Chan Is Missing

Wayne Wang’s playfully enigmatic debut was a watershed for Asian American filmmakers.

Wood Moy and Marc Hayashi serve notice that they are actors worthy of more films. But the lion's share of the credit for Chan Is Missing must go to director Wang, who with this one tricky little film serves notice that he is a filmmaker to watch.

Chan Is Missing is craftily iconoclastic; unlike so many big-budgeted Hollywood genre-splicings and sendups, it sledgehammers old forms, not just for the heck of it, but with an eye toward building something new.

Style, not story, is the real reason for watching Chan Is Missing. It’s shot with many references to film noir while also ironically salting in some Charlie Chan-like aphorisms.