A Taxi Driver will represent South Korea as its candidate for the 2018 Oscars' best foreign-language film category, its local distributor Showbox said Monday.

The historical drama sped through the local box office last month to become the year's biggest draw, hauling in $83.4 million as of Monday, according to the Korean Film Council's KOBIS database. South Korean industry observers primarily measure a film's market performance in terms of admissions, and the film became the 17th in local box-office history to cross 10 million admissions — a milestone figure in light of South Korea's population of 50 million.

The film, which closed the 21st Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal this summer, is inspired by true events of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising. A German reporter (Thomas Kretschmann, Stalingrad, Avengers: Age of Ultron) receives the help of a local cab driver (Song Kang-ho, Snowpiercer), to cover a massive, state-sanctioned massacre against civilians during South Korea's democratization movement.