Film

A Taxi Driver

Name: A Taxi Driver
Genre: Action, Drama, History
Released: 2017
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Thomas Kretschmann, Yoo Hai-jin, Ryu Jun-yeol, Park Hyuk-kwon

Period drama

A tense historical drama about a Seoul taxi driver who accepts a lucrative fare to Gwangju in 1980, only to become entangled in Korea's Gwangju Uprising. Grounded and morally complex, it balances intimate character work with large-scale political violence. For anyone moved by how ordinary people navigate extraordinary cruelty.

TMDb rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a historical drama where a plainspoken everyman's ordinary decency gradually collides with a real atrocity, and where the tension builds from small human choices rather than grand speeches.

Skip it if you need a fast, tightly plotted thriller or prefer history kept at a comfortable distance; much of the first stretch is patient, warm and domestic before the story turns grim.

What it asks of you: It runs about two and a half hours and rewards patience, moving from light, comic road-trip rhythms into something heavier and more harrowing as the stakes climb.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Spotlight2015

Like A Taxi Driver, it's about ordinary people uncovering truth in the face of institutional resistance. Methodical, ensemble-driven, and quietly furious about what happens when power silences voices.

But Journalistic procedural about investigating abuse can feel slow and talk-heavy if you're after momentum rather than moral weight.

Argo2012

Both trap ordinary people in historical crises beyond their control and ask what loyalty means when survival is on the line. Tense, smart, and genuinely gripping about impossible choices.

But The Hollywood ending might feel too tidy if you're hungry for something more morally ambiguous or bleak.

Silenced2011

Another Korean film about systemic violence and complicity, with a schoolteacher forced to witness atrocity. Raw, unbearably tense, and about the courage required to testify.

But Deals with child abuse. The emotional toll is immense and deliberate; it's not a comfortable watch.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from A Taxi Driver

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Battle of Algiers1966

Both use a specific historical moment of state violence to ask who is complicit, who bears witness, and what the cost of silence really is.

A 1966 film that documents colonial violence and urban resistance with the urgency of documentary. Shot like newsreel, morally unsparing about what occupation costs. It's the DNA for how to film political uprising without sentimentality.

But Black and white, Italian-Algerian production from the 1960s; formal and distant where A Taxi Driver is intimate. Feels like a film you're supposed to watch rather than one that sweeps you along.

Nightcrawler2014

Explores how ordinary ambition curdles in the presence of violence and moral compromise. Jake Gyllenhaal is mesmerizing as someone who exploits tragedy for profit, asking uncomfortable questions about complicity.

But American urban noir in LA rather than 1980 Seoul—shifts the moral register entirely, and the protagonist's amorality might feel slick rather than tragic.

The Post2017

Government suppression of truth, ordinary people deciding whether to act, Meryl Streep being formidable. Spielberg's sense of civic duty matches A Taxi Driver's quiet insistence that silence is a choice.

But More conventionally heroic than A Taxi Driver; the moral clarity might feel reassuring rather than agonizing.

The Raid2012

Indonesian action film with a similar visceral intensity and claustrophobic tension. Cops trapped in a building trying to survive overwhelming odds; violence that feels consequential rather than stylized.

But Almost entirely action-focused with minimal dialogue or character development—the opposite of A Taxi Driver's emotional anchoring.

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War2004

Korean war epic about two brothers forced to choose between family and nation during the Korean War. Sweeping, devastating, shot through with the same examination of impossible loyalty.

But Nearly three hours and genuinely brutal; some find the scale and romance of war cinema at odds with the film's tragic core.

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War poster

All the President's Men1976

Reporters pursuing truth while power tries to bury it. Methodical, intelligent, and about the particular courage of bearing witness when institutions would rather you didn't.

But Procedural thriller from '76 that can feel dated; lacks the visceral danger and personal stakes A Taxi Driver carries.

The Children Act2018

A judge must navigate competing moral claims with no clean answer. About how good people make impossible decisions within broken systems, and whether rules serve justice or corrupt it.

But Intimate chamber piece rather than historical drama; confined, slow, and more about legal and personal philosophy than action.

Memories of Murder2003

Both are Korean films about ordinary men discovering what their government is really capable of. Same era, same fury about institutional silence and complicity.

Korean thriller about detectives hunting a serial killer during military dictatorship. Bong Joon-ho's masterpiece—tense, darkly funny, and about how power corrupts investigation. The final shot is unforgettable.

But Darker in register and more formally playful than A Taxi Driver; the mix of crime procedural and political allegory can feel fragmented if you're not with it.

Witness1985

Both pivot on a single person deciding whether to testify and what that choice costs them. Both ask: when you know something, can you really stay quiet?

Harrison Ford hides in an Amish community to protect a boy who witnessed police murder. Outside A Taxi Driver's world entirely—American, Hitchcockian, a thriller about duty and protection—but structurally identical: an outsider pulled into someone else's danger, forced to choose between safety and responsibility.

But 1980s Hollywood thriller with romance and action beats. Lighter, more conventionally crafted, and ultimately more interested in suspense than in the moral weight of complicity.