"Taxi Driver" Korean drama season one: Episode sixteen(final) 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: 13.1%

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 and above 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! **** Perhaps being a mystery was better for starting with the tenth show the more we learn about Baek the more we learn how cunning and ruthless she is!!!!

Lee Ho-Cheol as Goo Seok-Tae.... Baek's ruthless main bodyguard and though has been in every show just added him in for the eleventh episode. Main reason was his name wasn't revealed for so long and check the guest star list as his name will be there too.

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. In a shocker Wang was stabbed to death at the end of the eleventh episode by Gu, Ha-Na dearly wants revenge but even with Jang's squad helping her justice has not been meted out.... yet! That's Wang below, just moments before he was stabbed to death by Gu.

Guest Star for the first nine episodes .... Have kept this first name here as he did make minor appearances and his storyline did become major until his death.

  

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 had still been alive and kicking as in the sixth episode he was able to escape from the dungeon. But he was recaptured by Baek's bodyguards after he stabbed Jang and was killed at the end of the ninth show.

Guest stars for the fifteenth and sixteenth episodes

Don't think we'll be seeing much of Young-Tae but his name was mentioned a few times so will leave him here

 

Lee Ho-Cheol as Gu Young-Tae.... As you can see Lee plays two characters in these four shows.  He's playing a set of twin brothers, Seok-Tae is Baek's bodyguard while Young-Tae is a junior director at her Nakwom company. Both brothers are brutal but especially Young-Tae and who knows how many he's killed to date?!!!!

The twin brothers, on the left is Young-Tae and on the right is Seok-Tae.

Yong Dong-Tak as Oh Chul-Young.... Serial killer who is serving a life sentence in prison, unknown how many he murdered but Oh claims more than any other person in the history of Korea! In the fifteenth episode he confessed to killing Do-Gi's mother four years ago when he was on a prison leave and twenty years prior he murdered Jang's parents.

Jeon Seok-Chan as Kim Chul-Jin.... Recently released from prison after serving a twenty year sentence for murdering a woman. Kim claimed innocence for the murder but was forced into confessing by the police and he truly was innocent. Oh was the actual killer of the woman and confessed to that crime in episode fifteen. Kim was wrongly jailed and just learned of Oh's confession so he's hired Jang's 'revenge squad' to get justice!

Ryu Song-Rok as Han Dong-Jan/Oh Hyun-Soo.... The son of the serial killer Oh and changed his name to Han after his father was sentenced to life in prison. Han is now a guard at the prison his father is at though Oh doesn't realize Han is his son, we didn't see all that much of him in this episode but will in the finale.

Previous recaps .... most cases are for two episodes but the fifth through eighth episodes were for one very long and intense revenge case. There's a second four episode story which ran from the eleventh to fourteenth episode.

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

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

Episode nine .... Episode ten .... Episode eleven .... Episode twelve

Episode thirteen .... Episode fourteen

 Here we are a the end and often do feel a bit down once a terrific series ends. Will give my final rating on this show but before that want to bring something else up which has never been mentioned before. About three years ago started a spreadsheet to keep track of all of the Japanese and Korean dramas I've viewed, need to update it soon. On the sheet had the title, year it aired, main star and a rating. My top ever Korean drama and actually by #1 of all time is "Sorry I Love You" from, gave that a perfect 10/10 and don't let the title fool you as it's so suspenseful. My number two drama ever is "While You Were Sleeping" from 2017 that had a rating of 9.6/10. So while this doesn't beat any of those two dramas "Taxi Driver" does beat out three other series that were tied with a rating of 9.4/10. For this show my final rating is a 9.5/10 which is the highest grade in over four years and when it comes to rating shows will admit I'm a bit tough! But there was absolutely ZERO wrong with this drama, it had so much action, suspense, plot changes, likable and hated characters, etc. In closing will give this drama a very high recommendation and I'm not the only fan as this series has become so popular and there will be a third season next year.

 Don't want to get burnt out on this series so will view and recap two other dramas then get to season two sometime in June.... hopefully. After such a frantic packed fifteen episodes this show didn't have nearly as much action or suspense as those but was almost as good. This was a 59 minute final episode and about a third of it was still doing some clean up of the revenge case that was in the eleventh through fourteenth episodes. Most of the other forty or so minutes was the second half of this new mini case that began in the middle of the previous episode. Both characters above were also involved in this case as Do-Gi's mother had been murdered and Jang's parents too by the same serial killer. So hope you read the above recap as I'd rather not talk about too much which has already taken place to keep this recap somewhat brief though this intro was a bit longish, let's get to this final episode's events.

 We didn't see much of him until the end but this revenge case revolved around a man named Kim. He had been wrongfully accused of a murder twenty years ago, he served his time in prison and has been released. Kim always claimed he was innocent and he has been proven right as a serial killer named Oh was the true murderer, that's him in the second screenshot above. Oh is talking with Jang, owner of Rainbow Taxi, the leader of a victim's group called Blue Bird and of course is also the leader of the 'revenge squad'. Oh had murdered Jang's parents twenty years ago, he's serving a life sentence for those and other killings. Oh sent his memoir/confession manuscript to Jang and also a copy to the prosecutor Ha-Na, he now wants to see this story get published! As Jang says above there's no way he can allow that to happen which is Oh making money off his heinous crimes plus dredging up painful memories to their families. Oh did make some threats towards Jang and to me this killer is not someone to be afraid of. Oh has murdered many but all have been women save for one older man, would love to see him go one on one with our hero Do-Gi! Jang also told his 'revenge squad' about Oh's plans, how can they stop him and this is supposed to be the last case the team ever works on.

 Still need to do a regular post for Pyo Ye-Jin who is so darn attractive and plays the Rainbow Taxi tech whiz Go-Eun. She's discovered that Oh's son is working as a guard at his prison and is his son seeking some sort of revenge against his father? Oh Hyun-Soo is the son's name but after his father was arrested for being a serial killer he's changed his name to Han Dong-Chan and is close to thirty in age, the father Oh has been in prison since 2001.Go-Eun has discovered a few other things about Han's current life, his mother is in a nursing home as she has a slight case of dementia. Han is having difficulties paying the bills, he's borrowed money from loan sharks and now owes them too. To help make ends meet Han at night is operating a small food stall and Do-Gi paid the young man a visit to feel him out about his father. When Do-Gi arrived Han was getting roughed up by some loan sharks, two punches by Do-Gi sent those creeps fleeing and think it was the only time Do-Gi threw a punch in this episode. He hit it off well with Han and was able to get much info without seeming to be nosy about it. Han has no clue that Oh is his father, he thinks he ran out on him and his mother twenty years ago. Han still has some fond memories of him and Do-Gi told Han he may be able to locate him as to Do-Gi Han is also a victim of his father's murders.

 Jang had set it up for Do-Gi to visit the killer Oh the following day in prison. The first guard Do-Gi saw was Han who was so confused about why his new friend would want to meet such a creep, Do-Gi said he was there on behalf of the Blue Bird organization which helps out victims. The main reason for this visit is to put the pressure on Oh to drop the plans for publishing his memoir, Do-Gi laid some powerful info upon Oh which is that he's met his son! Oh didn't believe Do-Gi but he told the killer some details about their past and Oh was begging Do-Gi not to harm his son or tell him about his sordid past and was sincere about it. Do-Gi could care less about this man's feelings for what did he do to countless other's lives?! Do-Gi promised not to hurt his son as long as Oh follows some conditions, first off is getting a transfer to a different prison so he wouldn't be around his son Han, of course Oh had no idea his son was a guard there. Oh agreed to that and upon leaving the prison Do-Gi hooked up with Han again, he told his new friend he knew about his mother and said she could stay at a hospital affiliated with the Blue Bird organization, all costs would be covered! Han was beside himself with joy and after such a difficult life good things are finally happening to him.... though that may be changing.

 The prosecutor Ha-Na was the one who agreed to Oh's transfer, Do-Gi has told her the whole story of their new case. That's Ha-Na above meeting with the devilish woman Baek and it's getting close to her being sentenced for the multiple crimes she's committed. We didn't see the trial but Baek got a ten year sentence which seemed very lenient, her associates the Gu twins fared much worse as they both got life sentences! So said that the good times for Han wouldn't be lasting for too long and they didn't as a month later his mother died at the care center she was in, it was just a few days before she would be moved to the new hospital. When Oh was being transferred he gave Han a beating as he broke his arm and also caused some other injuries which sent Han to the hospital for a month. During that time is when his mother died, she had been fretting because her son hadn't been visiting her. So Han's mother roamed the care center's halls looking for Han, she went into a stairwell where she fell and hit her head so bad she died. This was all because of what Oh did to his son and of course Han was so broken up about what took place. So weren't Jang and Do-Gi, both attended the funeral and have a plan on how to make Oh pay for what he did.

 Hard to punish a man who is already serving a life sentence but Jang found a way. He visited Oh at his his new prison that was far away from Seoul and told him the whole story of what took place with his son Han and his now dead wife. It was all thanks to Oh beating up his son that his ex-wife died before Jang could transfer her to a new hospital and of course this was the first time Oh had learned the guard he picked on so bad was his son! Oh was so torn up about he had done to Han and for the first time in his life may have shown a bit of remorse though just before this series ends he will have one more turn in the spotlight, that scene is in the top three screenshots above. Just below them Ha-Na had visited Do-Gi who was all prepared to be arrested by her but was stunned when she said she had no intentions of doing so. At the beginning of this drama Ha-Na believed that the only way justice was to be served was by the legal system and what the courts would mete out. But after learning what Do-Gi and his team had been doing for so long Ha-Na began to think perhaps the Law doesn't do enough for victims and as she says above that's who Do-Gi has always put first. For a while did think Ha-Na would join forces with Jang's 'revenge squad' though it never fully happened.

 In those bottom two screenshots above Ha-Na has thought things over and has decided to quit being a prosecutor for the Northern Seoul Office, to perhaps join Jang's team? Who knows for when she entered her superiors office Ha-Na was quite taken back as he boss Cho beat her to the punch.... he's resigned first! Jang has been Cho's best friend since high school and earlier this episode had confessed to Cho that it was him who was the leader of the team that kidnapped criminals and gave them to Baek. Cho was so stunned by the confession and there was no way he could prosecute his best friend, instead he'll keep his lips sealed but being the head of the prosecutor's office Cho did have some moral obligations to obey the law if he was aware of something illegal. Which Cho couldn't do so he's handed in his resignation and his final act was allowing Ha-Na to leave, the office will need her more than ever. Right below is when Cho was finally leaving the prosecutor's office for the last time and who should arrive at that moment but his successor! That scene is right below and will we seeing much of Do in season two? Don't know that yet but do know that Ha-Na won't be returning though in the final minute of this episode it appeared she would be.

 Whew, we've finally hit the conclusion of this superb drama as this is the last segment. In the fourth screenshot above Jang was thanking his 'revenge squad' for all they've done the last few years as this was their final revenge case. Not sure why the team had to be disbanded but no one argued with Jang and now it's time to return to their regular lives but is that possible after all they've been through?

Now the time has zoomed to one year in the future or the Spring of 2022. Of the four on Jang's team the mechanic Choi is working as a specialist for a formula one racing team, his mechanic partner Park appears to be working as a scientist for the equivalent of Korea's NASA! In the second to last screenshot the tech whiz Go-Eun went to the police academy and is now a traffic officer, seems like a waste with all of the compute skills she has. A year later Do-Gi is doing nothing, think he got a nice monetary sendoff from Jang and is just traveling around Korea, mainly doing camping. The whole reason this case against Oh came to be is because a man named Kim took the fall for a killing Oh committed and spent twenty years in prison. Think Jang's talk with Oh about his son hit home as a year later he confessed in court that Kim was innocent and he did the murder. Kim's wife had left him twenty years ago when he was sent to prison but was in court to hear Oh's testimony, she now wants to reunite with Kim and the same goes for his daughter who he hadn't seen in twenty years.

 The attorney for Kim was none other than Cho, that's him talking with his best friend Jang in the middle screenshot above. One more court case had to deal with Baek and her associates, the Gu twins. They each had received a life sentence for multiple murders and appealed the decision which was luckily upheld. Also appealing was Baek who had gotten away with just a ten year sentence, in this trial the judge did something unexpected which was to double her sentence to twenty years so that was a semi happy conclusion. Baek had a sister who is above and was talking with Ha-Na, she'll be taking over her sister's companies and she seems to be a bit devious too. Crime is now running rampant in Seoul and is it because of Rainbow Taxi no longer getting revenge for victims? Think so and in the final two minutes of this episode we saw a little girl stuffed into a suitcase by her parents who threw her into the trash and walked asway. In that bottom screenshot above Do-Gi rescued the girl and immediately called Jang, should the 'revenge squad' be formed again to help this girl and many others? To that Jang said YES and as the series ended the team were all back at their secret underground HQ. In a surprise joining them was Ha-Na so it appeared she would be a part of this revenge team but as mentioned she won't be in the second season. With that have finally finished this ultra superb drama and it gets such a high recommendation from me. Will view two other dramas and then sometime in June will start on the second season, thanks to all who read these recaps which were long but I think done very well.