The number one rule of committing a successful abduction is to nab the right person. In writer-director Govind Chandran’s comedic short, Mr. Mimoto, two rookie hit persons, Frankie (Kelsey Cooke) and Darlene (Noa Nikita Bleeker), are sent to take hostage one Mr. Mimoto (Jon Xue Zhang). Unfortunately for the two, the job is met with one hiccup after the other.
First, Darlene put too much tranquilizer in Mimoto’s drink, so he’ll be out for an extra hour. Next, their biggest mistake is they may not have the actual Mr. Mimoto, or so he claims. Yes. Frankie and Darlene may have abducted the wrong Asian.
“…they may not have the actual Mr. Mimoto, or so he claims.”
As an Asian myself, let’s just say the “wrong Asian” situation is pretty common. Maybe once or twice a month. Mr. Mimoto hits all the right notes making me a big fan of Chandran’s work.
Tonally, the filmmaker pulls his comedy by taking a heightened situation and playing it low-key. Mimoto’s insistence that Frankie and Darlene have the wrong Asian is set beautifully against the Gen Z killers, who insist that they are not, in fact, racist. Here pride and truth come to an impasse in a funny and silly way.
From a social standpoint, the racism take is tame like a fleabite. But hey, we can all do better. Mr. Mimoto reminds me of an old adage (that I made up), “Sometimes, we try so hard not to be racist that it comes off as a bit racist.”
"…funny...silly..."
