Released in 1986, "Big Trouble In Little China" was a major
departure for director John Carpenter. Sadly, it was also a major flop in
theaters, but it eventually found its audience on home video and cable. Kurt
Russell plays Jack Burton, a freelance trucker delivering a load of pork to San
Francisco's Chinatown district. He hooks up with an old buddy named Wang Chi
(Dennis Dun), who is going to the airport to greet his bride Miao Yin, a
green-eyed native of China whom Wang has brought over so they can finally get
married. However, just before the two long-separated loves can reunite, a gang
of Chinatown street thugs abducts Miao at gunpoint right in the middle of the
airport.
Unable to prevent the kidnapping, Jack and Wang race back to Chinatown, where
they probe the district's seedy underworld in search of Miao. However, they
inadvertently get caught up in an enormous battle between two rival Chinatown
gangs. This massacre is interrupted by the arrival of three warriors with
supernatural powers. Known as the Three Storms, these invincible warriors
promptly slaughter everybody in sight. Just as Jack tries to make a run for it
in his truck, he accidentally runs over another strangely dressed man, who
survives his run-in with the truck without a scratch and assaults Jack with
weird beams of light that come out of his eyes and mouth. Once back at the
safety of Wang's restaurant, Jack learns that the man whom he ran over--or
through--was David Lo Pan, a notorious gang lord who is in fact the undead
spirit of a 2000-year-old sorcerer from China.
He exists in the everyday
physical world as a decrepit old man in a wheelchair; yet in his true form, as
the sorcerer whom Jack ran into, he is a ghostly specter with minimal powers in
our world. This was the result of a curse cast upon him by the first emperor of
China. In order to become "whole" again, Lo Pan must perform a special ritual
that involves killing a young woman with green eyes--which explains why he needs
Miao Yin. Kim Cattrall, who is better known these days for her role of Sam on
Sex And The City, co-stars as Gracie Law, a local do-gooder who prides herself
on sticking her nose where it doesn't belong.
"Big Trouble In Little China" is still so enjoyable to watch mainly because of
its wild sense of humor. Although the dangers are played for real, the humor
comes out of the situations--as well as from Kurt Russell's savy performance of Jack
Burton as a regular everyday Joe who hides his insecurities behind a swaggering
John Wayne-type persona. And although he strives mightily to help, Jack is always upstaged by
the Kung Fu combat tactics of Wang and his buddies. Kim Cattrall
is also superb as Gracie; she plays her character in equally broad comic strokes
during her ditzy turn as an overzealous, innocent young woman who would gladly
go above and beyond the call of duty to help others.
Stylishly directed by Carpenter, "Big Trouble In Little China" is an ode to the
frenetic Kung Fu action films of old. Unfortunately it came out long before
Jackie Chan, director John Woo and their compatriots had burned such movies into
the consciousness of the American mainstream. Still, now that the rest of
the world has finally caught up with "BTILC", the film can be finally enjoyed on DVD.
The special features include a marvelous commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt
Russell, who are two old friends who use the time to catch up on what each of
them are doing, rather than offer comments on specific scenes. It's still fascinating to
listen to, as they wind up discussing life in general, as well as dealing with the
Hollywood dream factory.
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