Reviewed By
Ryan

Analysis
In the annals of cinema there have been many films that were never given their dues at time of release that are now more fully appreciated (films such as "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls", "Barbarella", and "The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao" being among my favourites), as indeed there have been many overrated critics' favourites that arguably hold little interest to modern audiences ("Gone With the Wind", "Birth of a Nation", and "Gandhi"- which I personally love, but that's just me). However, nothing compares to the totally wrong-headed perception and reaction to John Carpenter's ode to Chinese Martial Arts/Horror hybrids "Big Trouble in Little China".

Over the years, this film has garnered a cult following of a fairly reasonable size, and has earned a little more respect, but I'd go one step further to suggest- nay- demand an apology from the dense critics who at the time didn't 'get' this film, the same critics mind you, who in the late 80s and into the 90s would laud over the films of Jackie Chan, and films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". I quite liked that film (though it was exceptionally slow) but would take "Big Trouble in Little China" and its nearest, Hong Kong-made equivalent, the bizarro "The Seventh Curse" any day of the week. Long before a mascara-sporting (and downright bloody hilarious) Johnny Deep lampooned his way through "Pirates of the Caribbean" as the not-so heroic Cap'n Jack Sparrow to Orlando Bloom's dashing and more effecient 'second banana' Will Turner, we had mullet-wearing Kurt Russell brilliantly essaying the incompetent, but macho trucker Jack Burton, a hero in his own mind and sidekick (seriously, watch the film and tell me I'm wrong) to martial arts whiz and restauranteur Wang (Dennis Dun). Whether he's obliviously smeared with lipstick during a fight, dressing up as a nerd ('Henry Swanson's MY name'), or knocking himself out during the film's action-packed climax, he's the most entertainingly buffoonish would-be hero of the 80s (an era of great cult films- "The Beastmaster", "Ladyhawke", "Battle Beyond the Stars", "The Goonies"- what child of the 80s doesn't know every line of THAT film?).

The supporting cast is a real hoot, even if Kim Cattrall is a not-ready-for-prime-time-player as nosy activist Gracie Law. Dennis Dun, who looks a bit like Short Round grown up (or Data to "Goonies" fans), is great fun as the dedicated, highly efficient Wang, our main guide into Chinatown's mystical underbelly (He and Victor Wong have hilarious expository dialogue that would seem truly awful in any other film but here it fits like a glove).

Victor Wong is an hilarious scenery-chewer as Egg Shen, Chinese folklore export and tour bus driver (the scene where we see him at his day job, looking absolutely off his face drunk, is hysterically funny). Wong is a
perfect fit for the role, like an Asian Peter Cushing or Donald Pleasence (who co-starred with Wong and Dun in Carpenter's dead-boring "Prince of Darkness"). Like all the actors he walks such a fine line between hoakiness and fully-fledged self-parody that in another person's hands, it would be a disaster of Ed Woodian proportions, but also like everyone else in this film, it truly works.

And then we have genre favourite James Hong in his signature role of the nefarious age-old sorcerer David Lo Pan, he of the green-eye fetish and hilarious hissy fits. Just as you've never seen a hero/sidekick like Jack Burton, you've never quite seen a villain like Lo Pan, one of the cinema's most memorable and infact, Russell and Hong play off one another excellently. One of my favourite scenes in the film is a classic "Talking Killer" scene (as Roger 'I liked Anaconda but not this' Ebert would call it) wherein all the participants are in wheelchairs (Being in one myself kinda makes it that extra bit more meaningful). Lo Pan gets annoyed and starts ranting (in still-excellent aging makeup) whilst Jack mocks him sarcastically. Then comes the film's best line, from Lo Pan 'It really pisses me off to no end!'...This is genius stuff- a hero who isn't very heroic, an Asian sidekick who is brave and accomplished, and a villain who really needs to have a glass of warm milk and take an afternoon nap. There's never been a film like this before or since.

Some might suggest, and indeed it plagued the film on initial release, that it adheres to old Asian Fu-Manchu stereotypes, but for me that doesn't really wash. The Asian characters are, including the villain and the likeably smarmy maitre'd Eddie (Donald Li, a truly cool dude...still don't know exactly why, but I love the guy) are far more competent than the film's white characters (and EVERYONE is more intelligent than Jack Burton). Gracie Law can pretty much fend for herself and isn't quite the damnsel in distress but Burton, thanks to Russell's hilarious 'Idiot John Wayne' swagger (to paraphrase Carpenter) can't tell his head from his arse and indeed only kills a handful of people in the film (looking perplexed when he actually DOES at times). Compare this to say the gang warfare scene early in the film. Burton and Wang inadvertently stumble upon a gang funeral which soon turns into all-out tribal warfare (one of the most ludicrously entertaining scenes you're likely to see) that produces a huge body count before three guys named The Three Storms seemingly come out of nowhere and slaughter the surviving fighters with ease. And whilst we're on the Three Storms, Carter Wong who plays Thunder deserves special mention. He's one of the coolest henchmen since Harold Sakata's Oddjob, and has the ability to make himself expand like Weird Al Yankovic in the film clip for "Fat", only weirder and grosser.

Everybody now knows that this film was unfairly maligned and ignored by audiences at the time and deserved better. The mystical kung fu craze had not left Asia to a large extent and people weren't sure how to react to all the delirious action and mumbo-jumbo. But now that most of us have seen and loved the likes of "The Seventh Curse", "Chinese Ghost Story" and "Erotic Ghost Story" (yummy!), it's hard for anyone born around or after 1986 to understand just what drugs people were taking back then. More importantly, though, "Big Trouble in Little China" is not just an American homage to the genre, it also simultaneously has elements of the western, the buddy movie and "Indiana Jones"/"Romancing the Stone" romance adventure. But it's not as
simple as that either, it lampoons all of these. The action is so wall-to-wall and off-the-wall that it is hard to take seriously and yet it is rip-roaring excitement. This duality or complexity, if you will, makes the film a one of a kind experience.

Key Area	Rating (out of 5)	Comment
Action		Non-stop kung-fu madness at break-neck speed, especially the bravura funeral-turned-gang warfare.
Tension		You're never sure where this one's headed with such an idiot in the lead role and a wonderfully nutty director at the helm.
Violence/ Gore		Lots of action but it's mostly bloodless and fine for pre-teens at least.
Bare Flesh		Get your hand on the freeze frame and you might get a quick shot of an unknown Asian lady's map of Tasmania in an underwater scene.
Plot		A mishmash of genre conventions turned on their heads to seem quite original.

Verdict If you enjoyed the would-be hero antics of Cap'n Jack Sparrow or love Jet Li, take the time to revisit this truly bizarre and wholly entertaining B-grade masterpiece.

Movie Pictures (Click picture to enlarge)