Model Taxi (2021)

Story that Explodes into a Thrilling Adventure but Concludes by Flickering Out Like a Weak Candle

It's impossible to discuss this show without talking about spoilers. However, I will be clearly marking when I start talking about specific plot points with a separator. Until then, I'll be discussing the overall feel of the series.

The beginning of this show establishes an addictive, semi-formulaic, action-thriller that you can't help but become pumped for. Bad guys do bad stuff and get away with it, leaving behind victims. The law isn't able to prove or punish the bad guys. Good guys don't like this. Good guys go full-Batman vigilante by infiltrating the evil operation and taking revenge on behalf of the victims. It sounds really simple but it is an amazingly fun roller coaster ride that has you saying "yeah!!!" when the good guys succeed. The action set pieces, such as the car chase/battles or fistfights are fun on their own right, but the OST dials up the excitement to a million. There is a video-game sounding, retro track that plays when the background of the victim is being explained and they are making the decision whether or not they want the protagonists to get revenge on their behalf -- as the viewer, you quickly become conditioned to say "oh man, stuff is going to go down now!!!". Then, the phrenic action music starts and your emotions go full adrenaline overdrive as you hear the theme song. It is ridiculous how excited I was for this show.

The acting was fully on point, as expected from a Korean drama production. Some people complain that Lee Je Hoon overacts, but if he does, it fits him perfectly in this series because he needs to exaggerate himself when he disguises himself in order to sneak into the baddies' lairs. Some of the action sequences might have been a little better, but overall, I thought his performance was stellar. The rest of the main cast is amazing: Pyo Je Jin was pulled in last minute to replace a controversial actress, and I did not notice at all - if you had told me she was planned to be a female lead all along, I'd have believed you. Esom and Kim Eui Sang also play their roles excellently. Cha Ji Yeon is notable for playing the shady, underground character, very, very well and I thought her maniacal laugh fit her very well. The acting was mostly amazing.

But unfortunately, that is not the end of my review. This show was almost a 10/10, but unfortunately, it was marred by a really jarring tonal shift midway through the series. Episode 9 and 10 felt like filler since we had gotten some real, longitudinal story arc as well as character backgrounds, but they just kind of went back to the "same old formula". But, at around Episode 10, the lead writer left due to creative differences and the change is really, really noticeable.

It is at this point that I need to address plot specific points in order to explain why this was not the greatest event.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ PLOT POINTS STOP NOW
SERIOUSLY THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING
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In the beginning half of the show, each main character's backstory is revealed and is very consistent with their motivations. Kim Do Gi's mother was killed and he never got the chance to get revenge on the killer. Anh Go Eun's sister committed suicide after a sex tape was leaked by a man who secretly filmed her. Kang Ha Na is a stubbornly righteous prosecutor who refuses to bend the rules and relentless. Even the characters who are not as initially well developed are consistent: Jang Sung Chul is the wealthy taxi service owner who also suffered from lack of ability to take revenge, so he bankrolls the operation under the guise of his legit business. Baek Sung Mi is a shady business owner who controls the prison they send the captured baddies that the protagonists successfully take revenge on. It is all very clear what everyone's roll in this universe is.

And then, all of a sudden, some of the characters just completely lose themselves and some of the writing stops making sense. Kang Ha Na's character is the most guilty of this: even though she was initially frustrating to viewers, I think her role was to show us the failure of the "righteous, lawful way". Her colleague's death pushes her to start supporting the Rainbow Taxi protagonists, which I thought was fine, but then she suddenly forgets how to do her job: there is one scene in particular where they are holding Kim Do Gi, and she flagrantly and straightforwardly lets him go, which is noticed by her coworker and that is just somehow...fine? I think at minimum, her coworkers might have some ethical concerns about her actions, and might, you know, start raising questions about whether she is fit to continue doing her job. There are additional problems of this nature: for example, she would use insider information obtained by the Rainbow Taxi team and just send a huge task force to an unknown location...on a hunch? How would she explain how she knows this info? The writing just stops being sensible.

This culminates in the ending, which I am going to call the "maximal happy ending". The ultimate baddie is identified: the true killer of Kim Do Gi's mother, who is already jailed. Therefore, the team is going to take revenge by....tricking him into beating up his own son, who is coincidentally a jail guard, coincidentally has no idea who his father is, even though the Rainbow Taxi team didn't do anything to ensure that the baddie would FOR SURE beat up the son. I watched that scene and it made no sense to me: they couldn't know that the baddie would trick the son in getting close. And this gets worse in my opinion: the team decides they will turn themselves in. However, Kang Ha Na lets Kim Do Gi go and she tries to resign, but her boss inexplicably resigns instead in order to ensure that they bury the investigation they have on the Rainbow Taxi team while the team members themselves agree to shut down the operation....and then one year later, all of the taxi crew have ridiculous new jobs (one of them is a rocket scientist 'cause...you know), and have somehow revived the operation with Kang Ha Na as one of the new members of the crew. Did I also mention that her boss, who resigned, somehow charged the big baddie with framing an innocent man, even though we had already established earlier that the statue of limitations had past? It doesn't make complete sense.

So the verdict? This show has a lot of excellent, amazing elements in the first half to first two-thirds of this show that make it worth your watch. However, the real life creative disagreements of the production team can clearly be felt in the latter part of the show. It was SO close in being a 10/10, fun show. Try it out -- you won't be disappointed.

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Dropped then rewatched

I really liked this drama at the beginning, I thought the stories were interesting and I enjoy revenge dramas cause it’s satisfying. However Kang Ha Na’s character just annoyed me so much, like I understand she was just doing her job but I just wanted her to BACK OFF. So I dropped it and then I had nothing else to watch so I rewatched it AND THANK GOD she started kinda working/ understanding them, so she became less annoying. I just wanted her to stop ruining their operations.

The rainbow taxi team’s relationship was nice, I liked the way they worked together, but the main character Kim Do Gi was so OP that sometimes it was laughable. He could literally survive anything and his IQ is like 1000 apparently. I don’t know what kind of training he got in the military but he was unrealistically strong and smart. And he got hurt so many times but he never suffered any long term damages or even scars lol, but the villains used to get one punch and they would be on the floor. Anyway it was fun to watch tho cause it was just like let’s see how he survives now. I did like the fight scenes tho, my fav one was the night vision POV one, I thought that was quite creative and a cool way to show the fight.

Another thing that was funny was how the roads were ALWAYS CLEAR. Sometimes even in the day time the roads were empty and they would be doing the most with the cars- car chase, accidents, explosions, idek what else but it would just be them.

I thought it was quite ironic that the law they complained about and fought against the whole drama, was the thing that kept them out of prison because of the ‘lack of evidence’.

Also, I didn’t understand in episode 16, I thought Oh Cheol Yeong’s son did know that Oh Cheol Yeong was his dad, because of the scene in the toilet where he has the flashback? But then they concluded that he didn’t know who his dad was? I’m confused.

Overall I did enjoy the drama, the stories were interesting and the acting was very good from most of the actors/ actresses. I think most of the stories were based on true stories, which made it more heartbreaking.

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Alternative to a crap legal system

With a high budget feel, great stunts, bags of action and a credible cast, this was a pretty thrilling drama.
Plenty of revenge providing satisfying viewing when a multitude of incredibly unsavoury characters, got their judgement calls.
I honestly felt like this drama was giving a pretty big finger to the country's very flawed legal system, which favours wealthy and connected citizens over guilty ones.
It was a little odd, therefore, to include details and phone numbers for various crime departments at the end of episodes. A Premium Taxi Service one would be better.
Some of the cases made for very disturbing viewing, from violent bullying to rape, sexual assault and murder.
It is a very violent series, so those affected by realistic cases and cruelty, should avoid it.
It's pretty OTT, but for the vast majority of the time, gets away with that comfortably. It feels weird to say I enjoyed it, but I did, more than not.
I only rolled my eyes up in disbelief a couple of times and was made to laugh occasionally too.
One episode near the end even made me cry; because the hurt was understated and realistic, not melodramatic.
At one point, when the initial storyline was wrapped up, it did drag/dip somewhat and I thought they shouldn't have stretched it to 16 eps. However, it then picked up again and I enjoyed it to the end.
There is one factual case in a latter episode's epilogue, involving a trumped up, wrongful conviction. This resulted in an innocent man spending a long time in prison and it also really disturbed and angered me, because it involved an 8-year old child. What the police back at the time did, was shocking, shameful and unforgivable.
It really is like the writers (they were changed part way through following a disagreement between the original and director) want the country to recognise how flawed and corrupt their systems are, and how they let people down. An argument for the statute of limitations being dropped was also featured, which is applied by many countries and enables perpetrators of older cold cases to get off . Same applies to double jeopardy really.
I loved both Lee Je Hoon and Esom in this; perfect for their roles. Not a weak actor in it.
Whilst the action was often pretty fantastical, it's still a thought provoking watch.
The OST was suitably heavy rock orientated, in fact sometimes a little too much so, but overall pretty good and appropriate.

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Jolly Good Fun

Looking for something sweet and happy? TURN BACK! Do you believe the criminal justice system is always right? YOU'RE IN THE WRONG PLACE! Are you in the mood for a butt load of action, suspense and revenge? LOOK NO FURTHER!
This show is so much more than what I thought it was going to be. You're emotions will run wild with this series in all the right ways. The plot twists were outta this world with satisfying bolts of craziness and you can't deny this is something we need in the real world, which is what makes this show so relatable and "fun". lol It's action packed from beginning to end with all the heart racing punches and winching uppercuts you could ask for. If you don't think the criminal justice system is warped this is NOT the show for you but I whole heartedly am convinced you'll love it none the less.
Enjoy...

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I like being succinct
When I first saw the title and the storyline, I didn't think it was for me. But then I gave myself a chance to watch it, and I was amazed, actually I still am.

The acting in this was excellent, what I liked the most was the taxi itself. I've watched quite a number of series with cars as one of the main concentrations, they are good, but not that feasible. In taxi driver, the taxi they used! You can relate to it, like it's not too fictious... You get what I mean. The music was okay too.

As I said, I like being brief... Taxi driver!, Is a must watch.

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the law does not gurantee justice

crimes are committed daily, and the perpetrators do not always receive proper punishment. rainbow taxi is an organisation run by people who were let down by the law in the past and decided to seek justice for those who experienced the same lack of it as they had.
'taxi driver' is dark and violent, but in the best way possible. it depicts various cases, all based on real crimes; that's why this drama feels so realistic. it shows that we should not close our eyes to how evil and rotten the world can be. on the other hand, watching our rainbow taxi team is pure joy. with their mutual trust and support, those individuals create an excellent contrast to the fierce plot itself.
and now, all i am hoping for is a confirmation of season 2.

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Should you watch it? Yes, especially if you are into action/crime/violence

This rating is specifically based on my enjoyment of the show. Let me explain...

What I loved:
-Lee Je Hoon was excellent. The scene where he was with the reporters and confronted the killer. Oh my gosh, his anguish. Watch his neck during those scenes, it was heartbreaking. He's got the "cold/cool" guy down to an art form, but you could feel how he cared for his team and the victims they worked for.
-Esom as the prosecutor. I know a lot of people were saying that she was irritating, but that was the way she was supposed to be. I thought her arc from sticking strictly to the letter of the law to moving into a gray area was very interesting. I was looking forward to her joining the team and was disappointed to find that she isn't in season 2.
-The team. Funny, quirky, excellent at their jobs, I loved the found family feel of them. I liked how the writers showed that they were smarter than the criminals. Thank you for not making a romance between ML and hacker!
-The cases. I liked seeing them don different characters to take down the bad guys. I would have preferred if they stuck with a client per episode instead of the last part of the drama focusing on one big bad situation.
-I didn't have any difficulty with the ML always winning every fight. It made me root for him even more.

The reason for my lower rating:
-This isn't my typical genre and I thought it was excessively violent, often at the expense of the story. I was bothered by the language as well.
-Product placement was pretty obvious.
-The one glaring thing for me was, considering how they've been doing business all this time, flying under the radar, the prosecutor didn't have any trouble figuring it out and finding their lair.

I will watch Season 2, but I'm hoping for more cases and less violence.

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Una muy buena serie

La serie es realmente entretenida y las actuaciones son increibles, sobre todo el protagonista en cada una de sus distintas interpretaciones. Las historias que cuenta tambien son muy buenas y sufrimos con los clientes a la vez que nos alegramos cuando todo se resuelve, esta contado desde una narracion muy buena utilizando las imagenes del taxi, con las desu "guarida" y la vida de las personas.
Lo unico malo que prodira decir es que disfrute muchismo más la segunda temporada que la primera, mientras la primera se trataba de un enfrentamiento entre la justicia y el equipo de Rainbow, la segunda realmente se trata de ellos en acción.
Realmente no entendia al personaje de la fiscal Kang, quisieron hacer una detective pero en realidad es solo una abogada, casi todas sus escenas iniciales no tienen sentido como por ejemplo ella encontrando en los primeros capitulos casi toda la trama y la policia nunca pudiendo ver que el taxi era el mismo para los dos primeros casos. De igual manera actua como policia como cuando quiere ir a la casa de vacaciones totalmente desarmada solo porque es fiscal. De igual forma cuando decide vengarse pero se arrepiente a mitad de camino lo entiendo pero simplemente no.
Por lo demas recomiendo plenamente.

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