Big Trouble in Little China is free to watch on YouTube right now, so I took a little walk down memory lane and yes this movie holds up. I was 15 in 1986 when this box office bomb now cult classic came out, and I loved it then and now.
Originally written as a “weird Western” set in the 1880s, rewrites moved the setting to modern day San Francisco China Town and turned it into an urban fantasy action comedy. Because of this movie, I visited that area in the 1990s, though most of the film was actually shot in Los Angeles. I’d hoped to have a Little China adventure of my own.
Director John Carter previously worked with star Kurt Russell on Escape From New York and The Thing, both classics that inspired a generation of Gen-X video game developers. Echoes of these movies can be seen in games like Among Us, Dead Space, Starfield, Fallout and the Metal Gear series, and in anything inspired by William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, which took some inspiration from Escape From New York.
“One of Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima’s favorite movies is Escape from New York and he has often confessed its influence on his series, from sharing protagonists named Snake to having his characters infiltrating impenetrable fortresses.” – Screen Rant
Big Trouble in Little China featured a cast of talented Asian-American actors, including Victor Wong (Tremors, The Golden Child, The Last Emperor), James Hong (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Wayne’s World 2, Kung Fu Panda), and Chao Li Chi (Falcon Crest, The Joy Luck Club, The Prestige).
Check it out while it’s free on YouTube, I highly recommend it.
~ J.L. Hilton
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