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The Appropriate Tune: "Cantonese Boy", by Japan
The relationship between Hollywood and Asian people over the years has been, unsurprisingly, about as rocky as it has been for every other ethnic minority that has resided in this country since the invention of film. Kowtowing servants speaking broken English, mysterious villains (epitomized by Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu and parodied by John Carpenter’s Lo Pan) and ancient masters of the martial arts, with the added possibility of being the exotic love interest for our red-blooded American hero if you were an attractive enough woman, that was about the extent of what you could expect as an Asian actor back in those days. Hell, they weren’t even allowed to play characters where the whole gimmick was being of Asian descent! Charlie Chan? Played by longtime Swede Warner Oland, who also played the mystical Fu Manchu in three films for Paramount. Mr. Moto? Peter Lorre. Mr. Wong? Why that’s Mr. Frankenstein himself Boris Karloff, who also played Fu Manchu in 1932’s The Mask of Fu Manchu and General Wu Yen Fang in 1937’s West of Shanghai! I know that people of a certain ethnicity playing people of other ethnicities isn’t exactly uncommon in cinema history, in ways that range from the innocent to the blatantly offensive, but it’s still kind of strange to me that ‘white guy playing East Asian detective’ was its own subgenre for a hot minute there. It’s such a bizarrely specific thing for folks to have latched onto for a while, I can’t think of an equivalent.
Which brings us right around to Chan Is Missing, directed by Wayne Wang and written by Terrel Seltzer, which I believe I found out about from an old Siskel & Ebert video. Wood Moy stars as Jo, a Chinese-American guy living in the heart of San Francisco’s famous Chinatown district. One day, in a bid for more cash and independence, Jo and his buddy Steve lend some money to their mutual friend Chan Hung so that he can get them a cab driver’s license. Several days later however, and Chan has gone missing. He had gotten into a car accident a few days prior, and ever since then he had completely vanished, seemingly without a trace. For varied reasons, not the least of which is getting back that money, but they soon discover that tracking Chan down is going to be a lot more difficult than they realized. It turns out that Chan Hung knew a lot of people, and he was a lot of different things to those different people. An eccentric, a struggling immigrant, a failure, a political agitator. Maybe even a murder suspect? A lot questions and not too many answers as Jo and Steve work their way through the briarpatch that is their friend’s life, about themselves and their own identity, as they try to figure out why Chan is missing.
This probably goes without saying, but Chan Is Missing is not a Charlie Chan or a Mr. Wong movie, where the Asian protagonist spouts off some vaguely philosophical one-liners while someone rings a gong in the background. This is a film that takes place in Chinatown, made by and with Chinese-Americans, and it deals in issues that affected Chinese-Americans at the time, and still do today. Issues like racism, certainly, but also that of immigration, the difficulties of cultural assimilation, the tension between supporters of the PRC and Taiwan, and ultimately what it means to be a Chinese-American. Heavy stuff, and yet Chan never feels like a particularly heavy film. Even as we delve deeper into the mystery of Chan Hung’s disappearance and all the things that it dredges up it feels less like we’re falling into a pit and more that we’re walking through a foggy marsh, where detail and definition fades into the haze. What is the truth? What is the answer? They’re there, you can find them, but everything’s so hazy you might find yourself walking in circles.
Stylistically then Chan Is Missing fits right in with film noir standards like The Third Man or what have you, with a couple of touches, a POV shot here and there, that pushes things more firmly the experimentation of the French New Wave directors like Godard. Whether or not it all works is probably an arguable point, I think the film is at its best when it blends this kind of grounded, proto-Clerks realism with touches of film noir, and the moments when Wayne Wang decides to change things up a bit can feel a bit forced. He doesn’t go to that well that often, which is why it’s a bit weird when they do show up, but I wouldn’t say it detracts from the viewing experience.
Anything else I want to mention…? I liked the choice of songs here, especially the Chinese-language covers of rock songs. I thought the acting was good, the actors drew you into their world quite naturally. Both Wood Moy (who played Jo) and Marc Hayashi (who played Steve) didn’t really have a long career in film, appearing in only a handful of movies, but I think they do a good job as leading men here. I also like how they’re both dressed like they’re 60 year old male truckers, but that might have been the style of the time. Oh, and I 100 percent want that Samurai Night Fever T-shirt they show off too. That looked cool as hell.
Ultimately, I’m giving Chan Is Missing the recommendation. It’s certainly rough around the edges, which should be expected with a lack of budget and a relatively inexperienced production (this was Wayne Wang’s second ever film, released seven years after his debut), but it is unique not only in its presentation but in its cultural perspective, so I’d say it deserves some time in the spotlight. While I’ve covered several Chinese films before, this is the first time I’ve seen a Chinese-American film, and it’s made me interested in more. After watching Chan Is Missing, maybe you’ll feel that way too.
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