Chan Is Missing

This early Wayne Wang feature is made on a small budget and reflects it in many ways, both good and bad. It is totally original. The beginning is completely captivating as we follow the two cabbies' search for the missing Chan. But, the pacing and cinema verite style both become clumsy and tedious before we're halfway through. The cabbies are fun to watch, and there is an interesting twist in the end to reward those who can stay awake that long. I'd recommend his next movie, Dim Sum, much higher than Chan is Missing. Both provide marvelous views of Chinese San Francisco.

Just watched the DVD, and Chan is Missing remains the one-off film it's always been - just a terrific little film. If people think the pap they call independent film today is anything but lower-budgeted mainstream film-making by people looking to get deals with majors, well, they should check out some real indy films. Thanks to companies like Miramax and Focus and others, there is no true independent film market anymore.

And a not to "laursene" - you give Chan Is Missing a pretty nice "review" or whatever one calls these amateur writings, and yet you give it one star. Brilliant. And the "novelty" song "probably from the 30s" is I Enjoy Being A Girl by Rodgers and Hammerstein, from their musical Flower Drum Song, which was hardly written in the 30s. 1957 or '58 if I recall correctly.

Father and son (jo and steve) run around san francisco, looking for their friend chan. They haven't seen him in a while, and he owes them money from a business deal. In the meantime, we hear all about the politics, the issues of chinese people coming to the united states; chinese who want to assimilate into the american way of life, and some who don't. Some great conversations between families and friends. Different outlooks on issues of the different groups of immigrants. Some great insight to chinatown and the chinese way of life. Also great scenes of san francisco in the 1980s! It's black and white, with pretty good captions on kanopy. On the down side, there's a lot of chatter that just goes on and on. And a lot of the cast looks into the camera, or speaks in a stilted, un-natural voice. Many pictures of chinese people in photos, or chinese characters, without any explanation. Lots of pictures of jo, the dad, looking scared or surprised, without any explanation....that felt a bit gratuitous. Can they find their friend, or get back the money? It's an interesting story, but it was padded with a lot of filler. It really didn't need to be 75 minutes. I dug it just for the scenerey, as I had lived there in the 1990s. Directed by wayne wang. He was nominated for a Bafta for dimsum.

These comments come as a counterpoint to the user review left some years ago, an opinion with which I completely disagree.

I think this was a wonderful examination of the Chinese American character, at least in the eyes of a Mexican American (me). While the film addresses assimilation, as the previous reviewer expressed, that just scratches the surface of what it's telling you.

This film highlights the depth of cultural differences, the conflicts faced by immigrants or those of immigrant background. But these are not just grandiose, operatic conflicts; they are daily, constant, and felt in both the major and minor issues of life. They are confronted in matters of life and death or musical preferences.

This grand theme is presented in a lighthearted, often very funny, but subtly so, way. I found the storyline to be very interesting and exciting, not at all boring. It was a mystery, clues and leads leading to other leads or dead ends, interesting characters along the way. Yes, the search for Chan is secondary to the subtext, but it makes it no less entertaining.

Car crashes? No. Shootouts? No. Sex and violence? No. But the film gives the viewer an alternate view of what is real, and an alternate context for the evaluation. Is it real, or is it not unreal? To me, this is both extremely funny and a brain burner.

All this aside from the fact that this was a film made with seemingly real Chinese Americans, not big screen actors playing routine stereotypes. Look at Joe, and then listen to him speak, and see if it doesn't contradict some stereotypes burned into your head by Hollywood.

This is a very good film.

This movie is among the first in Asian-American cinema, and also a very excellent independent film. Very well-directed and visualized, it concerns the misdventures of two gumshoes Joe and Steve, Chinatown cab-drivers in search of the ever-elusive Chan Hong. With a variety of hilarious jokes, looks into Chinese-American culture, and witty anecdotal substance, Chan Is Missing is a classic film, infusing a tradition of mystery and drama into Asian American narrative.