History Film / ATaxiDriver

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/taxidriver.jpg]] ''A Taxi Driver'' is a 2017 South Korean historical fiction drama film that depicts a financially struggling taxi driver in 1980 South Korea finding himself forced to ferry a German reporter to Gwangju out of desperation to pay rent. It is one of the highest grossing films in South Korea and has earned rave reviews from both domestic and international critics.

The film's primary and titular character is Kim Man-seob (Creator/SongKangHo), a widowed single father who is forced to care for his daughter. Being strapped for cash and already late on his rent due to short-paying customers, Man-seob is forced to ferry Peter (Creator/ThomasKretschmann), a German reporter who doesn't know Korean, who commands Mr. Kim to drive him to the Gwangju massacre so that he may film it and expose it to the international press.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Peter at first refuses to share what he's going to do in Gwangju with Man-seob, stating "It's none of your business." Man-seob, due to the language barrier between Korean and English, misinterprets this as that Peter is a businessman. Though later on Man-seob does see that Peter is a journalist who's come to Gwangju to record everything on camera and doesn't do anything related to business, then asks Peter why didn't he say so sooner. The irony is that Peter actually did tell him, but since it was in English, Man-seob couldn't understand him.

* {{Blackmail}}: Peter enacts this on Man-seob ordering him to either find a way to get him into Gwangju or risk losing the 100,000 won payment.

** In the film, Kim gives a false name and lives in obscurity for many years after the uprising, choosing to remain anonymous in spite of Hinzpeter's attempts to contact him. In reality, Kim used his real name, but died only four years later, which is why he never answered Hinzpeter's summons. His son did not reveal his father's identity to the public until after the film had been released.
** The filmmakers created a fictional identity for Kim because it was unknown at the time. In real life, he had a son and worked as a taxi driver exclusively for foreigners due to his knowledge of English and Japanese.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/taxidriver.jpg]] '''A Taxi Driver''' is a 2017 South Korean historical fiction drama film that depicts a financially struggling taxi driver in 1980 South Korea finding himself forced to ferry a German reporter to Gwangju out of desperation to pay rent. It is one of the highest grossing films in South Korea and has earned rave reviews from both domestic and international critics.

* HistoricalDowngrade: While Hinzpeter and Kim had a professional and cordial relationship during their time together, the film adds drama by making them strangers who bicker, squabble over money and even come to blows. Kim in particular is made into a deadbeat who steals Hinzpeter's business, which was not true.

** After Man-seob drives her to the hospital to go find her son, he witnesses a Gwangju taxi driver turning away a reporter asking for a ride. [[DeadpanSnarker Man-seob sarcastically remarks that driver must be rich]].

Not to be confused with the similarly-named Creator/MartinScorsese [[Film/TaxiDriver film]].

** While in the film, Kim gives a false name and lives in obscurity for many years after the uprising, choosing to remain anonymous in spite of Hinzpeter's attempts to contact him. In reality, Kim used his real name, but died only four years later, which is why he never answered Hinzpeter's summons. His son did not reveal his father's identity to the public until after the film had been released.
** By necessity, the filmmakers created a fictional identity for Kim. In real life, he had a son and worked as a taxi driver exclusively for foreigners due to his knowledge of English and Japanese.
** The real-life taxi driver did not steal Hinzpeter's fare from another driver for a big payday. Hinzpeter and Kim had had worked together for five years leading up to the uprising.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Man-seob claims he has a rough history losing his wife and having had to work for 5 years in Saudi Arabia which he describes as hot and sandy.

* [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone What Have I Done?]]: Peter easily falls into guilt for all the trouble he caused Man-seob. He even tries to tip Man-seob a huge sum of money that's substantially bigger than the total amount due to make up for that. This doesn't work and/or backfires, as it only makes Man-seob angrily accuse Peter of being quite wealthy and using money to [[KarmaHoudini avoid any repercussions]].
-->'''Peter''': If it's about repairs, let me pay for it. (''hands over a wad of cash to Kim'')
-->'''Man-seob''': (''in Korean'') DID I ASK YOU FOR MONEY?!

* JailBake: Man-seob and Peter hide the Gwangju camera footage inside a cookie box so that Peter can bring them to Germany without being detected at the airport.

* LanguageBarrier: The primary and secondary protagonists Man-seob and Peter (respectively) suffer from this. Man-seob retains basic knowledge of English from his foreign exchange job for 5 years back in Saudi Arabia, though his English is still worse than an American kindergartener's. Peter knows ''zero'' Korean.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Kim Man-seob lives another few decades by the end of the film. His real-life counterpart, Kim Sa-bok, died only 4 years after the Gwangju incident from cancer back in 1984.

* RecycledInSPACE: Although not intentional, this film appears to be ''Film/TheInterview'' in South Korea. By coincidence, both films feature Song Kang-ho (Song had an uncredited, [[TheVoiceless non-speaking]] cameo in ''The Interview'' as a DMZ soldier watching the interview).

* BadassNormal: Peter, who happens to be better at physical combat than Man-seob when the latter challenges him to a fight when the former made him abandon his daughter back in Seoul and they're stuck in Gwangju. Peter also proves handy in freeing Man-seob from getting strangled to death by an ROK captain who suspects he's a Communist.

* FirstWorldProblems: Man-seob considers the Gwangju riots to fit this trope at first, as he uses Saudi Arabia as his bar for a miserable homeland and thinks that South Koreans who aren't proud of their country like he is are just selfish. On the contrary, South Korea was globally viewed as a failed, unstable democracy at the time this movie was set and South Korea was nowhere near a First World country in the early 1980s. Man-seob changes his mind when he sees for himself that the ROK Soldiers are brutalizing normal citizens, not merely protesters.

The film's primary and titular character is Kim Man-seob (Creator/SongKangHo), a widowed single father who is forced to care for his daughter. Being strapped for cash and already late on his rent due to short-paying customers, Man-seob is forced to ferry Peter, a German reporter who doesn't know Korean, who commands Mr. Kim to drive him to the Gwangju massacre so that he may film it and expose it to the international press.

* GoodIsNotNice: Man-seob is just about the typical taxi driver: short-tempered, rude to customers (only caring about their money) and a social introvert.