(Showbox)

South Korean historical film “A Taxi Driver” was submitted to the 90th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, its distributor Showbox said Monday.

The section allows only one entry per country. Korean films were submitted for the section every year but none made it to the final nominees. In 2016, “The Age of Shadows” was submitted for the section.

“‘A Taxi Driver,’ based on a real story, well-illustrated the characteristics of Korea as well as human rights and democratization in Asia. Also, (we) thought it would convey well the meaning of the film to many international viewers with its universal humanistic appeal,” Korean Film Council said.

“A Taxi Driver” tells the story of a cabbie who took a German journalist to the center of the Gwangju pro-democracy movement in May 1980. Since it was released on Aug. 2, the film has drawn more than 11.89 million cinemagoers, as of Monday.

(Showbox)

By Kim So-yeon (syk19372@heraldcorp.com)