Taxi Driver Horror Stories
If you haven’t watched the SBS drama, Taxi Driver, that just recently finished airing you might not know that several of the stories featured on the drama are based on true crimes. The drama follows Kim Do Gi (Lee Je Hoon), who helps seek revenge on those that are wronged with the help of an entire team, disguised as a taxi service. Director Park Joon Woo had previously worked on investigative journalism shows and used that experience to focus on real crimes in Korea where there were horrific injustices that the audience could relate to or are well known. I went to go research the cases so that I had a bit more understanding of the references, and why they specifically were important to include in the drama and thought I would share them. I’m not going to go too much into the drama, but a general spoiler warning is needed.
CW: Some of these cases deal with sexual assault, abuse, and other topics that might be triggering.
EPISODE ONE - CHO DOO SOON CASE
The first case that we are introduced to is that of a man being released from prison. Is also our introduction to the Deluxe Taxi.
In December of 2008, Cho Doo Soon kidnapped and raped an eight-year-old girl. He was only sentenced to 12 years, despite originally being sentenced to life. Despite public outcry, the sentence was reduced because of his age, mental capacity, and that he was drunk. “Though legal analysts pointed out the evidence presented by Cho’s lawyers of his intoxication was flimsy at best, prosecutors did not challenge the theory and thus enabled the reduced sentence” - Korea JoongAng Daily. He was released on December 12, 2020. I don’t want to go into detail about what happened to the girl, because it is too horrific, but I wanted to note how this incident was beyond past a sexual assault case with the girl suffering lasting mental and physical effects, and this case is dubbed Korea’s most horrific rape case.
Since his sentence, the national legislature has amended the law to make it more difficult to use alcohol as a defense yet the provision still remains (and is still used in many cases). The case also prompted more of a focus on the laws involving sexual crimes and minors with the passing of the “Cho Doo-soon Prevention” law which mandates sex offenders’ public information to be released publicly after their release and prohibits them from coming into the vicinity of places like kindergartens.
Sources: Wikipedia, BBC, Korea JoongAng Daily, Dark Side of Seoul, Channel News Asia
EPISODES ONE & TWO - SLAVERY SALT FARMS
Although the drama focuses on one woman, the incident in Sinan Country, Jeollanam Do unearthed the horrific abuse and slavery of the homeless and the mentally or physically handicapped.
Investigations during 2013 and 2014 uncovered that around 160 salt farm employees were being held and worked under slave-like conditions. Most of the employees being mentally or physically disabled. Brought in by an unregistered employment agency, the trafficked workers were forced to work over fourteen hours a day with no breaks and if they could not perform tasks would be beaten, many not being paid for years. It wasn’t until one man was able to send a letter to his mother and she was able to call the police in Seoul that brought investigators out.
Previous attempts of escape were tried, however. Most stopped with the threat of death and because the residents and police helped the abusers to find the victims so that it wouldn’t bring any attention to them and a system that thrived on the slave labor. The exploration wasn’t brought to attention because most of the police and citizens thought that disabled people didn’t deserve money or human rights.
Most involved were sentenced to a few years. No local police or officials, however, were indicted.
Sources: Wikipedia, CBS News, Business Human Rights, The Smart Local
EPISODE 5 - ARSONIST
These next episodes focus a lot of the story on members of the team and the events that led them to join the Rainbow Taxi Company. During the group therapy session, we learn a bit more about the background of Kyung Koo and Jin Eon. The story they share is a true incident.
On April 17, 2019, five people were killed, another fourteen injured, as the residents fled the apartment after a fire broke out. The perpetrator set fire to his 4th-floor apartment and waited on the second floor for people to come down. The youngest victim was 12. The 42-year-old male was caught on the scene and admitted to the act. This case was a lot harder to find information on, but it seemed that he had a history of violence and mental issues stating that he committed those acts “to defend himself from those trying to slander him.” and issues with overdue wages. I was not able to find out if he was prosecuted, or what happened with the case. Prime Minister Lee Nak Yeon criticized police for “A failure to properly monitor a person known for past violence and clashes with neighbors”
Sources: BBC News, AP News, YNA
EPISODES SIX & SEVEN - NTH ROOM CASE/HIDDEN CAMERAS
Go Eun’s past is brought up during the investigation of an abusive boss. During the episodes, we find out that her sister was a victim by someone she trusted, and it led to her suicide.
Out of all the cases shown in the drama, this case will be the most common and known to the international audience. The case was exposed by an undercover journalist for the Seoul Shinmun, who uncovered a massive amount of sexually exploitative videos sold and shared on the Telegram app between 2018-2020. The operator was revealed as Moon Hyung Wook. A similar crime that was investigated at the same time, known as the Doctor’s Room, was operated by Cho Ju Bin who blackmailed dozens of women forcing them to make the videos, which also involved rape. There are a number of copycat crimes, as well as a general epidemic with molka (small cameras illegally installed to capture voyeuristic images) that the drama also pulled inspiration from.
Three laws had revisions because of the cases. The Sexual Violence Punishment law added regulations that included those who possess, purchase, store, or watch videos involving sexual violence. The Criminal Low raised the standard age of rape of minors from 13 to 16. The Youth Protection Law now identifies the children and adolescents who are subject to prostitution as victims. Moon was sentenced to 34 years in jail and Cho 40 years.
Sources: Wikipedia, Korea Herald, The Interpreter, Aljazeera, BBC America, The Standard
EPISODES FIVE-EIGHT - YANG HIN HO
While Go Eun’s storyline does fall within this one, some of the events that tie the two aren’t close, as I think that its focused crime was the Nth Case.
On May 28, 2020, Chairman of WeDisk, Yang Hin Ho, was sentenced to seven years in jail. He was indicted in 2018 after Newstapa revealed the video footage of him abusing a former employee, and making them kill chickens. This video footage, much like in the drama, was purposefully captured. He forced employees to consistent verbal insults and beatings and forced drinking excessive amounts of alcohol at company dinners. He also carried a BB gun around the office to shoot at them (which was not included in the charges because the statute of limitations had run out).
During the investigation, it was revealed that most of his fortune was made from uploading illegal porn videos. An ongoing investigation is still being conducted, and more charges such as embezzlement.
Sources: Korea JoongAng Daily, Next Shark, Channel News Asia
EPISODES 9 & 10 - VOICE PHISHING
While the drama might have a specific story it was referencing, I couldn’t figure it out. However, the subject of the episodes is something that is a major and common problem.
Korea has a pretty bad voice phishing issue, and most of the people targeted are older. Callers will either use information about their loved ones to get the victims to wire money, or they will make them say certain words so that they can use their voice to access automated accounts. From January to October 2019, more than 31,000 phone scams were reported in Korea, costing victims about $429 million.
Sources: The Korea Herald, UPI, UPI 2
EPISODE 14 & 15 - HWASEONG SERIAL MURDERS
During these episodes, the drama focused a bit more attention on the murders including actual news clips and a short documentary at the end of the episode.
The Hwaseong serial murders were a series of rape and murders that sparked the largest criminal case in South Korea. When Lee Choon Jae was convicted of killing his sister-in-law in 1994, he confessed to the 14 deaths between 1986 and 1991. Originally Yoon Sung Yoo was originally convicted for the murders but was finally granted a re-trial in January of 2020.
Lee is currently serving a life sentence for the death of his sister-in-law. The statute of limitations had expired on the other deaths, so he could not be prosecuted for them.
“Is the statute of limitations more important than people?'“
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