"Taxi Driver" Korean drama season one: Episode nine 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: 13.4%

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....

Kim Eui-Sung as Jang Sung-Chul..... Owner of Rainbow Taxi and that's him 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, Jung-Sun was her sister's name and her story is in the seventh and eighth recaps.

 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. Park's younger brother was married to Choi's younger sister but both were killed in an apartment fire set  by an arsonist.

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..... but then again that adds to her mystery!

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 Star for the first two episodes .... Have kept his name here as he did make a reappearance but will be be seen again after the tenth show?

  

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.

Guest Star for the ninth and tenth episodes

Shim So-Young as Lim Bok-Ja ....  Woman in her forties who is the owner of a Chinese restaurant. However that's just a front as also in the building is an illegal casino and more importantly than that Lim runs a voice phishing operation. She does have some assistants who are all men but never once were their names revealed.

Previous recaps .... most cases are for two episodes but the fifth through eighth episodes were for one very long and intense revenge case.

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

Episode five .... Episode six .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

 

 Sorry for being a bit late with this pair of recaps, was a bit burnt out from writing so many up. Updated the intro section again, got rid of the lowlifes who were part of the first story and never did learn what their final outcome was. Did keep Cho's name there as he has become an important part of one story and while I will refer back to some of his past won't be giving a lot of info so reading some previous recaps would help you. That last episode ended with the owner of Rainbow Taxi Jang, in the first above screenshot, being stabbed by Cho but of course we knew it wouldn't be fatal. Will get into the outcome in this recap and at 69 minutes it was the longest episode to date.

 The last recap ended with the leader of U Data Park being killed by a bomb, that did end that case against the streaming company. But it's not the official end of the case as there are so many unanswered questions for the prosecutor Ha-Na and that will continue on into the next show. Have watched this ninth show and am writing this intro up before viewing the tenth episode, won't start the actual recap until that has been watched. So that U Data 'revenge case' has been solved, a new one didn't begin until the 44 minute mark. There's at least three other minor yet important stories going on so may have each segment devoted to one of them, let's finally get to what took place.

 Having a segment for each story sounds good so will begin off with Jang whose stabbing ended off the previous episode. That incident is in the top two screenshots and as mentioned the attacker was the sexual predator Cho, his story is in the first recap. He had escaped from an operation where his corneas were going to be removed, the location was Baek's dungeon. Besides being the owner of Rainbow Taxi Jang also runs a support group for crime victims called Blue Bird, the group helped the victims of Cho out when it came time to testify against him and he wanted revenge! Jang knew Cho had escaped but Baek and her henchmen gave him no help or protection though they had Jang's house staked out and saw Cho enter it. A scuffle eventually occurred and Jang was no match against the crazed Cho who stabbed the older man and though badly hurt we knew he wouldn't die. Jang lying there opened this show and shortly after Baek's main bodyguard subdued Cho who was dragged away, to have that surgery again which was successful! The corneas will be going to a top CEO named Kim who we never did see and Baek has an odd relationship with him. That's her in three screenshots above, at first thought she was a decent woman working with Jang but no longer think that way, she could have prevented this stabbing but watched from the sidelines.

 Jang was brought to a nearby hospital and the surgery to save him was successful, of course his four 'revenge squad' teammates appeared at the hospital and had been coming back from their previous revenge case. The main hero Do-Gi had an inkling of what took place, Jang had said a robber had broken into his home which of course was untrue. Do-Gi headed to Baek's place and did learn something new here, thought her prison for Jang's captures was in the basement of her mansion. It wasn't and the location was a deep basement at a remote abandoned building, Do-Gi overpowered all of the guards and saw Cho's cell was empty, he put two and two together to figure out what took place. Baek soon arrived on the scene and there were some harsh words between her and Do-Gi, don't think you want to get on the wrong side of either of them! There's also another character named Cho who is in the bottom screenshot above, he's the head prosecutor for the Northern Seoul District Office, and has been friends with Jang since high school. Cho had visited the ruins of the Park mansion which was the previous revenge case, there he found a U Data ID for Do-Gi or Do-Ki for that was the name he had been using. At the hospital Cho did ask his close friend Jang about the ID and didn't get a straight answer, like his top prosecutor Ha-Na is Cho now also becoming very leery about the activities of Rainbow Taxi?

 Bet a lot of this so far makes zero sense which is why you really need to read the older recaps. Did just mention the prosecutor Ha-Na and will try to keep what took place with her in this one segment. She's in almost all of the above screenshots and the man with her in two of them is Ha-Na's faithful assistant Wang. Both had just been released from the hospital, Wang for being badly hurt in an episode seven car crash and Ha-Na because she was caught in the explosion at the U Data's chairman's mansion/summer house. Her problem is there's no main U Data execs to prosecute, Park is dead and the other three men have been killed though Ha-Na thinks they're on the lam. Ha-Na did hold a press conference to explain what took place but afterwards she confessed to Wang she hadn't done much of anything. Ha-Na was really down for she hasn't been able to prosecute any criminal to date in this drama and that's mainly because the 'revenge squad' from Rainbow Taxi is always on the scene first! Ha-Na has had so many suspicions about the company and while she's been able to assemble a vast amount of clues about Jang's taxi company to date Ha-Na still has no concrete evidence.

 The person mainly on Ha-Na's radar is Do-Gi and has been for many episodes. To her it was of course so odd that Do-Gi would be working as a Rainbow Taxi driver one day and then the next as an important IT man at U Data! Ha-Na did visit Do-Gi's small apartment which infuriated him, she had some questions that were never fully answered and also the ID from U Data that her boss Cho had given her. Ha-Na knew that Do-Gi had no involvement in the company's illegal activities but the ID was found at the building where Park had died, of course Do-Gi couldn't explain why it was found there and the why is in the last recap. Ha-Na is starting to be obsessed with these older cases and how can she prove Do-Gi and perhaps Rainbow Taxi were involved in all of them? She even was able to get all of Do-Gi's phone records from the past month and what a lengthy report that was. What stood out to Ha-Na was that when these criminals had been abducted, fled the scene or been killed Do-Gi's phone had no reception when an incoming call was made. Of course Do-Gi had turned it off or left it behind as not to reveal his location, just one more puzzle for Ha-Na to add to her collection of so-so hard evidence.

 Do explain so much of what took place though not everything, one reason is if you're planning on viewing a drama and the other is to keep these recaps a bit shorter. For the rest of this post will talk about the new revenge case Jang and his team will be taking on, for once it wasn't a person outside of Rainbow Taxi who hired the 'revenge squad'. In the last episode the two mechanics Choi and Park had invaded the U Data mansion to save Do-Gi, instead they were captured. But soon after Do-Gi was able to free himself and then all hell broke loose! While the two mechanics were about to escape one of them received a phone call and at the time didn't know what to think of it. The call was for Choi, the one with slightly frizzy hair in four of the above screenshots. The caller claimed to be a prosecutor who said Choi's bank account had been hacked and wanted him to transfer the rest of the money to the Seoul Prosecutor's office! Of course at the time it sounded like a scam but Choi and his mate Park were in a life threatening situation so escaping at the time was the top priority. So at about the 44 minute mark of this 69 minute show Choi received yet another call from this scammer claiming to be a prosecutor and that's when this new revenge case began.

 Seems Choi had received a few other calls and to get a bit of privacy went into the Rainbow Taxi office. There listening was the tech whiz Go-Eun and can't believe she wasn't more curious about the call. The fake prosecutor told Choi the money from his bank account was being used for illegal activities, if he sends them his account info he may help to save hundreds of others! After seeing so many others get scammed somehow Choi fell for this trick and soon his account was wiped out! Choi soon found out the hard way he had been taken for a fool and the only person he could reveal it to was his mechanic mate Park. The pair went to the local police station where there was a unit set up for phone/voice and internet phishing. That unit was so overwhelmed as there were at least a hundred others who had been taken for a ride and listening to their tales Choi knew it would be impossible for the police to solve his or anyone else's case. He did enter his name on the sign in sheet and also took photos of all of the other names there, why? To alert them that there may be a person who can solve their problem and Choi sent out a flyer naming Go-Eun as their savior! Of course that infuriated Go-Eun to no end, she ended up dragging Choi, Park and Do-Gi down to the hospital to talk with their boss Jang on what has taken place.

 Choi did his homework and put on a mini presentation on how many thousands of others have been swindled the last two years. Jang knew this wasn't their usual revenge case but no one else has been able to help these Voice Phishing victims out so said let's go ahead to help Choi and as many others as they can. Jang will be in the hospital for the entire case recovering from his stab wound so Do-Gi will lead the case and he too was gung-ho in bringing down these scammers. Leave it to Go-Eun to get the ball rolling and she was able to get the company that swindled Choi to call her, she knows every trick in the hi-tech book. Go-Eun pretended to fall for the scam and left a bag of cash in a bus station locker but of course the person picking it didn't realize there was a tracking device hidden in it. Do-Gi was able to find this creep with the device and did give him a bit of a beating, it worked out well as this man revealed the location of where the Voice Phishing organization was being run. It was at the back of a Chinese restaurant which was just a front for this scamming unit, the woman heading this crime scam is in the second screenshot above and her name is Lim Bok-Ja. We didn't see much of her in this show as by now there was only about ten minutes to go.

 However we'll see plenty of Lim in the next episode, she's in her forties and is an immigrant from China. To Do-Gi the best way to bring this phishing organization down is by getting to know how it's run and of all things the place is looking for new recruits. Choi was the mechanic who had been scammed so he couldn't pose as a worker there. But his mate Park could and though thirty in age was made up to look a decade younger. Park went to the restaurant for the recruiting session using the name of Lee and was hired on the spot though to his new employers did look so much older than twenty. These recruits were told the best scammers may make around $6,000 a month but that's just a drop in the bucket to what Lim makes. We didn't see Park as Lee in action making calls in this show but we'll see plenty of that in the next episode. But of course the drama's hero Do-Gi has to be part of the action and as the episode hit its final minute we saw him in disguise too. In the basement of the restaurant was an illegal casino and there was much cheating going on by the dealers. Do-Gi had entered, sat at a table and proceeded to lose a huge amount of cash! However that was because of a slight of hand trick pulled by the dealer, as the episode ended Do-Gi grabbed this man's arm in a rage and looked as though he was about to snuff out his life! That incident ended this episode which didn't have much violent action but was very interesting and the second half of this new case is much more intense. That recap is the next post and as usual have plenty of screenshots to help you follow the story a bit better.