From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Big Trouble in Little China released in 1986.
Starring:
Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun
Directed by:
John Carpenter
Genre:
Action, Adventure, Comedy
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Rating:
PG-13
Budget:
$25,000,000 (estimated)
Current IMDb Rating When Reviewed:
7.3
The Synopsis is:
A rough-and-tumble trucker, Jack Burton helps his friend Wang Chi rescue his fiancée, Miao Yen from an ancient sorcerer, David Lo Pan in a supernatural battle beneath San Francisco's Chinatown.
Story:
Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein wrote the screenplay after Goldman became inspired by the martial arts films of the day with the spin of the story being a western set in the 1880’s. The main character, Jack Burton was a cowboy and his truck in the film was a horse.
TAFT Entertainment Pictures bought their script in 1982 and had them do a re-write, but still did not like the results because they found problems with the setting of turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
After turning down a similar project, The Golden Child also released in 1986 and wanting to make a film with martial arts components, John Carpenter was brought to the project in 1985 by 20th Century Fox. He said it was "outrageously unreadable, though it had many interesting elements".
Goldman rejected a request by the studio to update the story to a contemporary setting that would solve some of the problems so he and Weinstein were let go.
The studio brought in screenwriter W.D. Richter, a script doctor and director of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984). He overhauled the script while using many of the attributes of the original script about the villain Lo Pan.
Goldman and Weinstein received a full writers credit and in March 1986, the Writers Guild of America, determined that W.D. Richter would get an "adaptation by" credit. Rumor has it that there is a connection to the fact that one of the villains of Total Recall, Richter may have been named after W.D. when Goldman was brought in as a writer in the film.
John Carpenter also made his own contributions to the story giving Gracie Law a background story and sought to remove things that he thought would be offensive to Chinese Americans. For the film, he also researched the Hong Kong fantasy film Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain in 1983. A few other films with the same flavor of Big Trouble in Little China that pre-dated it in the 1980’s were Flash Gordon (1980), Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985) and The Last Dragon (1985).
The story is a bit like a roller coaster that starts off rather simply with lots of comedic horror strands woven in. However it ramps up nicely, giving the audience a wicked adventure with twists, turns, and lots of fun action.
It’s an adventure that doesn't require a whole lot of intelligent explanation. You would think that would be bad, but it’s simplicity allows the events of the movie to surprise the audience, go off the rails and gives the characters a chance to really shine.
Pacing:
At 99 minutes, it’s short and sweet. Things move along quickly and a lot happens fast, so I think it may be a movie that benefits from multiple viewings to see all of the little nuggets of detail in the story.
Challenge:
The challenge in the story is David Lo Pan. It all began 2,258 years earlier when he was a young warrior and wizard appointed by China’s first emperor to be his impersonator during times of high security. Lo Pan, must have enjoyed playing the monarch because this resulted in a battle with the emperor who defeated him and then cursed him to live eternally in a decrepit body until he marries a woman with green eyes to appease Ching Dai, the God of the East. The bride must be brave enough to “embrace the naked blade”, and then after the wedding he must sacrifice her in order to satisfy the Emperor and end the curse.
That emperor was one heck of a curse caster.
The lore of the emperor was actually modeled after the real first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, but the events are manufactured for the story.
Lo Pan, was also modeled after a real person, Li Ching-Yuen or Li Ching-Yun who was a Chinese herbalist, martial artist, tactical advisor, and claimed to have been born in 1736 living to 197 years of age.
In the film, Lo Pan is considered the godfather of Chinatown and is the chairman of the National Orent Bank and owner of the Wing Kong Trading Company.
He’s built up as this big baddie, but then you see him and he is on his last leg in an ancient body, which is referred to as low flesh. It’s a container in which he can do little in. He calls his body his tomb and he misses the ability to touch and feel in the physical world. And for a minute, just a minute, you feel sorry for him.
Lo Pan can leave his body and become a ghostlike creature of several forms. We see two in the movie. We see one as a street walker that he could possibly use to spy among the people. Then there is a more elaborate form that can affect the real world, ornately dressed and 7 feet tall.
Lo Pan is childlike, petty, selfish and unpredictable. However he is also hilarious, witty and sarcastic.
He’s mesmerizing on screen. You can see that he loves being evil!
In his long and diligent search for his green-eyed bride, he finds two women who fit the bill and because he’s so greedy, and desperate to be alive, he decides to marry them both. One will be sacrificed and the other will be his wife for physical reasons. I remember seeing this movie for the first time and wondering how Lo Pan was able to marry two women at once! That blew my mind, but it totally falls in line with this larger than life character.
Lo Pan’s henchmen nearly stole the movie. They are the Three Storms, Lightning, Thunder and Rain. Visually they are reminiscent of the three Assassins in Kozure ôkami (1973).
There is a theory out there that the Three Storms may be magicians from the time of the first emperor or even possibly boys that Lo Pan raised into becoming his loyal henchmen so they look up to him as sort of a father figure.
These three henchmen are top level fighters with incredible powers. Lightning has electrical powers that have the power to burn things, but he also uses it as a travelling apparatus that allows him to float and anyone else who he wants. He can create a green flame that acts as a portal. He also has the power to zombify individuals under his power.
There is Thunder, who has the most screen time of the three. He is a brawny fighter that uses his breath to summon his brute power.
There is Rain, who is an amazing swordsman. We don’t get much about him or these three henchmen, but these are guys you don’t want to meet in a dark alley. They are intimidating and create the tension that is needed to show that this underground world has some scary challenges for the protagonist. They contribute to the insurmountable circumstance or “Big Trouble” that keeps the audience in suspense.
I just love seeing these guys on screen. Martial arts and magic? YES, PLEASE!
These villains were so influential that they were the inspiration for the video game Mortal Kombat. Lightning is the inspiration for fighting character Raiden and David Lo Pan was the inspiration for Shang Tsung. The game also bears a lot of the aesthetics from the movie and maybe it is just a coincidence because of it’s Eastern influence.
Empathy:
The film begins with one of the protagonists, Egg Shen in the story talking about who we all assume is the hero of the film, Jack Burton. Egg Shen is a sorcerer of equal power to Lo Pan so they can never beat each other. There is a level of rivalry between the two. Lo Pan calls Egg Shen’s magic as peasant magic, but he’s no peasant. He owns an entire block.
The assumption and the rumor is that Egg Shen was a rival magician from the days of the emperor who is also under a spell that keeps him from aging and that is why the two know of each other. It’s also possible that Egg Shen moves from place to place defeating evil monsters and magicians, which also explains why he rushes to leave at the end. Again, this is not totally spelled out in the film, but subtly implied. In fact, Egg Shen could have his own spin off story. I’d totally watch or read that.
One other little detail that connects to the theory that Egg Shen might have his own agenda, is that he takes time to destroy the statue of the god Ching Di instead of going after Lo Pan. That could have been part of his mission all along since he knows he can’t beat Lo Pan.
The hero of the film is Wang who is in love with his childhood sweetheart, Miao Yen, a Chinese girl with green eyes. He moved to America 5 years prior to work hard and save money so he can send for her and begin their life together. He now has a thriving restaurant and ready for the next step. The night before he was supposed to pick her up from the airport, he spent the night gambling with his old friend Jack Burton.
Wang needs more money to start a new life with Miao Yen and he’s willing to gamble to get his hands on more money. But you can also see that he is nervous so maybe it was just a way to pass the time.
Wang Chi is a pretty serious guy when it comes to Maio Yen, but he’s also fun and you can get a sense of that when he raises his eyebrows comedically during an intense fight. He’s not your hero archetype but he is an incredible martial artist that doesn’t brag about what he can do.
In fact, we don’t find out he can fight until 50 minutes into the film. He’s the strong silent type with a mission to get back the woman he loves from kidnappers. He asks his friend Jack for help and the story really kicks off there.
Jack is a loud mouth trash talker, with a very unrealistically high opinion of himself. He’s not mean with it so it's almost adorable. He speaks about himself in the third person at times and that’s when it gets weird in a funny way.
Jack has enthusiasm like a kid trapped in a grown man’s body, making him vulnerable and loveable.
He’s entertaining to watch and he knows he’s putting on a big show because that is how he finds a way to be special.
After a night of gambling, he gives his friend a lift to the airport where he heroically saves a girl from being kidnapped by a local gang, the lords of death, risking his own life in the process. He’s got a good heart, but he doesn’t have the skills to back it up. He’s got good instincts but he’s not exactly fit for combat.
The gang snatch up Maoi Yen instead of the girl that Jack saves and Wang needs Jack’s help in rescuing her. Without much convincing, Jack is all in to help immediately. I’ve heard some people say that Jack is only after his truck, which is true, but he doesn’t lose his truck until he agrees to help Wang. After Jack loses his truck, he doesn’t know that he’ll ever find it and as he continues to get deeper into “trouble” and accidentally find his truck at the end.
What helps Jack is that Wang actually believes in him, giving him more confidence. He says to Jack, “My destiny rests in your capable hands.”
There is a big misconception that Jack is stupid. There are times he’s really smart but it is his ego and arrogance that makes him look stupid. He’s smart enough to know he;s not good at relationships and you get the sense that there is a story there.
While the wild events of the story occur, Jack acts as our avatar being a fish out of water. He asks the same questions as the Western audience it was intended for and there is a vulnerability to him that is endearing. You want to see him make it out of this mess he’s gotten into.
Otherwise he is mostly an average guy except, he’s got super amazing reflexes. When he utilizes it, he boasts his hilarious one liner, “It’s all in the reflexes.”
If he applied himself, he could become a great hero.
Just when you think he will fail, he does something surprisingly heroic. Jack Burton is an accidental hero, lucky and unaware that he is the sidekick. But to be honest Jack does a lot more than just sidekick duties in my opinion. This sidekick is the one to actually dispatch Lo Pan.
He may have started the events of the film at the airport, but if you think of it this way, he saves the girl who was going to be kidnapped into slavery, he saves Wang by pushing him out of the way of the speeding car, he frees himself and Wang from being tied up in a cell, he accidentally stops two guys from killing Wang and his friend with machine guns and he of frees all the slave girls.
You could even say that Jack speeds things along because Lo Pan mentioned there were others that he had tried to break the curse with. He was relentless in finding a girl with green eyes and would have found Maio Yen in Chinatown eventually and they might not have won the battle without Jack’s help.
He is the x factor. When our heroes prepare to face Lo Pan, Egg Shen says, “Only a dream can kill a dream”. He refers to Lo Pan as a dream. Egg Shen has a magical potion and tells them it will make them invincible in battle. However, when you see his face as he is riding the elevator to the battle, it doesn’t look as if he’s too happy or confident.
After taking Egg Shen’s potion, Jack thinks it’s magical. He even says that he sees stuff. He even has more confidence that he kisses, his love interest, Gracie Law. He’s delusional. “Only a dream can kill a dream”. I love that nuance in the story through this character.
Jack is the perfect archetype for the flawed hero. He was the inspiration for Star Lord in the Guardians of the Galaxy. There is even a similar scene in which the “hero”mentions his own name as if they were famous and his enemy says, “Who?” As well in the sequel, the actor that plays Jack in this movie, Kurt Russel also plays Star Lord’s dad. Jack is also the inspiration for the character Casey Jones in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise and Thor in Thor Ragnarok 2017.
His love interest, Gracie is a lawyer in Chinatown that as she says “sticks her nose where it doesn't belong”. She is at heart battling with the identity of an independent woman and a hopeless romantic. There is a cute banter between Jack and Gracie, but you can tell they are not matched. At least Jack is smart enough to know that and when presented with the prospect of “getting the girl” he passes it over better judgement. However, when he refuses to kiss her goodbye, he may be saying subtly that he’s not saying goodbye. Meaning that there could be more to the story. “You never can tell.”
Technical:
I find that the technical aspects of this film set the tone of the film and support the story in a way that is true to form. There were detailed elements of action, fantasy and comedy combined, which is a very hard thing to achieve.
The action was as good as it could possibly be for the 1980’s utilizing martial arts in a way that felt authentic and very kinetic utilizing the elements of the environment. It also enhanced the fun I was having while watching the movie.
There were actual shots taken on the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco and subsequent scenes were in a world that many of us know little about, but it looked believable and looked very much lived in. This was due to the great work by production designer John J. Lloyd who recreated Chinatown for staging the gang fight sequences that took fifteen weeks to shoot and a large chunk of the budget.
The interior of Egg Chen's place is the same interior of Fire Station 23 used in Ghostbusters 1984. It acted as the entryway to the very spooky catacombs beneath Chinatown expanding the world and adding more danger to the fantasy.
I also enjoyed the many passageways and secret doors within Lo Pan’s lair. The sets designed for The wedding room and the Budda room were incredibly designed with a flair for fantasy that was visually mesmerizing and a feast for the eyes.
And speaking of eyes, both of the actresses with green eyes in the film, had brown eyes and wore contact lenses. It’s a bit obvious in some scenes, not all. However I loved the effect of the brides with pupiless eyes in their zombie state, or sleepwalking state. It's a creepy effect and it continues the experience for the audience of feeling as if they are spiraling into more danger and mysticism.
There were so many cool practical effects of odd and unusual creatures like the orangutan or werewolf monster. Then there is the guardian. He was the floating eyeball monster. As well there was an incredible job done on the comedic expansion and eventual explosion of Thunder.
The cinematography by Dean Cundey was especially remarkable. The colors were vibrant and bright making the film feel as if it was right from the pages of a comic book.
The visual effects of lightning and glowing from the magical events that happen in the film was also great effects for 1986.
The sound design during the scenes introducing the 3 storms was amazing and during the “burning blade” ritual were so rich and hypnotic.
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth take credit for the score. Carpenter is well known for composing his own music for the films he directs and they often have a very synth heavy sound. It carries here as well, but more upbeat than his other work. One highlight of the movie is the delightfully cheesy title song by the Coupe De Villes, a band that included John Carpenter and his USC film school friends, Tommy Lee Wallace and Nick Castle. It’s a catchy song that even had an accompanying music video.
Performances:
Kurt Russell was John Carpenter's first choice to play Jack Burton, after working together on the TV movie Elvis in 1979, The Thing in 1982 and Escape from New York 1981. That comradery was evident on screen as I really thought Kurt let loose for this character, in a way that audiences had never quite seen prior. He excelently played this complex character basing his performance on John Wayne, who was a famous actor known for starring in Westerns.
He encapsulated John Wayne's speech patterns when he was really playing up Jack’s exaggerations and wonderful one-liners. He was a pure pleasure to watch. At the same time, he had a way of settling the character down enough to get serious for a moment, which draws the audience in deeper into the story. Brilliant performance.
Dennis Dun played Wang Chi, who was not a martial artist, but had some training prior. You could hardly tell because his performance looked so fluid and authentic on screen. He has said that he was attracted to the role because “I've never seen this type of role for an Asian in an American film". And I think this speaks about representation in the 1980’s.
Dennis was awesome in this film, placing a sense of urgency and importance on the motivation for his character.
Prior to playing the role of Gracie Law, Kim Cattrall was a theatre actor and loved it so much that acting in movies was just a way for her to support it. In fact, each day she still performed on the theater stage during the production of this film.
She previously starred in Porky's (1981) and Police Academy (1984) which weren’t glowing roles, however this time she got to play brainy do-gooder with a hint of a brooklyn accent. Kim gave a very retro performance harkening back to Rossalind Russel in His Girl Friday released in 1940, one of my favorite romance comedies, by the way. The quirky and awkward banter between her character and Jack Burton is part of the charm of the film for me.
Many critics complained that there was no chemistry between the two characters and I thought that was the point. Ultimately Gracie and Jack were too different at the core and I thought Kurt and Kim worked that out nicely into their characters.
James Hung magnificently plays David Lo Pan in the film. He always speaks so highly and fondly of the movie and his experience. He once commented on what it did to give unique opportunities to the Asian American actors and crew at the time, but it was still a struggle afterwards to get mainstream Hollywood projects to become more inclusive. His contribution to this film was incredible, injecting the character of Lo Pan with so much complexity that he is not only a joy to watch, but addictive. As an audience member, it draws me in more to figure out what he will do next. James Hong is a national treasure appearing in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Chinatown (1974), Airplane! (1980) and Blade Runner (1982). Interestingly enough, he has played a character named Lo Pan 3 times; for the first time, in this movie in 1986, The Chronicle (2001), and Chuck (2007).
Victor Wong plays Egg Chen in this. Maybe one can say that he was playing a role we’d often see in cinema of the elderly magical Chinese man, he has the ability to give the character more depth in his subtle facial expressions and nuances. Again, the scene with him in the elevator is one I have rewatched over and over trying to figure out what he’s thinking. It’s a complex moment and he was just the genius to be able to pull that off and leave the audience with a sense of mystery and curiosity.
Suzi Pai plays Miao Yen. She was a striking Penthouse Pet of the Month in 1981, appeared in a follow-up pictorial in June 1982, then featured in the annual Sex in the Cinema pictorial in Playboy magazine in November 1982 (for a scene shot not used in the movie First Blood). When Lo Pan uses the “needle of love” to pierce the skin of Maio Yen, you can see Suzi flinch ever so slightly, because the needle did indeed pierce her skin.
Gerald Okamura was in this film, playing a Wing Kong Hatchet Man which is an actor most famously known for being in Samurai Cop in 1991, however he’s been in over 60 movies and TV projects.
All of the 3 storms were amazing, but I have to take some time to totally nerd out about seeing Carter Wong in this film playing Thunder. I am sort of a low key retro Kung Fu fan; mostly stuff done in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and Carter Wong is the star of one of my favorites of those films, Born Invincible 1978.
I hope to be able to review this film one day for you. He’s so good as a martial artist that he’s been in over 80 movies, he’s done stunt work and directed fighting scenes for a number of movies as well as a martial arts instructor for the Royal Hong Kong Police Department. He’s a true legend.
Wish List:
Although the movie has good pacing, I’d hate to think of disturbing that but it came to my attention that poor Miao Yen is pretty much just the MacGuffin in this film. There are a lot of incredible characters in the film and although she was given a lot of screen time, she is treated like an object. I would have liked to have had more of her character revealed in action or in exposition.
I also know that the intention of the film was to have Wang Chi be the hero, but there are several reasons that this subtle reality is compromised. One is the poster, which brilliantly captures the fun loving Jack Burton, but Wang is miniaturized and in some cases completely omitted.
Even within the story, I wished Wang Chi had even more moments to shine as a personality.
One of the criticisms about this film is that it’s offensive to Chinese Americans.
I am not Chinese, so I am not the judge of whether this is offensive or not. I am fairly aware of what can be obviously offensive and when first seeing this, I was unable to identify any bold universal offenses. That does not mean that they do not exist. However, if this film were to be done today, and I think that there may be a sequel in the works; I think that the production should have Chinese American or Chinese writers, director, or producers, just to be sure that the project is given a completely fair perspective from entities of decision making power. I also believe that the big issue is that there is a tendency in Hollywood to fetishize Asian culture because it is not theirs. However, as a species we need the voices of Asians heard and in the future, we really have to be mindful of this.
Enjoyment:
Post-production on this movie was about four months and all seemed to be going fine until near the end, when the studio decided that an extra scene needed to be added to explain that Jack Burton was the hero in the film. They didn’t get what Carpenter was doing with the character and nearly undid the punchline in the film (that Jack was not the hero of the film, at least not in society’s definition.
The opening of the film with Egg Shen in the lawyer's office was added. The scene betrays the continuity by putting the events of the film in a flash back. As well there is a claim that a half of the block exploded in green fire, when in the film, no such event happens. However, it does give the audience a heads up that for the purposes of the film’s story that magic is real.
I have to say that the scene itself is not bothersome, because it's one of the least memorable moments. It pales in comparison to the rest of the film.
This was the last studio film that John Carpenter worked on at the end of the 1980s, because he experienced constant interference during the production. Test screenings were “overwhelmingly positive”, however, the studio dropped the ball on promoting the movie and spent the marketing budget on Aliens (1986), which was released sixteen days later.
Home video brought the film a massive cult following and even talks to either remake the film or a sequel has been circulating Hollywood for years.
For me, I can’t say enough how much this film is not only a nostalgic relic of my teenage years, but also how inspirational it is for me as a creator. The use of color, cinematography, comedy, martial arts, monsters, characters, and epic events of magical proportions in this 80’s classic, campy, fun, bizarre action adventure, sure did shake the pillars of heaven!
My Rating:
9.3
That sums up my review. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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