30 Things You Might Not Know About Big Trouble In Little China
Seeing as Big Trouble in Little China celebrated its 30th anniversary recently I thought it would be a good idea to celebrate this occasion by giving you 30 facts about the movie that you might not know…
1. The original Story Was Written as a Western
THat’s right! Originally Big Trouble in Little China was written as a westernbut it was later changed to a modern setting. When the script was offered to John Carpenter as a western in July 1985 he stated “Outrageously unreadable though it had many interesting elements”. The script did include a scene where Jack Burton had his horse stolen, this was replaced by a truck when the script was changed.
2. John Carpenter Always Wanted Kurt
Kurt Russell was always the number one choice for John Carpenter to play the role of Jack Burton, however the studio wanted Jack Nicholson or Clint Eastwood. Fortunately both were unavailable for the film so Carpenter managed to get Kurt, who turned down the role of Connor MacLeod in Highlander for the part. This would be the fourth time the pair had worked together, the previous movies were Elvis (1979), Escape from New York (1981) and The Thing (1982). They would go on to work together one more time in Escape from L.A. (1996).
3. He Also Wanted Jackie
John Carpenter was a fan of martial arts films and wanted Jackie Chan, who was a huge star at the time in Hong Kong, to play the role of Wang Chi after seeing him in movies including Battle Creek Brawl (1980) and Police Story (1985). Producer Lawrence Gordon was against the idea of bringing him in. Jackie Chan turned down the role after his previous bad experience in Hollywood and Dennis Dunn was eventually cast for the role.
4. The Studio Wanted Jack Burton to Be The Hero
John Carpenter claims 20th Century Fox executives requested an opening scene be placed in the movie in order to make Jack Burton look more heroic. Apparently the studio didn’t get the fact that Jack Burton was the bumbling sidekick and Wang Chi was the hero in the movie. They thought it was necessary to place a scene at the start to establish Jack as a hero. This is why we have the opening scene with Egg Shen in the lawyer’s office. John Carpenter intended to start the movie with Jack driving his truck to San Francisco.
5. The Hidden Message in the Symbols
The Chinese symbols we see in the main title of the movie translates to “Evil Spirits Make a Big Scene in Little Spiritual State”.
6. Kurt Russell Had To Learn to Drive A Truck
John Carpenter wanted Kurt Russell to be able to drive the Pork Chop Express so had him learn to drive the semi truck. When your watching the movie a lot of the scenes has Kurt driving the truck. In the DVD commentary to the movie Kurt Russell joked that while driving he was terrified of hurting someone, Carpenter claimed he was more worried about him breaking the truck!
7. Miao Yin’s Name
In the film Wang Chi’s fiance who comes over to America is called Miao Yin. The name “Miao Yin” roughly translates to “cat-like”.
8. Nobody Had Green Eyes
One of the main plot points in the movie is that Lo Pan can only marry a girl with green eyes which is the reason why Gracie Law and Miao Yin are kidnapped. However in real life both Kim Cattrall and Suzee Pai, who play the characters, both have brown eyes. During filming they both had to wear green contact lenses. At the time this was not noticeable but watching the movie today on Blu-ray in high-definition makes this pretty obvious.
9. This is Where John Carpenter First Met Jeff Imada
During the filming of Big Trouble in Little China John Carpenter first met Jeff Imada, who played Needles, one of the gang members in the film. During filming Imada would go behind the camera and look at the work to see if there was a way to improve or change things to make it look better. John Carpenter was so impressed that he has used him as the stunt coordinator in all of his films since.
10. The Studio Also Intefered With The Alleyway Scene
Originally John Carpenter wanted the two gangs in the alleyway fight scene to look the same so you couldn’t tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. This was because we were watching the movie through Jack Burton’s eyes. The studio didn’t like this idea and unfortunately the studio won this fight. Carpenter had to dress the gangs differently so the audience would know that the good guys were in light colors and the bad guys were in dark colors. Additional dialogue was also added just in case this didn’t already make it clear enough.
11. The Gangs Were Based on Real Life Gangs
The Chang Sing’s and the Wing Kong Tongs were based on two rival gangs that really existed in New York’s Chinatown in the early 20th Century. The gangs were called the Hip Sing’s and the On Leong tong’s, even the names sound similar. The murdered gang leader, Lem Mee is also likely a reference to Tom Lee, leader of the On Leong Tong. The gang also had a front as a merchant association.
12. Thunder Worked With The Police
John Carpenter stated on the DVD commentary that Carter Wong, who played Thunder, one of the three storms, worked as a martial arts instructor with the Hong Kong Police Force.
13. The History of The Knives
When the three storms first attack with short knives, Thunder calls them “Hui Huan Dou”, the translation for this is Soul-Returning Blades. The knives are in fact Nepalese Kukri and were made famous by the Gurkha’s who used them in the British Indian Army.
14. The Italian Dub Was Changed
For some strange reason the Italian dubbing of the movie has been slightly changed. In one scene where Egg Shen states “Yeah, and a wise man has enough sense to get in out of the rain!” has been changed to make it look like Jack Burton’s line instead.
15. Kurt Russell Re-Used an Old Costume
When Kurt Russell goes to the brothel in disguise looking for a girl with green eyes, in an attempt to rescue Miao Yin, he is wearing the exact same outfit that he wore in the 1980 film ‘Used Cars’.
16. Kurt Was Ill During Filming
During filming for the movie Kurt Russell was ill with a very bad case of the flu. He was running a high fever and was sweating profusely, so all the sweat that we see on the character was real.
17. Egg Shen’s Bus Is Still Used Today
The tourist bus Egg Shen drives during the movie is a 1936 White touring car. The characters on the front of the bus say “Uncle Egg’s Tours Guarantee a Good Time”. The vehicle is still in use today being used at Yellowstone National Park, which was what it was originally intended for. The bus is called ‘Hollywood’ and gives tours out of Old Faithful. Next time your there makes sure you grab a picture!
18. Filming The Floating Eyeball Was Hard
One of the most difficult effects to achieve was the floating eyeball that appears towards the end of the movie. The eyeball was powered by several puppeteers using dozens of cables to control its facial movements. The scene was shot with a special matting system built specifically for this project.
19. Miao Yin’s Pain At The Weding Was Real
During the wedding ceremony Lo-Pan is trying to stick the ‘Needle of Love’ in Miao Yin. James Hong, who played Lo-Pan, actually tried too hard and hurt Suzee Pai, who played Miao Yin. Watching the movie you can see her flinch from the pain as he does it.
20. There’s A Secret Easter Egg in The Movie
When Lightning, one of the three storms, is killed at the end of the movie lightning flashes on the screen. Some of this lightning forms a small Chinese symbol as it disappears, the symbol translates to Carpenter.
21. John Carpenter Used Some Secret Indie Filmmking Techniques
In the final battle sequence most of the stunts were performed using a trampoline instead of wire-work. A great tip for anybody out there making films on a tight budget.
22. John Carpenter Created A Band For The Theme Song
The song that plays during the end credits is sung by ‘The Coupe De Villes‘. This is a band consisting of John Carpenter, Nick Castle (a close friend of Carpenters who played Michael Myers in the original Halloween) and Tommy Lee Wallace, who was second unit director on Big Trouble in Little China.
23. Post Production Was Only Four Month
According to director John Carpenter, the post production process on this movie was a mere four months.
24. 20th Century Fox Did Not Promote The Film
During the test screening of the movie the feedback was extremely positive and both Kurt Russell and John Carpenter thought they had a major hit on their hands. Unfortunately 20th Century Fox did very little promotion or marketing for the movie claiming they did not know how to promote it. This meant that nobody knew about it and the movie had a very poor return at the box office. The film was also released 16 days before the much-hyped Aliens which didn’t help. Fortunately the movie did very well in the video market once it had a home release and helped it to become a cult favorite.
25. Big Trouble in Little China Made John Carpenter Return To Independent Filmmaking
John Carpenter returned to making independent films after the release of Big Trouble in Little China. Carpenter claimed he had such a bad experience making the movie due to the interference from the studio head Lawrence Gordon. His next movies were ‘Prince of Darkness’ released in 1987 and ‘They Live’ released in 1988. Both were distributed by Universal Pictures but they were made independently through Alive films, without any studio interference.
26. Janet Jackson Used The Set
When the film was finished Janet Jackson used the set from Big Trouble in Little China for her music video ‘When I Think of You’.
27. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Parodied The Movie
An episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles released in 2014, called A Chinatown Ghost Story, parodies the movie. James Hong even provided the voice of a character that closely resembled Lo-Pan called Ho-Chan.
28. Zach Braff Dressed As Jack Burton For Halloween
In 2014 Kate Hudson hosted a Halloween party. Zach Braff attended dressed as Jack Burton and managed to grab a picture with Kurt Russell who was also attending.
29. Raiden Is Inspired By The Three Storms
The Raiden character in the Mortal Kombat video game series was inspired by the three storms from Big Trouble in Little China. The game took the straw hat and the ability to control lightning with his hands.
30. We Are Getting A Remake
A remake is currently being developed and is set to star Dwayne Johnson.
Well, there you go, 30 facts you might not know about Big Trouble in Little China. Hopefully there were at least a few in there that you didn’t know. If there are any good facts that I have missed off please let me know in the comments below…
