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A Reservation-Only Taxi Hits the Road
The Korea-Japan co-produced drama Personal Taxi, starring actor Cha Tae-hyun, premieres on October 1st on Netflix and Japan’s streaming service FOD. All eight episodes will drop on the same day. The series is a heartwarming human music drama centered around a mysterious reservation-only taxi and its driver, Mr. Go, unraveling the passengers’ personal stories and song requests one episode at a time.
Cha Tae-hyun plays Mr. Go, a driver who listens to his passengers’ life stories while taking them to their destinations. The confirmed main cast alongside Cha includes Lee Jae-in, Lim Se-mi, Hyun Bong-sik, Mimi, Joo Jong-hyuk, Ye Ji-won, Lee Kyu-hyung, Lim Ha-ryong, and Ye Soo-jung. Lee Kyu-hyung, who announced his involvement through social media, plays Seok-joo, a middle-aged man nostalgic for his youth and the school days he spent with friends.
Bringing Webtoon Music and Stories to the Screen
This project is a live-action adaptation of Lee Mo-se’s webtoon of the same name. Originally published on Naver Webtoon’s Best Challenge, the source material follows a reservation-only taxi for regulars, where the driver and passengers listen to chosen tracks and share memories on the way to their destination. Because a print version of the original work was released, some media and materials mistakenly refer to it as a novel. However, based on Naver Webtoon’s official page and multiple news reports, its true origin is the webtoon.
The drama stays true to this core premise. A diverse array of passengers gets into the taxi: a part-timer working in a theme park mascot suit, a nighttime runner along the Han River, a DJ obsessed with vintage vinyl records, and an actor longing for their past glory days. The songs these passengers request do more than play in the background: they carry memories and emotions the person couldn’t fully put into words. Using the single setting of a taxi as its shared stage, the show adopts an omnibus format, introducing a new character’s story in every episode.
A Collaborative Project Between Korean Creators and a Japanese Platform
The script is penned by writers Kim Jun-mo and Min Dong-hyun, and directed by Jeon Chang-geun, known for The Queen of Office, Mystic Pop-up Bar, and Artificial City. Korean production companies Big In Square and Studio Flow participated in the project, with Japan’s Fuji TV joining as a co-producer. FOD is the streaming and digital publishing platform operated by Fuji TV. Rather than simply exporting a finished Korean drama to Japan, companies from both countries collaborated from the production stage onward.
Personal Taxi was also highlighted as the first drama series ever invited to the official program of the 22nd Jecheon International Music & Film Festival. After premiering at a festival dedicated to the intersection of film and music, the show is set to reach international audiences, including those in Korea and Japan, through Netflix and FOD. While it grounds itself in the localized, everyday space of a taxi and deeply personal song requests, its emotional core is the familiar experience of opening up about one’s life to a stranger.
K-Dramas Expanding Beyond Distribution into Co-Production
What makes this release notable is that Korean actors and creators are working alongside a Japanese broadcasting platform to expand a single original property together. The screen adaptation of a Korean webtoon, a joint Korea-Japan production, and a global streaming release all come together in one project. It reflects how K-content’s overseas expansion is moving past simple licensing and finished-product exports toward real co-production partnerships.
The decision to foreground the memories and music of ordinary passengers over provocative, sensational plotlines also sets the series apart. Once the show drops, the key points to watch will be how naturally these episodic stories resonate with viewers from different cultural backgrounds, and how the short, heartwarming pacing of the original webtoon translates into an eight-part drama.
Sources: Max Movie, September 15, 2025; The Korea Herald, September 10, 2026; Chosun Biz, September 23, 2026; Naver Webtoon ‘Personal Taxi’ Title Info, accessed September 28, 2026.
