Big Trouble in Little China (5 Stars)

Usually I don't like films which have a too complex plot. I don't mean a mysterious plot or a plot that's difficult to understand. What I mean is a film with too many interlocking plots, usually involving too many characters. That's certainly the case in John Carpenter's "Big Trouble in Little China". There are so many characters with different agendas clashing together that it's difficult to remember who everyone is by the end of the film. And yet it works. The total chaos in this film makes it enjoyable.

Let me make an attempt to describe the opening scenes. It will give you an idea of the unrelated subplots melding together into a whole. Truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) makes a delivery to San Francisco's Chinatown. While there he offers to drive his friend Wang Chi to the airport to meet his fiancee, Miao Yin, who is arriving from Hong Kong. At the airport Jack sees the lawyer Gracie Law (Kim Cattrell) in the crowd and is fascinated by her beauty. While he is talking to her a gang kidnaps Miao Yin and takes her away to force her into prostitution. Jack and Wang Chi pursue them in Jack's truck, back into Chinatown, but they are blocked by a funeral procession mourning a martial arts society's leader. Another society arrives, led by a mysterious sorcerer Lo Pan, and in the ensuing battle most of the funeral party is slaughtered. Jack has to flee without his truck, and for the rest of the film getting his truck back is his main motivation.

Jack and Wang Chi find out where Miao Yin is being held and almost manage to save her, but Lo Pan's gang arrives and steals her from their grasp. We find out that Lo Pan is a 2000-year-old sorcerer who has been cursed, and he can only be cured by marrying a woman with green eyes. Miao Yin has green eyes, which is very rare for a Chinese woman. But Gracie also has green eyes.

I'll leave the description at that. You need to watch the film to find out the rest. There are far too many details to describe in this short post, even avoiding spoilers. This film is awesome. Martial arts, supernatural danger, gang warfare... the film has it all!