Having won a number of awards in Deauville, Golden Horse and Taipei Film Festival, “The Cabbie” is Chen Yi-wen's most successful movie to date, and was also Taiwan's submission to the 74th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, although it was not accepted as a nominee.
“The Cabbie” is screening at Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh
The film is split in two parts essentially, which intermingle on a number of occasions. The main arc revolves around Su Daquan, a taxi driver, and his family, starting with the way his parents, a coroner and a taxi driver met and married, and continuing with his personal history. In adolescence, when his peers were driving scooters, he was driving a car without license, and his performance in school was of no importance, since the only thing that mattered was for him getting his license, something he eventually achieved, immediately starting working for his father's company. This part is filled with a series of vignettes, mostly of comedic fashion, regarding the other drivers in the company, as the one who does not stop working even when he has to eat, or another one who keeps crashing his car, or even his father, who has to settle any insurance claims made against his drivers. That the office is next to a spot where car crashes happen all the time, the reasons customers frequently confide in drivers and how to find what “tribe” they belong to, conclude this part, in a fashion that is both funny and rich in social commentary.
The second part begins as soon as Su Daquan falls in love with a female police officer who writes him a fine, and the shenanigans he embarks in in order to woo her, which almost exclusively entail him getting fines everyday in order to just see her one more time.
Chen Yi-wen implements a rather episodic approach that focuses on humor, not omitting, though, to include a number of social comments, particularly regarding how difficult it is for women of particular professions to get married, the hardships of being a taxi driver and an owner of a taxi company and the culture of driving in Taiwan. Regarding the humor, the approach is intently dead pan, something that is also heightened by the extended sequence of narration by Su Daquan, in a style that reminds strongly of “The Great Buddha+” and is definitely hilarious. The exaggeration of the various events that take place with customers, as much as the taxi drivers themselves works excellently here, while some slight elements of sensualism, a car chase sequence, and some surrealism conclude the rather entertaining narrative.
The second part retains these elements even if in a smaller scale, instead focusing on the romance between the policewoman and the taxi driver, which is quite appealing in its own right, particularly in the way he finally breaks her defenses. At the same time, it is somewhat repetitive, while the fact that upon its conclusion, the narrative switches back to the previous episodic style, does not work particularly well. The slightly open but definitely dramatic ending on the other hand, definitely compensates, in one of the best parts of the whole movie.
Considering the episodic approach of the narrative, the editing emerges as a crucial factor here, and thankfully, Chen Po-wen's work in that regard is excellent, implementing a rather fast pace that allows for all the episodes to fit in the economic 94 minutes, while his cuts are also part of the style of humor here. Some trimming close to the end would definitely benefit the film, but this is just a minor issue and in no case does it harm the overall work done in the department. Tsai Cheng-tai's work in the cinematography is of equal level, with him making the most out of the interiors of taxis, while both his and Chen's work find their apogee in the car chase sequence as much as in the many accidents included in the story.
Chu Chung-heng is quite convincing as the naive, monomaniac Da-chuan, with his transformation being quite entertaining. Gorgeous Rie Miyazawa as the policewoman steals the show with her overall presence and the moment her walls break down, while Tai Bo is quite pleasurable to watch as the father. Joyce Cheng in the role of the mother is equally entertaining, rounding up an impressive cast.
“The Cabbie” is an excellent movie, very entertaining in its episodic, deadpan humor, and a testament to Chen Yi-wen's directorial abilities.
