May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-seob takes the job.
Acting
Song Kang-ho's face does three films' worth of character work.
Direction
Jang Hoon turns a car into a pressure cooker of conscience.
Writing
The fare meter becomes a ticking moral clock.
Director
Jang Hoon
Song Kang-ho
Kim Man-seob
Thomas Kretschmann
Jürgen Hinzpeter
Yoo Hai-jin
Hwang Tae-sul
Ryu Jun-yeol
Gu Jae-sik
Park Hyuk-kwon
Reporter Choi
Choi Gwi-hwa
Civvies Leader
Cha Soon-bae
Driver Cha
Shin Dam-su
Driver Sin
Ryu Sung-hyun
Driver Ryoo
Um Tae-goo
Illegal checkpoint Sergeant First Class Park
Lee Jung-eun
Hwang Tae-sool's wife
Seo Hyun-woo
Security Command
Ko Chang-seok
Sang-gu's Father
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Jürgen Hinzpeter died in 2016; he never learned the taxi driver's identity, and the film premiered at Berlinale with his widow present.
Gwangju's 'citizen soldiers' were officially 'rioters' until 1997; this film was part of Korea's reckoning with its own censored history.
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