Chan Is Missing
Directed by Wayne Wang
Written by Isaac Cronin and Wayne Wang
1982/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental
Jo: This mystery is appropriately Chinese: what’s not there seems to have just as much meaning as what is there.
The first Asian-American film to receive theatrical distribution in the U.S. is this very quirky “mystery”.
The plot is a premise to hang everything more important on. The setting is San Francisco’s Chinatown. Jo and Steve are a father and son duo who want to start driving a taxicab. They need to sublease a license from an established independent operator. They entrusted $4,000 to one Chan Hung to complete the deal. Now Chan has been missing, along with their money, for days.
The two seek him everywhere in Chinatown . Each of their leads has a different opinion of Chan’s character and a different theory of where he might have gone. People discuss a dispute between carriers of the mainland and Taiwan flags in a parade. There is also quite a bit of lighthearted philosophizing about the differences in Eastern and Western thinking. This is accompanied by a lot of humor.
This is a charming film, something along the lines of an early Jim Jarmusch. The amateur acting doesn’t hurt it much. It was clearly made on a shoestring budget but revealed a considerable amount of talent.
The music is used as part of the soundtrack
