Chan is Missing, written by Isaac and Wayne Wang, directed by the latter - Nine out of 10

Chan is Missing, written by Isaac and Wayne Wang, directed by the latter

Nine out of 10

The Perfect Film would have to check quite a few boxes these days, from a cast with women in the leading role – or roles – to the promotion of minorities, a crew led by a female or/and Asian, African American or Native American, perhaps Australian Aborigines, the villain roles would be conferred upon the white males –indeed, there are tens of millions in real life, in the US that have voted and alas will again for the Ultimate Dark though also Orange Vader – and the script – also concocted by people with a disability of some sort or another, or belonging to some challenged group – would emphasize the new rules and values – by the way, what are they, in the Brave New World where the world’s most prestigious – or is it ridiculous – legislative body, the American Senate, a proven extortionist, corrupt, crooked gangster is acquitted…

Chan is Missing has been included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/4 - and it is a remarkable, black and white narrative about the missing character, Chan Hung, the quest led by Jo aka exceptional Wood Moy to find not just the man, but what he stands for, who he is…for that matter, it is an invitation to meditate on values, who we are, especially given the aforementioned fantastic developments, in an Awful New World, where cheating is not just ethical, but it seems to keep one on Top of the Free World – is it free under those circumstances – and even more, to make his future election more likely and encourage villainous, contemptible, mendacious, Wrong behavior and in site of what the enablers said, the Orange man had learned nothing, for he has just fired Vidman and Sondland.

Chan is Missing is also about politics, for there are events that may have led to, explain at least in part the disappearance of the mysterious man that involve demonstrations and protests, with people from the PLC or supporting it are in conflict with others, also Chinese, but from Taiwan and the battle between free and oppressed, or brain washed is at the heart of what is going on in the world at the present, where the Communists in China are censoring and tyrannizing their people, while in the USA, voters of the republican party, which is now the Trump cult, get their phony information from the likes of Fox and other ‘sources’ that peddle conspiracies and not say anything or simply demolish the truth.

Jo starts with the assurance that Chan is worth looking for and he goes to an impressive extent to find the man, talking with everyone who would listen and even those who would not, like the neighbor who would not open the door – there is more than a passing hint at racism and intolerance, which is again what Trump’s America is all about – to talk to Jo and his colleague, the other ‘amateur detective’.

As it suits an intellectual movie, made with an astonishing budget of presumably $ 20,000 – granted, it was 1982, when this meant perhaps the huge sum of $ 100,000 and motion pictures could be made for much less and with a different quality that that of Avengers and other comic book blockbusters – Chan is Missing follows the change in the mind set, the image of the world and the people that live in it and Chan moves away from the kind, near perfect figure and though he is not becoming a horrible mass killer, we no longer know who he really is, or was, if he never returns or is found.

Ultimately, we can take this as a paradigm, the epitome of the challenge written in the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, “Know Thyself”, for in trying to find Chan, the protagonists of the ‘man hunt’ are exploring the personality of the missing man, they become defined in rapport with him, the public is also involved in a psychological search game – for the Trump world, the equivalent would be the Deep State, the way they try to figure out new conspiracies, enemies within the Congress, from brave, splendid Nancy Pelosi to the outstanding Adam Schiff, targets of abuse and loathing from the Idiots whose minds are missing.