Big Trouble in Little China

Big Touble in Little China

Director ~ John Carpenter

Writers ~ Gary Goldman, David Z. Weinstein, W.D. Richter

1986, US

Stars ~ Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun

 

Certainly, when I first saw it, I didn’t get the joke. Oh sure, ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ was amusing, but I was in my later teens that the mainstream and VHS were saturated with American super-machismo: Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Segal, etc. This is before I got any nuance from the first two. This film seemed of a piece with scene and I didn’t register the satire. Certainly Kurt Russell knew the assignment and pushed more and more for this to be a send-up of the Swagger Saviour that he himself had earned a reputation with. Not least of all, with Carpenter himself, having played Snake Plissken and MacReady in ‘Escape from New York’ and ‘The Thing’.

 

It becomes apparent that there are two films going on: firstly the wuxia homage taking place in an American city with a huge heap of the supernatural where Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) is the hero; and then there’s the film that Jack Burton thinks he’s in, being the John Wayne star when actually he’s a truckin’ blowhard that is culturally out of his depth. This where the film’s longevity and cult status comes from, as it wasn’t originally much thought of due in part to a studio that didn’t get the joke and, surely, some audiences too. If the portrayal of Chinese culture is a little broad, well this is broad strokes humour and homage and there is no meanness or condescension here. The humour is almost exclusively at the expense of the Jack Burton, although it is neither mean nor condescending towards him either. It feels more like the gentle ribbing between buddies rather than derisive mocking.

James Berardinelli’s review seems confused at the film’s irreverence and that Burton seems to get more screen time in the service of the joke; actually, he’s just louder and wants to make it all about him. Similarly Kathleen Carroll seems bewildered by its scatological nature, resorting to descriptions such as culturally specific cuisine  zingers as “stir-fried mess” and “as impenetrable as chop suey”, whatever that means. Hal Larper is more on-the-ball with “A campy, convoluted series of outrageous adventures that careens through an imaginary world for two hours before depositing you, breathless, back in your seat.”  Nobody familiar with the likes of ‘Mr. Vampire’ or ‘House’ will be surprised at the bonkers silliness, although its monster inflections and tone are more in place with the likes of ‘Ghostbusters’ .

The dodgy/dated 80s effects, ludicrous street tuff posturing and wuxia pile-ups has proven ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ more a cult favourite with time, its mash-up aesthetic sustained by a concentrated satire which perhaps proves more in tune with later zeitgeist further attuned to genre and culture medleys. Distinguished by its refusal to be mean-spirited, ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ remains happily irreverent and fun.