Baby and I caught Taxi! Taxi! two weeks ago and it was the first movie that we caught this year. Well, the movie stars Gurmit Singh, Mark Lee and, Dr. Jia Jia and we personally felt that the movie was hilarious and rather entertaining. If you’re finding things to do on a rainy day, why not head indoors and catch a movie instead?
[Image Courtesy of Straits Times]

Movie Synopsis [as extracted from Golden Village’s Website]:
Taxi! Taxi! is a social comedy set in the metropolitan city-state of Singapore, told through the encounters of two characters who are in what is widely perceived as the most sociable profession on the island taxi drivers.

Inspired by famed blogger Dr Cai Mingjies real life accounts as a taxi driver in his bestseller Diary of a Taxi Driver: True Stories From Singapore’s Most Educated Cabdriver, the movie follows the trials and tribulations of a retrenched microbiology scientist, Professor Chua, as he turns to taxi driving after several failed job attempts.

Along the way, he befriends (although they didnt quite start off as friends from the get-go) a veteran taxi driver, Ah Tau. The two men, who appear to be polar opposites of each other in every aspect from educational levels, personalities, attitudes toward life and even the languages that they speak, eventually find themselves interdependent and influencing each other in ways that they probably had never imagined possible.

A fish out of water, Professor Chua gradually learns to move out of his comfort zone and sheltered life in the research lab, and adapt to the real world on the streets of Singapore. Yet, his biggest challenge of all, has to be: breaking the truth about his change of profession to his uninformed family his social-conscious mother-in-law, his elitist son who idolizes his career as a scientist, and his wife whom he vowed to never let her have to worry about the bread and butter issues throughout their marriage. Can he hide it from them forever? And will they still respect him as head of the house if he reveals it to them?

Ah Tau, on the other hand, has problems of a different nature. His son, Jia Jia, believes that his absent mother is on a trip around the world, and he has to continuously find ingenious ways to keep the boys belief alive, so as not to shatter his hope of seeing her again. Also, badly influenced by his own street Singlish that he uses to communicate with his passengers, Jia Jia spouts Singlish like a typical taxi driver whenever he speaks, and his kindergarten teacher who promotes Good English is surely not impressed. A loving father but whose means are limited by his capabilities, can Ah Tau provide whats best for his son?

Bugged by their own individual troubles and initial aversion to each other, the two unlikely buddies soon discover that they can actually help one another out, and show the other what he has never seen from his usual position all along. They finally realize that lifes dead ends can actually turn to passable roads, if you just approach them from a different angle and with a different attitude!

Gurmit Singh and Mark Lee play Professor Chua and Ah Tau respectively in this inspiring comedy about the choices, hope and friendship that one might encounter along the journey in life.

Our Review of the Movie:
By reading the movie synopsis alone, you more or less would have the gist and storyline of the movie. We personally felt that the movie was hilarious and really funny. It certainly portrayed the life of a taxi driver in Singapore pretty well [though I believe the portrayal could be more in-depth]. Since the movie is inspired by famed blogger Dr Cai Mingjies real life accounts as a taxi driver in his bestseller Diary of a Taxi Driver: True Stories From Singapore’s Most Educated Cabdriver, there might even be a Taxi! Taxi! [Part 2]?   Anyhows, it is still a good movie that is worth catching if you’re pretty depressed and gloomy about the recent wet weather.

Movie Trailer:

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God bless!