A film, “ A Taxi Driver,” opened Wednesday in theaters across the country, telling the story of the uprising from the point of view of a fictionalized version of Mr. A memorial to the journalist stands in Gwangju.Īnd this week, it is his driver’s turn to be recognized. Hinzpeter, who died last year at 78, has long been celebrated in South Korea for his part in exposing Mr. Hinzpeter was one of the few foreign correspondents to document the carnage, and his footage was seen around the globe.
A TAXI DRIVER 2017 TV
He managed to get a German TV reporter, Jürgen Hinzpeter, past the military cordon that surrounded the city, not once but twice. Kim, if that was his name, played a pivotal role in telling the world what was happening. In the bloody month of May 1980 in Gwangju, South Korea, one such invisible hero was a taxi driver whose name may or may not have been Kim Sa-bok.Īs the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan slaughtered people in Gwangju who were calling for democracy, Mr.
This is how we help keep our operations running, so we thank you in advance for your support.SEOUL, South Korea - When foreign correspondents cover dangerous situations, they often depend on local assistants, who in many cases take greater risks than they do. If you make a purchase through one of these links, Amazon gives Cinema Escapist a referral commission. Note: this article has Amazon affiliate links. What do you think about this list? Let us know in the comments below!įor more Korean movies, check out The Ten Best Korean movies on Netflix Now that there’s a liberal President in the Blue House, I hope we can see more entertaining movies like A Taxi Driver which cover South Korea’s democratization.
A TAXI DRIVER 2017 FULL
A Taxi Driver is full of great dramatic moments that make you empathize with the characters. The two get off to a rocky start, but soon realize that more beyond their selfish desires are at stake. In A Taxi Driver, veteran actor Song Kang-ho plays the eponymous driver, and Thomas Kretschmann (also in Stalingrad) plays the German reporter. For context, the Gwangju Uprising is probably the most important event in South Korea’s democratization. A Taxi Driver is not only entertaining, but also highly important to Korean society and history.Ī Taxi Driver is based on the true story of a taxi driver who drove a German reporter through a military blockade to cover the 1987 Gwangju Uprising. However, this isn’t just some thoughtless Transformers-like blockbuster.
A TAXI DRIVER 2017 MOVIE
Our top Korean movie of 2017 is A Taxi Driver - which also happens to be the highest grossing movie in South Korea for the year. Korean title: 택시운전사 (Taeksi Unjeonsa) | Starring: Song Kang-ho, Thomas Kretschmann, Yoo Hae-jin
I can’t emphasize the action enough… there’s a LOT of fighting. You not only learn about an important part of Korean history, but also see a huge amount of action. As WWII winds down, the Koreans on the island must band together and escape from their Japanese captors.īattleship Island came in fourth at the 2017 Korean Box Office, and it’s easy to see why. The 2017 movie Battleship Islandis a highly dramatized account of Korean life on the real-life Battleship Island. Hwang Jung-min (from Ode to My Father) stars as the main character, a musician who’s forced to work on the island. This is something that still causes Japan-Korea tensions to this day. During WWII, the Japanese forced thousands of Koreans to work on the island under appalling conditions. Remember that creepy island in the James Bond movie Skyfall? Well, it’s actually a real place called Battleship Island, off the coast of Nagasaki. Korean title: 군함도 (Gunhamdo)| Starring: Hwang Jung-min, So Ji-sub, Song Joong-ki, Lee Jung-hyun