Ni
A Taiwanese immigrant, observant and anxious about making others uncomfortable. She is constantly deciding how much to explain, when to push back, and how to get through the ride politely.
Projects in DevelopmentNarrative short / In development
An Uber Ride
Writer & Producer · Ni-Chun Shih
On her way home from the vet with her cat, a Taiwanese immigrant finds herself caught in an increasingly uncomfortable conversation with a friendly rideshare driver. Both try to be decent people, yet each sees a different version of the city they call home.
Synopsis
After an expensive veterinary visit, Ni gets into an Uber with her eleven-year-old cat, Chita. Her driver, Scott, is a longtime Jersey City resident and fellow cat lover. Their conversation begins easily, moving from pets to travel and his dream of relocating to Costa Rica.
As they drive through the city, Scott’s warmth becomes an increasingly confident monologue about rising rents, luxury developments, immigration, China, Taiwan, and American freedom. He believes he is connecting with Ni. She keeps smiling while deciding which assumptions to correct and which to let pass.
At their destination, Scott discovers that Ni lives in one of the luxury buildings he has spent the ride criticizing. Then Chita creates a more immediate problem in the back seat. Political certainty gives way to embarrassment, practical care, and the awkward kindness of two strangers whose encounter ends without resolving what divides them.
Writer & Producer’s Statement
An Uber Ride begins with the temporary intimacy of sharing a car with a stranger. Ni and Scott both want the encounter to go well. They love cats, worry about the cost of living, and try to treat each other kindly. The discomfort grows from the gap between those intentions and what each person actually experiences.
As a writer, I am interested in how quickly curiosity can become certainty. Scott builds an explanation of Ni’s identity from what he thinks he knows about immigration, Taiwan, and America. Ni responds through politeness, weighing the social cost of correcting him. Her restraint is active: every smile, pause, and change of subject is a choice.
I want to keep both characters complicated. Scott’s frustration with a changing city has a basis in his own life, and his kindness toward Ni and Chita is real. Ni, meanwhile, lives in the kind of building he resents. Each is trying to be a decent person, while overlooking something about the other.
As a producer, I see the contained setting as central to the film’s strength. A single ride allows small reactions, conversational rhythm, and the city passing beyond the windows to carry the story. My focus is on protecting that intimacy through casting, rehearsal, sound, and a carefully planned vehicle shoot. I hope audiences recognize the uneasy distance between being friendly and making another person feel understood.
The Three Passengers
Scott
A warm, opinionated driver who feels displaced by the transformation of his hometown. His generosity and confidence coexist with an unawareness of how his passenger experiences the conversation.
Chita
Ni’s eleven-year-old cat and the silent third passenger. Chita gives the strangers something to connect over—and eventually brings their abstract conversation back to an embarrassingly physical reality.
Tone & Visual Development
The film combines awkward social comedy with naturalistic drama. Humor comes from recognition: Scott’s conversational confidence, Ni’s increasingly strained politeness, and the absurdity of trying to remain composed in a situation neither person fully controls.
The working visual approach centers small reactions, rearview mirrors, window reflections, and the changing streets of Jersey City. Performance and the duration of the ride gradually sharpen the tension, while the city outside the car gives Scott’s complaints a visible context.
Visual approach in development, to be refined collaboratively with the director.
Production Approach
A contained, performance-led production
Planning around two principal performers, a cat, one vehicle, and limited Jersey City exteriors. Casting and rehearsal will support the shifts between genuine connection, discomfort, and ordinary kindness.
Protecting the experience of the ride
Coordinating controlled vehicle photography, animal handling, location access, and clear dialogue recording. Editing, sound design, and color finishing will preserve the conversational rhythm and intimacy of the encounter.