Set during 1980 Gwangju Uprising, director Jang Hoon’s A Taxi Driver is based on a real-life local hero — an anonymous cabbie (Snowpiercer star Song Kang-ho) who drives a German journalist (Thomas Kretschmann) to Gwangju city and back so the reporter can broadcast details of the government’s murderous crackdown on a pro-democracy rebellion. After martial law is declared, students take to the streets, particularly in the southern city, where a military siege is on.
The film was a commercial success, and was also the second highest grossing film of 2017.