Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
Another entry in the hallowed pantheon of films I’d swear blind I’d seen, but on watching apparently hadn’t, or if so have forgotten this so entirely that I might as well not have seen it. This 1986 joint sees Carpenter fulfil an ambition to direct a martial arts film. Bully for him, if not, perhaps, for any audiences watching it.
Kurt Russell’s unjustly self assured trucker Jack Burton blunders his way into the middle of a wushu plot, trying to help his friend, Dennis Dun’s Wang Chi, rescue his freshly emigrated green-eyed fiancée Suzee Pai’s Miao Yin from her immediate kidnapping. What seems at first to be some common or garden gang warfare and sex slavery takes a turn for the supernatural when James Hong’s sorcerer David Lo Pan and his three mystical warrior goons show up in the middle to take Yin for their own.
Turns out David, surely the most stereotypical name for an ancient Chinese sorcerer, is under some sort of curse and must marry a green-eyed girl to break it, and take over the world. Boo. Hiss. So, it’s up to Jack and his allies to stop him, including magician/tour bus driver Egg Shen (Victor Wong), lawyer/love interest Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall), and -what’s the opposite of intrepid? Trepid, that’ll do – trepid journalist Margo (Kate Burton).
Cue a bunch of bluffing, chasing, pratfalling, capturing, and escaping with the odd fight scene thrown in to make sure you’re paying attention, which to honest, you shouldn’t. Much of James Lew’s fight choreography is perhaps the most successful element here, with Carpenter deserving some credit for capturing it competently for a first timer. However, most wushu films tend not to feature automatic weaponry, for much reason on display here. It clashes badly with the fantasy kung-fu, and leaves the whole film looking silly.
But, I suppose silly is very much what Big Trouble is going for, but in my opinion, it’s not hitting quite the right kind of silly. I’m not sure I can get my head around a script that’s a kid’s action adventure, but sets part of it in a brothel. This was surprisingly well received critically on release, before bombing at the box office, slowly becoming a cult classic. It would seem that most of the reasons it was liked are much the same reasons I don’t like it, so take the rest of this for what you will.
Kurt Russell’s just unlikable in this. I know what they’re going for – Jack thinks he’s the hero when he’s actually the comic sidekick, but I’m not sure either the script or Russell was let in on the plan. The quickfire dialogue between him and, well, everyone, but in particular Kim Cattrall, aims for some 30’s era charm like a William Powell and Myrna Loy revival, but instead evokes a plank of wood and a less charismatic plank of wood. The jokes fall flat much more often than not, and the hybrid Indiana Jones / Homer Simpson character they’ve made is just annoying.
I’d be much happier if he’d be excised entirely, with Dennis Dun handling things sans guns, but, well, by that point you might as well go and watch A Chinese Ghost Story. James Hong’s dependable enough as the bad guy, but his aura’s rather hobbled by others telling us what his deal is through obnoxiously clunky dialogue rather than, y’know, having him do much of anything.
Perhaps I’m expecting too much from a throwaway 80’s action outing, but then all I was expecting was something vaguely enjoyable, so more fool me, I guess. Perhaps an element of nostalgia helps it the way I’d admit certain other Carpenter works do for me, but sadly I got very little from this.
Oh, and if this were a modern film I’d accuse it of cultural appropriation, but then seeing as it does appear to get its understanding of Chinese culture from a fortune cookie perhaps that’s not going to hold a lot of water. I read that Carpenter did remove certain aspects of the script before shooting in case it offended Chinese-Americans. I dread to think what that would have been given what’s still here. Mickey Rooney in yellowface? I’d suggest the best course of editing what’s left would be Control-A, Delete.