Big Trouble in Little China

"Jack Burton's in for some serious trouble and you're in for some serious fun."

1986 1h 40m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

★7.2TMDB · 3,522

ActionAdventureComedyFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Truck driver Jack Burton gets embroiled in a supernatural battle when his best friend Wang Chi's green-eyed fiancée is kidnapped by henchmen of the sorcerer Lo Pan, who must marry a girl with green eyes in order to return to the human realm.

“Jack Burton's in for some serious trouble and you're in for some serious fun.”

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Cast

Kurt Russell
Jack Burton
Kim Cattrall
Gracie Law
Dennis Dun
Wang Chi
James Hong
David Lo Pan
Victor Wong
Egg Shen
Kate Burton
Margo
Donald Li
Eddie Lee
Carter Huang Chia-Ta
Thunder

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John Carpenter
Writers: David Z. Weinstein, Gary Goldman
Languages: Cantonese, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 44% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

40 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Cantonese, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by John Carpenter, shot by Dean Cundey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Carpenter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Steve Mirkovich shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall and Dennis Dun carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Jack Burton's in for some serious trouble and you're in for some serious fun.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John Carpenter directs. Dean Cundey behind the camera. John Carpenter scores. Steve Mirkovich cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Cantonese, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 44% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
240 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Cantonese, English.
4Directed by John Carpenter, shot by Dean Cundey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by John Carpenter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Steve Mirkovich shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall and Dennis Dun carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Jack Burton's in for some serious trouble and you're in for some serious fun.".
9IMDB entry: tt0090728 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 14 themes, including "martial arts", "kung fu", "magic", "san francisco, california".
11Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Dean Cundey
Original score: John Carpenter
Editing: Steve Mirkovich
Production design: John J. Lloyd
Costume design: April Ferry
Makeup / hair: Ken Chase
Sound: Don J. Bassman
Stunt coordinator: Kenny Endoso
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $25,000,000
Box office: $11,102,672
Return: 44% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

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John Carpenter

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Dark Jedi2014-09-17
★ 7/10
I think this movie was marketed as an adventure movie when it came out. I can imagine that some people were disappointed if they were indeed expecting a real adventure movie. I remember being one of those people when I first saw this movie. However, if you approach it seeing what it is, that is a comedy or at least an action-comedy, then it is actually a quite enjoyable movie. The entire movie is utterly ridiculous. The screaming, posturing Asian martial art champion parodies especially so. Everything in this movie makes you laugh as long as you do not try to take the movie seriously. The action scenes are often absolutely hilarious. They are also quite well done and choreographed actually. The special effects are of course utterly outdated but they are good enough for this movie. There is a story as well but it doesn’t really matter much. It is just there to tie the funny scenes together, especially the action scenes. Acting? Well, let’s just say that it matches the comic nature of the movie. I actually just picked this movie as a trial experience in using Netflix (which finally came to France last Monday) on my PS3 for the first time and I did not want to start something were I would be pissed off if it turned out that it stopped working halfway through. I have to say that I had much more fun watching this movie this time than the first time I was watching it…and Netflix worked perfectly on my PS3.
Gimly2018-10-04
★ 6/10
Big Trouble in Little China is not the movie it is marketed to be. But it is good. You wait the ten minutes it takes for the absurdity to kick in and then you ride the ridiculous ride until the closing credits. Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.
John Chard2019-03-05
★ 8/10
Ol' Jack always says... what the hell? Out of 20th Century Fox, Big Trouble in Little China is directed by John Carpenter and stars Kurt Russell, Kim Catrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong & Victor Wong. The adaptation is by W.D. Richter with the screenplay from Gary Goldman & David Z. Weinstein. Dean Cundey photographs and Alan Howarth doubles up with Carpenter for the musical score. Truck driver Jack Burton (Russell) agrees to take his friend Wang Chi (Dun) to pick up his fiancée at the airport. Little does he know that he is about to get involved in a supernatural battle between good and evil beneath San Francisco's Chinatown district. A box office failure upon its release, and known to be the moment when John Carpenter gave up on Hollywood, Big Trouble in Little China has gathered "cult" momentum over the years and shows up rather well these days. Blending Chinese mysticism with chop-schlocky adventure, Carpenter's movie is at once daft but also a ball of energetic fun - propelled by a handsome, but inept action hero. Carpenter had always wanted to tackle a martial arts movie, and here he gets to do it whilst laying on the comedy and playing with effects work as his movie mostly comes alive in a magical underworld of monsters, magicians and sexy green eyed women. It's evident now that the film was ahead of its time, not from a technical viewpoint, but from the point it tried to Americanise chopsocky. This is some time before Chinese style wire-work and mythology became common to Hollywood, one has to believe that Tarantino was nodding approvingly around about this time. It's also worth noting that although this "American" movie has an American beefcake as its main protagonist, it's the Asian Americans who actually are the heroes of the piece, with Dun's sidekick the stand out hero as Russell's Burton bumbles his way from one sequence to the next. It was a bold move by Carpenter to structure the narrative this way, something that annoyed the executives at Fox and kept the paying public bemused. It's easy to see why the film failed, contrast it with the similarly themed Eddie Murphy movie, The Golden Child, from the same year, which was a box office success. There the public got what they wanted (or what they were used too), the standard American hero fluff where Murphy saves the day and gets the girl. Carpenter dared to be different and clearly had a lot of fun along the way, as evidently did his cast. It may have taken a decade of VHS and DVD releases to prove he was right, but right he was, Big Trouble in Little China is a damn fine popcorn movie. Russell plays it meat head style, with swagger in tow and tongue stuck in cheek, nicely toned physique for the girls to enjoy, and making vest wearing cool two years before Willis did in Die Hard. Cattrall is wonderfully alluring, red lips and green eyes shimmering bright in a world of colour; and boys do look out for her wet scene, it's wolf whistle time! Dun is likable and athletic, while Hong as Lo Pan gives the action/adventure genre a truly memorable villain. The film is briskly paced and not found wanting in the set piece department either. Not all the effects are high grade stuff, but in a film with such zestful comic book traditions at heart, it hardly matters one jot. With a great home format package doing it justice, Carpenter's movie is now, at long last, getting the appreciative audience it fully deserves. Amen to that. 8/10