'' is a
1986 Comedy /
Action Film ,
Directed by
John Carpenter and starring
Kurt Russell and
Kim Cattrall , set in
San Francisco 's
Chinatown .
Kurt Russell plays
Jack Burton , a likeable but clueless
Truck Driver , who, together with his friend Wang Chi (
Dennis Dun ), must save Gracie Law (
Kim Cattrall ) and Wang Chi's
Fiancée , Miao Yin (
Suzee Pai ), from an ancient and evil
Chinese Sorcerer , David Lo Pan (
James Hong ). Along the way, he encounters many battles and many opportunities to display comic machismo.
Although
Jack Burton is the main character from the point of view of those watching the film, and although he clearly considers himself the hero of the story, it can be argued that he is actually the
Sidekick of the real hero, his friend Wang Chi.
Centuries ago, warrior Lo Pan was defeated in battle and cursed to be of no flesh: essentially a ghost. Although he can be temporarily granted a decrepit body by supplication to the gods, in order to permanently break the curse and regain his human form he must marry a woman with green eyes. Incredibly, he stumbles across two such women almost simultaneously: Miao Yin and Gracie Law. Wang and Burton are aided by a Chinese street gang called the Chang Sing, a bus-driving magician named Egg Shen (
Victor Wong ), and Eddie Lee (
Donald Li ), a friend of Wang Chi. Lo Pan is served by an opposing gang, the Wing Kong, and three mystical henchmen named Thunder, Rain, and Lightning.
''Big Trouble in Little China'' was originally written as a period Western set in the 1880s with Jack Burton as a cowboy who rides into town. Producer Paul Monash bought Gary Goldman and David Weinstein's screenplay but after a reading he found that it was virtually unfilmable due to the bizarre mix of Chinese mythology and the Wild West setting. He had the two first-time screenwriters do a rewrite, but Monash still didn't like it.
The producer decided against having Goldman and Weinstein do additional rewrites because they didn't want to upgrade the story to a contemporary setting and felt that they had done their best. Keith Barish and Monash brought in
W. D. Richter , a veteran script doctor (and director of cult film
The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai ) to extensively rewrite the script. Almost everything in the original screenplay was discarded except for Lo Pan's story. Barish and Monash offered Carpenter the movie in July of
1985 . After reading Richter's script he decided to direct.
Carpenter made his own additions to Richter's screenplay which included strengthening Gracie Law's role and linking her to
Chinatown , removing a few action sequences (due to budgetary restrictions), and eliminating material deemed offensive to Chinese Americans. Carpenter was disappointed that Richter didn't receive a proper screenwriting credit on the movie for all of his hard work. A ruling by the
Writer's Guild Of America gave Goldman and Weinstein sole credit.
Problems began to arise when Carpenter learned that the next
Eddie Murphy vehicle,
The Golden Child (1986), featured a similar theme and was going to be released near the same time as ''Big Trouble''. Ironically, Carpenter was asked by
Paramount Pictures to direct ''The Golden Child''. To avoid being wiped out by the bigger star's film (something that had happened before with
The Thing being released two weeks after
E.T. in 1982), Carpenter began shooting ''Big Trouble'' in October 1985 so that
20th Century Fox could open the film in July 1986 - a full five months before ''The Golden Child'''s release. This forced the filmmaker to shoot the film in 15 weeks with a $25 million budget.
Carpenter surrounded himself with a seasoned crew from his previous films. He reunited with three long-time collaborators, line producer Larry J. Franco (
Starman ), production designer John Lloyd (
The Thing ), and cinematographer Dean Cundey. ''Big Trouble'' also saw Carpenter re-team with his old friend actor Kurt Russell, who has appeared in several of the director's films, most notably
Escape From New York and ''The Thing''. Carpenter only saw Russell as Jack Burton and could think of nobody better to play him. Yet Fox wanted to cast a big star like
Clint Eastwood or
Jack Nicholson to compete with ''Golden Child'''s casting of Eddie Murphy. However, both Eastwood and Nicholson were busy and Carpenter suggested his first and only choice convincing them he was an up-and-coming star.
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 wasn't crazy about the idea because at the time Cattrall was primarily known for raunchy comedies like
Porky's (1981) and
Police Academy (1984).
- Egg Shen's bus tour agency Egg Fu Yong is actually named from a Chinese Cuisine with the same name. Egg Fu Yong is a broth covered dish made primarily of eggs.
- The final storm ("Lightning") dies when Egg Shen drops a stone Buddha sculpture on him. Upon the Lightning's death, bolts of electricity surge through the air. If you look closely, you will notice that the last few lightning bolts form Chinese symbols. These symbols read "Carpenter", referring to John Carpenter, the director of the film.
- The machine gun used by Jack Burton and shown on the movie poster is actually a remodeled Carl Gustaf M/45 made for the film.
- In World Of Warcraft , there is a rare item called a "six-demon bag," whose name and description come from the movie. It blasts enemies in front of the player "with the power of wind, fire, all that kind of thing" (a line of dialogue in the film). There is also an area in Deadwind Pass with an unopened dungeon in it, when viewed in an external map viewer an area of this dungeon is called "The Upside Down Sinners" - it is an underwater area with upside down chained corpses.
- The credited Associate Producers of this film were James Lew and Jeff Imada , who each portrayed characters in this film in association with their producer duties.
