‘Taxi Driver’ April 9-May 29, 2021-SBS-16 Ep.
‘Taxi Driver’ is a 2021 action drama from the network SBS. It aired from April 9-May 29, 2021. The final of ‘Taxi Driver’ gained the 4th highest rating of any Fri-Sat drama in SBS history. ‘Taxi Driver’ is based on the webtoon called ‘The Deluxe Taxi’ buy Carlos and Lee Jae Jin.
Plot:
Jang Sung Chul who was a victim of a violent crime (both of his parents were brutally murdered) started a non-for profit organization called Bluebird. Bluebird helps those who lost love ones to violent crimes; through counseling, financial help, and other charitable outreach. One day Sung Chul witness Kim Do Ki react to seeing the person who murdered Do Ki’s mother. Sung Chul decided he wanted to recruited Do Ki for a revenge service. Sung Chul has reached out to Do Ki plenty of times to offer the services of Bluebird, however, Do Ki declines. Sung Chul determined, finds Do Ki and explains how Do Ki can get revenge. Do Ki was still unsure, however, after seeing the Batman like hideout (under Sung Chul’s taxi company) and listening to Sung Chul’s pitch (using the taxi company to help get revenge for those who did not receive justice through the legal system), Do Ki decides to join hands with Sung Chul. Sung Chul added three more team members to his secret operation, all have been using Blue Bird’s victims services. Go Eun is a brilliant computer hacker, Choi Hung Soo and Park Jin Eon are skill mechanics at Rainbow Taxi who make high tech gadgets and car mortifications the team can use. All team members work at the taxi company.
“Don’t You Still Want Revenge” [Taxi Driver Ep. 1] Kocowa TV
The team does doe well with their revenge plan; however, a prosecutor by the name of Kang Hana is getting a whiff of there plans or a feeling something is not going right at Rainbow Taxi. She starts to zero in on Do Ki because certain suspects of cases she is working on are disappearing. And the only lead she has is a premium taxi at the scene. The last player in this lovely plan is the Godmother or the CEO of Paradise Credit’s Group. Her name is Baek Sung Mi. She is helping Sung Chul with his plan; however, she is executing a secret plan of her own.
Can Rainbow Taxi do what the police and courts could not do? Is Rainbow Taxi ready to deal with the legal repercussions from what they do? Will prosecutor Hana catch on to Do Ki and Rainbow Taxi?
Review
I have not read the webtoon; not sure if the drama follows the webtoon fully. The webtoon was published on Naver Comic online. The drama stars Lee Je Hoon who started in ‘Signal’ and ‘Architecture 101’. The drama also stars, Esom as prosecutor ‘Kang Hana’, Kim Eui Sung as ‘Jang Sung Chul’, Pyo Ye Jin as ‘Go Eun’, Jang Hyuk as ‘Choi Kyung Soo’, and Bae Yoo Ram as ‘Park Jin Eon’.
The drama follows Do Ki and his co-workers on a mission to not only help as many people who are grieving or been unsuccessful with getting justice from the law, but take those criminals off the streets. The one part I love about this drama is the unique way Rainbow Taxi finds their clients. They do not use normal advertising; they place their cards in places where people who have lost all hope will see them. The way the clients sign the contracts is mad cool. The client is offered a ride with Do Ki in a taxi and they are asked to explain their situation. Do Ki records the client and heads back to batman like hideout to have the rest of the team listen to the story. The team decides to take the case or not take the case. Once they take the case Do Ki meets back up with the client and gives the client an envelope. In the envelope is a set of instructions on how to sign their contract. If you like old school video games, this part will be for you. Once the contract is sign, the team executes the revenge.
The best part of this drama is the seamless flow of the story. No big holes, no wtf moments; just simple as simple can get. This is a no brainer drama. Not too deep for this one. Action is all around the drama; from the hand to hand combat to the driving scenes. The drama made sure all the viewers understand exactly what the drama is about and introduce all the players within the first two episodes. I love that.
Even though there is action and some cheesy lines, the drama does open up an emotional door that even a grown man will cry. Each character has been deeply hurt and lost someone that they cherished. Not only have they lost someone, they are wondering why? Why did another person decide to inflicted pain on another person in such a way. The drama shows that. They show it very well with Go Eun (Pye Ye Jin). Her grieve is an everyday thing. Reason is, the person who caused her grieve is still out free. She is doing her best to cope with her grieve and Rainbow Taxi is helping her with that. The drama shows her grieve in non-over K-drama land way. It is more real than making the viewers believe that Lee Ji Hoon did not have a stunt double. Simple and small scenes with her gives the viewers the inside feel of how she is feeling. Also the drama does this very well in one scene when a client breaks down and cries…not just cry but ugly cry. It breaks my heart at this moment. In that moment the viewers can understand that what that person went through is tragic. More so, it is something that is happening in real life. With all the bullying scandals in K-pop Idol world, this scene brings to light the real damage that can happen to a person who is the victim of a set of bullies. Maybe that particular scene or story line will open up Koreans to be more mindful and proactive when it comes to school bullying.
Lee Je Hoon…what can I say. He was made for this role. His acting was spot on. The one issue was the stunt man. Lee Je Hoon did state in an interview he wanted to do more of the stunts himself, however, the production crew felt it was better for the stunt man to execute those scenes. This came up when viewers noticed the stunt man during one episode (School roof top fight scene). It was clearly noticeable that Lee Je Hoon was not the one executing the moves. The stunt man had much longer hair than Lee Je Hoon. That was a bumper. Besides that small issue, Lee Je Hoon was able to depicted the grieve of Do Ki along with the badassness of Do Ki. It seemed like he channeled John Wick in a lot of the fight scenes. Do Ki character was guard and cold; did not express his feelings a lot. One of the best parts was when Lee Je Hoon had to play a gangster and it was fawless. One of the best acting scenes to date in a drama. His laugh, the clothes, and even him mimicking some of the famous characters from other gangsters movies was spot on.
The one con that I have about this drama was the last plot line or story or case. It seem to me it was too rushed. I am not sure if its because that is how it played out in the webtoon; however, it needed more episodes. With this part, it added in a little danger for our team to which the team seemed to get out of it without losing too much. I felt that this was also rushed. It need maybe two to three more episodes to really keep us viewers on the edge our our seats. In drama land sometimes no matter how well a drama is there maybe a oops or money could of run out.
Overall this drama is a 9 out of 10. If you want some action, revenge, and some emotional feels, watch ‘Taxi Driver’.
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