so much fun
What do you get when you combine kung-fu, black magic, Chinese legends, and all sorts of mysterious places buried deep within other places? One of the most appealing mish-mashes of not just the 80’s but ever in John Carpenter’s “Big Trouble in Little China.” Every time I watch this movie I respect it just a little more for the unbelievable balancing act it does of turning the incomprehensible into its best weapon.
“Big Trouble” was Carpenters third 80’s outing with Kurt Russell, who here plays one of his best characters as truck driver Jack Burton. He likes to stop off in Chinatown to do a little gambling and that’s about the extent of this movie being easy to follow. The rest of it veers off so wildly into the ridiculous and convoluted yet Carpenter makes it all but impossible to look away or try to meet his challenge of trying to follow it. Jack is in accompaniment as a friend picks up a girlfriend from the airport when suddenly she is kidnapped by triads. The abduction leads us back to Chinatown where rival Chinese gangs, 3 “Storms”, and a decrepit old man who hopes to use the girl to end a centuries old curse all conspire to trap Jack in a situation he has to fight out of.
Kim Cattral’s Gracie figures into the plot as a woman trying to facilitate safe passage for another woman who was the kidnappers intended target, James Hong chews scenery with great fun as the cursed villain Lo Pan, and Victor Wong is a magician and area authority on sorcery. Carpenter’s movie is filled with old world legends, opulent and incredibly adorned old-world lairs, caverns that exist within those lairs and caves that exist under them. Henchmen with guns, swords, and axes frequently attack, but they have nothing on the all-powerful beings who have had a stunning amount of effects work put into them (yes, the electricity that encompasses the “Storms” was inspiration for two Mortal Kombat characters).
It’s essentially a chase movie but few ever throw wrenches into the proceedings like this movie does. All the while Carpenter keeps an easy-going vibe, explaining just enough to keep us interested in the bigger picture and then leaning into the absurdity in a way that suggests that if you’re trying to follow this too closely- the joke’s on you. There is a supporting reporter character (Kate Burton) given the task of trying to describe all this. I sympathize with her.
What makes it so easy to get along with is Russell though. If it looks like he’s not doing heavy lifting it’s because he always seems to come off as effortlessly charismatic but we ultimately end up seeing the film through his confused eyes. He becomes this mix of tough, wise-ass John Wayne-cowboy and self deprecating comedian and never lets one interfere with the other. Russell, of course, is no martial artist so he’s essentially the John McClane to Dennis Dun’s Wang, as his sidekick, and the two complement each other perfectly.
“Big Trouble” was a box office loss in it’s opening weekend before James Cameron’s “Aliens” killed it for good. Ironically, the same thing happened with “The Thing” when it went up against “E.T.” However it’s easy to see how it gained in notoriety once it hit video. This is all-out madness; the most flat out funny and enjoyable film of Carpenter’s career.
**Part of a series i'm doing on 1986 in film, part of a larger review/ranking series on the 80's.
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