Big Trouble in Little China

Big Trouble in Little China

1986

Director: John Carpenter

Writer: Gary Goldman, David Z. Weinstein, and W.D. Richter

99 Minutes

“I just feel kinda…feel kinda invincible.” – Jack Burton (Kurt Russell)

When Jack Burton gets to Chinatown, he had one thing on his mind: himself. He drives into town, enters into a gambling ring, wins some money, decides to help out his friend, and then gets his truck stolen.

Then shit got real. And thus, the story began.

The glory of Big Trouble in Little China is it mixes a magical realm with reality. The six-demon bag, the Three Storms, and Mr. David Lo Pan all add to this campy, delicious piece of cinema.

In the original script, Big Trouble in Little China was a Western. Jack Burton rode in on a horse, entered into a gambling ring in gold rush San Francisco, won some gold, decided to help out a friend, and gets his horse stolen. Similar story, might have been successful, but would have never achieved a cult status like this version.

“Everybody relax, I’m here,” – Jack Burton

Jack is an ego manic. He’s brave, in most sense of the word, though nervous to enter a world he knows nothing about; a world most of us know nothing about. But Jack leads the charge, helping his friend, and pursuing the girl, Garcie Law (Kim Cattrall). Yet, even director John Carpenter admits Jack Burton doesn’t almost nothing heroic, until the end.

With a body count of 46 bodies, Big Trouble in Little China is one of the great 1980’s resting comfortably above Eddie Murphy’s The Golden Child. From the Pork Chop express to a girl with green eyes, Big Trouble is Good Fun.

In the scene above, the final eight men are heading into battle. Mr. Egg Shen (Victor Wong), a local tour guide who has been fighting Lo Pan his entire life, brought a mythical potion for these men to drink and absorbed.

“It’s a six-demon bag,” says Egg Shen
‘Terrific, a six-demon bag. Sensational, what’s in it, Egg,” questions Jack.
“Wind, fire, all that kind of thing,” Egg replies.

In reality, Jack doesn’t believe in this black magic. Jack doesn’t believe in any magic, as he says, ‘it’s all in the reflexes.” Though even when Jack witnesses’ men flying, floating all-seeing-eyes, and running over an unharmed David Lo Pan (James Hong), he doesn’t believe.

“I'm a reasonable guy. But, I've just experienced some very unreasonable things.”

He doesn’t believe until he takes a drink Egg Shen's potion. After he drinks it, these eight men pile into the elevator and only THEN does Jack begin to believe. The black magic, he thus far denounced, runs through his veins and he realize he can only use magic to defeat magic.

He becomes ONE with the unknown world of Chinatown.

And this is why Jack is able to catch a knife out of thin air and throw it into David Lo Pans face. This is why Jack gets Gracie Law. And this is how Jack escapes the world of Chinatown.

Magic.

Often times, we are not believers in the energy, atmosphere, and even magic around us, but it’s there. And the more we denounce it, the more unbelievable it becomes. Until eventually, it's gone.

Or until Jack Burton rolls into town. Then he makes us believe.

“You know what ol’ Jack Burton always says at a time like this?"
“Who?”
“Jack Burton. *Me*!”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.