The Missing Gun – Review

As the slumbering Ma Shan (Jiang) is woken up by a flying notebook, his wife Juan (Fan) demands that he watch his son Dong more closely. Shan reads a passage from the kid’s writings inside, disagreeing with his wife’s assessment that the boy is a hooligan. As he dresses for the day, he puts on his pants, and readies for work as a cop. But… in his holster, there is no gun!

The man flies around the apartment looking for the weapon, demolishing any sense of cleanliness and sending his wife off her rocker. Where is his piece?! Uh oh. As this begins an unhappy tale for this man, we head along as he journeys through provincial China in his hunt.

A frantic charge to a safe at work that he thinks he left it in is next, however that too is not the solution. Well, shit. Last night’s wedding turned out to be a bad idea. How does an officer go about his day when this is his main issue?! What about when things get way worse? How, you wonder? Well, let’s say the missing gun is only the beginning of the plot, and things heat up quickly.

The journey is tense due to the general plot, but it is not a frenetic pacing. A pensive officer dutifully looks for his weapon, before things take additional turns, even getting him in touch with a past love, Xiaomeng Li (Jing). As he looks into friends, family, enemies and acquaintances, not everyone will be happy with his pressing them.

The Missing Gun is an interesting dive into Chinese culture as well as a decent setup and story. Not taking place in a large city, it’s nice to get some flavor of the rural people. The creative approach to the mystery includes some nice scene presentation ideas that are fun to watch play out. The background and town scenery is quite nice to take in and provides a look into architecture and communities not always focused on.

Acting is sound and serious to fit the atmosphere, and the runtime is mostly short enough to keep the plot moving despite some slower moving scenes. The Missing Gun provides just enough on most levels to keep it fresh, and has a few nice plot turns. It is worth a trek into the local Chinese countryside to find the lost weapon. With some additional reflections of local culture, there is a nice extra layer to this one for foreign viewers.

Did not find a trailer for this film, and the video linked below has no English subtitles, so there’s that.