Today, submitted for your enjoyment… and mine, is one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time and the place from whence the inspiration for this very blog’s title comes from. John Carpenters cult classic Big Trouble in Little China
The year was 1985 and what was originally intended to be shot as a western in old san Francisco was rewritten into a more modern-day, action adventure feature and began shooting in October.
Jack Burton played by Kurt Russel is a long-haul trucker and after delivering his payload spends some time at the market, catching up with an old buddy over cards. When the morning sun rises, he’s several thousand dollars richer. There’s just one problem… his friend Wang Chi(Played by Dennis Dun), whom he’s won the money from doesn’t keep that kinda cash on him. Rather than take an IOU Jack volunteers to drive Wang to the airport where Wang plans to pick up his wife to be before heading back to his restaurant to pay Jack. At the airport Wang’s wife is kidnapped by a Chinese street gang with the intention of selling her into the sex trade. Naturally, the two give chase and wind up in the middle of a china-town gang war. Watching from the cab of Jack’s truck as the two rival gangs cut each other to shreds our hero’s witness something other worldly, in the midst of the chaos, three spirits descend from the heavens and join in the melee. Deciding that they’d rather live to fight another day Jack throws his truck into gear and floors the pedal only to run over a strangely dressed figure… and all this is just the first twenty minutes!!!
I think what’s most appealing and draws most people in is the sheer silliness of the whole affair. The main protagonist is quite clearly not the hero while the sidekick or what the viewer initially perceives to be the sidekick is really the hero. Jack is just a bumbling idiot full of false bravado while Wang is the competent paladin.
Initial test screenings of the film were overwhelmingly positive and both Russel and Carpenter thought they had a box office hit on their hands. Unfortunately, the studio put very little into marketing and promotion and as a result, it flew under most people’s radar. In their defense, 20th Century Fox just didn’t know how to market this sort of film.
The movie opened in July of 1986 on one thousand and fifty three screens and grossed $2.7m on it’s opening weekend. The total gross was $11m however, the estimated budget was between $18-25m. As a result of such poor performance John Carpenter swore off big studio productions and returned to his independent film roots.
Give it a watch if your looking for a well put together, campy thrill ride. Carpenter didn’t make any bad movies and the stuff he did in this period was just great. Some honourable mentions for 80’s Carpenter are Escape from New York (81), The Thing(82), Prince of Darkness(87) and They Live(88).
