by Olivia Pop
Wayne Wang's iconic 1982 film “Chan is Missing” is a staple of film studies and ethnic studies' screening lists across American universities, but each casual yet multi-layered second of its 76-minute runtime is replete with enough material to ponder for a lifetime. The director blends fiction with non-fiction in the depiction of a very real San Francisco Chinatown and parody with noir in its shifts between references to the Charlie Chan series and embrace of the detective style.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Chinese American taxi driver Jo (Wood Moy) and his nephew, Steve (Marc Hayashi), begin a search for the missing Chan Hung in San Francisco's Chinatown, to whom they had given 4000 dollars for a cab license. Their pursuit leads them to all corners of the neighborhood and into encounters with a variety of different characters, all of whom describe different portraits of Chan.
Wayne Wang's iconic 1982 film “Chan is Missing” is a staple of film studies and ethnic studies' screening lists across American universities, but each casual yet multi-layered second of its 76-minute runtime is replete with enough material to ponder for a lifetime. The director blends fiction with non-fiction in the depiction of a very real San Francisco Chinatown and parody with noir in its shifts between references to the Charlie Chan series and embrace of the detective style.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Chinese American taxi driver Jo (Wood Moy) and his nephew, Steve (Marc Hayashi), begin a search for the missing Chan Hung in San Francisco's Chinatown, to whom they had given 4000 dollars for a cab license. Their pursuit leads them to all corners of the neighborhood and into encounters with a variety of different characters, all of whom describe different portraits of Chan.
- 4/17/2023
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Wood Moy, who starred as the cab driver in the acclaimed Wayne Wang noir film Chan Is Missing (1982), died Nov. 8, his family announced. He was 99.
In the movie, Moy portrayed Jo, who is out to buy a taxi license with his nephew, Steve (Marc Hayashi). When Steve's friend Chan disappears with the cash they need to purchase their license, he and his uncle become amateur detectives as they set about San Francisco's Chinatown trying to locate the missing man and their money.
The low-budget, black-and-white Chan Is...
In the movie, Moy portrayed Jo, who is out to buy a taxi license with his nephew, Steve (Marc Hayashi). When Steve's friend Chan disappears with the cash they need to purchase their license, he and his uncle become amateur detectives as they set about San Francisco's Chinatown trying to locate the missing man and their money.
The low-budget, black-and-white Chan Is...
- 11/26/2017
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
An award winner at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival for cinematography, "My America (... or Honk If You Love Buddha)" is one woman's personal and historical investigation of the Asian immigrant experience, from her own Chicago-born vantage point and through the stories of compelling subjects she finds on a cross-country quest.
The opening film of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival at the Directors Guild of America, the documentary "My America" has limited appeal theatrically, but it's a worthy companion to writer-producer-director Renee Tajima-Pena's Oscar-nominated "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" and will reach a wide audience in other venues.
Having grown up in the 1960s and gone through many personal phases, Tajima-Pena is a somewhat cynical, sharp-witted commentator about her own life and her Japanese-American family. In search of what it means to be Asian in America, she embarks on a road journey to New York, New Orleans, Mississippi and Seattle.
A former film critic for the Village Voice, Tajima-Pena luckily finds the prolific actor-photographer Victor Wong ("The Last Emperor"), whom she mistakes for Wood Moy, the leading man in the 1982 Chinatown comedy "Chan Is Missing". A smooth slinger of ironic, self-deprecating comments, the filmmaker is wryly amused by human behavior and life's contradictions.
She's at her sharpest when the subject turns to stereotypical representations of Asians and other racial myths, while the civil-rights movement and ongoing black-white struggle are discussed as having a profound effect on Asian-Americans.
Searching for heroes and answers, Tajima-Pena finds both in such lively personalities as "the Wong that went wrong" and Mr. Choi, a New York fortune-cookie mogul she calls a "Horatio Alger on amphetamines". From poker-playing Filipino-Southern ladies to Seattle rappers who call themselves the Seoul Brothers, the subjects are fascinating.
A great deal of history is worked in through Tajima-Pena's narration and excellent home movies and newsreels. A Beat painter and pal of Jack Kerouac, Wong, 70, is particularly insightful about his journey from American rebel to Buddha-like believer in ghosts and Chinese traditions.
In a usually direct manner, the filmmaker addresses issues of racism and racial identity, the internment camps, multiracial relationships and familial problems, which are traditionally not openly discussed. She concludes that Asians belong in America, should keep the best aspects of their original cultures and embrace only the best of the new one.
MY AMERICA
(... OR HONK IF YOU LOVE BUDDHA)
National Asian American
Telecommunications Assn.
Independent Television Service
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Writer-producer-director Renee Tajima-Pena
Producer Quynh Thai
Director of photography Christine Choy
Music Jon Jang
Color/B&W
With Victor Wong, Renee Tajima-Pena
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The opening film of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival at the Directors Guild of America, the documentary "My America" has limited appeal theatrically, but it's a worthy companion to writer-producer-director Renee Tajima-Pena's Oscar-nominated "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" and will reach a wide audience in other venues.
Having grown up in the 1960s and gone through many personal phases, Tajima-Pena is a somewhat cynical, sharp-witted commentator about her own life and her Japanese-American family. In search of what it means to be Asian in America, she embarks on a road journey to New York, New Orleans, Mississippi and Seattle.
A former film critic for the Village Voice, Tajima-Pena luckily finds the prolific actor-photographer Victor Wong ("The Last Emperor"), whom she mistakes for Wood Moy, the leading man in the 1982 Chinatown comedy "Chan Is Missing". A smooth slinger of ironic, self-deprecating comments, the filmmaker is wryly amused by human behavior and life's contradictions.
She's at her sharpest when the subject turns to stereotypical representations of Asians and other racial myths, while the civil-rights movement and ongoing black-white struggle are discussed as having a profound effect on Asian-Americans.
Searching for heroes and answers, Tajima-Pena finds both in such lively personalities as "the Wong that went wrong" and Mr. Choi, a New York fortune-cookie mogul she calls a "Horatio Alger on amphetamines". From poker-playing Filipino-Southern ladies to Seattle rappers who call themselves the Seoul Brothers, the subjects are fascinating.
A great deal of history is worked in through Tajima-Pena's narration and excellent home movies and newsreels. A Beat painter and pal of Jack Kerouac, Wong, 70, is particularly insightful about his journey from American rebel to Buddha-like believer in ghosts and Chinese traditions.
In a usually direct manner, the filmmaker addresses issues of racism and racial identity, the internment camps, multiracial relationships and familial problems, which are traditionally not openly discussed. She concludes that Asians belong in America, should keep the best aspects of their original cultures and embrace only the best of the new one.
MY AMERICA
(... OR HONK IF YOU LOVE BUDDHA)
National Asian American
Telecommunications Assn.
Independent Television Service
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Writer-producer-director Renee Tajima-Pena
Producer Quynh Thai
Director of photography Christine Choy
Music Jon Jang
Color/B&W
With Victor Wong, Renee Tajima-Pena
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/19/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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