Big Trouble In Little China Review

MPAA Rating: PG-13
Released: 1986

Big Trouble in Little China is one of those uncommon films that was for all practical purposes a commercial failure upon its release in 1986, but has since developed a significant following after its release on VHS and DVD. Its popularity over the years is well justified, for this film is an outrageously fun and irreverent action flick featuring the talents of director John Carpenter and 80's box office sensation Kurt Russell.

Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is your macho all-American truck driver that stops by San Francisco's Chinatown to play dominoes with some of the regulars, including his best friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun). The boisterous and overly confident Burton wins the day, but Wang has one final proposition for Burton: double or nothing that he can slice a bottle in half without breaking it. Knowing the feat to be impossible, Burton readily agrees.

I know… I know… at this point most of you are expecting the mystical oriental guy to successfully slice the bottle into two, thereby making the arrogant truck driver eat his words, right? If this was a normal action or martial arts flick then that's exactly what would have happened, but this is Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China, and its goal is to mercilessly skewer the genre and standard expectations. Wang fails miserably and ends up owing Burton double the winnings.

Naturally Wang doesn't have the money on him, so Burton insists on accompanying him to ensure he gets his money. Before Wang can retrieve the money they must first make a pit stop at the airport to pick up Wang's girlfriend, Miao Yin (Suzee Pai), who has just flown in from China. But before they can be reunited a Chinese street gang abducts her, which of course is just beyond the realms of acceptability for a macho truck driver. Burton and Wang jumps into his rig and begin a wild chase through the streets of Chinatown, where they'll witness oddball gang wars, lightning-invoking warlords and much more.

Those who abducted Miao Yin work for David Lo Pan (James Hong), a 2000-year old immortal that requires the girl for a mystical ceremony that would allow him to take human form again. Miao is special, you see, for she's the only Chinese girl to have been born with green eyes, which is a requirement for the ceremony to be performed successfully.

Burton and Wang set out to rescue her, though they pick up some allies along the way in the form of Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall), a quick-talking lawyer; Egg Shen (Victor Wong), an old Chinese mystic with magical powers; and Eddie Lee (Donald Li), a chubby fellow whose incompetence may only be rivaled by Burton's!

Big Trouble in Little China is an absolutely brilliant film that blends together action films, buddy-cop flicks and martial arts movies into one rollicking and adventurous spoof. Unlike classic comedies such as the Zucker brothers' Airplane, Big Trouble in Little China doesn't wear its spoofing nature on its sleeve for the entire world to see. Instead it follows the same path that normal action B-movies and martial arts films do, but subtly (and sometimes not so subtly!) breaks all the rules along the way.

And perhaps this is why the film didn't do so well at the theaters upon its release. As a straight action flick it's an eye-rolling affair, but that's exactly the point. In order to see the brilliance of Big Trouble in Little China you can't take it too seriously. The movie doesn't "accidentally" take amusing missteps away from the normal formula along the way – it does so knowingly.

Kurt Russell and Dennis Dun were hilarious together, forming one of the best action pairs in cinematic history. Russell perfectly captures the overly confident and swaggering nature of a wisecracking action star, but in this film he's a hero in his own mind!

Burton: You know what Jack Burtons says?
Thunder: Who!?
Burton: Jack Burton… ME!

Although Burton sets forth to help his friend by saving rescuing his gal, more often than not Wang is the one bailing Burton out of the messes. You just can't keep a good man down, though, so no matter how many messes Burton gets himself into he continues forward with determination.

The clash of cultures has also never been so funny. Although the movie takes place in Chinatown and includes just about every Chinese mythical being, beast and stereotype in cinematic history, Burton constantly brings forth brash American-style heroics that are completely out of character for such films… which makes it genius!

When I saw this movie as a young teen I didn't pay it much heed; I thought it was a fairly good action flick, but that was about it. Upon revisiting it recently, more than ten years later, I simply couldn't believe I didn't lend Big Trouble in Little China the appreciation it deserved. It has the mischievous spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark and a far more potent comedic punch than most full-blown spoof comedies.

Big Trouble in Little China isn't high art, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it is the perfect movie for what it is. If you can appreciate a tongue-in-cheek action film with well-choreographed fight scenes and an outrageous attitude, this is an essential film for you to see.

Movie rating : 10 stars

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