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Holy made-up Asian mysticism. Big Trouble In Little China was 38 years old this past summer.
First of all, it feels like we should have done something to celebrate. Secondly, where in the name of God have 38 years gone? Seriously? Shit. This is how a mid-life crisis starts. Maybe I really should buy that motorcycle…
I remember a few things about this movie, and when it landed, clear as day.
I was 11 years old, and something about its poster art seemed to call to me from the window of the local video store. Somehow it seemed to become some kind of VHS of dreams, and all my little buddies felt the same way.
We were young, we were stupid. And yet, our movie education was already embedding into our sponge-like brains.
Big Trouble In The Local VHS Rental Store
A blizzard of movies had hit us, like The Karate Kid, Ghostbusters, The Goonies, and Gremlins. We already knew Raiders Of The Lost Ark was fantastic, could quote Jaws, and Porkies made us feel things we didn’t yet fully understand.
We gleefully devoured movies we knew we shouldn’t have been watching, from hooky copies of Zombie Flesh Eaters to that time we recorded The Omen off the television.
But we weren’t Outposters yet.
We had no idea Big Trouble In Little China was from John Carpenter, the man behind The Thing and Escape From New York.
All we knew was that the poster really spoke to us. Rumors of action and adventure and Kung Fu mixed with monsters… we were powerless to resist.
The video cassette was rented, and we all gathered around the television positively quivering with expectation. At the time, I don’t think we really understood what we were watching, but time has been kind to Big Trouble In Little China. Very kind, but in a really weird way.
Big Trouble In Little China somehow manages to be both awful, and staggeringly excellent at the same time.
Big Trouble With Confused Opinions
It was not well-received by critics and didn’t fare well at the box office. On the surface, you can see why. It is superficially hokey, shonky, and feels expensively cheap, like a rapper’s house on MTV Cribs.
It is when you scratch that superficial surface that you get to the genius of it all. This, in itself, is a problem.
Why? Because it leads you to a terrible place to be, as a movie fan. You end up saying things like “Well, they just didn’t get it!” which is a place that should only be reserved for the most snobbish of scholars.
Still, it’s completely true here.
The heady mix of just “stuff” in Big Trouble In Little China would be described as “zany” back in the 80s.
Today we see it as genre-blending and unapologetic camp.
It is packed with quirky charm, characters that have stood the test of time, and all wrapped up in a tone that just makes the whole thing click the moment you get it. Shit… there… I said it!
Kurt Russell’s Jack Burton, the truck-driving everyman who stumbles into a wild and supernatural underworld right in the heart of San Francisco, is simply brilliant. You can’t overlook how far Jack actually is from the hero he believes himself to be. A classic bluffer who gets through on staggering self-belief.
The genius is that he manages to remain the lead character while also being the bumbling sidekick in his own movie. Making this work takes effort and wits from all involved.
Meanwhile, Dennis Dun as Wang Chi does all the heavy lifting, plot-wise. He takes on ancient sorcerers, martial arts warriors, and increasing supernatural insanity to save his kidnapped fiancée.
Opposing them is James Hong, putting in a glorious turn as the immortal villain Lo Pan. The character, and the performance underpinning, him manages to switch from outrageous camp to chillingly menacing. He is backed up by the Three Storms, characters who seared themselves into my eleven-year-old memories forever.
Big Trouble In My Pants
I can’t talk about Big Trouble In Little China without mentioning an often overlooked character, and the way she’s played – Gracie Law.
From Porkies to Police Academy, from Mannequin to Big Trouble, I was a little bit in love with Kim Cattrall back then.
Here she is the straight woman, and her earnest, breathless approach to the insanity unfolding around her complements Jack Burton’s bumbling. On reflection, it might be big part of what makes Russell’s character work so well here.
Re-watching it again to write this retro review, what really sticks with me is how fast the pace is, how chaotic it is, but how much damn fun it is.
Action, fantasy, and comedy are just thrown at the wall with such gleeful abandon you simply stop caring what sticks, and what doesn’t, and just have a good time.
Why does Lo-Pan’s underworld temple have neon tubes? Don’t care! Why can Wang suddenly fly? Don’t care. Where the hell did that floating eyeball monster come from? Don’t care!
Carpenter’s direction is slick and self-aware, and back in the 80s (when viewed in retrospect) it also seems like there is a fun critique of the traditional action hero archetype at play here.
Incredibly, it actually manages to feel fresh and not really at all dated. How the hell has this curious brew stood up so damn well?
As Jack Burton would say: “It’s all in the reflexes.”
The post Retro Review: BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986) appeared first on Last Movie Outpost.
