"In America, they treat you as a foreigner. ... Half a million Chinese and 100 years - if they don't recognize us, they don't wanna recognize us."
It's stunning to me that this was film on a budget of $22,000, weaving as it does elements of a mystery, fantastic black and white footage of San Francisco in 1982, and a mélange of cultural elements so true to Chinese American identity. It's raw in places but a real unpolished gem from Wayne Wang, and notable for being "the first Asian American narrative feature film to have earned a wide theatrical release and reap critical acclaim from mainstream reviewers," as Arthur Dong put it in Hollywood Chinese.
At the heart of the story is a man named Chan Hung mysteriously going missing with $4,000 of a taxi driver's money, and the cabbie (Wood Moy) and his nephew (Marc Hayashi) setting out to try to find him. Their search turns out to be an odyssey of sorts, one where they come across a variety of characters who make offhand observations about Chan or different aspects of Chinese American culture.
Early on, one young woman brilliantly explains a communication problem between a cop and Chan stemming from inherent differences between English and Chinese language. Soon the cabbie comes across a chef complains about how all the tourists only seem to order sweet and sour pork. Later, a man talks about the extremes of over-assimilation into American culture and under-assimilation, and another describes (quite beautifully) the differences in poetry and opera between Northern and Southern China.
There are also several references to the tension between pro-Taiwan and pro-PRC viewpoints boiling over when the two sides argued over which flag should be used in a New Year Parade, a real event in 1980. This was a year after U. S. and China relations were normalized, rankling Taiwan supporters for having lost their privileged status. A newspaper quote is featured from Mayor Diane Feinstein, who was angered after some parade marchers ignored her advice to avoid controversy and only fly the American flag, waving the Taiwanese flag instead. "This is the last time city funds will be used for this event," she huffed. In the aftermath of the event, one elderly man killed another, and in the story, Chan Hung is mysteriously carrying around an article reporting the incident. While the film isn't political, these events and the divisions within the community inform the narrative.
Towards the end, while Wang gives us a beautiful image of waves undulating in San Francisco Bay, the cabbie says, "This mystery is appropriately Chinese. What's not there seems to have just as much meaning as what is there." It's a search that ultimately leads to a sea of contradictions about the missing man, which was a fantastic parallel to the impossibility of pinning down or pigeonholing what it means to be Chinese American. Wang thrives on these contradictions, and is so accepting of them. He put together a simple, 76 minute film here, but it's a landmark.
It's stunning to me that this was film on a budget of $22,000, weaving as it does elements of a mystery, fantastic black and white footage of San Francisco in 1982, and a mélange of cultural elements so true to Chinese American identity. It's raw in places but a real unpolished gem from Wayne Wang, and notable for being "the first Asian American narrative feature film to have earned a wide theatrical release and reap critical acclaim from mainstream reviewers," as Arthur Dong put it in Hollywood Chinese.
At the heart of the story is a man named Chan Hung mysteriously going missing with $4,000 of a taxi driver's money, and the cabbie (Wood Moy) and his nephew (Marc Hayashi) setting out to try to find him. Their search turns out to be an odyssey of sorts, one where they come across a variety of characters who make offhand observations about Chan or different aspects of Chinese American culture.
Early on, one young woman brilliantly explains a communication problem between a cop and Chan stemming from inherent differences between English and Chinese language. Soon the cabbie comes across a chef complains about how all the tourists only seem to order sweet and sour pork. Later, a man talks about the extremes of over-assimilation into American culture and under-assimilation, and another describes (quite beautifully) the differences in poetry and opera between Northern and Southern China.
There are also several references to the tension between pro-Taiwan and pro-PRC viewpoints boiling over when the two sides argued over which flag should be used in a New Year Parade, a real event in 1980. This was a year after U. S. and China relations were normalized, rankling Taiwan supporters for having lost their privileged status. A newspaper quote is featured from Mayor Diane Feinstein, who was angered after some parade marchers ignored her advice to avoid controversy and only fly the American flag, waving the Taiwanese flag instead. "This is the last time city funds will be used for this event," she huffed. In the aftermath of the event, one elderly man killed another, and in the story, Chan Hung is mysteriously carrying around an article reporting the incident. While the film isn't political, these events and the divisions within the community inform the narrative.
Towards the end, while Wang gives us a beautiful image of waves undulating in San Francisco Bay, the cabbie says, "This mystery is appropriately Chinese. What's not there seems to have just as much meaning as what is there." It's a search that ultimately leads to a sea of contradictions about the missing man, which was a fantastic parallel to the impossibility of pinning down or pigeonholing what it means to be Chinese American. Wang thrives on these contradictions, and is so accepting of them. He put together a simple, 76 minute film here, but it's a landmark.