Chan Is Missing (1982)

Chan Is Missing (1982) – Directed by: Wayne Wang Written by: Isaac Cronin and Wayne Wang

The story is simple: Two San Francisco cab drivers decide to break out in their own business with a third person Chan who disappears on his way to hand off payment. Did Chan run off with the money? Did something happen to him?

The odyssey the two cab drivers set out on to investigate Chan’s whereabouts reveals the movie is really about investigating Chinatown and how it is, as one person correctly and succinctly states, about more than food. Their travels bring the cab drivers to speak with various people involved with Chinatown who discuss its complexities.

There are immigrants or those born and raised here whose ancestors hail from the north of China or the south, different political factions who can’t and never will find common ground, there are those who reject anything American and others who absorb themselves totally in American activities (called “going native), not knowing how to be or more specifically who to be?

That leads the men plagued by a much bigger question than ‘Where is Chan?’ Namely, Who is Chan? For the more people they talk to about Chan and the more and more varied the answers they’re given, make them wonder if they’re talking about just one man, let alone Chan. At least, the Chan he presented himself to be to them.

So, the last layer peeled, the story, in the end, is about: Identity.

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER: a cliché young, educated Chinese-American lawyer who would be more than happy to whip out her laminated card stating she is a member of Club Grown Up, more than eager to show you all the books she read on “How To Be A Grown Up”…again questioning identity.

MY TWO FAVORITE SCENES: 1. The older and younger drivers disagree over whether identity is even an issue anymore and 2. A man uses the visual of an apple pie to discuss his belief on how to assimilate without losing your sense of self.