment a boy to suicide.
- Capitalism Is Bad: The first two villains are a Rich Bastard who gets away with his bullying because his dad often donates to the school, and an amoral business owner who's company has a laundry list of health violations and employee abuse.
- The Chessmaster: Kim Do-Ki proves himself to be this. Especially whenever he plans out his revenge plan against the horrible people on behalf of their victims in which he exploits and manipulates his enemies' weaknesses and flaws and uses it against them and improvises and orchestrates if the plan hits a snag.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The fish factory owner sells maggot-infested fish to schools, and takes out multiple life insurance policies in Maria's name, siphoning money from her.
- Crocodile Tears: When Do-Ki exposes Sun-tae for having porn of a female student in front of the whole school, he does this in front of the other teachers to sell how horrified he is (when he knew for a long time Sun-tae was a bastard).
- Cute and Psycho: Kim Do-Ki is very beautiful, gorgeous and adorable looking, but is extremely vicious, unhinged and cunning, especially when it comes to the corrupt individuals or psychopaths he has to take down and is willing to come to their level of insanity to beat them at their own game. So much so that even the Smug Snake villains fear letting his dark side run loose if they cross him.
- Driven to Suicide: Maria was about to jump off a bridge due to her employer's physical/sexual abuse (and them witholding her pay amongst other trauma), until she saw an ad for the Rainbow Taxi services and decided to give them a call.
- Drugs Are Bad: Crossing over with
Reality Subtext since in South Korea, having drugs is a career-ending offense. The bullies (led by Sun-tae) do drugs and when they're caught, they beg for Do-Ki not to expose them because it will ruin their lives. - Femme Fatale: Do-Ki is a Gender-Inverted example. It is even more emphasised in the "Voice Phishing" arc when he seduces the leader Lim Bok-Ja when he disguises as Wang Tao Zhi.
- Gang of Bullies: Sun-tae leads a gang with Hak-su as his second in command. They like to smoke drugs, hang out at clubs and beat up the poorer students for their money. Young-min becomes the target of their bullying and seeks revenge because of it.
- Hate Sink: The concept of a company that does revenge services sounds a bit extreme, but when you learn about some of the people they're ordered to target (cruel bullies that break a boy's leg, a company run by Corrupt Corporate Executives that torture and sexually abuse a disabled woman), you're itching for them to knock them down.
- Humiliation Conga: Sun-tae is exposed for doing drugs in front of his mother, forced to be in Young-min's debt and has to take a job under Do-Ki by the end of his character arc.
- Orphanage of Love: Maria grew up in one, and when she leaves the orphanage, she finds out her younger friends pooled money to give her one last parting gift. She promises to them that when she makes money at work she'll buy them all the gifts they'll want, though later the Rainbow Taxi group beats her to it after they get revenge on the man who hurt her. Maria sees the taxi pulling away later and shouts her thanks to them.
- Revenge: What drives the story and what the Rainbow Taxi specializes in - for the right price, you can exact your vengeance on anyone who's wronged you.
- The Smart Guy: Go-Euen is a cute hacker chick who gleefully cracks codes left and right and steals classified data to aid the Rainbow Taxi's goals.
- Teens Are Monsters: Rainbow Taxi's second client is Young-min, who's bullied at school by a well-off student, Sun-tae, who's father makes donations to the school. Sun-tae and his friends torment Young-min for being poorer and shabbier and even threaten to kill him in front of his (deaf and mute) mother.
- Manipulative Bastard: During missions, Kim Do-Ki is perfectly good at playing the criminal and corrupt targets like a fiddle and ruin their lives for what they did to their victims.
- Master of Disguise: Kim Do-Ki is this, especially when he takes up various personas to blend in with his targets. Be it a high school subsitute teacher, a new unassuming employee of U Data or a country bumpkin.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: When Do-Ki finds out that Maria's employers sexually abused her, he becomes even more eager to get revenge on her behalf and subjects them to a long, drawn out Humiliation Conga.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Yes, the taxi company's motif is a rainbow. Yes, they absolutely kick ass.
- We Help the Helpless: What the Rainbow Taxi/Bluebird Company specializes in. Especially to take down the corrupt people or straight up monsters who wronged their victims and got away with it scot-free.
