Chan Is Missing

Two cabbies search San Francisco's Chinatown for a mysterious character who has disappeared with their $4000, leading them on a humorous and mundane journey that illuminates the complexities of Chinese-Americans trying to assimilate into contemporary American society. The film takes on the challenge of being an early Chinese/Asian American feature narrative, using the absence of its protagonist to create a diverse and complicated portrait of San Francisco's Chinese American community. Through its eclectic cast of characters, the film suggests that Chinese America is impossible to easily summarize or characterize, mirroring the complexities of the polyglot Chinese American community it allegorizes.