Case Study : Big Trouble In Little China
Dir : John Carpenter
As a huge fan of cinema, I have a lot of favorite films from a spectrum of genres, from classic epics like Seven Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia, to modern masterpieces like the Iron Giant, Prisoners, and Drive. But one movie that people would not expect me to adore is John Carpenter’s 1986 mystical action epic Big Trouble in Little China. There are usually two trains of thought after reading that I’d put a generic 80’s action comedy up there with the greatest films of all time. First if you haven’t seen the movie and I’m introducing you for the first time. Or secondly that you have already blocked me out because you have seen the film and thought Kurt Russell is a generic American macho man and the I’m obviously an idiot for liking this film as much as I do. But let me present you with this idea Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is not the main character and that the whole film is an allegory for whitewashing in our culture. The real hero is Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), Jack’s Chinese friend that drags him into his own situation. But John Carpenter’s fantastic direction causes the audience to objectively look at the story through Jack’s American perspective on the situation making him the center of the story just like how Americans see themselves and their country as the center of the world.
Often in the film Jack is constantly messing up and leading to some of the most comedic moments in the film(Youtube Example). For example during the final battle between our heroes and the Chinese storm gods, Jack to show his masculinity fires his gun up in the air to begin the charge, shooting the cement arch above him, this act results in the ceiling falling on Jack and knocking him out for the charge. This is not the actions of a hero, showing Jack is not the hero. Wang is constantly the savior and always saves Jack. Jacks only accidentally helps by being a klutz, like when escaping imprisonment jack is stuck on a wheelchair rolling down a corridor when two goons appear ready to gun them down but Jack rolls right into them saving the day.
This films Misc-en-scene is heavily influenced by Chinese culture, this is because it is all taking place in little china, and the mythology is heavily rooted in Asian cultures. Gods are real, Dark Magic is used, and creatures roam the corridors. The reason this setting is important to the story is it helps the audience feel foreign to the culture, you don’t know why all of this is happening or how, just like Jack. In the film the ditsy American news reporter Gracie Law(Jacks love interest and fellow American in the film) asks Uncle Cho about if this god is “A Ghost?” because that is the only thing she can closely relate to what is happening and Uncle Cho Replies “A creature of vast, dark, destructive power” dumbing down his answer to help Gracie understand, a quick cut jumps to Jack and Wang trapped and a water filled room with corpses chained underwater, Jack frantically asks “Jesus Christ! Where are we?” flailing around, Wang calmly responds “Hell of the Upside-down sinners” this explanation of his culture parallels the explanation to Gracie from the previous scene, both Americans are learning what these places and people are as the audience does. As Americans, a lot of us can see ourselves in Jack and Gracie making them more relatable and great vessels for the story.
This movie also plays with racial expectations, in the conflict that moves the story forward at the start of the film two rival Chinese gangs clash, and in the moment before the conflict Carpenter makes us think that there is going to be this grand display of Kung-Fu and sword fighting, but a man appears with two bandoleers and revolvers around the waist like a Leone western character, then the standoff is broken by a machine gun mowing down rival gang members. This break in expectation helps the film avoid bastardizing major stereotypes while still successfully exploring a culture from a foreign perspective. Films like Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola have been based in a foreign setting but remain their central American style story about something else, But Big Trouble in Little China Faces this head on in a grand clash of culture in an engaging way that isn’t condescending to other cultures, but commenting on ours.
Pinning down a single genre to Big Trouble is quite difficult. Yes, it is an action adventure much like a lot of 80s movies, but it also combines Fantasy, Comedy, Science fiction, Romance, Classic Hong Kong cinema, kung Fu, and Horror. Carpenter has never been categorized by one genre although his roots are in Horror with movies like Halloween and The Thing. The chaotic nature of the movie not knowing exactly what it is, adds to the audience’s confusion of the events unfolding. The characters can walk through a door or around a street corner and the tone of the film can shift dramatically. An example from the film of this is when Jack and Wang around a corner in their truck in the heart of Chinatown resulting in them being caught in the Chinese standoff mentioned earlier. Turning from a mystery of them trying to find a missing girl, to a full-on action spectacle, then the three storm gods appear and it becomes a mystical fantasy folktale. This sense of chaos adds to the films purposeful foreignness to the audience. Never does this slow the films tempo either. It becomes obstacles and U-turns that drive the character’s actions in a thrilling unconventional way.
If you ever need a fun movie on Netflix that your friends will be able to sit through without rolling their eyes of falling asleep, and you want to watch a film that subverts expectations and blends culture, look no further.
Resources:
Big Trouble In Little China. Dir. John Carpenter. Twentieth Century Fox. 1986. Film.
Barsam, Richard Meran., Prof., and Dave Monahan, Prof. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 5th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2016. Print.