'A Taxi Driver' 10th most-watched film in Korean history

A scene from the movie "A Taxi Driver". / Courtesy of Showbox

By Chyung Eun-ju, Park Si-soo

The Korean movie “A Taxi Driver,” a semi-fictional story based on the Gwangju massacre on May 18, 1980, has attracted 12 million viewers, making it the nation’s 10th most watched film.

The film reached the landmark on Saturday afternoon, 39 days after its release, according to data from Korean Box Office Information System (KOBIS).

The movie is still popular ― 400,000 saw it on Saturday alone ―so it is soon expected to overtake ninth-placed “The King and the Clown,” which attracted 1.23 million viewers in 2005.

“A Taxi Driver,” starring Song Kang-ho, was the South Korean entry in the Foreign Language Category at the 90th Academy Awards.

The film depicts the journey of an unassuming taxi driver named Kim Sa-bok, who carried a German reporter to the Gwangju massacre.