"Taxi Driver" Korean drama season one: Episode seven 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: 14.0%

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 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.... that's Do-Gi below.

Kim Eui-Sung as Jang Sung-Chul..... Owner of Rainbow Taxi and that's him in two screenshots above. 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. Jang also runs an organization called Blue Bird which helps victims of crimes.

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....  I need to do some regular posts for her! Go-Eun is 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'. Go-Eun's sister committed suicide a few years back and we're slowly learning the details of it.

 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. She also owns a shady night club and appears to even run a call girl ring, we learn more about Baek in every episode.

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

  For a while will keep these five names at the top, they were the villains from the first two episodes with the bottom four working as a team. But they've still had no official outcome as all are still trapped in the Baek's dungeon.

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. Cho is still alive and kicking as in the sixth episode he was able to escape from the dungeon.

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.

 Park is on the right, Choi in the middle and Cho on the left.

Guest Stars for the fifth through eighth episodes

Jeon Sung-Ii as Seo Young-Min....  Ex-employee of the U Data company, he quit after working there six months. Young-Min had been brutally harassed and bullied while at the company which is why he quit. But after leaving he was beaten to a pulp by the chairman Park and his group of 'execs', Young-Min had pressed charges but they were dropped through some very devious methods and he's currently in the hospital because of his injuries.

Baek Hyun-Jin as Park Yang-Jin.... Chairman of U Data and to say this man is brutal would be an understatement! In a way this story is a bit like the previous one as it has to deal with bulling but the other story was with high school boys and this is set in the hi-tech world. Park mainly hires workers who have a shady criminal background as he can control them.

Cho Ha-Seoko as Jung.... Director at U Data and in a way may be a meaner man than his boss Park is, he's the man with purple hair in the screenshots.

Kim Jae-Young as Ahn.... Manager of the Strategic Planning Department, like the other execs is also very brutal and he has the green hair in screenshots.

Kwak Min-Gyu as Jeon Jin-Won.... Former employee at U Data who quit after Min-Young did, he's fled to an island for fear of being hunted down!

Ryu Yi-Jae as An Jung-Eun.... Added her in for this recap. She was Go-Eun's older sister who committed suicide five years ago. That was because her 'boyfriend' Choi had uploaded a video of the two in bed together, the shame of that was too unbearable to keep living.

U Data.... The largest global cloud/streaming in Korea and most of their profits appear to come from adult videos. They have a unique system where they can see what everyone writes in the cloud even if the e-mail isn't sent or a comment isn't published at a social media site. That's come in very handy to get back at those former employees such as Min-Young. 

Previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

Episode five .... Episode six

 The ratings have really increased since the first show, the 14% for this was the highest of them all. Plus at 66+ minutes this was the longest episode to date though not as much took place as the previous episode but so many of our questions were answered. Did the posts for episode's five and six a few days ago, if you didn't read them you have to as this is a four episode story and won't be referring back all that often on what's taken place. The sixth episode had such a thrilling conclusion as there was a video uploaded to the web which was an adult one starring Go-Eun's dead sister!!!! What a shocker that was, Go-Ein trashed her high tech van and disappeared, what took place will begin off this recap though we didn't see much of her after that. It was another thrilling conclusion and haven't watched the final show of this four part story yet but know Park and his U Data crew will get their just desserts!!!!

 **** In the previous recap Do-Gi was hired at U Data and used the name Do-Ki, that was what I used in that recap but will go back to Do-Gi for this post and his last name was Kim.

 U Data is the cloud/streaming company responsible for that video being uploaded to the internet. They've had some suits brought against them which have all been dismissed, thanks to the slightly corrupt chief prosecutor Kim. Right above is Go-Eun's boss who is the owner of Rainbow Taxi and also runs a victim support group called Blue Bird. His name is Jang and when the last episode ended he had been reading through the U Data lawsuits and realized that the video could be uploaded if there was a hacking attempt which Go-Eun had tried. Jang tried to contact Go-Eun to but avail and when she witnessed this adult video that featured her sister Jung-Eun she freaked out. Go-Eun trashed her van and fled to her apartment where Jang went looking for her.  Go-Eun was locked in her bedroom and to Jang the best thing for her right now is privacy. Arriving soon after was Do-Gi who insisted on seeing his friend Go-Eun but was told not to by Jang. He told his best driver that he should hear the story of Go-Eun's sister first and up until now we viewers didn't have much of a clue of how she died or why. The next ten minutes were a flashback of what took place five years ago and it wasn't a pleasant story.

 Five years ago Go-Eun was a senior in high school, her sister Jung-Eun was two years older and attending college where she was doing very well. The sisters were close and as you can see above had a fun evening out together but that was their final one. Jung-Eun had a boyfriend named Choi who she thought the world of but his actions led to her eventual suicide. All of a sudden at her college Jung-Eun was more popular than ever and why? Popular may not be the right word but she was very known by her classmates as they had viewed an adult video of her on the internet.... so hadn't thousands of others in Korea! Unknown to Jung-Eun Choi had taped them one night while they were engaging in sex, that's right above. Choi filmed it on his phone and then said it had broken down so he brought it in to get repaired, so to him the owner of the shop was a con man and stole the video. We will learn more about this later which is that Choi is one of the creepiest men you'll ever see in a drama and it was him who uploaded the video! Jung-Eun went to the police who were no help as the server was an overseas one. She then tried to delete the video on every site she could find which didn't help too much as it was so immensely popular. Eventually the shame was too much for Jung-Eun who one day threw herself off the roof of her family's house and her younger sister Go-Eun had no clue what drove her to suicide. That is until five years later when for the first time Go-Eun viewed the adult video so you can understand why she's gone to pieces.

 After that tragedy Go-Eun joined Jang's Blue Bird victims group, then his 'revenge squad' and vowed revenge as you can see in the top screenshot above though at the time Go-Eun had no clue what drove Jung-Eun to suicide. That was really the last we heard of Go-Eun in this show, there were a few seconds here and there of her at her apartment but it had nothing to do with the story. And if course the main story is of Jang and his 'revenge squad' bringing down the evil empire U Data. Trying to do that also is the prosecutor Ha-Na who is in a few of the above screenshots, Young-Min in the fifth episode is what started the ball rolling but he's still unconscious in the hospital and his name has rarely been mentioned. In the last show Ha-Na and Do-Gi had a huge falling out but it was mainly due to Do-Gi being taped by the U Data chairman Park and he couldn't take the chance of being discovered yet as the man who will bring the company down! The two still haven't reconciled but think Ha-Na deep down realized there's much more going on than Do-Gi can reveal. Above there's a screenshot of a resignation letter, Ha-Na had handed it to her boss Cho along with another letter and which one would he sign? The other was giving Ha-Na permission to reopen the case against U Data, Cho knows the case should never have been dropped so signed that letter and think he's silently rooting for his best prosecutor to get justice!

 We didn't see too much of Baek in this show, she's in the above middle screenshot. She has cells in a dungeon below her mansion where she keeps the criminals Jang's squad has captured as prisoners. Have noticed their relationship is becoming a bit frayed and think why may be explained in the next show. In that last episode one of the prisoners escaped, he's a sexual predator named Cho. He still hasn't been nabbed by Baek's henchmen and that's another smaller yet key story going on. In the last screenshot above is a man named Jeon who once worked at U Data. After Young-Min's beating he fled Seoul to a fishing village as Jeon feared for his life. He was soon found by Ha-Na and her trusty assistant, after hearing what they said Jeon soon came back to Seoul and told her everything he knew about U Data. Jeon is still worried about his life and will the chairman Park soon capture him as U Data has eyes and ears everywhere!!!! Capture him is what they did and Jeon is in the first screenshot below, he had been brought to a 'special screening' at Park's office and Do-Gi was also invited.

 Not much happened with Jeon at Park's office, thought he would be beaten but that wasn't the case. Had the impression Park may want him back as Jeon was U Data's best uploader and we'll hear from him again. This 'special screening' featured some new adult videos that U Data would be uploading and they create most of their own which was a surprise. However Park wants to see more of Jung-Eun's video on the company's streaming sites as it's been their most popular one ever. During this time Jang had been going through the internet deleting as many Jung-Eun videos as he could and was doing a good job of it which of course angered Park who wasn't aware of what Jang was doing. At this screening was Choi, mentioned him in the beginning for he was Jung-Eun's ex-boyfriend and also the man who had filmed the video. Choi told her the video had been swiped but it was all a lie, Choi had conned Jung-Eun who had been unaware of the video's true purpose. And over the course of the five years since Jung-Eun committed suicide Choi has duped many other young woman into making adult videos and most weren't aware of it. Choi always kept his face hidden so up until now no one knew it was him. When Do-Gi listened to Choi's sordid adventures he was silently fuming but what could he do with Park and his henchmen around?

 With Go-Eun out of commission for a while Jang is taking over some of her tech duties. So aren't the two mechanics Park and Choi, Do-Gi contacted them and said to follow Choi's car when it left. That the pair did and called Do-Gi saying where this slimeball was.... at a warehouse to make another adult video! Quickly Do-Gi zoomed there and disguised himself as a delivery man to gain entrance. Once inside the dozen men there had no chance at all against Do-Gi who was more furious than I had ever seen him. Some of this action is in the above screenshots and the ones at the bottom of the post. Up until now Do-Gi wasn't allowed to kill anyone as it would bring attention to Jang's 'revenge squad'. However he exposed his face during this scene, that person in the above bottom screenshot is An who was Do-Gi's leader in the Strategic Planning Unit. Do-Gi did a number on him and we viewers were left wondering did he actually kill this man to keep his identity a secret? The adult video star Choi was badly hurt but it appeared he's still living though doesn't deserve to be. While all of that was going on Park in a surprise move visited Ha-Na's prosecutor's office. I am going to be so glad when he gets taken down, with him was an army of elite lawyers and he told Ha-Na, along with her supervisor Cho, that she may regret ever targeting him and U Data. She was so irate but couldn't do anything at the time, also extremely irate was Cho who has taken such a turn and is really supporting Ha-Na.

 The following day Do-Gi returned to U Data as if nothing happened. Of course his leader An wasn't there nor the previous leader Lee, he was hurt badly at the end of the sixth episode and haven't heard if he lived or died. Do-Gi had heard that on this day there would be a massive upload of adult videos, he contacted Ha-Na with that info and though she can't stand Do-Gi believed his tip. A raid was scheduled for later that day and it appeared that finally Ha-Na would see justice done against this company of lowlifes. But they are very intelligent lowlifes as once Ha-Na and her assistant Wang were seen entering the building the main director Jung made a call and said to enter the Defense Protocol phase. Soon all of the computers in the Strategic Planning Unit went haywire and all of their data was deleted!!!! A minute later Ha-Na and her troops entered the room but she was foiled once again! There was no data on any computer and no matter what she tried no evidence could be obtained, she left fuming to the Nth degree! Ha-Na confronted Do-Gi later and demanded why he made such a fool of her?! Well, he didn't as Do-Gi had no idea about that Defense Protocol phase which appeared to be a fake deletion. That's because a few minutes after Ha-Na left U Data all of the computers worked normally again with all of the data restored.

 Do-Gi did show Ha-Na some screenshots of what he was talking about and eventually believed he was telling the truth. So as Do-Gi says above U Data's server is not at their building or at least near the offices and now the goal is to find out where it was, the intrigue keeps building! After the bungled attempt at U Data Ha-Na travelled to the hospital to check on the condition of Young-Min, no change as he's been unconscious since the end of the fifth episode. But also there was Jeon and after seeing how badly Young-Min had been beaten he wants to bring down U Data more than ever, what can he do to help? Jeon then claimed he had an idea where the servers for U Data were located and could take Ha-Na there, not sure how it was arranged but Do-Gi will be escorting Jeon in his souped up taxi. Also at the hospital was U Data's director Jung who saw what took place and immediately contacted Park who has had enough of Ha-Na and ordered her taken out of action! So there was a small convoy heading down the freeway to this unknown location to where the servers may be, Do-Gi was in the lead escorting Jeon in the disguised taxi. Behind him was Ha-Na in her car with Wang driving, behind them were two vehicles that had Park's henchmen in them and bringing up the rear was the van driven by the two Rainbow Taxi mechanics. Do-Gi knew Park's two cars didn't want Jeon but Ha-Na, he was able to do some nifty moves and left the freeway without being noticed. Soon those two cars began to ram the one with Ha-Na and Wang in it, those are the below four screenshots. It was just a matter of time until they would have been driven off the road but making a reappearance to save the day was Do-Gi who was about to join the melee. That ended this episode and as usual what an exciting conclusion, how this turns out will be in the next post and haven't viewed that episode yet.