Big Trouble In Little China
Released in July of 1986, it was described by the director, John Carpenter, as an action adventure comedy kung fu ghost story monster movie. Originally written as a western in 1890's San Francisco Chinatown with the lead character being a skilled gunman but a complete klutz in a fist fight, the script was re-written to bring the story into a modern Chinatown and to tap into the mystical world of Chinese Legend and magic.
Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is a truck driver headed into San Francisco to see his old friend, Wang Chi, and drive him to pick up his fiancee, Miao Yin (a girl with green eyes.....it will come up later), at the airport. Well, she gets kidnapped by a Chinese street gang and after some searching, Jack and Wang end up caught in a street fight between two rival gangs until Lo Pan (the bad guy/ancient wizard) and his henchmen show up.
So, Lo Pan has an ancient curse on him that prevents him from taking permanent human form. But he can break the curse placed on him by the first emperor of China if he marries a green eyed woman.....and then sacrifices her to appease the Emperor. It turns out that the reporter following Jack and Wang around, Gracie, also has green eyes. PLOT TWIST!!! So while trying to rescue Miao Yin, Gracie gets kidnapped as well. Now Lo Pan can kill one green eyed girl and marry the other.
But Jack and Wang are not giving up. They get Egg Shen, a magician and authority on Lo Pan, and one of the street gangs to help them attack Lo Pan's underground headquarters. During the wedding, a huge fight breaks out between the rescuers and Lo Pan's henchmen....Jack misses the whole fight because he's accidentally knocked himself out. Wang and Jack eventually confront Lo Pan and his Henchmen and Jack's reflexes (which he brags about often) prove to be just as sharp as he claims. The good guys win and everyone is safe. In the end, its Jack that has something he'll have to deal with that he may not be ready for.
What makes this movie so fun is that there is a ton of humor thrown in to make you laugh as often as you're on the edge of your seat with excitement. During a fight between Wang and one of the henchmen, there's all kinds of debris flying into frame while the two combatants fight off-screen. Most of Jack's lines are delivered for as many laughs as they are to sound like action movie catch phrases. I highly recommend seeing this film. Its a cult classic and its a fun hour and a half.
Now, I'm going to add a clip of the film which shows the end of the big fight but it has all of the elements in this clip that make up this great film. So Spoiler Alert....it does show Lo Pan's end. But it also shows a moment that could have only been filmed once.....broken Buddhas is all I'll say.
Please enjoy..
No comments:
Post a Comment