Taxi Driver (2021 Korean Series)
Taxi Driver is a 2021 Black Comedy Thriller Korean Series currently airing on SBS TV, starring Lee Je-Hoon, Kim Eui-Sung, Pyo Ye Jin, Jang Hyuk-Jin, Bae Yoo-Ram, Esom (in Season 1) and Shin Jae Ha (in Season 2). It is loosely based on the 2018 webtoon titled The Deluxe Taxi (Red Cage) by Carlos and Lee Jae-Jin. The plot focuses on Kim Do-Gi, a free-spirited, perky and full-of-life young man who used to have aspirations to become a theatre actor. But due to his and his mom's financial situation, he decided to join the military and become a 707th Special Mission Group captain. However, his worldview ends up completely shaken when he returns from his service to go back home for a break, only to find his mom brutally murdered, which leaves Do-Gi's sanity and spirit completely broken.
Unable to find justice for his mom's murder, Do-Gi goes into deep depression and considers killing himself, only to be approached by the Bluebird CEO and the owner of Rainbow Taxi Company, Jang Sung Chul (a kind hearted man from an "old money" family who also suffered from the murder of his parents), to join a revenge group where they take revenge on behalf of the clients who have been wronged by the corrupt forces, in which Do-Gi becomes a deluxe taxi driver where he utilises his past talents and aspirations in his missions via disguises, fashion and his theatre acting ability. As a result, he even forms a close camaraderie with not only Sung Chul, who ends up becoming his doting father figure, but also with other members such as his best friend and hacker Ahn Go Eun, lead mechanic Choi Kyung Goo and assistant mechanic Park Jin Eon. However, as Do-Gi and his crew fight against injustice and corruption around them, Do-Gi also experiences the downside of it as he comes across many evildoers who want to destroy him and the Rainbow group and unleash chaos and destruction without them interfering.
The series first aired on April 9th, 2021 to May 29th, 2021 with it's second season airing from February 17th, 2023 to April 15th, 2023 and finally, it was renewed for a third season the day after the Season 2 finale. The series has gained immense popularity and has become a cult classic of sorts, with the series and it's cast including Lee Je-Hoon and Pyo Ye Jin gaining awards and recognition for their performances.
Tropes used in Taxi Driver (2021 Korean Series) include:
- A Father to His Men: Jang Sung Chul is this to his Rainbow crew, but is particularly an adoptive Doting Father to Kim Do-Gi, whom he adores and cares for.
- Agent Peacock: Kim Do-Gi. He is shown to be a very beautiful, youthful looking, slender and petite Pretty Boy who is shown to be kind-hearted, sensitive and vulnerable. But is also shown to be quite a capable and manipulative badass who can put up a fight, even if it's with anyone double his size or if he has to fight multiple men. He can even do disguises be it if he has to be unassuming or straight-up naive.
- Ambiguously Bi: Do-Gi is shown to have romantic tensions with both Kang Hana and Ahn Go-Eun, but he is also clearly shown to have some interest in men as well in Season 2. Most notably when he slowly begins to fawn over the new taxi driver and his new neighbour On Ha Joon until he finds out that Ha Joon is a mole part of the Geumsa organisation. He even got a bit flustered around Chun Ji Hoon from One Dollar Lawyer (2022) and also becomes quite close with one of the clients Kim Young-Min, a journalist whom he helps to take down the Black Sun nightclub and moves on with after Ha Joon's betrayal.
- Ambiguously Gay:
- Choi Kyung Goo is a much lighter example of this trope. Throughout the series he is depicted to be an effeminate and flamboyant Camp Straight who is full of confidence over his looks and skills and is the most outgoing and extroverted of the Those Two Guys duo with Park Jin Eon. There are times where he was shown to find both Do-Gi and Ha-Joon attractive and even adores the former, especially as shown when Do-Gi orchestrates a fake memorial for himself to find the mole who bombed his taxi:
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Kyung Goo: (About Do-Gi) He's not really dead. How are you able to cry your eyes out? |
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- On Ha Joon/Kim Dan Woo himself is a much darker example of this trope. He is clearly shown to have not much interest in women, even if he is in front of women like Ahn Go-Eun whenever he is undercover or as his true persona when he is around other women, especially one of the Black Sun VIP guests Madame Yang. He instead shows a much complicated and darker fixation towards Kim Do-Gi as he becomes much closer with him and even moves to his apartment complex and is the one he talks to the most. Even though there are times he is shown to be attracted to Do-Gi and fawn over him, he develops a huge dislike towards him as a result of the season's main villain Park Min Geon aka the Bishop using him to destroy Do-Gi. At the end when he finds out the truth about himself, he admits his feelings for Do-Gi and a future he lost with him and the Rainbow crew before he commits suicide by throwing himself and the Bishop off the rooftop to save him.
- Big Bad: Each season has a main antagonist Do-Gi and the Rainbow crew have to deal with:
- Season 1: Baek Sung Mi. The chairwoman of Naekwon C&C and a mafia queen who ends up conning Sung Chul into forming an alliance with her where she owns a prison complex to imprison the criminals the Rainbow company's clients were wronged by so that she can use the criminals for her shady businesses.
- Season 2: Park Min Geon/The Bishop. A sociopathic incel Fundamentalist and dictator who is the leader of the criminal organisation known as Geumsa. He owns various shady businesses and orchestrates multiple destruction and chaos for no reason (not even money and wealth) but for his own amusement and enjoyment due to his belief of defeating the "weak". As a result, he declares war towards the Rainbow team in which he sends Ha Joon undercover to take them down. It is even hinted that the Bishop might've had a decades long disturbing obsession with Kim Do-Gi for currently unknown reasons due to his petty jealousy towards Do-Gi's success, beauty and life, as he is shown to constantly goad Ha-Joon into seeing him as his enemy (especially since he pretended not to know Do-Gi in front of Ha-Joon) and even having the immense knowledge about Do-Gi that even Ha-Joon didn't mention to him about, including his mom's murder and his Trauma Button, as a result he makes it his mission to make Do-Gi's life miserable before killing him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Compared to Season 1, Season 2 ends on this note, albeit a bit more somber: The Rainbow crew have successfully taken down another villainous organisation hell bent on destroying them and it's leader, Park Min Geon aka The Bishop is now dead, finally freeing them and the entire world from the clutches of a sociopathic dictator and they remain a team and continue taking in more clients to help get justice for. For bonus, Go-Eun has also moved back in to Do-Gi's apartment complex as his neighbour and promises to keep him company after their work every night. However the tragic fallout of this ending is that On Ha Joon is dead after he found out about his true origins and his real name: Kim Dan Woo and he ended up sacrificing himself to kill the Bishop and despite the fact Do-Gi seems to be doing well after the harrowing events of the finale episodes, it's clear that he is completely emotionally, physically and mentally scarred from his ordeal with the Bishop and Geumsa organisation, which will worsen his PTSD caused by his mom's murder and haunt him for the rest of his life. On the bright side he still has the Rainbow crew beside him.
- Black Comedy: One of the important aspects of the series. Whenever the Rainbow crew do a lot of revenge missions on behalf of their clients, dark humour and absolute chaos is to be expected during it, unless it goes completely dark.
- Breather Episode: Each seasons have lighthearted and easy episodes which are sandwiched between the more emotionally harrowing and intense arcs:
- Season 1: The Voice Phishing arc in which Do-Gi disguises as a burner phone selling sexpot named Wang Tao Zhi where he seduces and fools the scam leader Lim Bok Ja. The finale episode also counts as it sees Do-Gi and the crew trying to build a life of their own after Do-Gi takes down his mom's murderer Oh Chul Young.
- Season 2: The 14th Episode of the Black Sun arc sees Do-Gi and his client Kim Yong Min's blossoming friendship as the duo prepare to expose the nightclub alongside the Rainbow crew. It is fitting that this episode is sandwiched between two emotionally harrowing episodes.
- Broken Bird: Kim Do-Gi, big time! As if he hasn't suffered enough during his time in the military and eventually discovering his mom brutally murdered, things only get much worse for him as the series progresses where he goes through more physical, emotional and mental trauma as a deluxe taxi driver.
- Casting Gag: Some of the actors in the series portray characters through which they end up adding Irony to or parodying their previous roles or situations their earlier characters were in:
- In Train to Busan, Kim Eui-Sung portrayed one of the villains Young-suk, a selfish cowardly businessman who is willing to sacrifice and throw people under the bus and let them be killed by zombies. Here he portrays Jang Sung Chul, a kind hearted, cunning and doting CEO of Bluebird foundation and leader of the Rainbow crew, who himself can serve as a Composite Character Expy for both Seok Woo (Flawed adoptive doting father who tries to make up to his "child" and protect him from any harm, Do-Ki in this case) and Yoon Sang-Hwa (An Action Dad who is a Papa Wolf for Do-Ki and his own crew) and much like everyone else, is also willing to put up a fight with the psychopaths and cowards.
- In Vagabond, the leads portrayed by Lee Seung-Gi and Bae Suzy have to go and interrogate the co-pilot and one of the perpetrators of the B357 Kim Woo-Gi about the mysterious Big Bad at a mental institution he is kept in, only to witness him getting kidnapped by the mooks of the criminal organisation and Dal Geon was also kidnapped by the revealed main villain while Hae-Ri was searching for him, after uncovering the truth behind the conspiracy, to get killed with Kim Woo-Gi in a fire (Dal Geon was saved though by a badass assassin Lily but had to fake his death). Meanwhile in the series, the roles get switched in which Jang Hyuk Jin (Kim Woo-Gi's actor from the former series) portrays Choi Kyung Goo who also, much like Dal Geon with Hae-Ri, ends up going to an insane asylum with his investigation partner/close friend (in this case Park Jin Eon) to interrogate or check on some of the insane criminals to collect any intel and clues related to the mysterious Big Bad, only for him to witness them being kidnapped by the mooks of the criminal organisation and much like Dal Geon, Kyung Goo is also kidnapped to be killed by the revealed main villain (alongside Sung Chul) while Jin Eon searches for him, after his team end up uncovering the actual masterminds. Kyung Goo is also saved from his ordeal by a badass assassin (Do-Gi) and luckily, is able to reunite with Jin Eon and others (unlike Dal Geon, who ended the series faking his death to take down the actual villains and leaving behind Hae-Ri and her team).
- Central Theme: Each season has one when it comes to dealing with how the world works and the issues everyone faces:
- Season 1: Justice by Revenge vs. Justice by Law. The team slowly learns and grows as to how revenge against the abusers work but this time in a right and lawful way while Kang Hana has to learn how at times law can be misused by the corrupt forces and look for ways to make sure it reduces.
- Season 2: Protection, Peace, Justice and Agency vs. Chaos, Revenge, Destruction and Anarchy. The Rainbow Crew ends up in a deadly war against the Geumsa organisation in which it's leader the Bishop is obsessed with destroying them as he sees kindness and justice as weak and wants to create a world where anyone can get away with anything and cause destruction and anarchy.
- Cute and Psycho: Kim Do-Gi possesses undeniable beauty, radiance, and charm, yet harbors a dark and cunning nature. His true psychotic nature is unleashed when confronted with corrupt individuals or deranged psychopaths, as he is willing to descend into their realm of madness to outwit and defeat them at their own twisted game.
- Deconstruction: For the action crime revenge KDramas. Despite implementing those elements of that genre, the series goes out of it's way to make it more realistic and Closer to Earth and a bit more lighthearted. It also manages to completely subvert a lot of character and genre tropes which also helps the series avoid making the similar plot mistakes as the other ones and break stereotypes surrounding it.
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