"Taxi Driver" Korean drama season one: Episode one recap

 

 Air Dates: April 9th until May 29, 2021 on SBS-TV, Saturday and Sundays at 10:00 pm

Director: Park Joon-Woo... Subs done by Sally G... This episode's rating: 9.7%

Main Cast: Bit of a large cast plus there's many guest stars whose roles are big but the episodes are an hour or longer. The setting is the Rainbow Taxi company which is a legit operation and is run by an older man named Jang. For now it seems 100% of the drivers are just your regular cabbies but there is one driver who goes beyond the call of duty and will be the first character you'll read about below. His name is Kim Do-Gi, usually in recaps use the last name for males and first names for females which I hope makes things easier. However will be referring to him as Do-Gi, there's a woman that I'll be using her last name who is Baek.

A second season began on February 17th of this year, hopefully can recap most of the episodes before that season ends and may also do posts for that also. Almost all of my drama recaps for the past year have been for shows with the episodes being between 25-45 minutes and have been doing a good job at keeping them brief yet also not leaving any details out. So these recaps will definitely be longer but so much takes place in this show and will already give this series a very high recommendation. As it says in this screenshot this drama is about revenge and we need more in that vein!

Lee Je-Hoon as Kim Do-Gi.... This is a man who can do it all, if I described everything we'd be here for days! Do-Gi is the most unbeatable fighter I've seen to date in a drama, he had once been an elite member of the Special Forces division of Korea's military. Four years ago his mother was slain by a crazed killer who later committed suicide in prison which meant Do-Gi couldn't avenge his mother's death. He soon met the man below who is Jang and the owner the Rainbow Taxi, he told Do-Gi if he wants revenge to join his company. Which is a legit taxi service though Do-Gi also specializes in helping others getting back at those cruel people who have made their lives a living hell! Could add more in but that's enough for now....

Kim Eui-Sung as Jang Sung-Chul..... Owner of Rainbow Taxi and that's him in the above screenshot. Jang's parents were murdered twenty years ago and since then has sworn to avenge the victims of brutal crimes or who have been mistreated so badly. There's five members at the taxi company who do work on helping others get revenge but after two shows unsure if that number just may be a bit higher.

Esom as Kang Ha-Na.... The exact name as one of my all time fave Korean actresses! She's a prosecutor for the Seoul Northern District and was hell bent on finding what happened to a goon named Cho who disappeared after being released early from prison. But Ha-Na's supervisor told her to lay off the case and has assigned her to work with Jang, besides owning the taxi company he also has an organization helping victims of crime. Since the second show Ha-Na has been a bit leery of how the company operates, are they mixed up in some illegal activities?

Pyo Ye-Jin as Ahn Go-Eun.... That's Ye-Jin below and I need to do some regular posts for her! She's an elite hacker and tech expert who works at Rainbow Taxi and is one of five people there who work on the unknown 'revenge squad'.

 Jang Hyuk-Jin as Choi Kyung-Goo.... The head mechanic at Rainbow Taxi, Choi and his assistant Park also work for the 'revenge squad'. Along with the above Go-Eun him and Park also work off site doing surveillance work and other duties.

Bae Yoo-Ram as Park Jin-Eon.... Bae and Park are a also comedy team and I've seen them paired up often in dramas.

Cha Ji-Yeon as Baek Sung-Mi.... A very mysterious middle aged lady who owns the Nakwon Company. When Jang has to stash one of the people who they've taken revenge on he brings them to Baek who charges some very high fees.

Yoo Seung-Mok as Cho Jin-Woo.... The Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the Seoul Northern District office. Cho is Ha-Na's supervisor and he's also good friends with Jang.

Lee Yoo-Joon as Wang Min-Ho.... Ha-Na's assistant at the prosecutor's office.

Guest Stars for the first two episodes

 Stories are for two episodes which means this list of characters will be in both of today's recaps.

Cho Hyun-Woo as Cho Do-Chul.... A sexual offender who was sentenced to life in prison but was released after only eight years to public outrage.  He was picked up at court by none other than our hero Do-Gi who brought this sicko to first Jang then to Baek's 'prison'. Ha-Na is on the case to find out what's happened to Cho with no success.... yet.

Jo In as Kang Maria.... 18 year old female who had been living with her two siblings at an orphanage. Maria only has the maturity level of a nine year old but is very competent with computers. Maria thought she would be doing office work at a fish factory but what took place was pure cruelty and was finally able to escape, she somehow hooked up with Do-Gi who is on her revenge case.

Tae Hang-Ho as Park Ju-Chan.... The main owner of the fish factory and one of the most despicable men I've ever seen in a drama who gets his due justice at the end.

Song Duk-Ho as Cho Jong-Geun.... Park's assistant and he appears to be a bit slow. Cho watches over the workers/slaves at the fish factory, when he first saw Maria he fell in love and began to have his way with her. 

Kim Do-Yeon as Choi Jing-Sook.... Maria's 'handler' who is also beyond cruel, she's recruited all of the workers for Park's factory.

Jo Dae-Hee as Kim Hyun-Wook.... Corrupt police chief in this small town the factory is located in and works as Park's security man.

 Whew, so many characters above and the first post for a drama is the toughest as it takes so long to write the above up, luckily just have to do a bit of editing as we go along. Takes me a while to get the urge to write up some recaps, this is a prime example. Finished the two episodes ten days ago but finally just started on the recaps which could take a few days to do(they didn't!). Unsure if I'll be doing posts for all sixteen episodes, we'll just take things two shows at a time for now.

 This is a unique drama as I don't think the theme of 'Revenge' has been used too often in dramas. If you're into vigilante shows/movies this is a show that's right up your alley! I like those kinds of movies which you don't see that often these days. It's before our time but one of my fave film series were the "Death Wish" movies which totaled five and I often watch at least one a month. Let's finally get to the recap and as mentioned these will be longer than all of my Japanese recaps as the episodes are so much longer and quite a few things take place.

 There's a pair of stories in this first episode, don't worry if not everything is explained in this post as stories go for two episodes. Will begin off with the shorter of the two and above are screenshots for this first man who will have revenge taken out on him. Usually a victim will contact the Rainbow Taxi company to get the wheels rolling for revenge, how will be explained later but for this story the company's president Jang is doing the revenge for all of Korea's citizens. In the third screenshot above is a lowlife named Cho who has just been released from prison. He had a life sentence for sexually abusing young children but after eight years Cho was released, there was a protest outside of the courthouse when that took place and so many citizens want to see him hanged if not worse! Picking up Cho at the courthouse was the Hero of the drama who is Do-Gi, he's in the fourth screenshot. So many news channels and newspaper reporters were following the taxi but Do-Gi managed to elude them and how was that possible?

 By some help from Do-Gi's boss Jang who was driving a similar looking taxi, when Do-Gi entered a tunnel the taxis switched the way they were travelling. So when Jang left the tunnel his taxi was empty save for him and the press wondered what was going on(?), soon Jang eluded them and now everyone was confused. In the tunnel Do-Gi had stripped his taxi of all markings and hid Cho in the trunk, what a creep this man was who even said he would take revenge on those who sentenced him! Some days later Jang brought Cho to a woman associate of his named Baek who takes care of these lowlifes until Jang can decide what to do with them. Above in the fifth screenshot is Cho who was put in a steel cage below ground but his case is far from finished. In the second screenshot above is Go-Eun who is the expert hacker and whiz of all technical things at Rainbow Taxi who has all of the cabs Do-Gi drives in wired. The prosecutor who sentenced Cho to his life sentence is in the second to last screenshot, her name is Ha-Na and she's reviewing all of the tapes of when Cho was released from prison. For now she's like everyone else trying to figure out how did Cho disappear into thin air?

 In the top screenshot above is Jang, president of Rainbow Taxi and to me seems like a very decent man. He also runs an organization called Blue Bird Refuge Center which helps out victims of crimes, as we know his main passion is secretly helping those who want revenge! Twenty years ago Jang's parents had been brutally murdered and since then he's worked so hard to help crime victims. He has an ally in the Northern Seoul Prosecutor's office who is also named Cho, three characters in these first two episodes do share that same last name. Cho is limited in legal ways but he tries to help Jang's organization out as much as possible, in that third screenshot Jang was asking about a new liaison from Cho's office. Of all people he picked Ha-Na to work with Jang's victims much to her dismay. Above you can see that she wants to continue on with the sexual predator Cho's case but was told to back off though secretly she stayed on the case. After two episodes we haven't seen Ha-Na work at all with Jang or his victims but sure that will be changing. 

 Won't discuss them too often but there's a pair of men who work at Rainbow Taxi named Choi and Park, you'll see them enough in screenshots. They've turned Do-Gi's taxi into a vehicle even James Bond would be proud of as it has so many special features. They also often go on assignments with the tech expert Go-Eun in a van to do stakeout work and other various things to help Do-Gi with the revenge cases, for now know of only four who work with Jang to enact revenge for victims. On to the second story which is much longer and was a case of the victim contacting Rainbow Taxi to help her out. In the bottom screenshot above a woman of eighteen was about to jump off a bridge, how could her life get any worse? The young woman's name was Maria and when you hear her story you know why Jang began his 'revenge squad' which may make for a nice title for a drama. On the bridge Maria looked down and saw that message on the bridge, she truly didn't want to jump so shortly after called Rainbow Taxi, Do-Gi was there in no time to help her out.

 In the top screenshot above is Maria with Do-Gi, he's a quiet man but what an unbeatable fighter who used to be in the elite Special Forces unit of the Korean military. He had asked Maria to tell him her whole story, just because a person wants revenge doesn't mean Jang and his comrades will take the case. But after hearing Maria's tale which was taped as Do-Gi's taxi is wired they wanted to help her so badly but needed to wait for her second call which is in the bottom screenshot, they have a special 'revenge game booth' set up. Maria is eighteen and up until a few months ago had been living in an orphanage with her two siblings. Maria is very adept with computers but has the maturity level of a third grader, think when you hit the age of eighteen you can no longer stay in an orphanage. There was a woman 'handler' who worked with the older people there whose name is Choi, we didn't see much of her in this show but will so in the second episode where she got her just dues!!!! Choi has gotten a position at a local fish factory for Maria who thought she would be working in their office. That was far from the truth and though it was a fish factory it was very close to a concentration camp!

 Maria was assigned to scale fishes at first, there were about a dozen others dong that task and all were too scared to even utter a word. The factory and orphanage were located in a small village outside of Seoul. All the others are like Maria who were tricked into working and also to live at the factory. When Maria said she was scared of fish the factory owner Park above grabbed her head and plunged it into a vat of dirty fish! Maria had only been there for less than an hour and before long Park had also thrown her in a large drum that was in a freezer. Things like that you would think could never happen in real life, Maria certainly thought that way and now she's trapped there. Park's assistant is the third character named Cho, he's mainly responsible for watching over the workers at the fish factory. To me he seemed a bit slow in the head and he had a crush on Maria from the moment he met her, Cho had her doing other tasks such as cooking, cleaning, etc. but Cho did go a bit overboard with Maria.

 This first post for the series will be five segments, think after this will be able to keep them at four. Cho going overboard with Maria meant that he was having his way with her and having the maturity level of a third grader meant she had no clue about sex though she knew it was wrong and dirty. It got so bad that Cho ended up giving Maria birth control pills which he said were vitamins, that we learned in the next episode. In this village the owner Park is a respected business owner who has won some awards, if they only knew that the conditions at the factory were similar to a prison camp... or even worse! One resident who did know what was taking place was the police chief Kim who is just so corrupt. After a few weeks of this abuse Maria did attempt to escape at night and was successful, after making it about a mile away she saw a police cruiser. Marie thought she was saved but in the vehicle was Kim who dragged her back to the fish factory, that's him in the second screenshot above. For running away Maria's torture became worse than ever, have to admit I was so upset at what was taking place and did I want to see these worse than cruel men get a taste of their own medicine.

 Maria did make one more attempt to escape and this time it truly was a success. She made it to Seoul but with no one to turn to had thoughts about jumping off that bridge until she saw the notice about Rainbow Taxi getting revenge for victims. So after spilling her story to Do-Gi it was a waiting game at the taxi company, they all want to help Maria but she needs to make that call asking for help. In that third screenshot above was Marie sitting at a computer terminal in a remote section of Seoul, that's where Do-Gi had dropped her off. After giving it some thought Maria knew she had to turn to the taxi company to get her revenge plus she still had her two siblings at the orphanage to worry about. So the operation is now in full swing but how the revenge is meted out won't be happening until the next recap. However there was one minor scene where Do-Gi did enter the house of Park and his assistant Cho, guess they live together. The two were passed out for the two mechanics Choi and Park had disguised themselves as chicken delivery men, would they like some free chicken? Of course the answer was YES and before long they were passed out for the night as the chicken was tainted with sleeping drugs. Do-Gi used that time to scope their residence out for other info and evidence, mainly to determine how they should go about giving the evil pair their due justice.

 Final section and hope to wrap this up quickly but probably won't. In the top screenshot above is the mechanic Park delivering that drugged chicken, right below him is the hacker/tech for Rainbow Taxi Eun-Go. She is such a master at everything technical, though Do-Gi will always end up the hero it's her who could be the most important person in this 'revenge squad'. Almost forgot to add in that the main HQ for the team is underground and is similar to the Batcave, if the police or criminals ever knew what was going on down there!!!! Third screenshot down shows the somewhat mysterious woman Baek who is very wealthy and owns a company. Like Jang's Batcave she has an underground facility where she will hide out the cruel people Jang has brought her but for a high price. She currently has that sexual predator Cho locked up and don't think any of these criminals get killed. Fourth screenshot down shows the prosecutor Ha-Na still working on Cho's disappearance, she's been viewing all of the video tapes from that day he went missing in Do-Gi's taxi and is making a bit of headway.

 Down to the final three minutes, this episode lasted over 65. It was a flashback scene to 2017, current year is 2021. We witnessed a crazed man being escorted from a house and he was charged for killing the occupant who happened to be none other than Do-Gi's mother! He tried to get at the killer and took down a dozen policemen before being tazed down, as you can see Do-Gi vowed to kill this man. In the crowd outside the house was Jang, with his parents being murdered twenty years prior he knew exactly what Do-Gi was going through. In the last minute Jang met up with Do-Gi at a coffee shop, this was about a month after the killing and in that time the murderer had taken his own life in prison. Jang told Do-Gi this means he can't get his revenge on that man, if not does he want to come work with him? So that's how the pair began their 'revenge squad' though sure there will be more to the story, that's the bottom two screenshots above and these first two below. That finally wraps up this recap which wasn't as grueling as I thought it would be, next post is for the second episode. There's 35 screenshots below and recommend viewing them as they do help you follow the story a bit better.