A very indie black and white mystery (that ironically is not at all black and white, which is to say cut and dried) Wayne Wang's Chan Is Missing uses the mystery elements as a kind of excuse to take a whirlwind tour of the Asian-American experience in San Francisco's Chinatown.Some characters are played by actors, some by themselves, and some even probably thought they were in a documentary. Two cab drivers are looking for their never-seen partner Chan who has disappeared, and no one seems able to given them the same answer. There's an early bit about how Chinese languages (and therefore, thought) work, which isn't just extremely interesting, but is also the decoder ring to the film. Chinese thinking is oblique and prefers context to straight facts, and so we have a detective story that is more about context and understanding the why of the mystery, more than solving it per se. It meanders with purpose. I respect it for that, even if (and this may be my Occidental brain talking despite its relatively high consumption of Asian content) it didn't always successfully engage me.

Probably one of the very few films that presents a truly unique and realistic look at the Asian American experience. One of my favorite AA films and highly recommended for those interested in Asian American cinema.