Chan Is Missing
| Chan Is Missing | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Wayne Wang |
| Produced by | Wayne Wang |
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| Music by | Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo |
| Cinematography | Michael Chin |
| Edited by | Wayne Wang |
| Distributed by | New Yorker Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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76 minutes |
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| Budget | $22,000 |
Chan Is Missing is a 1982 American independent comedy-drama film produced and directed by Wayne Wang. The film, which is shot in black and white, is plotted as a mystery with noir undertones, and its title is a play on the popular Charlie Chan film series which focuses on a fictional Chinese immigrant detective in Honolulu. Chan Is Missing turns the Charlie Chan detective trope on its head by making "Chan" the missing person that the film's two protagonists, Jo and Steve, search for. In the process of trying to locate Chan, a fractured, even contradictory portrait of him emerges, mirroring the complexities of the polyglot Chinese American community that Chan's character allegorizes.
It is widely recognized as the first Asian-American feature narrative film to gain both theatrical distribution and critical acclaim outside of the Asian American community.
Jo is a taxi driver in Chinatown, San Francisco who, along with his nephew Steve, are seeking to purchase a cab license of their own. Jo's friend Chan Hung was the go-between to finalize the transaction but at the beginning of the film, Chan has disappeared, taking Jo's money with him. The two men begin their search for Chan by speaking with a series of Chinatown locals, each of whom has a different impression of Chan's personality and motivations. The portrait that is created is incomplete and, at times, contradictory. As the mystery behind Chan's disappearance deepens, Jo becomes paranoid that Chan may be involved in the death of man killed during a "flag-waving incident" between opposing supporters of the People's Republic of China (mainland China) and the Republic of China (Taiwan). In the end, Chan remains missing but through his daughter, he returns Jo and Steve's money. Jo, holding a photo of Chan where his face is completely obscured, eventually accepts that Chan is an enigma, saying in a voiceover, "here's a picture of Chan Hung but I still can't see him."
Chan is Missing is highly acclaimed. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 100% rating with 12 votes, while IMDb gives it a 7/10 with 832 votes.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote that the film is "whimsical treasure of a film that gives us a real feeling for the people of San Francisco's Chinatown" and it "has already become something of a legend because of the way it was filmed" that it demonstrates a "warm, low-key, affectionate and funny look at some real Chinese-Americans" and went to say "almost without realizing it, we are taken beyond the plot into the everyday lives of these people."
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Wikipedia