Big Trouble in Little China
Encyclopedia
Big Trouble in Little China (also known as John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China) is a 1986 American martial arts
comedy film
directed by John Carpenter
. It stars Kurt Russell
as truck driver Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun
) rescue Wang's green-eyed fiancee (Suzee Pai) from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown
. They go into the mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face an ancient sorcerer named Lo Pan (James Hong
).
Although the film was originally envisioned as a Western
set in the 1880s, screenwriter W. D. Richter
was hired to rewrite the script extensively and modernize everything. 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.
The movie was a commercial failure, grossing $11.1 million in North America
and well below its estimated $25 million budget. It received critically mixed reviews that left Carpenter disillusioned with Hollywood and influenced his decision to return to independent film-making. It has become a cult film
due to its success on home video.
) and his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun
) go to San Francisco International Airport to pick up Wang's fiancee Miao Yin (Suzee Pai). A Chinese street gang, the Lords of Death, kidnaps Miao Yin and takes her into Chinatown
with the intention of selling her as a sex slave.
Jack and Wang track them to the back alleys of Chinatown and get caught in a battle between two feuding ancient societies known as the "Chang Sing" and the "Wing Kong." The latter interrupts a funeral procession the Chang Sing are having for their recently assassinated leader and, during the ensuing street battle, powerful magicians in league with the Wing Kong, called "The Three Storms" (Thunder, Rain, and Lightning), use their supernatural powers to slaughter the Chang Sing.
Trying to escape, Jack runs over the Wing Kong's leader, the sorcerer Lo Pan (James Hong
). Lo Pan is unharmed. Wang has to help Jack after he is temporarily blinded by Lo Pan's glowing eyes. Jack's truck is then stolen by the Lords of Death, who are working for the Wing Kong.
Wang takes Jack to his restaurant, The Dragon of the Black Pool, where they meet up with lawyer Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall
), along with Wang's friend Eddie Lee (Donald Li) and magician Egg Shen (Victor Wong
), a local authority on Lo Pan who moonlights as a tour bus driver in Chinatown. They come up with a plan to infiltrate a brothel where they think Miao Yin is being held. Jack (in disguise) investigates, but the Storms make off with Miao Yin.
Miao Yin is taken to the Wing Kong Exchange, a front for Lo Pan's domain. Jack infiltrates the place, where he and Wang get caught in a elevator that fills with water. Wang claims they're in "the hell of the upside-down sinners." They escape the elevator but are taken to a cell by Rain, who grabs Wang by the neck, and sends rubber balls to Jack's stomach with force.
They are taken in wheelchairs to see Lo Pan (now in the form of a crippled old man), who claims Miao Yin is "safer with me than any creature on Earth." Lo Pan detects Eddie, Gracie, and her journalist friend Margo on a security monitor and sends Thunder to deal with them. Wang and Jack are taken back to their cell, still in wheelchairs, when Wang tells Jack about the 2,000-year-old legend of Lo Pan; that he was cursed to roam the Earth in a ghost-like form until he can marry a special kind of girl.
They break free from their constraints but, hearing Thunder returning, put their blindfolds back on. Thunder hangs up Eddie by the collar of his jacket. Jack jumps in, but Thunder sends him back down the ramp in a wheelchair and nearly into a deep well.
Wang and Eddie create a diversion so Jack can rescue the imprisoned girls. At the front entrance, Gracie is caught and taken to Lo Pan. But on seeing Gracie and Miao Yin tame "The Burning Blade," Lo Pan decides to marry both, sacrifice Gracie, then live out his "earthly pleasures" with Miao Yin.
Wang and Jack go to see Egg Shen. With the help of the Chang Sing, they go into an underground cavern and reach Lo Pan's headquarters. Egg gives the group a potion that Jack says makes him feel "kind of invincible." At the wedding ceremony, a huge fight ensues (which Jack misses due to being temporarily knocked out with rubble). Wang is able to kill Rain in an elegant sword fight.
Jack and Gracie try and catch Lo Pan, the spell having been broken. Wang joins them, and takes on Thunder, while Jack takes on Lo Pan, throwing a knife that embeds in his skull. Thunder, enraged and dishonored at his failure to protect his Master, starts to inflate to an enormous size without stopping, exploding and killing himself.
Jack, Wang, Gracie, and Miao Yin are cornered by Lightning in a corridor, which he makes collapse. Egg rescues them with a rope, which Lightning tries to climb in order to follow. Egg throws down a statue that crushes him.
They find Jack's truck and make their escape back to the Dragon of the Black Pool restaurant. Lo Pan having been defeated, Egg decides to go on vacation, saying China is in the heart. Jack hits the open road, with an unknown-to-him stowaway—one of the remaining monsters.
and Keith Barish during the summer of 1982. Monash bought their script and had them do at least one rewrite, but still did not like the results. He remembers, “The problems came largely from the fact it was set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, which affected everything—style, dialogue, action”. Goldman rejected a request by 20th Century Fox
for a re-write that asked for major alterations. He was angered when the studio wanted to update it to a contemporary setting. The studio then removed the writers from the project. However, they still wanted credit for their contributions.
The studio brought in screenwriter W. D. Richter
, a veteran script doctor
(and director of cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
) to extensively rewrite the script, as he felt that the Wild West and fantasy elements didn’t work together. The screenwriter modernized everything. Almost everything in the original script was discarded except for Lo Pan’s story. Richter realized that “what it needed wasn’t a rewrite but a complete overhaul. It was a dreadful screenplay. This happens often when scripts are bought and there’s no intention that the original writers will stay on”. Richter used Rosemary's Baby
as his template, presenting “the foreground story in a familiar context – rather than San Francisco at the turn-of-the-century, which distances the audience immediately – and just have one simple remove, the world underground, you have a much better chance of making direct contact with the audience”. He wrote his own draft in 10 weeks. Goldman contacted Richter and suggested that he should not work on the project. Richter told him, "I'm sorry the studio doesn't want to go forward with you guys, but my turning it down is not going to get you the job. They'll just hire someone else".
Fox wanted to deny Goldman and Weinstein writing credit, and eliminated their names from press releases. They wanted only Richter to have credit. In March 1986, the Writers Guild of America, west
determined that Richter would not receive credit for his work on the script and it would go instead to Goldman and Weinstein, based on the WGA screenwriting credit system
which protects original writers. Director John Carpenter was disappointed that Richter did not get a proper screenwriting credit on the movie because of the ruling. Carpenter made his own additions to Richter’s rewrites, which included strengthening the Gracie Law role and linking her to Chinatown, removing a few action sequences due to budgetary restrictions and eliminating material deemed offensive to Chinese Americans. The characters in the film reminded Carpenter “of the characters in Bringing Up Baby
or His Girl Friday
. These are very 1930s, Howard Hawks
people." The rapid-fire delivery of dialogue, especially between Jack Burton and Gracie Law, is an example of what the director is referring to.
Barish and Monash first offered the project to Carpenter in July 1985. He had read the Goldman/Weinstein script and deemed it “outrageously unreadable though it had many interesting elements”. To compete with rival production The Golden Child
’s casting of box office draw Eddie Murphy
, Carpenter wanted a big star of his own and both Clint Eastwood
and Jack Nicholson
were considered but were busy.
The studio felt Kurt Russell was an up-and-coming star. Russell was initially not interested because he felt there were “a number of different ways to approach Jack, but I didn’t know if there was a way that would be interesting enough for this movie”. After talking to Carpenter and reading the script a couple more times, he gained insight into the character and liked the notion of playing “a hero who has so many faults. Jack is and isn’t the hero. He falls on his ass as much as he comes through. This guy is a real blowhard. He’s a lot of hot air, very self-assured, a screw-up”. Furthermore, the actor felt that "at heart he thinks he's Indiana Jones
but the circumstances are always too much for him". Russell felt that the film would be a hard one to market. "This is a difficult picture to sell because it's hard to explain. It's a mixture of the real history of Chinatown in San Francisco blended with Chinese legend and lore. It's bizarre stuff. There are only a handful of non-Asian actors in the cast".
John Carpenter had seen Dennis Dun in Year of the Dragon
and liked his work in that film. He met the actor twice before casting him in the role of Wang Chi only a few days before principal photography. The martial arts sequences were not hard for Dun who had “dabbled” in training as a kid and done Chinese opera as an adult. He was drawn to the portrayal of Asian characters in the movie as he said, “I’m seeing Chinese actors getting to do stuff that American movies usually don’t let them do. I’ve never seen this type of role for an Asian in an American film”.
The studio pressured Carpenter to cast a rock star in the role of Gracie Law, Jack Burton's love interest and constant source of aggravation. For Carpenter there was no question, he wanted Kim Cattrall. The studio was not keen on the idea because at the time Cattrall was primarily known for raunchy comedies like Porky's
and Police Academy
. She was drawn to the movie because of the way her character was portrayed. “I’m not screaming for help the whole time. I think the humor comes out of the situations and my relationship with Jack Burton. I’m the brains and he’s the brawn”.
Problems began to arise when Carpenter learned that the next Eddie Murphy vehicle, The Golden Child, featured a similar theme and was going to be released around the same time as Big Trouble in Little China. (As it happened, Carpenter was asked by Paramount Pictures
to direct The Golden Child). He remarked in an interview, “How many adventure pictures dealing with Chinese mysticism have been released by the major studios in the past 20 years? For two of them to come along at the exact same time is more than mere coincidence”. To beat the rival production at being released in theaters, Big Trouble went into production in October 1985 so that it could open in July 1986, five months before The Golden Child’s Christmas release.
Production designer John Lloyd designed the elaborate underground sets and re-created Chinatown with three-story buildings, roads, streetlights, sewers and so on. This was necessary for the staging of complicated special effects and kung fu fight sequences that would have been very hard to do on location. This forced the filmmaker to shoot the film in 15 weeks with a $25 million budget. For the film’s many fight scenes Carpenter worked with martial arts choreographer James Lew
, who planned out every move in advance. Says Carpenter, "I used every cheap gag – trampolines, wires, reverse movements and upside down sets. It was much like photographing a dance”.
Carpenter envisioned the film as an inverse of traditional scenarios in action films with 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 one fight sequence he even knocks himself unconscious before the fight begins. Wang Chi, on the other hand, is constantly portrayed as highly skilled and competent. On a commentary track for the DVD release, Carpenter commented that the film is really about a sidekick (Burton) who thinks he is a leading man. According to Carpenter, the studio "didn't get [his film]" and made him write something that would explain the character of Jack Burton. Carpenter came up with the prologue scene between Egg Shen and the lawyer.
, head of Boss Film Studios, said that there were no difficulties with the company's workload and that Big Trouble was probably its favorite film at the time, with the exception of Ghostbusters
. The effects budget for the film was just under $2 million, which Edlund said was barely adequate. One of the more difficult effects was the floating eyeball, a spy for Lo-Pan. It was powered by several puppeteers and dozens of cables to control its facial expressions. It was shot with a special matting system specially designed for it.
, David Sirota
analyzed the movie in terms of the United States' role in the world, and argues that the film was a warning more relevant today than when it first came out. He argues that the film casts Jack Burton as the United States while Lo Pan and his gang are "the Rest of the World, and more specifically, the Non-Aligned Countries, otherwise known as the Axis of Evil". Sirota suggests that "the tongue-in-cheek flavor of the film suggests Carpenter is using the Burton character to deliberately ridicule American hubris" and that the ending shot of the monster coming out of hiding in the back of Jack's truck "could be the world taking revenge on that hubris."
, well below its estimated budget of $25 million. The film was released in the midst of the hype for James Cameron
's blockbuster Aliens
, which was released a mere sixteen days after. On the DVD commentary for Big Trouble in Little China, Carpenter and Russell discuss this amongst possible reasons for the film's disappointing box office gross.
. Ron Base, in his review for the Toronto Star
, praised Russell's performance. "He does a great John Wayne
imitation. But he's not just mimicking these heroes, he is using them to give his own character a broad, satiric edge". Walter Goodman in the New York Times wrote, "In kidding the flavorsome proceedings even as he gets the juice out of them, the director, John Carpenter, is conspicuously with it". Harlan Ellison
praised the film, writing that it had "some of the funniest lines spoken by any actor this year to produce a cheerfully blathering live-action cartoon that will give you release from the real pressures of your basically dreary lives". In his review for Time
, Richard Corliss wrote, "Little China offers dollops of entertainment, but it is so stocked with canny references to other pictures that it suggests a master's thesis that moves".
However, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times
, Roger Ebert
wrote, "special effects don't mean much unless we care about the characters who are surrounded by them, and in this movie the characters often seem to exist only to fill up the foregrounds", and felt that it was "straight out of the era of Charlie Chan
and Fu Manchu
, with no apologies and all of the usual stereotypes". Paul Attanasio
, in the Washington Post, criticized the screenwriters for being "much better at introducing a character than they are at developing one". David Ansen
wrote, in his review for Newsweek
, "though it is action packed, spectacularly edited and often quite funny, one can't help feeling that Carpenter is squeezing the last drops out of a fatigued genre". In his review for The Times, David Robinson felt that Carpenter was, "overwhelmed by his own special effects, without a strong enough script to guide him".
After the commercial and critical failure of the film, Carpenter became very disillusioned with Hollywood and became an independent filmmaker. He said in an interview, “The experience [of Big Trouble] was the reason I stopped making movies for the Hollywood studios. I won’t work for them again. I think Big Trouble is a wonderful film, and I’m very proud of it. But the reception it received, and the reasons for that reception, were too much for me to deal with. I’m too old for that sort of bullshit”. Since its initial release it has developed a cult following and is now well received by critics. Empire
magazine voted Big Trouble in Little China the 430th greatest film in their "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" list.
was published in 1986 by Electric Dreams Software
for the ZX Spectrum
, Commodore 64
and Amstrad CPC
. Critical reception was mixed.
Big Trouble in Little China was released on a two-disc special edition DVD set on May 22, 2001. Entertainment Weekly
gave the DVD a "B+" rating and wrote, "The highlight of this two disc set – which also features deleted scenes, an extended ending, trailers, and a 1986 featurette – is the pitch perfect Russell and Carpenter commentary, which delves into Fox's marketing mishaps, Chinese history, and how Russell's son did in his hockey game". In his review for the Onion A.V. Club, Noel Murray wrote, "If nothing else, this is a DVD designed for Big Trouble cultists; it's packed with articles from Cinefex and American Cinematographer that only a genre geek would appreciate".
A Blu-ray Disc
edition of the film was released on August 4, 2009. It contains the same film and features as the DVD.
At the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, Top Cow Productions
revealed previews of an upcoming Big Trouble in Little China comic book series. The series will be written by Evan Bleiweiss and pencilled by Jason Badower.
In 2010, CrankLeft released the first issue of a comic book sequel to the film called Jack Burton Adventures. CrankLeft released the book to the public for the first time at the Emerald City ComiCon
in Seattle the same year. The series is written by Ben Hodson and Brad Hodson, pencilled and inked by Chad Bever, and color by Bryant Hodson. Jack Burton Adventures is an ongoing series.
On the WWE Raw SuperShow: October 31, 2011 WWE superstar CM Punk
wore the t-shirt seen in the poster to the ring
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
. It stars Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
as truck driver Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun
Dennis Dun
Dennis Dun is a Chinese American actor from Stockton, California, currently residing in Los Angeles.-Film and TV:Dun has had prominent roles in several films, notably Year of the Dragon , Big Trouble in Little China , The Last Emperor , Prince of Darkness , and A Thousand Pieces of Gold , Warriors...
) rescue Wang's green-eyed fiancee (Suzee Pai) from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown
Chinatown, San Francisco, California
San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. Since its establishment in 1848, it has been highly important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants to the United States and North America...
. They go into the mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face an ancient sorcerer named Lo Pan (James Hong
James Hong
James Hong is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists . A prolific acting veteran, Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.-Early life:Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His...
).
Although the film was originally envisioned as a Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
set in the 1880s, screenwriter W. D. Richter
W. D. Richter
W. D. Richter is a screenwriter and has occasionally directed and produced. He is best known for adapting Invasion of the Body Snatchers , directing The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, and helping write Big Trouble in Little China.- Biography:Richter graduated from...
was hired to rewrite the script extensively and modernize everything. 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
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
film, The Golden Child
The Golden Child
The Golden Child is a 1986 American comedy film starring Eddie Murphy. Murphy plays Chandler Jarrell, a social worker who is confronted by a young Asian woman , who tells him that he is The Chosen One destined to save The Golden Child, the savior of all mankind, from the clutches of the demon Sardo...
, which was slated to come out around the same time. The project fulfilled Carpenter's long-standing desire to make a martial arts film.
The movie was a commercial failure, grossing $11.1 million in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and well below its estimated $25 million budget. It received critically mixed reviews that left Carpenter disillusioned with Hollywood and influenced his decision to return to independent film-making. It has become a cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
due to its success on home video.
Plot
Truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt RussellKurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
) and his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun
Dennis Dun
Dennis Dun is a Chinese American actor from Stockton, California, currently residing in Los Angeles.-Film and TV:Dun has had prominent roles in several films, notably Year of the Dragon , Big Trouble in Little China , The Last Emperor , Prince of Darkness , and A Thousand Pieces of Gold , Warriors...
) go to San Francisco International Airport to pick up Wang's fiancee Miao Yin (Suzee Pai). A Chinese street gang, the Lords of Death, kidnaps Miao Yin and takes her into Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
with the intention of selling her as a sex slave.
Jack and Wang track them to the back alleys of Chinatown and get caught in a battle between two feuding ancient societies known as the "Chang Sing" and the "Wing Kong." The latter interrupts a funeral procession the Chang Sing are having for their recently assassinated leader and, during the ensuing street battle, powerful magicians in league with the Wing Kong, called "The Three Storms" (Thunder, Rain, and Lightning), use their supernatural powers to slaughter the Chang Sing.
Trying to escape, Jack runs over the Wing Kong's leader, the sorcerer Lo Pan (James Hong
James Hong
James Hong is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists . A prolific acting veteran, Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.-Early life:Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His...
). Lo Pan is unharmed. Wang has to help Jack after he is temporarily blinded by Lo Pan's glowing eyes. Jack's truck is then stolen by the Lords of Death, who are working for the Wing Kong.
Wang takes Jack to his restaurant, The Dragon of the Black Pool, where they meet up with lawyer Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
), along with Wang's friend Eddie Lee (Donald Li) and magician Egg Shen (Victor Wong
Victor Wong
Victor Wong was a Chinese American character actor who appeared in supporting roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s.-Education:...
), a local authority on Lo Pan who moonlights as a tour bus driver in Chinatown. They come up with a plan to infiltrate a brothel where they think Miao Yin is being held. Jack (in disguise) investigates, but the Storms make off with Miao Yin.
Miao Yin is taken to the Wing Kong Exchange, a front for Lo Pan's domain. Jack infiltrates the place, where he and Wang get caught in a elevator that fills with water. Wang claims they're in "the hell of the upside-down sinners." They escape the elevator but are taken to a cell by Rain, who grabs Wang by the neck, and sends rubber balls to Jack's stomach with force.
They are taken in wheelchairs to see Lo Pan (now in the form of a crippled old man), who claims Miao Yin is "safer with me than any creature on Earth." Lo Pan detects Eddie, Gracie, and her journalist friend Margo on a security monitor and sends Thunder to deal with them. Wang and Jack are taken back to their cell, still in wheelchairs, when Wang tells Jack about the 2,000-year-old legend of Lo Pan; that he was cursed to roam the Earth in a ghost-like form until he can marry a special kind of girl.
They break free from their constraints but, hearing Thunder returning, put their blindfolds back on. Thunder hangs up Eddie by the collar of his jacket. Jack jumps in, but Thunder sends him back down the ramp in a wheelchair and nearly into a deep well.
Wang and Eddie create a diversion so Jack can rescue the imprisoned girls. At the front entrance, Gracie is caught and taken to Lo Pan. But on seeing Gracie and Miao Yin tame "The Burning Blade," Lo Pan decides to marry both, sacrifice Gracie, then live out his "earthly pleasures" with Miao Yin.
Wang and Jack go to see Egg Shen. With the help of the Chang Sing, they go into an underground cavern and reach Lo Pan's headquarters. Egg gives the group a potion that Jack says makes him feel "kind of invincible." At the wedding ceremony, a huge fight ensues (which Jack misses due to being temporarily knocked out with rubble). Wang is able to kill Rain in an elegant sword fight.
Jack and Gracie try and catch Lo Pan, the spell having been broken. Wang joins them, and takes on Thunder, while Jack takes on Lo Pan, throwing a knife that embeds in his skull. Thunder, enraged and dishonored at his failure to protect his Master, starts to inflate to an enormous size without stopping, exploding and killing himself.
Jack, Wang, Gracie, and Miao Yin are cornered by Lightning in a corridor, which he makes collapse. Egg rescues them with a rope, which Lightning tries to climb in order to follow. Egg throws down a statue that crushes him.
They find Jack's truck and make their escape back to the Dragon of the Black Pool restaurant. Lo Pan having been defeated, Egg decides to go on vacation, saying China is in the heart. Jack hits the open road, with an unknown-to-him stowaway—one of the remaining monsters.
Main cast
- Kurt RussellKurt RussellKurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
as Jack Burton - Kim CattrallKim CattrallKim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
as Gracie Law - Dennis DunDennis DunDennis Dun is a Chinese American actor from Stockton, California, currently residing in Los Angeles.-Film and TV:Dun has had prominent roles in several films, notably Year of the Dragon , Big Trouble in Little China , The Last Emperor , Prince of Darkness , and A Thousand Pieces of Gold , Warriors...
as Wang Chi - James HongJames HongJames Hong is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists . A prolific acting veteran, Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.-Early life:Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His...
as David Lo Pan - Victor WongVictor WongVictor Wong was a Chinese American character actor who appeared in supporting roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s.-Education:...
as Egg Shen - Al LeongAl LeongAlbert "Al" Leong , aka Al 'Ka Bong', is an American stuntman and actor. Characterised by impressive martial arts skills, long wavy hair, and a prominent Fu Manchu moustache, he has had a number of small but memorable roles as the token long-haired Asian henchman in popular action films, that...
as Wing Kong Hatchet Man - Kate BurtonKate Burton (actress)-Personal life:Burton was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the daughter of producer Sybil Burton and actor Richard Burton . She was thus the stepdaughter of actress Elizabeth Taylor and of Sybil's second husband Jordan Christopher. In 1979, Burton earned a bachelor's degree in Russian studies and...
as Margo - Donald Li as Eddie Lee
- Carter Wong as Thunder
- Peter Kwong as Rain
- James PaxJames PaxJames Pax is best known as an actor. He has acted in Hollywood, Hong Kong and Japan.-Early years and education:He earned a degree in business from New York University and later studied film production/directing at the University of Southern California. He has lived and worked around the globe...
as Lightning - Suzee Pai as Miao Yin
- Chao-Li ChiChao-Li ChiChao-Li Chi was a Shanxi-born actor and dancer, who worked extensively in American television, including his best known role as Chao Li, opposite Jane Wyman's character in Falcon Crest. Additionally, his film credits include Big Trouble in Little China, The Joy Luck Club, The Nutty Professor,...
as Uncle Chu
Screenplay
The first version of the screenplay was written by first-time screenwriters Gary Goldman and David 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". They had written a Western originally set in the 1880s with Jack Burton as a cowboy who rides into town. Goldman and Weinstein envisioned combining Chinese fantasy elements with the western. They submitted the script to producers Paul MonashPaul Monash
-Life and career:Paul Monash was born in Harlem, New York, in 1917, and grew up in The Bronx. His mother, Rhoda Melrose, acted in silent films. Monash earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a master's degree in education from Columbia University...
and Keith Barish during the summer of 1982. Monash bought their script and had them do at least one rewrite, but still did not like the results. He remembers, “The problems came largely from the fact it was set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, which affected everything—style, dialogue, action”. Goldman rejected a request by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
for a re-write that asked for major alterations. He was angered when the studio wanted to update it to a contemporary setting. The studio then removed the writers from the project. However, they still wanted credit for their contributions.
The studio brought in screenwriter W. D. Richter
W. D. Richter
W. D. Richter is a screenwriter and has occasionally directed and produced. He is best known for adapting Invasion of the Body Snatchers , directing The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, and helping write Big Trouble in Little China.- Biography:Richter graduated from...
, a veteran script doctor
Script doctor
A script doctor, also called script consultant, is a highly-skilled screenwriter, hired by a film or television production, to rewrite or polish specific aspects of an existing screenplay, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, theme, and other elements...
(and director of cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!, often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai, is an American spoof science fiction film that was released in 1984. It was directed and produced by W. D. Richter, and concerns the efforts of the multi-talented Dr...
) to extensively rewrite the script, as he felt that the Wild West and fantasy elements didn’t work together. The screenwriter modernized everything. Almost everything in the original script was discarded except for Lo Pan’s story. Richter realized that “what it needed wasn’t a rewrite but a complete overhaul. It was a dreadful screenplay. This happens often when scripts are bought and there’s no intention that the original writers will stay on”. Richter used Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby (film)
Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin...
as his template, presenting “the foreground story in a familiar context – rather than San Francisco at the turn-of-the-century, which distances the audience immediately – and just have one simple remove, the world underground, you have a much better chance of making direct contact with the audience”. He wrote his own draft in 10 weeks. Goldman contacted Richter and suggested that he should not work on the project. Richter told him, "I'm sorry the studio doesn't want to go forward with you guys, but my turning it down is not going to get you the job. They'll just hire someone else".
Fox wanted to deny Goldman and Weinstein writing credit, and eliminated their names from press releases. They wanted only Richter to have credit. In March 1986, the Writers Guild of America, west
Writers Guild of America, west
Writers Guild of America, West is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. The Guild was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, which include the Screen Writers Guild...
determined that Richter would not receive credit for his work on the script and it would go instead to Goldman and Weinstein, based on the WGA screenwriting credit system
WGA screenwriting credit system
In the United States, screenwriting credit for motion pictures and television programs under its jurisdiction is determined by either the Writers Guild of America, East or the Writers Guild of America, West . Since 1941, the Guilds have been the final arbiter of who receives credit for writing a...
which protects original writers. Director John Carpenter was disappointed that Richter did not get a proper screenwriting credit on the movie because of the ruling. Carpenter made his own additions to Richter’s rewrites, which included strengthening the Gracie Law role and linking her to Chinatown, removing a few action sequences due to budgetary restrictions and eliminating material deemed offensive to Chinese Americans. The characters in the film reminded Carpenter “of the characters in Bringing Up Baby
Bringing up Baby
Bringing Up Baby is an American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and released by RKO Radio Pictures....
or His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur...
. These are very 1930s, Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
people." The rapid-fire delivery of dialogue, especially between Jack Burton and Gracie Law, is an example of what the director is referring to.
Casting
The Golden Child
The Golden Child is a 1986 American comedy film starring Eddie Murphy. Murphy plays Chandler Jarrell, a social worker who is confronted by a young Asian woman , who tells him that he is The Chosen One destined to save The Golden Child, the savior of all mankind, from the clutches of the demon Sardo...
’s casting of box office draw Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
, Carpenter wanted a big star of his own and both Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
and Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
were considered but were busy.
The studio felt Kurt Russell was an up-and-coming star. Russell was initially not interested because he felt there were “a number of different ways to approach Jack, but I didn’t know if there was a way that would be interesting enough for this movie”. After talking to Carpenter and reading the script a couple more times, he gained insight into the character and liked the notion of playing “a hero who has so many faults. Jack is and isn’t the hero. He falls on his ass as much as he comes through. This guy is a real blowhard. He’s a lot of hot air, very self-assured, a screw-up”. Furthermore, the actor felt that "at heart he thinks he's Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
but the circumstances are always too much for him". Russell felt that the film would be a hard one to market. "This is a difficult picture to sell because it's hard to explain. It's a mixture of the real history of Chinatown in San Francisco blended with Chinese legend and lore. It's bizarre stuff. There are only a handful of non-Asian actors in the cast".
John Carpenter had seen Dennis Dun in Year of the Dragon
Year of the Dragon (film)
Year of the Dragon is a 1985 film directed by Michael Cimino, starring Mickey Rourke, Ariane Koizumi and John Lone. The screenplay was written by Cimino and Oliver Stone and adapted from the novel by Robert Daley....
and liked his work in that film. He met the actor twice before casting him in the role of Wang Chi only a few days before principal photography. The martial arts sequences were not hard for Dun who had “dabbled” in training as a kid and done Chinese opera as an adult. He was drawn to the portrayal of Asian characters in the movie as he said, “I’m seeing Chinese actors getting to do stuff that American movies usually don’t let them do. I’ve never seen this type of role for an Asian in an American film”.
The studio pressured Carpenter to cast a rock star in the role of Gracie Law, Jack Burton's love interest and constant source of aggravation. For Carpenter there was no question, he wanted Kim Cattrall. The studio was not keen on the idea because at the time Cattrall was primarily known for raunchy comedies like Porky's
Porky's
Porky's is a 1982 comedy film about the escapades of teenagers at the fictional Angel Beach High School in Florida in 1954. It was released in the United States in 1982, and spawned two sequels: Porky's II: The Next Day and Porky's Revenge! and influenced many writers in the teen film genre...
and Police Academy
Police Academy (film)
Police Academy is a 1984 comedy film directed by Hugh Wilson, and starring Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall and G.W. Bailey. It grossed approximately $146 million worldwide and spawned six more films in the Police Academy series.-Plot:...
. She was drawn to the movie because of the way her character was portrayed. “I’m not screaming for help the whole time. I think the humor comes out of the situations and my relationship with Jack Burton. I’m the brains and he’s the brawn”.
Principal photography
Kurt Russell lifted weights and began running two months before production began in order to get ready for the physical demands of principal photography. In addition, Carpenter and his cast and crew did a week's rehearsals that mainly involved choreographing the martial arts scenes. 20th Century Fox was afraid that the production would create major overruns and hired Carpenter to direct because he could work fast. He was given only 10 weeks of pre-production.Problems began to arise when Carpenter learned that the next Eddie Murphy vehicle, The Golden Child, featured a similar theme and was going to be released around the same time as Big Trouble in Little China. (As it happened, Carpenter was asked by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
to direct The Golden Child). He remarked in an interview, “How many adventure pictures dealing with Chinese mysticism have been released by the major studios in the past 20 years? For two of them to come along at the exact same time is more than mere coincidence”. To beat the rival production at being released in theaters, Big Trouble went into production in October 1985 so that it could open in July 1986, five months before The Golden Child’s Christmas release.
Production designer John Lloyd designed the elaborate underground sets and re-created Chinatown with three-story buildings, roads, streetlights, sewers and so on. This was necessary for the staging of complicated special effects and kung fu fight sequences that would have been very hard to do on location. This forced the filmmaker to shoot the film in 15 weeks with a $25 million budget. For the film’s many fight scenes Carpenter worked with martial arts choreographer James Lew
James Lew
James Jene Fae Lew is an American martial arts actor. He has made 80 on screen film and television appearances and 46 more as a stunt coordinator or stunt double. He has done choreography for movies like Get Smart and Double Impact as well as television shows such as, Discovery Channel's Fight...
, who planned out every move in advance. Says Carpenter, "I used every cheap gag – trampolines, wires, reverse movements and upside down sets. It was much like photographing a dance”.
Carpenter envisioned the film as an inverse of traditional scenarios in action films with a Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
protagonist helped by a minority sidekick. In Big Trouble in Little China, Jack Burton, despite his bravado, is constantly portrayed as rather bumbling; in one fight sequence he even knocks himself unconscious before the fight begins. Wang Chi, on the other hand, is constantly portrayed as highly skilled and competent. On a commentary track for the DVD release, Carpenter commented that the film is really about a sidekick (Burton) who thinks he is a leading man. According to Carpenter, the studio "didn't get [his film]" and made him write something that would explain the character of Jack Burton. Carpenter came up with the prologue scene between Egg Shen and the lawyer.
Visual effects
Carpenter was not entirely satisfied with Boss Film Studios, the company in charge of the film's visual effects. According to the director, they took on more projects than they could handle and some effects for the film had to be cut down. Richard EdlundRichard Edlund
Richard Edlund, A.S.C. is a multi-Academy Award-winning US special effects cinematographer.Edlund was born in Fargo, North Dakota. After first joining the Navy, he developed an interest in experimental film and attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the late 60s...
, head of Boss Film Studios, said that there were no difficulties with the company's workload and that Big Trouble was probably its favorite film at the time, with the exception of Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis and follows three eccentric parapsychologists in New York City, who start a...
. The effects budget for the film was just under $2 million, which Edlund said was barely adequate. One of the more difficult effects was the floating eyeball, a spy for Lo-Pan. It was powered by several puppeteers and dozens of cables to control its facial expressions. It was shot with a special matting system specially designed for it.
Soundtrack
John Carpenter received a Saturn Award Best Music nomination for this film. With the soundtrack, Carpenter wanted to avoid the usual clichés as he found that “other scores for American movies about Chinese characters are basically rinky tink, chop suey music. I didn’t want that for Big Trouble”. Carpenter instead opted for his trademark synthesizer score mixed with rock ‘n’ roll music.Themes
In a 2008 article on The Huffington PostThe Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
, David Sirota
David Sirota
David J. Sirota is a progressive Denver-based American political figure, radio show host and commentator. He is an author, book reviewer, nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, a Democratic political strategist, political operative, Democratic spokesperson, and blogger...
analyzed the movie in terms of the United States' role in the world, and argues that the film was a warning more relevant today than when it first came out. He argues that the film casts Jack Burton as the United States while Lo Pan and his gang are "the Rest of the World, and more specifically, the Non-Aligned Countries, otherwise known as the Axis of Evil". Sirota suggests that "the tongue-in-cheek flavor of the film suggests Carpenter is using the Burton character to deliberately ridicule American hubris" and that the ending shot of the monster coming out of hiding in the back of Jack's truck "could be the world taking revenge on that hubris."
Box office
Opening in 1,053 theaters on July 2, 1986, Big Trouble in Little China grossed $2.7 million in its opening weekend and went on to gross $11.1 million in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, well below its estimated budget of $25 million. The film was released in the midst of the hype for James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
's blockbuster Aliens
Aliens (film)
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...
, which was released a mere sixteen days after. On the DVD commentary for Big Trouble in Little China, Carpenter and Russell discuss this amongst possible reasons for the film's disappointing box office gross.
Critical reception
The film received critically mixed reviews when it was first released but has since enjoyed a reappraisal. It currently has an 82% rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Ron Base, in his review for the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
, praised Russell's performance. "He does a great John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
imitation. But he's not just mimicking these heroes, he is using them to give his own character a broad, satiric edge". Walter Goodman in the New York Times wrote, "In kidding the flavorsome proceedings even as he gets the juice out of them, the director, John Carpenter, is conspicuously with it". Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
praised the film, writing that it had "some of the funniest lines spoken by any actor this year to produce a cheerfully blathering live-action cartoon that will give you release from the real pressures of your basically dreary lives". In his review for Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Richard Corliss wrote, "Little China offers dollops of entertainment, but it is so stocked with canny references to other pictures that it suggests a master's thesis that moves".
However, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
wrote, "special effects don't mean much unless we care about the characters who are surrounded by them, and in this movie the characters often seem to exist only to fill up the foregrounds", and felt that it was "straight out of the era of Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...
and Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...
, with no apologies and all of the usual stereotypes". Paul Attanasio
Paul Attanasio
Paul Albert Attanasio is an American screenwriter and producer of film and television, who is currently an executive producer on the television series House.-Life and career:...
, in the Washington Post, criticized the screenwriters for being "much better at introducing a character than they are at developing one". David Ansen
David Ansen
David Ansen is a reviewer and senior editor for Newsweek, where he has been reviewing movies since 1977. He came to Newsweek after several years as the chief film critic at Boston's The Real Paper...
wrote, in his review for Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, "though it is action packed, spectacularly edited and often quite funny, one can't help feeling that Carpenter is squeezing the last drops out of a fatigued genre". In his review for The Times, David Robinson felt that Carpenter was, "overwhelmed by his own special effects, without a strong enough script to guide him".
After the commercial and critical failure of the film, Carpenter became very disillusioned with Hollywood and became an independent filmmaker. He said in an interview, “The experience [of Big Trouble] was the reason I stopped making movies for the Hollywood studios. I won’t work for them again. I think Big Trouble is a wonderful film, and I’m very proud of it. But the reception it received, and the reasons for that reception, were too much for me to deal with. I’m too old for that sort of bullshit”. Since its initial release it has developed a cult following and is now well received by critics. Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine voted Big Trouble in Little China the 430th greatest film in their "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" list.
Merchandise
A tie-in video game of the same nameBig Trouble in Little China (video game)
Big Trouble in Little China is a 1986 video game designed by Mevlut Dinc and published by Electric Dreams Software for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. It is a tie-in licence for the film of the same name.-Gameplay:...
was published in 1986 by Electric Dreams Software
Electric Dreams Software
Electric Dreams Software was a video game publisher established in 1985 by ex-managing director of Quicksilva, Rod Cousens and ex Software Manager of Quicksilva, Paul Cooper...
for the ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
. Critical reception was mixed.
Big Trouble in Little China was released on a two-disc special edition DVD set on May 22, 2001. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the DVD a "B+" rating and wrote, "The highlight of this two disc set – which also features deleted scenes, an extended ending, trailers, and a 1986 featurette – is the pitch perfect Russell and Carpenter commentary, which delves into Fox's marketing mishaps, Chinese history, and how Russell's son did in his hockey game". In his review for the Onion A.V. Club, Noel Murray wrote, "If nothing else, this is a DVD designed for Big Trouble cultists; it's packed with articles from Cinefex and American Cinematographer that only a genre geek would appreciate".
A Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
edition of the film was released on August 4, 2009. It contains the same film and features as the DVD.
At the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, Top Cow Productions
Top Cow Productions
Top Cow Productions is an American comics publisher, a partner studio of Image Comics founded by Marc Silvestri in 1992.-History:...
revealed previews of an upcoming Big Trouble in Little China comic book series. The series will be written by Evan Bleiweiss and pencilled by Jason Badower.
In 2010, CrankLeft released the first issue of a comic book sequel to the film called Jack Burton Adventures. CrankLeft released the book to the public for the first time at the Emerald City ComiCon
Emerald City ComiCon
The Emerald City Comicon is an annual comic book convention taking place in Seattle, Washington. Originally taking place at the city's Qwest Field , the venue changed to its current home at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center since 2008...
in Seattle the same year. The series is written by Ben Hodson and Brad Hodson, pencilled and inked by Chad Bever, and color by Bryant Hodson. Jack Burton Adventures is an ongoing series.
On the WWE Raw SuperShow: October 31, 2011 WWE superstar CM Punk
CM Punk
Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks , better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and working on its Raw brand currently serving his second title reign as WWE Champion....
wore the t-shirt seen in the poster to the ring
External links
- Big Trouble in Little China at John Carpenter's official website
- The Wing Kong Exchange discussion of film influence.
- Erasing Clouds retrospective article