A Taxi Driver (Good Good)

Over the weekend I was fortunate to watch the highly anticipated South Korean (true story) film A Taxi Driver, by Jang Hoon. If your used to most Korean films and tv shows, A Taxi Driver to you would seem like any other action movie. It is filled with gunshots, car chases, car crashes, and gruesome scenes. But as you take a closer look into the film and begin to break it down, you will see that this is no ordinary political/action film. An interesting thing that is not often seen in most movies is the use of diegetic and nondiegetic audio at the same time. In most films the source of sounds and music is not shown or explained however in A Taxi Driver the majority of the music is played by Man-Seob (main character) through his car’s radio. Because of this the music may be paused or replayed based on the characters’ action. For example when Man-Seob is driving through town his radio plays a mellow/happy kind of music but when he sees a horrifying scene of a soldier beating an innocent elderly man, he pauses the radio. This allows for the audience to hear the gruesome sounds more clearly. Another way this film is interesting is Jang Hoon’s specific use of lighting key. In certain scenes the director wants to make sure the audience understands the tone fully. He does this by using lighting key. In the scene where the soldier’s are chasing down the protesters in the market street, the lighting key is lowkey. He does this to show the audience that the scene has a very ominous tone. Jang Hoon doesn’t only use lighting key to show the tone of a specific scene he also uses color values. For example, when Man-seob is walking through the town he sees 4 young college kids being hanged in the middle of the street. The director portrays this scene with a red background. Red is used to symbolize many things such as blood, communism, and death, which are all major parts that affect this scene and the tone of the movie as a whole. The dominant color of the background, red, gives a very scary almost authoritarian tone.

Personally I did enjoy this film. Though I didn’t really support the political meaning behind this film, I did enjoy the film a lot. There are barely any true story action movies that actually move you like this movie does. Not once did the director actually incorporate a political argument in the movie, he simply brought light to a true event that has been covered up for years, and that is something i personally enjoy about the movie. I also liked how the director used specific songs/music to attack the emotions of the audience. I have no criticism about the movie, and I do recommend watch this movie. So with that being said I place A Taxi Driver in the “Good, Good” category.