Big Trouble In Little China - Special Edition
After hauling a load of pigs to market in his huge semi-trailer, the Pork Chop Express, good ol' boy trucker, Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) gets involved way over his head when he gives his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) a ride to the airport to collect his fiancée. When she's kidnapped by a bunch of thugs called the Lords of....
After hauling a load of pigs to market in his huge semi-trailer, the Pork Chop Express, good ol' boy trucker, Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) gets involved way over his head when he gives his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) a ride to the airport to collect his fiancée. When she's kidnapped by a bunch of thugs called the Lords of Death, from right under their noses, the friends give chase into Chinatown and end up smack bang in the middle of a Chinese gang war battle.
The battle is ended with the intervention of the three Storms, legendary supernatural warriors with the power of rain, thunder and lightning, and a seven-foot tall sorcerer called David Lo Pan (James Hong). In the melee, Jack loses his truck and the pair team up with local attorney Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall); tour bus driver Egg Shen (Victor Wong), who seems to know an awful lot about Chinese magic; Margo Litzenberger (Kate Burton), an inexperienced reporter and Wang's friend, Eddie Lee (Donald Li). Together they do battle with the minions on Lo Pan in the search for Jacks' truck and Wang Chi's bride to be.
This is an action, adventure, comedy, kung-fu ghost story about an imaginary world that exists under San Francisco's Chinatown although the story is based on actual Chinese mythology. Lo Pan, a sorcerer cursed by the first Emperor of China over 2,000 years ago to walk the earth as a ghost, can only be restored to his physical body by finding and marrying a green-eyed Chinese girl. Now there's not many of them around but guess who fits the bill? Now the only hope Wang Chi has to rescue her and ultimately save the Earth from the ravages of a rejuvenated Lo Pan is with the help of an old man, three rookies and Jack, a man too stupid to realise what he's gotten himself into.
Review
At last this classic, almost cult film from 1986 gets onto DVD and they've put a reasonable amount of effort into making it a good package unlike some older, back catalogue to DVD productions. The picture is presented as 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer and is pretty good all round with solid colours and detail. The sound, while basically pretty good is presented only in Dolby Digital 4.1, which has no front centre channel. This is a bit disappointing considering the Region 1 release got a DTS mix but nevertheless, the 4.1 mix manages the job and handles Carpenter's excellent music score pretty well.
As for the movie, this is John Carpenter at his peak giving us another B movie masterpiece like Dark Star and Escape From New York. Russell plays the lead character as an overly macho, John Wayne wannabe - way out of his depth and with a constant stream of terrible one-liners, which results in him being pretty much the comic relief while Dennis Dun plays the films true hero as the man with the quest. Dun handles himself pretty well in the fight sequences with the serious martial arts talents of Carter Wong (one time martial arts instructor for the Royal Hong Kong Police Department) and Peter Kwong. Long experienced Chinese character actors James Hong and Victor Wong give excellent performances as Lo Pan and Egg Shen and Cattrall, whom you'll probably have seen a lot more of lately in Sex In The City, adds the love interest and some eye candy. Kate Burton and Donald Li also give good supporting performances as well.
You might cringe at some of the visual effects but bear in mind that the film is almost 20 years old and they didn't have the kind of CG capabilities and miniature electronics available today. That said, some of the effects are still pretty good, e.g. the flood of light from Lo Pan's head being achieved using a 1000 watt lamp inside a model of his head.
The movie bombed at the box office, probably because the audiences and critics misunderstood the fact that it's a really a comedy at heart and didn't follow the expected rules for movies at that time. It doesn't take itself seriously so don't expect to find any depth or hidden meanings in this movie, it's purely for fun so just switch off your brain and enjoy it for what it is - an off the wall joyride into fantasy. As Jack Burton says: "Honey, I never drive faster than I can see, and besides... it's all in the reflexes."
Extras
This Special Edition is a two-disc production so there are loads of extras…
Feature Commentary - by director John Carpenter and star, Kurt Russell. The two obviously get along pretty well given their history and this shows here. A very entertaining commentary with some really good banter, not always all about the movie, between the pair that almost always ends with Russell falling around laughing.
Trailers - A full US theatrical trailer, a US preview trailer and a Spanish version of the full trailer.
Deleted Scenes - Over 45 minutes of deleted and extended sequences culled from early work prints and some lower quality Betamax video transfers. There are six main sequences and a final montage of miscellaneous shots - Airport/Chinatown, The Dragon of the Blood Pool, The White Tiger, Gracie's Office, Thunder's Tour, Lava Sequence and Six Demon Bag. Each has a brief text introduction and, where only partial video material was available, you are given the option of viewing the work print or video version. In one case you also get the option of viewing the storyboard as well.
Extended Ending - An extra three minutes that takes place after they break out of the Wing Kong Exchange and where Jack takes care of some addition business.
Production Notes - A series of about 28 text pages taken from the 1986 theatrical press kit.
Music Video - An absolutely awful three and a half minute video featuring the Coupe De Villes - John Carpenter, Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace reminding us why most 80's videos were so bad and best forgotten.
Featurette - A short, seven and a half minute piece on the making of the movie. It's mostly shot on set as interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Dennis Dunn, Kim Cattrall, James Hong as well as bits with visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund and costume designer April Ferry.
Cast and Crew - A series of filmography pages on John Carpenter and some of the cast.
Magazine Articles - Two full, in depth articles from a couple of technically oriented film industry magazines, reprinted with embedded stills and movie clips. The stills, when available, can be expanded to full frame if desired.
- American Cinematographer, June 1986 - Fairly long and involved, including an interview with cinematographer Dean Cundey (Apollo 13, Jurassic Park and almost all Carpenter movies)
- Cinefex, November 1986 - A huge piece, with its own 13 part index, on how some of the visual effects were created.
Richard Edlund Interview - A reasonably interesting 13 minute long interview with visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund (Ghostbusters, Die Hard, 2010, Poltergeist, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many more) on how they did some of the effects using models, animatronics and prosthetics. This is accompanied by a series of behind the scenes stills that can either be viewed in a small window alongside Edlund or full frame.
Still Gallery - About 200 pretty good quality images of the cast, behind the scenes, set dressing, make up, creatures, artwork, etc. I don't usually like image galleries but this one is better than most.
Overview
A good package all round - an excellent comedy movie with a whole load of extras to pad out the evening's viewing with a few more beers. Okay, the extras are a bit more quantity than quality but it's still a worthy addition to anyone's collection and a must for any Carpenter fans.
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