Beijing Taxi

Director Miao Wang, who has spent the last two decades in the US, returned to her hometown Beijing two years prior to the 2008 Olympics, to document and shed light on the intense changes of everyday life and urban infrastructure the city was undergoing. Beijing Taxi introduces three taxi drivers: Bai Jiwen, Zhou Yi and Wei Caxia, each with his or her own agenda of private struggles and day-to-day copings. The documentary uses the drivers and their interactions with customers to illustrate the consequences of the sweeping, rapid structural changes of Chinese society.
Wang carefully balances functional, narrative photography with mood creating detailed imagery. Beijing Taxi makes no claim to political judgement or artistic exaggeration, but rather serves as an insightful document of contemporary Beijing and it's inhabitants' adaption to a society in change.