Chan Is Missing

Director: Wayne Wang
Year Released: 1982
Rating: 1.5

Two cab drivers in San Francisco's Chinatown go looking for a fellow Chinese-American who has their money - it turns out this thin plot strand is just a way for Wang to unleash a feature-length heavy-handed polemic regarding Asians assimilating (or not) into American culture. The question of 'What (or Who) is an American" is a very important one, but this is too wishy-washy and easily distracted to come up with anything too deep. Stylistically, the picture veers from detective story to documentary, giving sub-par results.