When you hear the name John Carpenter, what are some of the movies that come to mind?  If you do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of his work, you might at least think of the horror genre.  Arguably his most famous film is the slasher classic Halloween (1978).  Other spooky offerings include The Fog (1980), The Thing (1982), and Christine(1983).  I have not seen any of them because of my well documented distaste for such fare.  Due to my knowledge of Carpenter’s résumé, I would not have guessed that he directed Big Trouble in Little China (1986).  It has been a while since I have seen this improbable piece of cinema, with its unique blend of Chinese culture and creature special effects.  As may be obvious, if you know Carpenter’s style, you can see his touch in the horror elements.  At the same time, there are some genuinely funny moments in it.  Perhaps I am too rigid in my thinking, but I did not expect a person who has given the world such a poorly named movies like Prince of Darkness (1987) could also make the comedy nuggets found in Big Trouble in Little China.  God does work in mysterious ways.

What is mysterious about the beginning of Big Trouble in Little China is the story being told by Egg Shen (Victor Wong) to his lawyer (Jerry Hardin).  Egg insists that magic is responsible for the destruction of a city block in San Francisco’s China Town, not truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell), who the attorney believes is the culprit.  To prove his point, Egg produces some lightning between his fingers before launching into what really happened.  As it turns out, it does start with Jack.  He gets to the City by the Bay and makes his delivery in the aforementioned part of town.  Once this is completed, he sits down for an evening of gambling with a friend and longtime client, Wang Chi (Dennis Dun).  Their gambling lasts into the morning with Jack taking a large amount of money.  In desperation, Wang asks for a double or nothing proposition that he can slice a glass bottle in half with a butcher’s knife.  When this does not happen, Jack demands the cash that Wang does not immediately possess.  Not wanting to let the debtor out of sight, Jack accompanies Wang as he heads to the airport to pick up his incoming Chinese fiancée, Miao Yin (Suzee Pai).  As they are waiting, Jack spots Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall), a lawyer known to the Chinese community.  She is there to welcome another arrival from the Far East, though Jack’s interest is in Gracie.  Before he can make a move in earnest, they are brushed past by a group of thugs that are there to kidnap Miao.  Gracie panics, thinking they are there for her, which causes enough confusion for the newcomers to make off with Miao.  Jack and Wang take to the semi to give chase, Wang trying as best he can to explain China Town’s criminal underworld to an annoyed Jack.  That underworld gets a lot stranger when their pursuit takes them down an alley.  They are halted by a funeral procession participated in by two classes of Chinese warriors known as the Chang Sing and Wing Kong.  It does not really matter who is who because both are attacked by the Lords of Death, who turn out to be the same outfit that took Miao.  The ensuing brawl is broken up by the appearance of Lighting (James Pax), Rain (Peter Kwong), and Thunder (Carter Wong).  If you can picture Raiden from the Mortal Kombat franchise, you have an idea of what these people do and how they are dressed.  Their bolts of electricity are surpassed when Lo Pan (James Hong), an ancient Chinese sorcerer and leader of the Lords of Death, enters the fray and Jack drives his truck right through him.  Jack and Wang are eventually forced to flee on foot, taking refuge in Wang’s restaurant.  As they try to figure out how to rescue Miao from Lo Pan, they receive some reinforcement from two different sources.  The first comes from Gracie and her journalist friend Margo Litzenberger (Kate Burton), who believes doing a story on the odd goings-on in China Town will be her big break.  The other is Egg, who reinforces the notion that there is magic at play, and helps them devise a plan to infiltrate Lo Pan’s headquarters.  Their first attempt involves using Jack to get into the brothel where they suspect Miao is being held, but he is recognized by Thunder and Miao is moved to Lo Pan’s subterranean hideout.  Jack and Wang bluster their way past the security guards to get into Lo Pan’s lair, but eventually need saving when they are caught by the guards.  It is Gracie, Margo, and Wang’s friend Eddie Lee (Donald Li) that do the saving, taking with them several enslaved women, but Gracie is captured on the way out.  Like Miao, Gracie has green eyes, and Lo Pan plans to marry both of them so that he can regain his youthful (and solid) appearance, thus breaking a curse that keeps him being incorporeal.  Because of this, Egg opts to personally enter the fray, prepared to take on his familiar foe.  There is also something about keeping the status quo that pertains to Chinese history in some way, but frankly I did not totally follow this plot line.  Anyway, our band Scooby Doo’s their way down to where the wedding is taking place, dodging a number of creatures and other bad guys along the way.  There are fisticuffs, fantastical and realistic, that basically end with Jack throwing a knife that imbeds itself in Lo Pan’s head.  With this, Jack gets back on the road, though the end sees one of Lo Pan’s monsters hanging on to the back of his rig.

With magic and monsters being a major part of Big Trouble in Little China’s plot, there are amble places to focus my Catholic analysis.  At the same time, that is all a little too obvious.  To say that the Church is against sorcery is to state a well-established fact.  This is not without reason.  Can God allow people to perform the kinds of feats we see here?  Of course He can.  As the Creator of the universe, God is capable of anything.  The problem is desiring the power to do what cannot be done with our mortal bodies.  Those who meddle with forces beyond them tend to do so because they desire control over something that is best left to God’s purview.  You can, however, ask God for some kind of miracle with the understanding that, if granted, it is God’s will that it be so, not our own.  When we pray, it is about us being transformed, not transforming the world around us.  What is slightly more ephemeral about what you see in the movie is Wang’s periodic discussion of his spirit.  Early on, particularly in the wake of Miao’s abduction, he claims that his spirit is going in opposite directions.  As events progress and his purpose becomes clearer, he says that it is more in line.  This echoes more Eastern philosophy, with concepts like the life force known as “chi” playing a role.  It is his last name, after all.  In any case, he posits that with his spirit in harmony he is capable of incredible acts.  While watching this, I was trying to come up with a Catholic equivalent, and there is none that come to mind.  Chi is a concept that comes from Taosim, which is a separate religion.  I am all for ecumenicism, but chi is not meant to be anything having to do with God. Therein lies the rub because it is God that animates us, not some Force-like mystical energy that supposedly resides in us.  It is not our souls, either.  We do not use our souls in the same way a Taoist might balance their chi, as it were.  Further, delving into such practices could lead one down the path of the kinds of things we discussed in the first half of this paragraph.  Instead, it is better to leave well enough alone and trust in God.

While I am not thrilled with the aspects of Big Trouble in Little China covered in the previous paragraph, it should be noted that this is a fun movie.  If you have difficulty with Chinese myths, then pretend that it is a fantasy film, not unlike anything you would see in Star Wars.  Because it never takes itself too seriously, it gets a cautious recommendation.