Man reveals relation to ‘A Taxi Driver’ character
A man claiming to be the son of Kim Sa-bok, the taxi driver who was depicted as the character Kim Man-seob in “A Taxi Driver,” came forward Thursday with documents to prove his relation to Kim after initially making the claims on social media on Aug. 5.“A Taxi Driver,” released on Aug. 2, has become the 15th film in Korean history to surpass the ten million ticket milestone.
The plot deals with Kim Man-seob, a taxi driver based on Kim Sa-bok, who drove Jürgen Hinzpeter, a German journalist to witness the events of the Gwangju massacre.
The search for Kim Sa-bok’s location and identity gained popularity after the movie became a box office hit.
On Aug. 5, a man named Kim Seung-pil came forth on Twitter to announce that he is related to the real Kim Sa-bok, and knows what had happened after the events depicted in the movie.
Kim Sa-bok, who supposedly passed away in 1984 due to liver cancer, was known for being fluent in English, which was how he got to know foreign reporters and eventually met Hinzpeter.
On a local radio broadcast Thursday, the younger Kim revealed that his father owned multiple cars unregistered to taxi companies, which is the reason why the name Kim Sa-bok was not found in any database.
He also provided documents as evidence that his father’s name was Kim Sa-bok.
However, whether this Kim Sa-bok was the taxi driver who drove Hinzpeter to Gwangju is still unconfirmed.
By Bae Seung-hoon
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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