Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
A Taxi Driver
A Taxi Driver (Korean: 택시운전사) is a 2017 South Korean political action drama film directed by Jang Hoon and written by Eom Yu-na, with Song Kang-ho starring in the lead role, alongside Thomas Kretschmann, Yoo Hae-jin, and Ryu Jun-yeol.
Based on a real-life story, the film follows a taxi driver from Seoul who unintentionally becomes involved in the events of the Gwangju Uprising in 1980. It draws on the experiences of German journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter of the ARD and his interactions with driver Kim Man-seob. As little was known about Kim at the time of production, many details of his life and the events outside Gwangju were dramatized. Hinzpeter's films revealed to the world that the South Korean government was carrying out mass killings against protestors in Gwangju, a city that was placed under curfew and cut off from the rest of the country.
The film was released on 2 August 2017 in South Korea. The film was positively received by critics, who praised its distinctive portrayal of the Gwangju Uprising, its emotional impact, and the depiction of the relationship between the main character and Hinzpeter. It was also selected as the South Korean entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. The film was a notable commercial success: it was the second highest-grossing South Korean film of 2017, and currently stands as the fifteenth highest-grossing South Korean film in history.
The film centres on the Gwangju Uprising, which took place from 18 to 27 May 1980 and is estimated to have resulted in up to 2,500 deaths. Its plot reflects the historical background of the event. The uprising arose from the ongoing struggle between the authoritarian government under Chun Doo-hwan, who had seized power in a coup in 1979, and citizens of South Korea, particularly university students, who want the country to democratize.
For many years, the uprising remained a taboo subject in South Korea, as those who had supported the government at the time continued to hold power in the country. According to scholar Jang Se Young from the Wilson Center, "books related to Gwangju were strictly censored or prohibited from even being published. Although a number of political dissidents and activists sought to inherit and develop the spirit of Gwangju, they were persecuted." Scholar Kim Yong Cheol stated, "the political legacies the Gwangju Uprising produced played a pivotal role in checking military intervention in politics during the democratic transition as well as in establishing the principle of civilian supremacy during the democratic transition period." Despite being banned, hundreds and thousands of news articles on what was happening in Gwangju were trying to be released by some of the journalists inside the city.
Efforts were made by some American journalists in order to inform the world about what was happening in Gwangju. Tim Shorrock published numerous U.S. government documents related to the uprisings that were happening in Gwangju, and Terry A. Anderson, who was a former Associated Press (AP) correspondent, covered the uprisings himself and provided an eyewitness account of the situation in 1980. People in the rest of South Korea were not aware of what was happening in Gwangju, until international media took hold of the story. Andrew David Jackson of Cambridge University argued that Jürgen Hinzpeter's relationship with South Korea's democratization movement "have become important weapons for the activist generation in an ongoing struggle over the memorialization of the Gwangju Uprising."
Candlelight protests through the fall and winter of 2016-17 marked the thirtieth year of significant democratic advancement in South Korean history, compared to the setting in which A Taxi Driver took place. Harvard sociology professor Paul Y. Chang argued in 2018 in KOAJ that "the contemporary candlelight protest industry draws on organizational and cultural resources first established in past democracy movements." During the filming of the movie, the director Jang Hoon was stopped multiple times, and the main actor of this film, Song Kang Ho, was blacklisted by the government from appearing on major motion picture films. Similar to the past, where newspaper articles and mass media coverage in South Korea was heavily monitored and censored, this movie faced obstacles as it reached its release date due to the former government's implications.
In 1980, Kim Man-seob is a debt-laden and widowed single father who works as a taxi driver in Seoul. Overhearing another taxi driver bragging about a 100,000 won job to bring a foreign client to Gwangju, Man-seob steals the client, unaware of the events in Gwangju. The client is Jürgen "Peter" Hinzpeter, a German journalist wanting to report on the increasing civil unrest in Gwangju. The two men are stopped by soldiers as they approach Gwangju, but manage to enter with Peter posing as a businessman.
Hub AI
A Taxi Driver AI simulator
(@A Taxi Driver_simulator)
A Taxi Driver
A Taxi Driver (Korean: 택시운전사) is a 2017 South Korean political action drama film directed by Jang Hoon and written by Eom Yu-na, with Song Kang-ho starring in the lead role, alongside Thomas Kretschmann, Yoo Hae-jin, and Ryu Jun-yeol.
Based on a real-life story, the film follows a taxi driver from Seoul who unintentionally becomes involved in the events of the Gwangju Uprising in 1980. It draws on the experiences of German journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter of the ARD and his interactions with driver Kim Man-seob. As little was known about Kim at the time of production, many details of his life and the events outside Gwangju were dramatized. Hinzpeter's films revealed to the world that the South Korean government was carrying out mass killings against protestors in Gwangju, a city that was placed under curfew and cut off from the rest of the country.
The film was released on 2 August 2017 in South Korea. The film was positively received by critics, who praised its distinctive portrayal of the Gwangju Uprising, its emotional impact, and the depiction of the relationship between the main character and Hinzpeter. It was also selected as the South Korean entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. The film was a notable commercial success: it was the second highest-grossing South Korean film of 2017, and currently stands as the fifteenth highest-grossing South Korean film in history.
The film centres on the Gwangju Uprising, which took place from 18 to 27 May 1980 and is estimated to have resulted in up to 2,500 deaths. Its plot reflects the historical background of the event. The uprising arose from the ongoing struggle between the authoritarian government under Chun Doo-hwan, who had seized power in a coup in 1979, and citizens of South Korea, particularly university students, who want the country to democratize.
For many years, the uprising remained a taboo subject in South Korea, as those who had supported the government at the time continued to hold power in the country. According to scholar Jang Se Young from the Wilson Center, "books related to Gwangju were strictly censored or prohibited from even being published. Although a number of political dissidents and activists sought to inherit and develop the spirit of Gwangju, they were persecuted." Scholar Kim Yong Cheol stated, "the political legacies the Gwangju Uprising produced played a pivotal role in checking military intervention in politics during the democratic transition as well as in establishing the principle of civilian supremacy during the democratic transition period." Despite being banned, hundreds and thousands of news articles on what was happening in Gwangju were trying to be released by some of the journalists inside the city.
Efforts were made by some American journalists in order to inform the world about what was happening in Gwangju. Tim Shorrock published numerous U.S. government documents related to the uprisings that were happening in Gwangju, and Terry A. Anderson, who was a former Associated Press (AP) correspondent, covered the uprisings himself and provided an eyewitness account of the situation in 1980. People in the rest of South Korea were not aware of what was happening in Gwangju, until international media took hold of the story. Andrew David Jackson of Cambridge University argued that Jürgen Hinzpeter's relationship with South Korea's democratization movement "have become important weapons for the activist generation in an ongoing struggle over the memorialization of the Gwangju Uprising."
Candlelight protests through the fall and winter of 2016-17 marked the thirtieth year of significant democratic advancement in South Korean history, compared to the setting in which A Taxi Driver took place. Harvard sociology professor Paul Y. Chang argued in 2018 in KOAJ that "the contemporary candlelight protest industry draws on organizational and cultural resources first established in past democracy movements." During the filming of the movie, the director Jang Hoon was stopped multiple times, and the main actor of this film, Song Kang Ho, was blacklisted by the government from appearing on major motion picture films. Similar to the past, where newspaper articles and mass media coverage in South Korea was heavily monitored and censored, this movie faced obstacles as it reached its release date due to the former government's implications.
In 1980, Kim Man-seob is a debt-laden and widowed single father who works as a taxi driver in Seoul. Overhearing another taxi driver bragging about a 100,000 won job to bring a foreign client to Gwangju, Man-seob steals the client, unaware of the events in Gwangju. The client is Jürgen "Peter" Hinzpeter, a German journalist wanting to report on the increasing civil unrest in Gwangju. The two men are stopped by soldiers as they approach Gwangju, but manage to enter with Peter posing as a businessman.