BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA B
USA (99 mi) 1986 ‘Scope d: John Carpenter
John Carpenter enters the realm of kung fu fighting with this heavily comedic, fantasy, martial arts action flick, something to rival the as yet uninvented CHINESE GHOST STORY (1987, 1990, 1991) featuring plenty of John Wayne swagger from Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, a fearless, tough-talking truck driver that arrives into San Francisco’s Chinatown just as underworld spirits decide to show themselves in a battle of earthly domination. Something of a box office flop that left Carpenter disillusioned with Hollywood, forcing a return to smaller independent films, the movie developed a 1980’s cult following with the video release. Initially envisioned as an 1880’s western by writers Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein, using Russell as a loner cowboy forced to mix it up with Chinese fantasy elements in the Wild West, featuring plenty of Eastern mysticism and weird special effects, but the story was rewritten and modernized by W.D Richter, a script doctor who also directed THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BONZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION (1984). The result is a mixed bag, where Russell resembles a typical American badass who continually finds himself as an uninvited guest, an outsider in the middle of a mysterious underworld gang fight in Little China, where evil godfather Lo Pan, James Hong summoning the dead spirit of Ming the Merciless, along with 3 supernatural protectors, Thunder, Rain, and Lightning, have kidnapped the rarest of Chinese women, the emerald green-eyed girlfriend (Suzee Pai) of Jack’s friend Wang Chi, Dennis Dun in something of a Bruce Lee imitation role, where the two partner up, along with the aid of an old tour bus driver Egg Shin (Victor Wong), who is experienced fighting the dark arts, and Kim Cattrall as Gracie Law, a neighborhood lawyer who witnessed the abduction.
The secret to the movie’s success has to be the continual irreverent wisecracking remarks by Russell, where every quotable line he delivers is so over the top, yet uttered with perfect comic timing in this 1930’s screwball comedy rapid-fire style of relentlessly face-paced dialogue matched by a continuing series of frenetic action sequences. Lo Pan is a wonderful invention and the evil centerpiece of the film, something of an undead magician, a 2000-year old ancient sorcerer who, like Harry Potter’s Voldemort (who also hasn’t been invented yet), wishes to reclaim his human status through evil spells and black magic. Egg Shin is the expert in cracking the power of ancient Chinese spells, while Wang Chi fends off hordes of martial arts fighters single handedly. Jack’s largely along for the ride, inept and often clueless, playing second fiddle to the more stunningly acrobatic Wang Chi, instead offering snide comments and a tone of cynicism, helping add more chaos to an already chaotic supernatural undertaking. There are monsters and demons, not to mention green rays coming out of the eyes and mouth of Lo Pan, who has the power to hypnotize and levitate his kidnapped subject, keeping her locked away in a cavernous dungeon underneath Chinatown, protected by an army of skilled martial arts fighters and various other evil spirits that suddenly appear from time to time. While there are waves of action sequences, the two sides go at each other with a relentless fury, where Russell’s comic wit and his love interest in smart aleck Gracie (a touch added by Carpenter) all add to the continual build up of troublemaking, mayhem, and suspense. Carpenter, of course, composed the musical score along with Alan Howarth.
Certainly one of John Carpenter’s most entertaining films, the film creates an entirely new universe, mostly unexplainable, like a house of pleasures at the circus, and is replete with pop references which are all over the map, while it also plays upon Chinese stereotype, such as Fu Manchu, Flash Gordon, and Chinese-American dialect, much of which had to be excised from the film as too offensive. The Writers Guild of America also excised the name of W.D. Richter as a screenwriter, crediting only the original writers, something Carpenter was unhappy with, but the humorous, nonsensical style more than makes up for the continual sense of over exaggeration, as everything is way over the top, especially the weirdness of the set pieces and special effects, some of which look pretty cheesy, like something left over from a discarded Star Trek TV episode. Kurt Russell’s action figure profile, along with the high flying martial arts style of Dennis Dun, both immersed in the richly adorned and delirious subterranean atmosphere of sorcery and mystical spells, could easily be parodied in comic books, or even video games, much like the as yet unenvisioned Jeff Bridges character The Dude in the Coen Brothers’ THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998), but the popularity of the film flew under the radar. The film precedes the prevalent use of computer graphics in martial arts movies, instead relying upon reverse movements and upside down sets, using actual stunts where martial arts fighters fly through the air on invisible wires or trampolines, conducting swordfights in mid-air, adding a rarely seen touch of elegance in an American martial arts film. Still, the thing is the stuff of legends, one of the better Carpenter films that does not veer into the horror genre, perhaps eclipsed two years later by the equally preposterous, also underappreciated, darkly disturbing comic sci-fi satire of THEY LIVE (1988).
