"Taxi Driver" Korean drama season one: Episode fifteen 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: 13.8%

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(didn't!) 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

 Whew, finally made it to the end and thanks to all who have been reading these recaps. They have taken a while to write up but that gives me more of an appreciation of other blogs I visit to read about dramas. The average length of an episode was about 65 minutes, once I take a huge amount of screenshots and jot some notes down it takes 75+ minutes to view an episode  Then an hour to write this up as the above character info always gets updated plus rename many screenshots and do whatever else. So this was kind of a labor of love project and one that was worth it as this was the best series I've viewed in many years. Am writing this up before viewing the final episode and in that recap will give my rating of this drama which will be very high. Season two ended three weeks ago and will be getting to that shortly, first will be doing some posts for the "Borderless" 2021 drama. Then think I will be viewing another Korean series named "Delivery Man" from this year and may recap that also.

 That last revenge case was just so intense and it's unbelievable how many twists there were to the plot. The intensity level did die down a bit for this show but it's set itself up for one thrilling final episode! This show lasted for 69 minutes and most of the first twenty were devoted to cleaning up what took place in the previous four shows. But the first few minutes were of a flashback scene from twenty years ago which introduced us slightly to the main revenge story for these final two episodes. Enough blabbering and let's get to what took place in this show and is it the end of Jang's 'revenge squad'?

 Top four screenshots are what took place in the first few minutes. In the third screenshot is the serial killer Oh who had just murdered the woman in the second screenshot, in the top is Oh's young son who later changed his name to Han. It was a flashback scene that took place in September 2001, the woman Oh murdered will soon become the main figure of this final revenge story. Now it's back to the present day or the Spring of 2021, Oh is in prison for committing many other murders with the main ones being of Jang's parents!!!! In that fourth screenshot the killer Oh has written a memoir/confession of his life. He sent one copy to the prosecutor Ha-Na and another to Jang, the owner of Rainbow Taxi and also the leader of the Blue Bird victim's group but more importantly he's also the leader of the 'revenge squad'! That's Jang with an eyepatch above, in the previous episode the very evil woman Baek injected some fluid into his left eye as she was going to take out his corneas! Of course the hero Do-Gi saved the day for his boss and for now it's unknown if Jang's eye will ever be normal again. Also at the hospital recuperating was Do-Gi who recovered fairly quickly. That wasn't the case for the mechanic Park who needed two surgeries and that's him in the bottom screenshot. It was life and death for a while with Park but he's now recovered though won't be leaving the hospital for a while.

 We still have never seen the prosecutor Ha-Na in court and wonder if we ever will? These two recaps will be the final times we see her as she's not in the second season and that's a disappointment, will explain more in the final recap. Ha-Na is busy interrogating the criminals from the previous case and what a story that was, hope you've read those recaps as I won't be discussing what took place too often. First up was Baek who is in the first screenshot below and there's not enough space to tell you how many shady activities she's been involved in! The main one though is illegal human organ trafficking which is one charge Ha-Na is trying to pin on Baek along with being the leader of a ruthless gang. As evil as Baek is she's so cool under fire and wouldn't confess to anything, Ha-Na is cool under pressure too but she's getting so frustrated with Baek and her henchmen. Jang was allowed to visit Baek and it wouldn't faze him if Baek revealed everything about them abducting criminals, Baek even had the nerve to threaten Jang and his gang with murder when they also go to prison! Below are the twins Gu and Young-Tae who have killed too many to count, though brothers each are accusing the other of committing the murders! By now Ha-Na had enough of the garbage with Baek's gang and said she'll just charge both twins with murder!

 That was the last we saw of Baek and her associates but hope we hear more in the final episode. Right above the man on the right is Lee who was an exec at the U Data streaming company and that was the revenge case for the fifth through eighth episodes. Lee was telling Ha-Na about being locked up in Baek's dungeon which was worse than a prison and she had a hard time believing this lowlife. Lee had no clue where this dungeon was located however later on Ha-Na will learn this man was telling the truth. In the intro ended off by saying is this the end of Jang's 'revenge squad'? The mechanic Park is still in the hospital but the other mechanic Choi, who has an injured finger, the tech whiz Go-Eun and the drama's main hero Do-Gi were meeting with Jang at their secret HQ located below his house. In the third screenshot above Jang was telling his team that odds are good the police will be dragging them in for questioning and was Jang expecting Beak to reveal many of his secrets? So if the police do come Jang is prepared to confess that he and only he did all of these 'revenge cases' alone so the others can return to their normal lives. But the trio don't have normal lives because of what's happened in their past and as Jang's team stressed there's no way the police would believe he did everything alone. For instance Jang is inept at the computer plus he did all of the fighting that Do-Gi did?

 So that's settled for now as it's one for all, all for one(!) though by the end of the show the police still hadn't dragged Jang's squad in. The prosecutor Ha-Na knows all were involved in these revenge cases but she's really only had her eyes on Do-Gi who contacted her a bit later on and said he had something very interesting to show her. Which was Baek's secret dungeon that was located in the cellar of her Nakwon company building. In the last show Ha-Na did search the building but never thought about checking out the cellar. So Ha-Na now knows the U Data exec Lee was telling the truth and and the conditions for the hostages were worse than those for prisoners in jail. Do-Gi tried to take the blame for everything that happened with the criminals being taken hostage but Ha-Na wouldn't accept his 'confession' and she wondered if perhaps she shouldn't have found a way to help Jang's team out more. That scene is below and by now we're now close to the halfway mark of this episode. That's the beginning of this new revenge case and though Jang told his team they should 'retire' they may be brought back for this one final case. As mentioned earlier the serial killer Oh had written a memoir/confession of his life and the murders he's committed. He sent a copy to both Ha-Na and Jang, for now don't think either know the other also has a copy and first to read the story was Jang.

 Oh is the prisoner in the middle screenshot above stomping on a prison guard which was quickly broken up. The guard's name is Han and we only saw him for a few minutes in this show but have a feeling he could be a key figure in the final episode. Han changed his name as his father is no other than.... the serial killer Oh!!!! Han had to change his name to escape his past and Oh has no idea that this guard is his son, wonder if Oh is working at the prison to enact some sort of revenge on his father? After that mini incident Jang was allowed to have a brief visit with Oh and had some questions about the memoir. In his story Oh admitted to killing two woman which others had been blamed for, one was back in 2001 and will get to that shortly. The other took place in 2017, the current setting is 2021, and Oh said how he killed none other than.... Do-Gi's mother! That was presumed to be an open and shut case as another had confessed to the killing and that man eventually killed himself in prison. But if this is the truth then how would this affect Do-Gi who still has bad flashbacks of the day his mother was killed, it happened two minutes before he arrived back home. Also Do-Gi may now want to take revenge upon Oh if he learns the truth and Jang is well aware of that. Oh is quite the frustrating man and bet most serial killers are, he talked in circles to Jang who left with no answers to his questions.

 The other murder Oh confessed to took place in 2001, back then the police had arrested a man named Kim for the crime and it hasn't been explained why the police targeted him. After reading that in Oh's memoir Ha-Na had some DNA tests done on the knife that had been used, DNA wasn't as advanced back in 2001. And Oh was telling the truth as his DNA was on the murder weapon and Kim had been sent to prison for twenty years though he was innocent. Ha-Na told the story to her superior Cho who is in the above bottom screenshot, he's at a loss on what to do but telling Kim the truth was what Cho suggested. Two months ago Kim was released from prison and has been working some temp jobs, his wife had left him twenty years ago and took their daughter with her. Ha-Na and Cho arrived at a construction site Kim was working at and told him the tale of what Oh had written. At first Kim wasn't too irate but as the meeting went on he became so furious and with good reason. The statue of limitations has passed, there's not a thing the prosecutor's office can do to the police who forced Kim's confession nor can they increase Oh's punishment as he's already serving a life sentence. There was no mention of any kind of monetary settlement either and Kim is at a loss on how to avenge what happened to him but soon he will meet Do-Gi and you know what will happen then!

 Want to go back to having these recaps being four segments, this will be the final one and won't leave any major details out. At that mini meeting Cho gave Kim the number to the Blue Bird organization, it's run by Jang and helps victims of crimes. Think Cho has a strong inkling on what Jang's team really does and thought that would be the only way for Kim to get revenge but how against someone in prison? Kim called the number and talked to Do-Gi who agreed to hear his story which took place that night in Do-Gi's souped up taxi. Kim told his potential savior that twenty years ago he was arrested for the killing of a woman and there was no reason for him being targeted, The police wouldn't listen to him and beat Kim senselessly until he signed a confession form. At the trial Kim was sentenced to a twenty year sentence and in court still argued he was innocent which fell on deaf ears. After his release Kim had resigned himself that there was no way to avenge what happened to him but Do-Gi told Kim he would accept his case, especially after he learned it was the serial killer Oh that did the actual murder. Do-Gi's boss Jang was against taking this case as he had 'retired' his revenge squad but after hearing what took place with Kim and that Oh was involved Jang has agreed to help Do-Gi.

 That won't be taking place until the next show and am wondering will Do-Gi get into prison to enact the revenge for Kim? Ha-Na has finally met up with Oh and her curiosity lies with a 2017 murder which Oh claims to have done but how as he was locked up in prison. At that time Oh's mother had died and he was allowed to attend her funeral, it was a leave for 24 hours and he had guards near him. But Oh had managed to slip away undetected for a brief spell, he randomly went into a house and killed the woman there. Ha-Na has her doubts about that and how can Oh prove he was the murderer? 'Easily enough' said Oh as he heard the woman's final phone conversation with her son and that person could back Oh's claim up. So Ha-Na did bring in this woman's son and she was very reluctant to do so as this man was.... Do-Gi!!!! He had no clue when Ha-Na asked him to come into her office that Oh could be the true killer of his mother but everything Oh said about their final conversation was true, Oh claimed the man who confessed to the murder did so as to top Oh's record for killings! Do-Gi was at a loss on how to respond and slumped to the floor with Oh laughing at him, Oh said he could have killed Do-Gi back in 2017 as he was still at his mother's house when Do-Gi arrived there! Oh was taken away after that and he's another creep who it'll be nice to see justice done against him. As the episode ended you can see what Do-Gi says above which is that he's going to get Oh but how is the biggest question. That ends this recap and can't wit to see how this final case will turn out. The post for that is the next one and as always plenty of screenshots to hep you follow the story a bit better.