You know what ol’ Jack Burton says at a time like this
I was in the mood for something lighthearted yesterday, but it’s still a little too early in the season (in my opinion) for Tim Burton. So I did something a little roundabout. John Carpenter is perhaps best known for Halloween, The Thing, and They Live, the former two being some of the classic 80s horror films and the latter being equally classic but less horror. He’s also gotten accolades for Escape from New York, one of my personal favorite action films. But my favorite John Carpenter film, and the film I watched yesterday, is one that’s generally seen as too campy for the average audience: Big Trouble in Little China.
Truthfully, I don’t understand the hate this film gets at all! Yes, it does have some awkward lines and some stiff acting. And yes, the visual effects don’t age well if you’re watching a non-remastered version, which honestly is just a reason for you to go out and get the remastered version because it is so pretty. And yes, perhaps some of the cultural content isn’t handled as politically correctly as it could be. But overall this film is fun, and that’s what I really want out of a movie.
Take Kurt Russell, for instance. When I think of Kurt Russell, I don’t think of Snake Plissken like most do. I think of Jack Burton, his character in Big Trouble in Little China. He has some of the best one-liners in history, and yes, that includes both The Princess Bride and the better Marvel lines. This is one of the few films in which I appreciate relatively sprawling and labyrinthine sets. Normally I end up getting lost when the filmmakers don’t intend it; I find myself asking, “What country are we even in at this point?” (See: Taken.) But to a certain degree you’re supposed to get lost in Chinatown and Lo Pan’s lair. And there are some monsters and references that don’t get addressed. There’s a fair amount of untranslated Chinese. But Jack Burton is the main character, and Jack isn’t Chinese. We’re collectively a fish out of water; we’re not supposed to understand everything. And that’s okay! That’s part of the charm.
Another thing I appreciate on a personal level is the character of Gracie Law. A strong-willed female lead who both is and isn’t a love interest, who muscles her way in to situations she shouldn’t necessarily be in, achieving what she wants to but also suffering consequences in a well-rounded way. In short, she’s the female character women want when they ask for “strong female leads.” And incidentally, Big Trouble in Little China passes the Bechdel test! (Although I don’t much care for the test personally, but that’s a story for another day.)
Anyway, if you haven’t seen the film, you may be wondering where the creep factor comes from. Big Trouble in Little China is a story about Chinese black magic, about ancient legends and evil spirits. There’s sorcery, magical brainwashing/hypnotism, people throwing lightning and people exploding, but also some very grounded non-magical human issues dealt with in a few very subtle ways. But at the end of the day, it’s really a story about a man and his truck.