Review for Big Trouble in Little China

Introduction

This was one of those instinctive reactions when it came to review discs. As soon as the PR e-mail dropped into my inbox, I knew that I was going to review this film. After all it’s a bona fide cult classic, a childhood favourite, a regular staple in my house as a child, when I wanted some hi-octane kung-fu action combined with a fair bit of mysticism and magic. This was long before I discovered Hong Kong cinema, and the talents of Jackie Chan, and for a while, this for me was the real thing. That it had as its lead a hero truck driver, also appealed to my innocent eyes. This is one of those films I actually wore out a couple of VHS tapes on. What I didn’t know until now, was that Big Trouble in Little China was actually a flop. It was practically movie non-grata in 1986. Reading up about it now, it transpires that John Carpenter and Kurt Russell made a movie that the studios weren’t expecting, and Twentieth Century Fox had no idea how to promote it.

Gambling is bad. Gambling is a sin. Gambling will come back to bite you, even if you win. For Jack Burton, winning a game of chance is going to get him into deeper trouble than he’s ever been in before. His friend Wang Chi owes him money, and Jack isn’t going to let him out of his sight until he pays, even if it means accompanying him to the airport to welcome his prospective bride Miao Yin. But a gang kidnap Miao Yin right out of the airport, so naturally Jack has to help Wang Chi get her back, even if it means taking his precious truck into the back alleys of Chinatown... straight into the middle of a gang war. Bullets, swords, fists and feet fly all around them, then the Three Storms show up, mystical figures who can wield the very elements. Jack and Wang Chi are lucky to escape with their lives, albeit without Miao Yin, and without his precious truck.


The reclusive businessman David Lo Pan is behind all this, although he’s no simple businessman. He’s a long-lived sorcerer who is afflicted with a curse that has rendered him immaterial. To escape his living death, he needs to marry a rare woman indeed, someone with jade green eyes. If he manages that, the curse will be broken, and he’ll be able to rule the world. Miao Yin has green eyes, and so does Gracie Law, the earnest young lawyer who was investigating the people traffickers that took Miao Yin, and who Jack took a shine to in the airport, before they were rudely interrupted by the gang. Jack wants his truck back, Wang Chi wants his fiancé back, but against Lo Pan, they’ll need a little magic of their own.

Picture

Big Trouble in Little China gets a 2.35:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution. It’s a gorgeous transfer of a classic eighties film. You’re not going to get the exaggerated clarity of a modern production, or that 3D pop that everyone looks for. But you are going to get a faithful and sympathetic reproduction of the film source, beautifully cleaned up and restored. The image is stable throughout, colours are rich and detail levels are high. There is a bit of grain as you would expect, but what this film does is bring out the best in the lavish production design, and the beautiful costumes. The effects sequences hold up surprisingly well after 27 years, and even in HD, only a few seams are visible. You can tell that this is an eighties movie though, with the villain’s lair decked out in lurid neon. I can see no way that this film could get a better presentation in HD.

Sound

You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround and PCM 2.0 Stereo English, with optional SDH subtitles. I went with the surround audio and was reasonably pleased. It’s a somewhat forced surround track, no doubt sounding contrived as it has to be up-mixed from the film’s original stereo audio track. As it is, some of the effects seemed a little blatantly placed, while low frequencies felt a little muffled, clarity at the upper end reduced, and on occasion the dialogue getting lost with it.

I watched the film with the surround re-mix, as the menu actually gives the option of the lossless surround, and a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I gave that track a try and found it to be the PCM 2.0 Stereo track instead, uncompressed audio at a generous 2.3Mb per second bitrate. I gave a couple of the film’s more strident scenes a try with that track and found it to be much more agreeable, even if it is confined to the forward soundstage. Dialogue had a little more clarity to my ears, and above all the film sounded more natural, reflecting the original stereo of the theatrical release.

Extras

This release of Big Trouble in Little China is available in two flavours, standard and steelbook, although I just got to look at the check disc. I also didn’t get to see the booklet that comes with the release. Big Trouble in Little China gets an animated menu screen, and as mentioned there is the error in the audio options.

Speaking of audio, you can hear the film’s rousing music in an Isolated Score, presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround.


This also turned out to be one of those rare films where I watch it through twice in a row, once for the movie, and once for the commentary. It’s a great conversation between Kurt Russell and director John Carpenter, although it must be noted that it is the same commentary from the 2001 special edition DVD release. There is a lot of interest to be had from the commentary, it’s friendly, jovial, and goes beyond just the scope of the film to cinema in general. It’s really two friends catching up, and they do realise that they’ve strayed from the point when they start comparing notes on what their respective kids are up to.

New to this Arrow release are a wodge load of interviews. There are recently recorded pieces with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, director of photography Dean Cundey, producer Larry Franco, and stuntman Jeff Imada, which put together run to around 1¼ hours. These are pretty candid interviews that look at the film’s reception and treatment by the studio, as well as its creation. There is also a vintage interview with Special Effects creator Richard Edlund which runs to just under 15 minutes, taken from that 2001 DVD. The latter is presented in 480i, the 2013 interviews in 1080p.

There are 8 deleted scenes on the disc with the first three present in two versions, those taken from a workprint, and those taken from a Betamax tape which run a fair bit longer. All in all there’s about another hour worth of material here.

You can also see the film’s extended ending, running to just over 3 minutes.

The Vintage featurette lasts 7½ minutes and is what passes for an EPK piece from back in 1986.

There is a Music Video for the film’s end theme lasting 3½ minutes.

There are three trailers for the film, and 7 TV Spots.

All of this latter material is presented in 480i.

In HD however is the Gallery, which has over 100 production stills, publicity shots, and behind the scenes snaps.

Conclusion

It’s been a fair number of years since I last watched Big Trouble in Little China; I was a lot younger and a lot more forgiving of eighties extravagant mediocrity. This was one movie that my mind had filed among guilty pleasures like Mannequin, Commando and Police Academy, indicative of the era, but one wholly for the nostalgia seekers. It turns out that Big Trouble in Little China is a lot better than I remember it to be, certainly more than just an opportunity to wallow in nostalgia, and very enjoyable in its own right, hero’s mullet notwithstanding.

It’s because it takes the very concept of a straightforward action movie and turns it on its head, subverts the genre without blatantly parodying it, and has a whole lot of fun along the way. Take your hero, Jack Burton, a man with a John Wayne swagger, a man who loves the sound of his own voice, a man who remains faithfully committed to his ego, despite the obvious attentions of someone like Gracie Law. He’s a take charge, do or die kind of guy, and of course he doesn’t ever realise that he’s the sidekick in this movie.


The hero of course is Wang Chi, on a mission to rescue his bride to be, Miao Yin from the lascivious clutches of the sorcerer Lo Pan. He knows the locale, the good guys from the bad, and he knows just the sort of dark magic and unearthly forces that stand in his way, but he’ll do it regardless. He carries the movie of course, but the thing is that it’s in a subtle, understated way, as it’s Jack Burton who’s blustering his way through the foreground, filling the screen with his nonplussed, heroic but out-of-his-depth visage.

The villains too shine, particularly Lo Pan, who subverts the usual expectations of a traditional fantasy villain with a modern sense of humour. He cracks wise, and has a few choice verbal quips which even outdo the odd Jack Burton one-liner. Big Trouble in Little China really was ahead of its time, not only in the way that it played fast and loose with the conventions of its genre, but by bringing a kung-fu movie infused with wushu style to the mainstream, years before Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did the same. Of course Big Trouble's action is hamstrung with its quick-cut Hollywood editing which never could get the hand of showcasing kung-fu at its best, but it still works out a lot better than Jackie Chan’s first few attempts at cracking Hollywood.


Big Trouble in Little China is a lot better than I remember it to be. Back when I first saw it as a child, I took it at face value and probably saw it the same way as the Hollywood execs saw it, albeit from the other angle. I saw it as a great action movie hobbled by an inept and long-winded lead. It took me a few viewings after that to ‘get it’ but I never really appreciated its sly humour and fresh approach to the genre as I did when I watched it last night. It really is a fun, entertaining, well paced and lively romp. And now it’s available on a great quality Blu-ray, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t give it a second chance too.