40 Years After Its Release, ‘Chan Is Missing’ Feels Even Fresher
Director Wayne Wang’s solo debut, the first Asian-American movie to receive significant mainstream attention and wide distribution, features a lack of politesse that speaks of a less constrictive cultural moment.
Toward the beginning of “Chan Is Missing,” Jo (Wood Moy) and his nephew Steve (Marc Hayashi) meet a young lawyer (Judy Nihei) who is working on a treatise titled “The Legal Implications of Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings.” Without much prompting, she begins to rattle on about “culturally related assumptions” that exist between the police and the Chinese-American community.
Her observations aren’t without interest, but tell that to our heroes. Jo and Steve, both of whom work as taxi drivers, just wanted to stop for pancakes at Chester’s Delicious Food, a local greasy spoon. Instead, they’re given a breathless disquisition on how native Chinese-speakers “relate … seemingly unrelated objects to the matter at hand.” Jo and Steve have their patience tested by the lawyer’s increasingly convoluted line of logic. College graduates: What are you going to do with them?
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