Taxi! Taxi! (2013 film)-Cedar Herald Index

Taxi! Taxi! () is a 2013 Singaporean comedy film based on the 2010 work Diary Of A Taxi Driver by Cai Mingjie, said to be "Singapore's most well-educated taxi-driver". Directed by Kelvin Sng and produced by Chan Pui Yin and Chan Yan Yan for SIMF Management, the film stars Gurmit Singh, Mark Lee and YouTube personality Chua Jin Sen, better known by his online handle "Dr. Jia Jia". It is Chua's professional film debut. The film follows two fellow taxi-drivers' (Lee and Singh) quest for self-discovery. Distributed by Golden Village Pictures, the film was commercially released in Singapore on January 3, 2013 and slated for a January 24, 2013 release in Malaysia.

Plot

In the film's prelude, PhD microbiologist Professor Chua See Kiat (Gurmit Singh) is hanging out on a rooftop when a taxi driver named Lee Ah Tau (Mark Lee) mistook him for attempting suicide. This leads to Ah Tau receiving a fine for illegal parking.

Taxi! Taxi! (2013 film)

After several attempts to find a new job, Prof Chua had no choice but to resort to cab driving. Ah Tau volunteers to help him and became his first passenger. Soon, Ah Tau was then fined again for another illegal parking incident.

Taxi! Taxi! (2013 film)

When Prof Chua was picking his mother-in-law from the airport, he happened to get into a taxi that was driven by Ah Tau, whose son was also in the taxi. Ah Tau then started talking about Prof Chua's new career as a taxi driver, almost revealing it to his wife and mother-in-law who were not aware of this beforehand. This caused a strain on Prof Chua and Ah Tau's friendship.

Taxi! Taxi! (2013 film)

The movie shows the difficulties encountered by Prof Chua as he faces difficult customers including one that refused to pay their taxi fare. Ah Tau helps him by recording the scene and gets himself punched by the gangsters. The gangsters are then caught and Prof Chua gives Ah Tau a mobile phone to thank him. However he is yet to face his wife who is crying. He then explains the situation to her as she promises not to tell anyone about his new job.

Prof Chua's son Jonah Chua finds out about his taxi driving when the latter inadvertently picked him and his girlfriend up as passengers. Jonah decides not to talk to his father. Ah Tau also gets into a family scuffle for showing his son Lee Jia Jia edited pictures of his long lost mother. Jia Jia realizes that Ah Tau and Regina had both edited it, causing Jia Jia to stop talking to his father. The two share their grievances and decide to help each other in the future. The next day, Prof Chua finds his mum missing from the house and decides to mobilise all the taxi drivers to find her successfully, giving him a better understanding of the 'taxi culture'. Prof Chua also helps Ah Tau by improving his son Jia Jia with his English and tries to find a suitable school for him.

While Ah Tau sets a date with Regina, he is caught by a police officer (Chua En Lai) who gives a longwinded 'speech' about the perils of an illegal U-turn. His taxi runs out of fuel and he is forced to take another taxi before being caught by the same policeman as he repeats the same 'speech'. Regina feels that Ah Tau isn't worth the wait and stomps off into the streets, leading into a car accident. While she is in hospital, she finds out that her vision was impaired and she is unable to fulfill her dream to be a fashion designer. This leads to her attempting suicide on the hospital's roof. Prof Chua explains the situation Regina is in to Ah Tau, who is in the middle of his son's performance. While he is on his way, Prof Chua tells Regina his story of being a cab driver, which then calms her down and changes her mind about the suicide. It is recorded as his son watches it live.

A few years later, Jonah begins idolizing his father again. While Prof Chua regains his job as a professor, he still wants to continue his taxi driving. Regina became a DJ as she falls in love with Ah Tau. The film ends with Prof Chua and Ah Tau driving off into the sunset.