Taeksi woonjunsa / A Taxi Driver (2017) – 4/5

Rather die standing than live on your knees

„Taeksi woonjunsa“ or „A Taxi Driver“ is a Korean movie that is mostly in the Korean language as well, even if due to the international component to this film and story, we also get a bit of English, German and Japanese. English should probably be mentioned before German on the imdb page if we look at the frequency of foreign languages included here. The film is from 2017, so it has its fifth anniversary this year and it was shown (but not really on the occasion of this anniversary) again on the big screen yesterday and I took the chance to see it. I did not regret going one bit, it is a quite mesmerizing movie and I am glad they are bringing some Asian films back to cinemas these days here and if you get a similar chance, then do not miss out or otherwise also watch at home simple. The film is worth it. At considerably over two hours, it is not a short film, actually it is even closer to 2.5 hours if we count credits, but it deserved the duration and I am glad they were not forced to keep it shorter or so. The director is Hun Jang who is not super famous compared to some other of the most defining Korean filmmakers these days, but he is also enjoying a solid career. He is also not old. He launched his career around 2007, had 5 prolific years then and then took a bit of a break until he returned with this film for his kinda tenth career anniversary. I am glad he did and I am sure so is he because this became his most known film so far and also most successful awards-wise. You can check the attention it received for yourself if you want, but one thing that deserves being mentioned is that the movie was chosen by South Korea to get submitted to the Oscars. Unfortunately, there it did not get the attention it deserves. The writer is Yu-na Eom and there is, according to imdb, no other work on this person’s body of work before this film, so it was quite a successful way to launch the career. Now there is another credit and this newer film also features Hae-Jin Yoo, one of the cast members from this movie we have here that had more than just a few seconds screen time.

This one here is a film that seemed initially much lighter than it turned out to be. Just look at the examples of language barriers, the way the title character finds out about the surely most defining ride of his life or also the rent/money issues. There was one funny scene for example relatively early when we have the main character drive a pregnant woman and her man and he is mad initially that the man does not find his money, but then he gives him his card and says he will pay double the next day if he calls him and the main character’s reaction there was quite hilarious and something that not everybody in the audience spotted right away. Or also the scene when he eats with his daughter and how he reacts when he finds out where the food is from – another funny moment. But there are also more serious aspects to the title character from the very start. We find out about his deceased wife and that he is a single dad now, we find out he has a military background himself and this is why he sides with the military initially and is also really mad at the protesters before the story really encourages and forces him to reconsider his viewpoint. Of course, the second half then with pretty much all the slaughtering going on, it is a really dramatic movie and nothing else. Very shocking sequences there. For me personally, the film was also interesting because of the inclusion of Kretschmer here as I am from Germany myself, even if he would always play second fiddle to Song Kang-ho and I am glad he has enjoyed a huge breakthrough, also internationally, in recent years. He nailed his scenes 100% all the time, no matter if we are talking the lighter material or the more serious moments. The real gravity of the situation he maybe does not fully understand until the moment when their young aspiring musician friend has a gun to his head. Before that, there was also a scene already in which everybody except him kinda understood, namely when he is just sitting there eating some of the food a lady gave him (very pretty lady/actress by the way in this one-scene performance) before when they were driving to where they filmed from the rooftop.

Speaking of the music friend I just mentioned, it was a bit expected that tragic fate was coming his way when we find out about his dream and then a little later we see the corpse. There the filmmaker or writer was playing a bit with us as we hear his voice and realize he did not get shot right away, but this scene with the gun to his head was really maybe the most dramatic moment of the entire film when the bad guy counts to ten. All that happened afterwards was very dramatic too, like when we see people who try to pull the corpses away getting shot in cold blood. Terrible massacre there and it is a bit difficult to imagine that this happened in South Korea, a country that nowadays is really as western as it gets and the opposite to North Korea where you cannot totally rule out similar stuff happening again now 40 years later. There were time stamps to this film. This was also when I thought of Hinzpeter, the man portrayed by Kretschmer here. He came from a separated country at that point and he entered another one. This character’s best scenes were really when the title character was out of the picture. How he was bored of Japan. His only comedic moment was when he ate spicy food and underestimated it. This was a funny scene because there they were also mocking the guitar player a bit because he was not a good singer. But yeah, of course also the speech from the then old German character in which he reaches out to his Korean friend one last time was touching and memorable and also the recordings of the real Hinzpeter (almost sounds like a German first name / double name) at the very, very end in which he says the same again. Sadly, Hinzpeter died in 2016 at almost 80, so a little while before this film got released to the public and he also did not find out anymore what a success it turned into. A bit sad.

I checked back and now I saw that apparently they managed to identify the real taxi driver from back then and he was a man who already died from cancer approximately five years after the events there took place. This is even sadder, so there was no real chance for Hinzpeter to meet him again for pretty much the entire time he tried. But at least they found him. Through his son that is. A son is not featured in the film at all, there we only find out about the daughter. On quite a few occasions. But probably the actual taxi driver also had a daughter. I am sure a lot we see here was based on Hinzpeter’s memory from back then. But a lot was also fictionalized. I think they could have included more interesting parts like for example showing us the daughter as a grown-up then or could have done something with these pretty pink shoes, but on the other hand it makes sense because towards the end, we do not find out about the main character at all except that we see him briefly in his car again doing his job. Definitely a lot about him was also fictionalized here, but I liked the inclusions of Korean and German television and the news they provided to people. I also found the old camera the German used really interesting with what was written on it for example or the cookie box reference at the very end as well or the idea how he leaves early to make sure the government won’t manage to catch him when he is about to get on the plane. Of course, I am never sure how much there was added for dramatic reasons and how much actually happened this way, but I feel like the Hinzpeter references should at least be accurate as he could tell everybody what it was like. I have to dig deep here to find stuff that I did not like too much. Some of it had to do with the other taxi drivers and their contribution, like for example when these taxis formed a barricade to make sure the soldiers could no longer randomly shoot people. That was okay, but not as impactful as they intended, a bit absurd too.

Even more absurd was maybe the idea then that the taxi drivers came out of nowhere almost at the end to help the two key players and get the military cars to focus on them instead. Which they succeeded with, but it came with a high price. I like the shot when the camera keeps moving and one stays behind, loses his life there. One thing I found surprising was that the main character really gave a wrong name and number there apparently to Hinzpeter. I am not sure why. For safety reasons, to protect himself? In other scenes, we see how the title character here and there enjoys the attention and his attempts at pretending he isn’t flatted were only half-baked. So why was he there in the end not ready to become a hero? We will maybe never know the answer. Maybe the man was also entirely different than what we see here in the film. We will never know, but it is good that this film was made in his honor and also for the memory of those that lost their lives during this brutal massacre. I really enjoyed the movie as you can see from my rating. I realized pretty quickly that this could turn into one of my favorite films from its year and I had a feeling this would get 4 stars out of 5 and so it came. In-between, there were segments when I thought maybe 4 is a bit too much and 3 is enough and towards the end I actually leaned more towards a perfect rating, also with the scene in which one kind-spirited soldier lies about what is in the trunk. It was really touching and brilliant in the last 20-30 minutes, so the middle way feels right and who knows maybe I will give a higher rating on rewatch one day. In any case, I am glad this film got seen by many by now and I hope it will also return on a few more occasions to the big screen, here and wherever you live. In my opinion, this movie is the better Taxi Driver from the two out there. Sorry Marty! Highly recommended.