A Taxi Driver
| A Taxi Driver | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Hangul | 택시운전사 |
| Hanja | 택시運轉士 |
| Revised Romanization | Taeksi Unjeonsa |
| Directed by | Jang Hoon |
| Produced by | Park Un-kyoung Choi Ki-sup |
| Written by | Eom Yu-na |
| Starring | Song Kang-ho Thomas Kretschmann |
| Music by | Jo Yeong-wook |
| Cinematography | Go Nak-seon |
| Edited by | Kim Sang-bum Kim Jae-bum |
Production company | The Lamp |
| Distributed by | Showbox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 137 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean English German |
| Budget | ₩15 billion[1] |
| Box office | US$84.4 million[2] |
A Taxi Driver (Hangul: 택시운전사; Hanja: 택시運轉士; RR: Taeksi Unjeonsa) is a 2017 South Korean drama film directed by Jang Hoon, with Song Kang-ho starring in the title role, alongside Thomas Kretschmann.[3][4] The film was released on August 2, 2017 in South Korea.[5] It was selected as the South Korean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.[6][7]
Contents
[hide]Synopsis[edit]
A taxi driver from Seoul, accidentally gets involved in a German journalist's reporting of the events of the Gwangju Democratization Movement, also called the Gwangju Uprising, in 1980.
Cast[edit]
Main[edit]
- Song Kang-ho as Kim Man-seob
- A widowed taxi driver who lives with his eleven year old daughter in a small house. He is an ordinary man from the working class who cares only about his family's livelihood and is uninterested in political issues.[8] The character is loosely based on real-life taxi driver Kim Sa-bok, who ferried Jurgen Hinzpeter to Gwangju. Kim remained out of the public eye until the release of A Taxi Driver,[9] when in September 2017, following the immense commercial and critical success of the film in South Korea, Kim's identity was finally confirmed by his son, Kim Seung-pil. The younger Kim shared with the media a photo of Jurgen Hinzpeter with his father and revealed that his father died of cancer in 1984, four years after the Gwangju events.[10]
- Thomas Kretschmann as Peter
- A German reporter. The character is based on the life of Jürgen Hinzpeter (1937–2016), the late German journalist who filmed and reported on the Gwangju massacre.[11]
Supporting[edit]
- Yoo Hae-jin as Hwang Tae-sool
- A kindhearted local taxi driver
- Ryu Jun-yeol as Jae-sik
- A naive university student
- Park Hyuk-kwon as Reporter Choi
- Uhm Tae-goo as Sergeant First Class Park
- Yoo Eun-mi as Eun-jeong
- Choi Gwi-hwa as Civvies leader
- Cha Soon-bae as Driver Cha
- Shin Dam-soo as Driver Shin
- Ryoo Seong-hyeon as Driver Ryoo
- Park Min-hee as Kwon Joong-ryeong
- Lee Jeong-eun as Hwang Tae-sool's wife
- Kwon Soon-joon as Kang Sang-goo
- Yoon Seok-ho as Hwang Tae-sool's son
- Heo Jeong-do as Seoul pregnant wife's husband
- Lee Bong-ryeon as Seoul pregnant wife
- Lee Ho-cheol as Hong Yong-pyo
- Lee Young-yi as Hong Yong-pyo's wife
- Han Geun-sup as University student protester
- Hong Wan-pyo as University student protester
- Daniel Joey Albright as BBC Reporter David John
Special appearances[edit]
- Ko Chang-seok as Sang-goo's father
- Jeon Hye-jin as Sang-goo's mother
- Jung Jin-young as Reporter Lee
- Ryu Tae-ho as Gwangju newspaper director
- Jeong Seok-yong as President of car center in Seoul
Production[edit]
Filming began on June 5, 2016, and ended on October 24, 2016.[12]
Release[edit]
The film was released on August 2, 2017 in South Korea.[13] on the same day, the film had its international premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, where Song Kang-ho was named Best Actor for his role in the film.[14][15][16]
According to distributor Showbox, the film will be released in North America on August 11, Australia and New Zealand on August 24, followed by the UK on August 25. It will then open in Asian countries including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan in September.[17][18]
Edeltraut Brahmstaedt, the widow of the German journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter, was to visit Seoul on August 8, 2017. During the visit, Brahmstaedt planned to watch the film based on the true story of her late husband.[19]
On August 13, 2017, South Korea's President Moon Jae-in viewed A Taxi Driver with Edeltraut Brahmstaedt and her family.[20] A Blue House official said, "The movie shows how a foreign reporter's efforts contributed to Korea's democratization, and President Moon saw the film to honor Hinzpeter in respect for what he did for the country."[21] After watching the film, President Moon commented:[22]
“The truth about the uprising has not been fully revealed. This is the task we have to resolve. I believe this movie will help resolve it.”
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
A Taxi Driver was met with critical acclaim upon its release. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 94% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10.[a] on Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating based on reviews, the film has a score of 69 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[b]
Box office[edit]
According to the Korean Film Council, on the first day of the release, a total of 69,890 tickets were sold, which earned US$4.5 million.[23] The film was available on 1,446 screens and was shown 7,068 times across South Korea.[24] By noon on the second day of its run, the film had passed the one million viewer mark.[25]
On the third day, the total audience doubled, attracting two million viewers.[26] The viewer numbers continued to rise as the tickets sale increased to four million by the fourth day.[27][28]
A Taxi Driver has earned a total of US$30.7 million in five days with 4.38 million admissions.[29][30] It has tied with The Admiral: Roaring Currents and The Battleship Island for the record of films which have surpassed four million viewers in the first five days of release. At the end of the first seven days, the film surpassed 5 million admissions.[31][32] on the eleventh day since the opening the film recorded more than 7 million viewers.[33][34]
A Taxi Driver became the most viewed South Korean film in 2017 in less that two weeks since its premiere by attracting more than 8 million audience.[35][36] By August 15, 2017, it has earned a total of US$62.7 million with 9.02 million admissions.[37]
By August 20, in just 19 days since the film was released, A Taxi Driver surpassed 10 million viewers selling 10,068,708 tickets,[38] earning a total of US$73 million.[39][40] A Taxi Driver also became the first film of 2017 and the fifteenth Korean film overall to surpass the 10 million milestone. It is also Song Kang-ho's third film to have sold more than 10 million tickets.[41][42]
The film topped the South Korean box office for three consecutive weekends. By August 28, the film had attracted 11.4 million viewers.[43] According to the film's distributor Showbox, the total attendance of the film surpassed the 12 million mark as of September 9, becoming the tenth most-watched local film of all time in South Korea.[44]
Awards and nominations[edit]
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Fantasia International Film Festival | Best Actor | Song Kang-ho [45] | Won |
See also[edit]
'TV영화관' 카테고리의 다른 글
| 5·18 광주 민주화 운동 (0) | 2017.09.14 |
|---|---|
| 택시운전사 (영화) (0) | 2017.09.14 |
| G.I. Joe: Retaliation (0) | 2017.09.14 |
| 님아, 그 강을 건너지 마오 (0) | 2017.09.12 |
| My Love, Don't Cross That River (0) | 2017.09.12 |