Let's open the BTB Summer Taxi Film Series with Wayne Wang's 1982 Chan Is Missing. The film follows two Chinese (or Chinese-American) cab drivers in San Francisco as they try to recover money stolen by the elusive Chan. The plot is really just an excuse for conversations between the drivers who represent different generations. And a chance to explore the not-for-tourists streets of San Francisco. Wang relied on actors from an Asian-American theater company and shot the film for about $22,000. I saw it in New York City, just a few years before another great B&W low-low-budget film, Stranger than Paradise (more about that film's director later in the series).
Here's a taste of Chan. Wood Moy plays the older cab driver and Marc Hayashi his protege:
(This post goes out to Midori, who introduced me to Chan Is Missing and, for that matter, to New York City. By subway, of course--we never had the money for a cab.)
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