Chan Is Missing (1982)

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

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