10 Things You Didn’t Know About Big Trouble in Little China

Big Trouble in Little China finds itself firmly locked into my favorite films of all time. I adore everything about it. At this point in my life, John Carpenter can pretty much do no wrong and I dare you to watch Kurt Russell and not find him as one of the more likeable dudes in Hollywood. It’s really just icing on the cake for me that this movie also has some series martial arts action and features some of my favorites in James Hong, Al Leong, and James Lew. What more can I say?

So it should come as no surprise to you that I jumped at the opportunity to pop in my Blu-ray and enjoy the movie once again with director Carpenter and star Russell on the commentary. As far as these things go, this one didn’t reveal a treasure trove of information that you might not already know but you can’t not enjoy hearing these two chat it up for the better part of 2 hours. Check out this edition of 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Big Trouble in Little China.

1. The sequence at the beginning of the movie with Egg Shen (Victor Wong) being questioned about the events that are soon to happen was added at the request of 20 Century Fox. They were worried that Jack Burton didn’t seem like much of a hero (oh gee, you don’t say?) and that he wasn’t very good at much. Apparently, they never understood that Jack was the sidekick all along.

2. The movie was originally written as a Western. Jack Burton was a wandering cowboy whose horse was taken. It was still to take place in San Francisco but it was John Carpenter who decided to place it in present day SF instead. W.D. Richter was responsible for much of the written changes.

3. Kurt Russell was worried about starring in the movie since he hadn’t had much success when headlining films. In the end, he turned down the lead role in Highlander to take on the role of Jack Burton.

4. The Asian community was very pissed off at John Carpenter for using Asian stereotypes in the movie. They thought they were being exploited by the movie production. Carpenter was a massive fan of Chinese films and was really hurt by their reaction. He went to his Asian actors which comprised of most of the cast to find out what he was doing wrong and they said “nothing”.

5. Kurt Russell’s attire was mostly stuff that he happened upon at random stores. The moccasins were found at a shop in Colorado and the tank top was discovered in a storefront. They bought the shirt and had a bunch of copies made for the production. Kurt Russell also learned to drive the truck for the film and many of the scenes of him driving are legit.

6. Carter Wong, who played Thunder, trained with the Hong Kong Police Force.

7. The weird floating eyeball guy was an expensive endeavor. It cost upwards of $100,000 to build. The eyes and the little extending parts were all animatronic and took several people to fully operate.

8. Kurt Russell and John Carpenter both accept that the film had a tough road ahead. It was a combination of so many genres that they weren’t surprised that Fox had a tough time marketing the movie to audiences. They had never seen the leading star play the sidekick and the movie really puzzled the execs with its use of Chinese lore and magic.

9. The studio only spent about $3 million on marketing and most of that was in newspaper print. It’s often believed that this spelled doom for the film theatrically.

10. The 3 Storms came from the film Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx. The costumes that they wore had to constantly be adjusted as some of their scenes and movements just couldn’t be done with the bulkier bits they were wearing. Peter Kwong (Rain) stated his favorite part was wearing the long wig even though he had to sit for 3 hours each day to get in and out of it.