'A Taxi Driver' uses Kim's character to drive home some hard-hitting points about ambivalence and apathy in the face of fascism, ideas that feel just as sadly relevant today as it likely did during the actual events captured in the film.įilmmaker Jang Hoon's approach bounces between farce and horror, using every tool at his disposal to make sure that viewers are constantly in a state of feeling . Gwangju becomes the inescapable setting for much of the film's middle act(s), a nightmarish and almost post-apocalyptic city that can no longer provide a sense of security to the willfully oblivious Kim. This is when the film's first real tonal shift occurs, adding a simmering sense of foreboding and tension beneath the otherwise unassuming plot. This immediately puts the two individuals at odds, a grating dynamic that nonetheless leads to laughs as 'A Taxi Driver' mines as much humor as it can from their cultural and language barriers on their long drive to the city.

We soon learn that Hinzpeter is a burnt-out reporter, looking to cover a story that really matters and willing to risk his very life to get the job done. Kim recklessly jumps at the chance to steal this money for himself, unknowingly tumbling in over his head to take Jürgen Hinzpeter (Thomas Kretschmann, known for 'King Kong,' 'Avengers: Age of Ultron,' and 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels') into the heart of South Korea's political unrest.

The pivotal moment occurs when he overhears another driver mention that some foreigner is offering a large sum of money to be driven to Gwangju.

A taxi driver korean film stream