Big Trouble in Little China
Big Trouble in Little China is a 1986 American fantasy action-comedy film directed by John Carpenter, and starring Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun and James Hong. The film tells the story of truck driver Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi rescue Wang's green-eyed fiancée from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown. They go into the mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face an ancient sorcerer named David Lo Pan, who requires a woman with green eyes to marry him in order to be released from a centuries-old curse.
Although the original screenplay by first-time screenwriters Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein was envisioned as a Western set in the 1880s, screenwriter W. D. Richter was hired to rewrite the script extensively and modernize it. The studio hired Carpenter to direct the film and rushed Big Trouble in Little China into production so that it would be released before a similarly themed Eddie Murphy film, The Golden Child, which was slated to come out around the same time. The project fulfilled Carpenter's long-standing desire to make a martial arts film.
Despite receiving generally positive reviews, the film was a commercial failure, grossing $11.1 million in North America, below its estimated $19 to $25 million budget. This left Carpenter disillusioned with Hollywood and influenced his decision to return to independent filmmaking. In later years, the film gained a steady audience on home video, and has become a cult classic.
Plot
Jack Burton is driving his semi-trailer truck while narrating a monologue over the radio. He arrives at an outdoor market, drinking and gambling throughout the night. In the morning, Jack wins a bet with Wang Chi in a game of reflexes. To make sure he follows through on payment, Jack accompanies Wang to meet his fiancée Miao Yin at the airport, where they are confronted by Lords of Death gang members, who capture Miao Yin for her green eyes.Jack and Wang track the gang to Chinatown, where they encounter a funeral procession which erupts into battle between the Chang Sing and Wing Kong, two ancient Chinese warrior societies. After three warriors with weather-themed powers - Thunder, Rain and Lightning - appear, Jack attempts to drive away, but seems to run over Lo Pan, a magician standing behind the Storms; Lo Pan is unhurt and glowing. Wang and Jack escape through the alleys, but Jack's truck is stolen.
Wang takes Jack to his restaurant, where they meet Wang's friend Eddie Lee, Gracie Law and her journalist friend Margo. The group devises a plan to infiltrate a brothel, where they believe Miao Yin is held captive. They break in, but are interrupted by the Storms, who capture Miao Yin and bring her to Lo Pan.
Jack and Wang track down the front business used by Lo Pan and impersonate telephone repairmen to gain access, but are quickly subdued by Rain. After being tied up and beaten, they meet Lo Pan. He now appears as David Lo Pan, an elderly and feeble businessman. Jack and Wang's friends attempt to save them and are also captured.
Locked in a cell, Wang tells Jack that Lo Pan needs a green-eyed girl to break an ancient curse, and he intends to sacrifice Miao Yin. Centuries ago, Lo Pan was defeated in battle by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who cursed Lo Pan with incorporeality. Lo Pan can temporarily obtain a decrepit body by supplication to the gods, but he must marry and sacrifice Miao Yin to fully lift his curse. They eventually escape, and free Gracie, Margo and a group of women kept in cells, but a Wild-Man creature grabs Gracie before she escapes. Lo Pan notes that Gracie also has green eyes and decides to sacrifice her while making Miao Yin his wife. Wang and Jack regroup with the Chang Sing and Egg Shen, and enter a cavern to return to Lo Pan's headquarters. Before the final battle, Egg Shen pours the group a potent potion, which boosts their confidence for the upcoming battle.
They interrupt the wedding at Lo Pan's lair and begin fighting. Jack knocks himself out in excitement, while Wang engages Rain in a sword duel. Lo Pan draws some of Miao Yin's blood and consumes it, regaining his corporeal form. Jack eventually regains consciousness and joins the fight. Lo Pan recognizes Egg Shen and they engage in a magic duel. Lo Pan and Thunder escape the lair with Miao Yin as the fighting continues. Wang is able to kill Rain, while Jack rescues Gracie. They regroup and confront Lo Pan further into his headquarters. Wang fights Thunder hand-to-hand, while Jack and Gracie rescue Miao Yin. Jack throws his knife at Lo Pan and misses, but when Lo Pan throws the knife back at Jack, he catches it and instantly throws it into Lo Pan's forehead, killing him.
Upon finding Lo Pan dead, Thunder swells up with rage and explodes. Jack, Wang, Gracie, and Miao Yin are cornered in a corridor by Lightning, who triggers a collapse of the lair. They are rescued by Egg and escape back to Wang's restaurant in Jack's truck, where the group celebrates. With his old enemy defeated, Egg takes a long overdue vacation. Wang and Miao Yin prepare to marry, while Eddie pairs with Margo. Gracie offers to join Jack, but he declines. In the final scene, as Jack is driving alone while speaking on the radio, it is revealed that the Wild-Man has survived the battle and has stowed away on his truck.
Cast
- Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, a cocky, wise-cracking truck driver who gets involved in an ancient battle when he makes a delivery to Chinatown, San Francisco.
- Kim Cattrall as Gracie Law, a lawyer who is Jack's love interest.
- Dennis Dun as Wang Chi, Jack's friend and a restaurant owner whose fiancée is kidnapped by Lo Pan.
- James Hong as Lo Pan, an ancient Chinese sorcerer who was cursed by Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
- Victor Wong as Egg Shen, a sorcerer and old enemy of Lo Pan who also drives a tour bus.
- Kate Burton as Margo Litzenberger, a reporter who helps the team find Miao Yin.
- Donald Li as Eddie Lee, a successful businessman and Wang's friend who helps them rescue Gracie.
- Carter Wong as Thunder, an elemental master who can expand his body.
- Peter Kwong as Rain, an elemental master and expert martial artist with a sword.
- James Pax as Lightning, an elemental master who can shoot out bolts of lightning.
- Suzee Pai as Miao Yin, Wang's fiancée, who was kidnapped by Lo Pan when she arrives in America.
- Chao-Li Chi as Uncle Chu, Wang's uncle.
- Jeff Imada as Needles, a member of a street gang called The Lords of Death.
Production
Screenplay
Big Trouble in Little China originated from a script by first-time screenwriters Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein. Goldman had been inspired by a new wave of martial arts films that had "all sorts of weird actions and special effects, shot against this background of Oriental mysticism and modern sensibilities", such as The Butterfly Murders; Weinstein, for his part, was fascinated by the historical Tong Wars of 19th-century San Francisco's Chinatown. The duo combined these interests with a shared fondness for classic westerns to write the first iteration of the screenplay. Entitled Lotus, the script took place in the 1880s: friends cowboy Wiley Prescott and Chinese railroad worker Sun are set to meet Sun's fiancée Lotus as she arrives to San Francisco, but are opposed by sorcerer Lo Pan who captures Sun's fiancée and separates Prescott from his horse as the story progresses into a mystical realm. They submitted the script to TAFT Entertainment Pictures executive producers Paul Monash and Keith Barish during the summer of 1982; the script, now renamed Big Trouble in Little China, was soon optioned by 20th Century Fox.The Weird West setting of the screenplay led to objections from producers; Monash remarked that "the problems came largely from the fact it was set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco." Because Goldman and Weinstein were unwilling to update their story to a modern setting, and from the producer's desire to bring a new perspective to the writing, the original duo were removed from the project while screenwriter/script doctor W. D. Richter was brought in to extensively rewrite the script. Richter modernized the setting to avoid distancing audiences; though basic elements of the story were retained, such as Lo Pan, Richter rewrote the story "nearly from scratch". In particular, he approached the story as a comedy: the straightforward cowboy hero Prescott reimagined as the blowhard trucker Jack Burton. His draft was written in 10 weeks, a process that included research into Chinese mythology. While admitting that he invented or changed some lore, Richter expressed a desire for those portions of the script to be "as authentic as possible" despite coming from a white writer.
Richter's script was shopped around to directors by the studio. Fox wanted to deny Goldman and Weinstein writing credit, and eliminated their names from press releases in favor of solely crediting Richter. In March 1986, the Writers Guild of America West determined that "written by" credit would go to Goldman and Weinstein, based on the WGA screenwriting credit system which protects original writers; Richter would instead receive an "adaptation by" credit for his extensive rewrite of the script.
Direction
The project was also offered to Richter to direct, due to its perceived similarity to his previous directorial outing The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension; however, Richter turned it down as he wished to direct smaller movies rather than another expansive action-adventure film. Barish and Monash first offered the project to Carpenter in July 1985, with the idea he would produce an adventure movie in the model of Indiana Jones. Having found the earlier Goldman/Weinstein script creative but unfocused – "too huge and bizarre" – Carpenter was impressed by Richter's scripting of "an action/adventure/comedy/mystery/ghost story/monster movie" and signed up. Carpenter made his own additions to Richter's rewrites, which included strengthening the Gracie Law role by linking her directly to Chinatown, removing a few action sequences due to budgetary restrictions, and adjusting material that could offend Chinese Americans. Richter, who had befriended Carpenter while the two were attending USC film school, found that Carpenter's notes built on what had already been established and made his part in the script-editing process easy. Carpenter remarked that the "offbeat" characters had a "very 1930s Howard Hawks" quality to them with respect to their rapid-fire delivery of dialogue, especially between Jack Burton and Gracie Law.Carpenter had discovered a fondness for Hong Kong action cinema while in film school, with the "strange, yet bloody and violent and innocent 'what is this exactly?' vibe" of movies like Five Fingers of Death, Master of the Flying Guillotine, and Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain providing inspiration. He saw Big Trouble in Little China as the opportunity to fulfill a decade-long desire to make his own kung fu movie.
Carpenter and Russell saw the film as an inverse of traditional scenarios in action films that featured a Caucasian protagonist helped by a minority sidekick. In Big Trouble in Little China, Jack Burton, despite his bravado, is constantly portrayed as rather bumbling; in a climactic fight sequence, he knocks himself unconscious before the battle begins. Wang Chi, on the other hand, is constantly portrayed as highly skilled and competent. On the commentary track recorded for the DVD release, Carpenter described the film as about a sidekick who thinks he is a leading man. According to Carpenter, the studio "didn't get it" and made him write something that would explain the character of Jack Burton. Carpenter came up with a prologue scene where Egg Shen reassures the audience that "Jack Burton is a man of courage."