Deluxe Taxi / Taxi Driver 모범택시 [ S1- 2021] [S2 - 2023] [S3 -TBD]

[mademoiselle]

Ahhh~ I suspected Shin Jae Ha is connected to Cotaya's case but I didn't expect he's also connected to the real estate scam! Also, it doesn't seem like he's the Boss of the Organisation. He's also merely working for the Big Boss. Anyway, now I wonder if this cult is part of this secret Organisation too.

 

To be honest, I kind of think it wouldn't be too hard to piece the puzzles together on how/why the Rainbow team infiltrated their operations if he has his eyes and men spying on them 24/7. They literally take days off to handle a case.

 

@abs-oluteM I don't feel as intrigued as I was with S2 vs S1. Do you feel the same?

[wink_]

Jin Eon made his way to the cult base where he saw the donation that is being poured by the followers. he's very brave.  looks like Do Gi has started to look more towards Ha Joon and observe his actions. it is not easy to hide the aura of a businessman and a killer.  once again actor Shin Jae Ha is playing a villain. I hoped till the end he would be good. sometimes I feel like Jang Sung Chul is slow motion effect this season, previous seasons he was behind the planning but, now he is just there as a team's dad? 

 

 

 

~ teaser trailer 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by wink_
"the weakest character to slow motion effect" - another user copied these words. I've to change them.

[Dhakra]

Episode 7 Recap

 

• Well I guess Team Rainbow Taxi CAN in fact control ravens and make them appear. 
• I have to admit though, the girl whos with the father is kinda pretty  Too bad she seems to have a bad character and keep company with the wrong kind of people. 
• These punks threatened the cute client and made her cry?  They deserve hell. So glad Go Eun kicked their a*s and "forgot" to return the baton.  Quoting the law and being all police cop is kinda sexy  Do Ki should have seen it. 
• Would have been so funny if Do Ki put his number in Go Eun's hand.  Would have fulfilled all her wishes. 
• So....as much fun as Monk Do Ki and his performance as "Mom" is, I have to say this approach and way to solve the case is so far fetched, I almost feel like I am looking a sketch or science fiction drama. No sane people would believe any of this and so many things are just so unrealistic. 
  Last season each case and plot felt much more realistic and believable. Sure Do Ki was invincible and was beaten to a pup more than once, just to then stand up, beat everyone up, escape and drive home as if nothing happened.
  But overall it felt just much more plausible. Especially this case it just felt like they go higher, better, faster.
• Again, this episode is so much fun, it's also so funny to see how our fake father does the same things he always asked his followers to do, but this episode feels so weird somehow. It feels like a Taxi Driver parody.
• The ending was really satisfying though, enjoyed it a lot when both sister were walking along the beach. 
• It must have been so sad, but also so joyful for Go Eun to see both sisters rejoin. She will never rejoin with he sister and was denied a moment like this, but I am sure she is so happy to give this moment to someone else.
• I'm surprised OJM's girl is still following him, even inside the container, especially after all he did. Even to her. At least she is loyal it seems, just has very bad taste in men. She seemed to be sane, just greedy and with coinscience. I would have totally thought she would have left him after seeing what he has become. She will be the first thing he will get rid off if necessary.
• At least it seems Do Ki is not fooled by Shin Jae Ha, that is somewhat of a relief. He is very careful and hopefully he heard what SJH said. 

Next case seems to be interesting and more "normal" again. I look forward to it. 

 

Overall I feel like the drama is heading into a strange direction this season. Maybe it was the success of last seasons episode with Do Ki being this silly chinese rich boy. I feel like this season is a hunt to recreate this moment. Although the cases are heavy and cruel again, it feels the handling of the case is always Do Ki just turning into a funny character and doing silly or heavily overacting stuff.
Sometimes I feel like I laugh too much during the cases. 

Edited March 19, 2023 by Dhakra

[mademoiselle]

Kim Do Ki must have taken some acting classes to be this convincing playing the scum's deceased mother. Agree that the scenarios are getting a little too exaggerated for my liking. IThe bit that Do Ki transformed into a Shaman and doing the ritual is hard to watch. For one, he looks silly and I'm not fond of Shamanism rituals because every time it presented itself with the Shaman dancing around, the skeptical in me finds it utterly ridiculous. Yet strangely, shamanism or any religion/cult, there are always people who believe in it.

 

I've also just belatedly realised the actor who plays the scammer is Je Hoon's co-star in Where Stars Land. Heh. Mini-reunion here.

 

My favourite scene from this episode is actually the ending between Shin Jae Ha and Lee Je Hoon. Shin Jae Ha switching between that sweet angel and villanous devil expression was especially compelling. I love that confrontational conversation about "being friends" and Do Ki decides to show his card as well. Look forward to see the continuation of this scene. Love that Do Ki already knows Shin Jae Ha's identity via the photo.

 

Namgoong Min's cameo in One Dollar Lawyer look next week. Didn't expect that.

[mademoiselle]

 

 

[mademoiselle]

@Dhakra

 

[Dhakra]

@mademoiselle Yesss, saw these pictures right after I woke up on her Instagram today.   So beautiful. 
And in the singles magazine  Ahh. a boy can dream. 

[Tofu]

Pre Release

 

[Dhakra]

Episode 9 Recap

 

• I don't trust this lawyer. He probably was sent in by Shin Jae Ha. I mean he said he needs them to come up to the surface themselves. Maybe a fake lawyer is his bait. His advice wasn't as impressive aswell. I think he is just fake. 
• Go Eun can be so happy that everyone is always leaving the surveillance room without any guards. 
• There is absolutely no way they would just perform surgery without any medical causes on a perfectly healthy person.  It's not THAT easy to just go into an OR, even as a patient. 
• Overall very interesting case this week though

[mademoiselle]

Waaa, that was a huge gamble for Do Ki to go into the operation room and risk being operated on. How do they plan to stop this? Emergency alarm? Evacuation?

 

Few days ago on Weibo I read that the latter episodes will include Burning Sun scandal. This one is huge, and also what I was hoping to see last season. Definitely look forward to see this adapted into the series.

 

Found the article!

Spoiler

[OSEN = Reporter Yeon Hwi-sun] The production team of "Model Taxi 2" is expected to provide satisfaction by solving "Burning Sun Gate."

As a result of OSEN coverage on the 23rd, the production team of SBS Friday-Saturday drama "Model Taxi 2" (script Oh Sang-ho, director Ethan) is preparing a story with the motif of "Burning Sun Gate."It is expected to continue its pleasant charm until the second half of the play with the development of cider about Burning Sun Gate, which made the whole country flutter beyond the entertainment industry.

 

Burning Sun Gate is an incident that erupted when crimes such as drugs, sex crimes, illegal filming and distribution were revealed at once at a club Burning Sun in Gangnam, Seoul.It was revealed on the surface in 2018 and caused a public shock.In particular, Seungri, a former member of the group Big Bang, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison, shocking the public.

 

http://osen.mt.co.kr/article/G1112066192

 

@Dhakra The lawyer is just a cameo by actor Namgoong Min. He's not going to be sent by Shin Jae Ha. He was reprising his role as the One dollar lawyer from his One Dollar Lawyer drama. The drama was aired on SBS and these two go way back to the times of drama Hot Stove League where Lee Je Hoon also cameo in there in the finale episode.

https://www.soompi.com/article/1574623wpp/lee-je-hoon-receives-one-dollar-lawyer-namgoong-mins-business-card-in-taxi-driver-2

 

Funny how the Netizens are saying Namgoong Min had so much lines in that 4 mins cameo than Lee Je Hoon's lines in that one hour . The comment from Netizen was "My ears hurt." Hahahaha. So true.

 

BTW.... did Do Ki realise Shin Jae Ha was the guy in the photos or not?

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by mademoiselle

[Dhakra]

1 hour ago, mademoiselle said:

Few days ago on Weibo I read that the latter episodes will include Burning Sun scandal. This one is huge, and also what I was hoping to see last season. Definitely look forward to see this adapted into the series.

 

 Oh boy, these will be some very, very hard to watch episodes then. Not looking forward to it, the scandal was so cruel and malice. It's really hard for me to watch violence against girls and the case will involve a lot of violence and rape I assume. 

 

1 hour ago, mademoiselle said:

BTW.... did Do Ki realise Shin Jae Ha was the guy in the photos or not?

 

I think he did not, based on what I understand.

[Dhakra]

Episode 10 Recap

 

• So that's how he ended up in the OR. Okay, I can live with that. But I'm surprised none of the nurses noticed that the new traffic accident patient looks very similiar to the neuro doctor they met just a day ago.  
  Okay later she kinda remembers him and Do Ki gives the same answers. But a nurse with such short memory should not work in a medical environment. 
• So the case until Ahn Young was taken away by the police and everything was revealed was kinda good, I think it would have been a decend ending, but everything beyond that was so very, very weird. Do Ki slamming her on the table and giving her anesthesia? Fixing her on the table and telling her all of her bad deeds? 
  For a second I thought I was watching an episode of 'Dexter'. 
• I was happy Su Ryeon woke up in the end though. 

Oh boy the end and preview was so much. 

Spoiler

So Do Ki faked his own death it seems to be able to go after the people who are behind him. Go Eun cries her bawls her eyes out. Give is finally a romance please. 

 Also seems next case will already be Burning Sun case

 

[mademoiselle]

9 hours ago, Dhakra said:

 Oh boy, these will be some very, very hard to watch episodes then. Not looking forward to it, the scandal was so cruel and malice. It's really hard for me to watch violence against girls and the case will involve a lot of violence and rape I assume.

Yeah but I think it'll be good to see it adapted on TV and audiences get some satisfaction in seeing Rainbow Team exert justice for us because Seungri only getting 1 year+ in jail for this is just ridiculous. Reminding the people (who tends to have goldfish memory with celebs) how horrific this scandal was. I wonder if Shin Jae Ha is the adaptation of Seungri.

 

Surely Burning Sun (or Black Sun in the drama) is a huge enough business to be taken up by Shin Jae Ha's boss. We have 4 episodes left, so maybe 2 episodes for Burning Sun and then last two episodes is Shin Jae Ha + hidden boss. And if no hidden boss (lol, the hidden boss could potentially be your girl crush from S1, don't you think?) then maybe that'll be S3. Although I don't think I need any more further seasons as S2 is already not as good as S1.

 

[Dhakra]

@mademoiselleI also wondered if that means SJH is playing an adaptation of Seungri then. Sadly only his counterpart will get the beating. The case and punishment back then was just a joke. He got away so easily for all the cruel things he did and how many lifes of girls he destroyed for life. 

 

4 episodes left? Don't we have 6 episodes left? As far as I remember the drama contained 16 episodes and we have watched ep 10 yesterday. Or am I wrong? 

 

Girl crush? You mean besides Go Eun?  You mean the beautiful Cha Ji-Yeon who played the evil business partner? Maybe, would be pleasent to see. Wouldn't mind if she also sang an OST again.

 

I am all in for S3, just to have a romance already.

[wink_]

 

 

singer Kang Seung Yoon sings “Face to Face” for “Taxi Driver 2” OST No 6. this music video follows Kim Do Gi and his underground crew as they take down criminals and enact revenge on behalf of victims. “Face to Face” is a rock track about coming face to face with the fate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[mademoiselle]

12 hours ago, Dhakra said:

@mademoiselleI also wondered if that means SJH is playing an adaptation of Seungri then. Sadly only his counterpart will get the beating. The case and punishment back then was just a joke. He got away so easily for all the cruel things he did and how many lifes of girls he destroyed for life. 

 

4 episodes left? Don't we have 6 episodes left? As far as I remember the drama contained 16 episodes and we have watched ep 10 yesterday. Or am I wrong? 

 

Girl crush? You mean besides Go Eun?  You mean the beautiful Cha Ji-Yeon who played the evil business partner? Maybe, would be pleasent to see. Wouldn't mind if she also sang an OST again.

 

I am all in for S3, just to have a romance already.

Ahahahaha what? We're only on episode 10? Hahaha! OK, 6 more episodes then. My brain fart these days can be quite critical. Last night I realised a drama I followed had ended at E12...and I was wondering what the ending was. So I had to end up rewatching it... maybe I fell asleep when watching to have no memory of the ending.

 

Yeah I meant the evil business partner. I feel like she might make a return at the end. What happened to her at the end of S1?

[abs-oluteM]

3 hours ago, mademoiselle said:

eah I meant the evil business partner. I feel like she might make a return at the end. What happened to her at the end of S1?

Didn't she go to jail? I preferred her as the main villain. I love Shin Jae Ha but there's something quite caricature about his persona here that I cannot take him seriously. In terms of acting - he is doing well playing a two-faced character but I don't feel threatened by him . @Dhakra's fave Cha Ji Yeon was a very classy antagonist - she had that charisma for the role. 

 

What I think could also be lacking this season is that it isn't as dark as S1. Because we know that all will end well, we don't get that adrenaline rush - at least for me anyway. I was definitely on the edge of my seat a lot more in S1. I am still enjoying the show but in S1, there were a lot of things that we didn't know about the team. So going through their personal stories helped us feel emotionally invested. And like you guys mentioned , this season feels a lot more cartoonish ( like reading a comic book) compared to the previous one. 

 

Anyhow I am up to speed and it was such a hoot to see Nam Goong Min cameo as the One Dolllar Lawyer. It would be fun if these two could work together. Sometimes the law is really needed to get proper justice and revenge. 

 

 

[Dhakra]

 

7 hours ago, mademoiselle said:

Yeah I meant the evil business partner. I feel like she might make a return at the end. What happened to her at the end of S1?

 

She was sent to jail, like @abs-oluteMsaid, BUT in the last episode we had a short appearance of Baek Mi (Cha Ji Yeon)'s sister Baek Kyung-Mi (played by Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung) who said that she loves her sister dearly, but runs business different than her sister. 
I highly doubt she will play a role this season, but she is rich, has a lot of influence, owns multiple buildings (who were also used for prostitution and other shady stuff), she would definitely be able to get her sister out of prison and plot revenge.

 

But since her enemy was more Kang Ha-Na, since she totally busted her case and framed all on her, I don't think they will appear anytime soon.

 

3 hours ago, abs-oluteM said:

Didn't she go to jail? I preferred her as the main villain. I love Shin Jae Ha but there's something quite caricature about his persona here that I cannot take him seriously. In terms of acting - he is doing well playing a two-faced character but I don't feel threatened by him . @Dhakra's fave Cha Ji Yeon was a very classy antagonist - she had that charisma for the role. 

 

I agree  

But to be fair, Cha Ji Yeon's character had a lot more screentime and had much more time to develope her character. She was introduced quite early, she went from business partner to antagonist. Although we always knew she was shady and cruel, she always seemed charming at the same time. Shin Jae Ha basically didn't appear a lot in the first half of the drama and if he appears, it's always before or after a case. By episode 10 Baek Mi's character was already fully developed and she played a much bigger role.

I agree that he is acting well, but he doesn't feel like the big threat and a baddie, he feels more like a spoiled chaebol kid with too much money and time. 

 

4 hours ago, abs-oluteM said:

What I think could also be lacking this season is that it isn't as dark as S1. Because we know that all will end well, we don't get that adrenaline rush - at least for me anyway. I was definitely on the edge of my seat a lot more in S1. I am still enjoying the show but in S1, there were a lot of things that we didn't know about the team.

 

Well, to some extend we also knew that in season 1. We kinda knew that there will be a happy end. But I agree that season 1 was a lot darker and much more cruel. In S1 Do-Ki had much more closer fights, got beaten up sometimes too and the antagonists also felt much more hateable. Just remember the U-Data or Marie case.

 

Cartoonish fits quite well, it's much funnier and every case is about doing something silly or  Do Ki ending up in some sort of disguise. 

 

[wink_]

suddenly this unfortunate incident made Go Eun cry sadly, as did Kyung Koo and Jin Eon who were shocked but tried to calm Go Eun down. the unexpected finally arrived which was Kim Do Gi's funeral. while there, all the members of the rainbow taxi still couldn't believe his departure and couldn't hold back their tears. On Ha Joon smiled slyly as he felt that he had managed to get rid of his main enemy. after this incident, Mr. Jang realized that there was someone who really hated them. *I'm hoping Do Gi escaped, went to casinos in Philippines to settle with Moo Sik 'Big Bet', he helps him to plan his comeback Taxi Driver 2 to take down the main villain*  I thought I was watching Taxi Driver 2 when he popped up. though I think it would be a very dangerous case for the Rainbow team to recognize their evil intentions. Ha Joon has definitely walking into a trap. 🫣

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dhakra]

Episode 11 Recap 

 

• Chier Mourner: Ahn Go Eun  My cutie cries so much and looks so shattered and broken. 
• Okay she faked it at the funeral, but how she cried and ran towards the burning car, when she actually thought Do Ki was dead. 
• How they all sat down for the bishop. I felt like we are back to that cult. But oh boy, it seems we have arrived at the Burning Sun scandal, that will be painful to watch.
• Go Eun totally fell in love again after seeing him in a suit  Her face was priceless.
• Jealous Go Eun is so cute 
• So far it was easy to watch, but I guess based on the preview next episodes will be quite hard to bear. Somehow clubs always make me uncomfortable, especially in korea. Clubs all seem so shady and superficial. 

[abs-oluteM]

18 hours ago, Dhakra said:

How they all sat down for the bishop. I felt like we are back to that cult. But oh boy, it seems we have arrived at the Burning Sun scandal, that will be painful to watch.

Hard to watch ...but definitely more interesting than the previous episodes. While it was nice to see the team help fight ordinary folks for justice, I like this change of gear. Doki and team are going to be shocked to see how tightly linked this is to the cops. In some ways, seeing how corrupted the system is, it somewhat justifies the "revenge" the team carries out. 

 

Anyway, if you want some "romance" , Doki did give a nice soft pillow to Go Eun.  

 

What amuses me though is how no one seems to realise who Kim Doki is. Even if his funeral picture supposedly looks different, wouldn't that name ring a bell? And he is going to be recruited as a guard for the club after the ruckus he caused? 

 

[Dhakra]

1 hour ago, abs-oluteM said:

Hard to watch ...but definitely more interesting than the previous episodes. While it was nice to see the team help fight ordinary folks for justice, I like this change of gear. Doki and team are going to be shocked to see how tightly linked this is to the cops. In some ways, seeing how corrupted the system is, it somewhat justifies the "revenge" the team carries out. 

 

I just wonder how deep they get into the scandal or if they just merely scratch the surface, including video recording chatrooms, foreign sexual favors and all that kinda stuff. I imagine Go Eun with the trauma of her sisters case, which is similiar, will go completely bonkers.

But I also feel with the BS case currently going on, Shin Jae Ha is put to the sideline again, somehow his villain arc never takes off. He always feels like someone who plays a bad guy and not someone being the baddie. 

 

1 hour ago, abs-oluteM said:

What amuses me though is how no one seems to realise who Kim Doki is. Even if his funeral picture supposedly looks different, wouldn't that name ring a bell? And he is going to be recruited as a guard for the club after the ruckus he caused? 

 

Sigh, honestly, I am at a point where I just accept all the plotholes. Did no one at the police station notice they deal with a dead person in front of them? No one at the club notices Doki sneaking around. 

Yeah, he will be charged for molesting someone, I guess they made the girl who was with him all the time fake a statement that he was molesting her. He tried to report the club to the police and NOW get somehow hired to the club? And no one of the guards notice that they were just at his funeral?

 

 

[abs-oluteM]

41 minutes ago, Dhakra said:

But I also feel with the BS case currently going on, Shin Jae Ha is put to the sideline again, somehow his villain arc never takes off. He always feels like someone who plays a bad guy and not someone being the baddie. 

You made such a good point here. This is the problem I have with him being the main antagonist - not enough development and he ends up being a caricature sort of villain. Again I can't help but compare with S1's Ji Yeon. 

[Tofu]

I'm glad you guys feel the same about Shin Jae Ha's character. I have no idea what his purpose is. He is almost an afterthought at this point. 

 

 

[Dhakra]

1 hour ago, abs-oluteM said:

You made such a good point here. This is the problem I have with him being the main antagonist - not enough development and he ends up being a caricature sort of villain. Again I can't help but compare with S1's Ji Yeon. 

 

I would go even worse, he was supposed to be the main antagonist and the majority of the story being around him, sneaking around, causing trouble from within and destroying Rainbow Taxi, but his whole role so far seems so insignificant. Compared to Ji Yeon, or even some lesser villains that just played the bad guys for two episodes, they had much more impact and were way more memorable than him. A return of Madam Lim would be much more interesting than his arc so far. 

The BS scandal is not about him, he will play a part in it, but it doesn't feel like he is mandatory for it. 

The whole drama so far would have worked perfectly fine without him.