Revenge dramas in film and television dramas often involve the choice between procedural justice and result justice, that is, is it possible to choose the form of "lynching" for a just result? From the perspective of the rule of law, lynching actually violates the law and constitutes procedural injustice. But domestic creators generally do not face this dilemma. After all, we are a socialist country ruled by law, and lynching must be brought to justice. The censorship is very strict, and there is almost no living soil for revenge dramas in the film and television field. .

Foreign film and television dramas have fewer concerns in this regard, and creators often let themselves go. In South Korea, revenge drama is already a very mature type of drama, and at least a dozen revenge dramas are broadcast almost every year. The more famous ones recently include "The Youngest Son of the Plutocrat", "Dark Glory", and "Model Taxi 2" reviewed in this article.

"Model Taxi 2" poster

The "Model Taxi" series is adapted from the popular Korean manga of the same name. The first season will be aired in 2021, and the word-of-mouth and ratings have doubled. The demand for a sequel has been high. After two years, the second season is finally here. The episode tells that there is such a group of people who work in a taxi company called "Rainbow Transport" on weekdays. In fact, a few of them formed an "Avengers Alliance" to help Revenge, the client who has nowhere to avenge revenge.

The "Avengers" put up a large number of small advertisements with yellow labels on viaducts, train tracks and other places where suicide is easy, saying "Please use revenge instead of seeking death, valet revenge service", and left contact information. When the client dials the phone, they will send a special car to pick up the client, listen to their stories, and let the client decide whether to decide to revenge. Once the client decides to take revenge, the "Avengers" will start to act, and the taxi will start metering and billing until the end of the mission. This is the charge for revenge. The main purpose of the fee is to allow the client who has completed the revenge to live well—at least there is a goal of repaying the debt, and the "Avengers" will also smooth out the fees for those who are really unable to repay.

"Valet Revenge Service"

In the "Avengers", there is Kim Dodge (played by Lee Di-hoon), who was born in a special soldier. He has explosive combat power and contributed most of the wonderful action scenes in the series; he also takes on most of the "undercover" roles due to his good looks. , He often disguises himself as another identity and breaks into enemy organizations in order to investigate each case.

Gold Dodger brushes different "copies" in different units

There is also a master hacker An Gaoen (played by Piao Yizhen) in the alliance, and two engineers from the development team of the automobile company and the aircraft maintenance team of the airline company serve as "logistics".

In the first season, Jiang Hana (acted by Li Xu), who was a prosecutor, served as a "non-staff" and officially joined the alliance at the end of the first season. But in the second season, the actor Li Xu was unable to act due to schedule conflicts, and the new driver Wen Hejun (played by Xin Zaixia) joined the "Avengers" instead. Xin Zaixia just played the perverted murderer in the next-door "First Class Gossip". In "Model Taxi 2", he will most likely not be a wolf in sheep's clothing anymore.

Newcomers join

Revenge dramas such as "The Youngest Son of the Plutocrat" and "Dark Glory" are the focus of the whole drama. The "Model Taxi" series is a revenge drama in the unit drama mode. Two episodes a week tell a case, and the narrative rhythm is more efficient. The content is also more "short, flat and fast", and the audience can connect to the plot whenever they "get in the car".

Many of the cases involved in the unit drama are adapted from sensational social events that took place in South Korea. In reality, although the criminals are finally brought to justice, it is hard to say that they are happy. For example, the law is often used by the powerful, and sometimes the law itself has loopholes. Some extremely vicious people are released from prison after a few years of imprisonment. The "Model Taxi" series reinterprets social events, further uglifies and deteriorates the image of bad guys, and most importantly rewrites their fate - let the "Avengers" repair them severely, let them either be disabled or die, help The audience gasped.

The opening chapter of "Model Taxi 2" alluded to the incident in Room N (the main criminal also had a neck guard around his neck). Several main criminals were imprisoned for a few years, and they bribed their relationship and planned to be released on parole. The "Avengers" launched a revenge plan, allowing these people to be charged with assaulting the police, seizing guns and escaping from prison, and continued to suffer in prison.

In the first episode of the episode, it alludes to the house owner criminal No. N.

The two main cases in the subsequent plot are both fraud cases that are relatively close to the daily life of the audience. Telecom fraud actually appeared in the first season, but in reality the tricks of the scammers are too diverse. The first two units of the second season disclosed two other forms of fraud: Swindle to foreign countries and imprison them, serve as manpower for fraud gangs, continue to engage in fraud or engage in illegal gambling.

Tricking young people into high-paying jobs abroad

The other is a scam aimed specifically at empty nesters. Scammers go to the countryside to cheat the empty-nesters emotionally. When the old people let go of their guard against the scammers, the scammers trick the old people into opening credit cards, take the old people's cash and spend money, or directly defraud the old people of their money.

defrauding old people of credit cards

It can also be seen from these two units that the case of "Model Taxi 2" is not too bloody and dark, and the tone is not so bitter and bitter, because the screenwriter Wu Xianghao positions the series as "criminal entertainment and cool drama". This also involved the disagreement between the screenwriter and the director in the first season, because the screenwriter wanted to stick to the style of "criminal entertainment cool drama" to the end, but the director of the first season, Park Joon-woo, thought that the latter part of the plot should be heavier and darker, which led to Oh Sang-ho After writing the first 10 episodes of the first season, I "get off the car", and changed the screenwriter for the last 6 episodes. The atmosphere of the plot is indeed quite depressing.

The director of "Model Taxi 2" has been replaced, the screenwriter Oh Sang-ho has regained the right to speak, and the style of "criminal entertainment cool drama" has also returned. The second season has a brighter entertainment and funny color, and there are a lot of comedy plots in the play that make people laugh. For example, Lin Fuzi, the eldest sister of the phone fraud case that appeared in the first season, reappears, and she and the heart thief Wang Daoji (one of Kim Dodge's clones) will once again have an emotional spark; the second unit fights wits and bravery with the liar , It's completely crushing, "The Avengers" is like playing monkeys all the way...

The funny Lin Fuzi in the first season will appear again

This can also be seen in the rating of episodes. In the first season, there were 19 bans in the whole process, and the classification of the second season is the relatively conventional 15 bans in Korean dramas. In other words, although it is a revenge drama, "Model Taxi 2" tries to take the route that is suitable for all ages. In most revenge dramas, before the thrill of revenge comes, there is often a depressive and heavy humiliation stage. Although it exposes the dark side of society, excessive exaggeration of sadness will also make the audience emo; "Model Taxi 2" Sweeping away the gloom of the revenge drama, it welcomes more audiences to get on the car without any burden, and strives to bring the audience more thrills of safe racing every week.

The refreshing feeling of "Model Taxi 2" is obvious, and the limitations are also obvious. After all, one case needs to be solved in two episodes, and entertainment must be ensured. The succession and transition are inevitably superficial, and there are loopholes in logic from time to time. But what the series pursues is "coolness", not the depth of reality. The super high ratings and popularity show the audience's demand for entertainment and entertainment. If you are a relaxed audience, you can choose to take this "model taxi".