Big Trouble In Little China is a film where our
perceived hero Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) isn’t really heroic at all.
He’s actually a buffoon that’s pulled into an extraordinary situation
with Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) being the true hero of
the film. Jack acts like he knows what he’s doing, but he’s as clueless
as anyone thrown into this situation, making a refreshing look from
this fantasy/karate hybrid.
The film opens with Jack accompanying his friend
Wang to the airport to pick up Wang’s love of his life. In the hectic
arrival of a loaded airplane, she is kidnapped and after running into
Gracie (Kim Catrall), who has some kind of involvement
in the situation, Jack and Wang travel to Chinatown in an attempt to
save his love, but stumble onto an otherworldly fight by Lao Pan (James
Hong) to use the green eyed girl to restore his flesh. A mishmash of
kung fu and fantasy follows as they attempt to
stop Lao Pan’s misuse of Wang’s lady.
Big Trouble is a fun movie to watch. The film
has a great flow to it, even though when examining just the plot itself
leaves a kind of clunky feel as you run it through your head. John
Carpenter smooths over the rough edges by giving us
great visuals (even by today’s standards) and very nice acting work,
particularly from Russell. As I said before, Jack Burton is not the hero
of this film. He’s more of a loud mouth that is lost in this underworld
of Chinatown and it’s a wonderful look at
how the presumed hero may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer. It
really is a great performance from Russell, cementing his trilogy of
John Carpenter films.
After revisiting this film a thought occurred to
me. With all of the movies that are making a return after being defunct
for 30+ years Big Trouble in Little China is a film that I see that
could succeed by doing something like this. After
30 years I was still left wanting more from this story and these
characters. This is one of these films that makes its own kind of
definition and really makes a good impression on a viewer. A fine ‘80’s
ditty.
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