Man-seob (Song Kang-ho), a taxi driver and widowed father from Seoul, needs extra money to pay off his overdue rent. When Hinzpeter, a German journalist, offers him a large sum of cash, he agrees to take a long drive from Seoul to Gwangju, the besieged city where military brutality is rampant against civilian protesters and bystanders. Set in 1980s Gwangju, A Taxi Driver is based on tragic true events of the Gwangju Uprising. Song’s performance boldly and empathically articulates the urgency and devastation rooted in the narrative.