Jo & Steve (Chan is Missing)

Created by Wayne Wang & Terrel Seltzer

“I’m no Charlie Chan.”
— Jo confesses

NOT EXACTLY a P.I. film, but the spirit is certainly willing in the 1982 indie cult fave Chan is Missing. It’s was about as low-budget as you could get, reportedly costing less than $20,000 to produce, and filmed in gritty, grainy 16mm black-and-white, mostly on location in San Francisco’s Chinatown, with a cast composed entirely of Asian-American actors (and non-actors). And it punches way above its weight. Way above its weight.

JO and STEVE are a mismatched pair of Chinese-American cabbies who make like private eyes, hitting the streets of San Francisco’s Chinatown in search of the enigmatic Chan Hong, the man who ripped them off for four grand.

But the search for Chan among the area’s shops, bars, transient hotels, restaurants, back rooms and politician’s offices soon takes a metaphorical hop, evolving from a simple detective story set against an affectionate and loving look at a particular sub-culture into a Quixotic search for meaning and identity, spread out over multiple generations, as it applies to the Chinese-American community.

Doubling down on the theme, this good-humored film also hits as a gentle spoof of the Charlie Chan B-flicks, for many a still-divisive symbol of the entire Chinese-American immigrant experience. With the middle-aged, American-born Jo taking on the role of the supposedly older and wiser one and young, impatient Steve, a third-generation immigrant, stepping into the shoes of “the number one son,” they search for the elusive Chan, a recent immigrant from China still caught between his old and new worlds.

Even Chan’s name does double duty, adding an extra layer of meaning to the film’s title.

There’s something downbeat and noirish in the conclusion, but the film is also cautiously optimistic. And the questions raised along the way ultimately reach far beyond the culture it seeks to explore, and becomes universally relevant.

Namely, when do we cease to be what we were and when do we become what we are?

Or can we somehow, be both?

As an ex-pat myself, I wonder…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chan is Missing was director Wayne Wang‘s first feature , which he produced, directed, edited and co-wrote, and he’s since gone on to become a major Hollywood player, balancing small indie films (Smoke, The Center of the World) with big hit features such as The Joy Luck Club, Maid in Manhattan and Because of Winn-Dixie.

THE EVIDENCE

• “You guys are looking for Mr. Chan. Why don’t you look in the puddle?”
  — Presco

UNDER OATH

• “What it does do and does masterfully is to re-create the detective genre with razor sharp dialogue inspired by the pulp magazines of yesteryear and the voice-over narration from P.I fiction. It’s a fusion that could have easily failed or bordered on parody, but it avoids such pitfalls thanks to Wang’s skillful direction of his cast and mise en scene.”
  — Gustavo Martinez (2012, The Thrilling Detective Web Site)
• “The conclusion of the mystery is as inevitable as it is sad, but the spirit of the characters who inhabit this film is truly inspirational. One of a handful of films that define an essential part of the American experience.”
  — alampls (IMDB)
• “At one point, a character pulls out a snapshot of himself and the titular character; he can’t really see Chan, whose image is obscured, but he can see himself. The point is, that’s about all any of us CAN do — we can’t know others, so the best we can do, if we really try, is to know ourselves… a powerful demonstration of the true, sad fact that often what we most want we cannot find — and sometimes the person we desperately want to see again is exactly the one we will not.
  — jep831 (IMDB)
• “Chan is Missing is a small, whimsical treasure of a film that gives us a real feeling for the people of San Francisco’s Chinatown. And at some point while we’re watching this film, we may realize that we have very little idea of Chinatowns, in San Francisco or elsewhere, that haven’t been shaped by mass-produced Hollywood cliches like the Charlie Chan movies. The title “Chan is Missing” is almost a pun, because Charlie Chan is missing from this film, and what replaces him is a warm, low-key, affectionate and funny look at some real Chinese-Americans… this movie knows them. In sharing its characters with us, it opens up a part of America.”
  — Roger Ebert 

FILMS

• CHAN IS MISSING | Buy this DVD | Buy the Blu-Ray  | Watch it now!
  (1982, New Yorker Films/Wayne Wang Productions)
  80 minutes
  Black & white
  Screenplay by Wayne Wang and Terrel Seltzer
  Directed by Wayne Wang
  Produced by Wayne Wang
  Edited by Wayne Wang
  Narrated by Isaac Cronin
  Starring Wood Moy as JO
  and Marc Hayashi as STEVE
  Also starring Laureen Chew, Peter Wang, Presco Tabios, Frankie Alarcon, Judi Nihei, Ellen Yeung , George Woo, Emily Woo Yamasaki, Virginia Cerenio, Roy Chan, Leong Pui Chee

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• So It’s Come to This
  The Film Geeks’ Top Ten P.I. Films. James and Gustavo have spoken.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.