Revisiting BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA: Simply Awesome!

I rewatched John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China after years, and the only description that comes to mind is: awesome! It would seem that such a combination of Chinese mythology, western, new adventure cinema, comedy, fantasy, kung fu, and monster movie cannot work, and yet everything meshes together so brilliantly that it is impossible not to watch it with a wide smile on one’s face. At the same time, a mixture like this is either accepted in its entirety or not at all.

Truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) arrives in Chinatown in Los Angeles. While there, he visits his old buddy, Wang Chi (Dennis Dun). He is heading to the airport to pick up his fiancée arriving from China, Miao Yin (Suzee Pai). Jack decides to accompany him. On the spot, Wang’s girlfriend is kidnapped by Chinese gangsters. Burton and his friend set out to rescue her. The chase will lead them into the deepest corners of Chinatown, where they will have to face the Chinese demon David Lo Pan (James Hong), who wields black magic.

The film was originally supposed to take place at the end of the nineteenth century, but when John Carpenter came on board, he decided to move the action to contemporary times (at the moment of filming). Additionally, after the successes of the first two Indiana Jones adventures, studios were looking for a similar formula, and producers desperately wanted to find a way to reference the archaeologist in the hat and launch their own adventure-film series.

However, the director had a different vision – Jack Burton is a hero full of extremes – brave, noble, resourceful, and righteous at heart, in reality he is a likable bumbler who has more luck than sense. However, he is portrayed so fantastically by Russell that we identify with him anyway. Carpenter thus reversed the typical scheme in which the American guy, supported by a secondary character (often chosen on the principle of opposites), overcomes all difficulties in order to triumph in the finale.

Here it is actually Jack who is the outsider, the add-on to the real hero, portrayed by Dennis Dun (originally Jackie Chan was to play this role, but he refused). Burton never loses his good humor and laid-back approach to life, and he could supply dozens of film heroes with his reserves of charisma.

John Carpenter is a director who feels most at home in low-budget cinema. His romance with the major studios was marked by bad luck – both the excellent The Thing (also with Kurt Russell) and Big Trouble in Little China were not hits upon release and suffered a crushing failure. Only later, in the VHS circuit, television reruns, and the DVD market did they gain cult status. Big Trouble…, despite very positive viewer reactions during test screenings, flopped in theaters because the studio did not really know how to market the film.

Additionally, not long afterward, Carpenter’s film premiere was overshadowed by James Cameron’s Aliens. I was also positively struck by the fact that a large portion of the special effects has not really aged. But they were created by the legendary Richard Edlund (who worked, among other projects, on the original Star Wars trilogy and Ghostbusters), so there is nothing surprising about that.

The music, composed by Carpenter himself, contains the electronic sounds typical of the director, this time spiced with oriental elements; it perfectly illustrates what is happening on screen and also works as standalone listening. The group of solid professionals is completed by cinematographer Dean Cundey (Back to the Future).

The box-office failure meant that further installments, unfortunately, were not made. However, those hungry for more Jack Burton adventures will find them in comic books bearing Carpenter’s name. The first issue begins exactly at the moment the film ends. Those interested can also dig up a relatively recently released board game based on the main character’s escapades.

Big Trouble in Little China exudes the eighties at every step. The excellent, unique atmosphere (initially there are almost no fantastical elements, and as time goes on we are increasingly immersed in them, until in the finale the creators fully unleash their imagination), the fantastic Kurt Russell supported by Kim Cattrall (known from the first Police Academy and the later Sex and the City), and the wonderful combination of typical American motifs with Chinese mythology result in a film that rightfully holds its cult status. It is simply an unpretentious and relaxing Adventure that leaves you in a positive mood after the screening.

Besides, just look at the theatrical poster by the incomparable Drew Struzan, which perfectly captures the atmosphere of Big Trouble in Little China. I will certainly return to this film more than once.