Big Trouble In Little China
A Jungian Analysis of The 1986 Film
[Plot spoilers ahead]: The nemesis of the film Big Trouble in Little China, Lo-Pan, is a man in search for immortality and the power to rule the world, he is living in modern day San Francisco Chinatown, yet his story starts in ancient China where he was cursed after losing a battle to Emperor Qin Shi Huang, and he was cursed with “no-flesh.” The patron deity of Lo-Pan, whom Lo-Pan serves, is Ching Dai, which is a corruption of the term Shang Di(that refers to The Celestial Emperor who some have likened to God). A cadre of criminal soldiers serve Lo-Pan.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Big_Trouble_in_Little_China
In order to be granted immortality he must break the curse of ‘no flesh’ by appeasing the Emperor, and he as well must appease his god Ching Dai. To appease his god he must marry a woman with green eyes, yet to appease the emperor he must sacrifice her, and that becomes the basis of the unfolding of the plot. The story begins to unfold at the San Francisco airport where Wang Chi and his Western friend Jack are there to meet Miao Yin, a Chinese girl with green eyes, arriving from China. However before they can join together, Miao Yin is abducted by a Chinatown gang called Lords of Death, taking her to a brothel in Chinatown.
Analysis of this segment: The search for immortality in China, xian, is not done by a nemesis, but rather by heroes: hence the Xianxia genre of Chinese movies, immortal heroes. Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, was actually on a quest for immortality, in history. Hence placing the immortal quest in a nemesis would link this desire to something seen as suppressed within The Western Psyche, BTLC being a Western movie.
[Above movie poster for Immortal Stone of Nirvana, a movie in The Martial Universe series.] Every Pagan God has a consort, a female Goddess they are paired with who is of equal value and power. The principle of Lo-Pan needing to appease God by marrying a specific woman to attain power, indicates that the power of one’s mind a person unlocks can relate to who is their consort. For example even God is technically two.
God is traditionally divided into a Sky Father, or Sky Daddy as some atheists have said, and a Earth Mother. Sky Father and Earth Mother symbolize more abstract forces of the universe, that of energy and matter, and bound together in the balance of Yin(Matter) and Energy(Yang). The word for mother is mater in Latin.
Ching Dai then can be seen as personifying Shang Di, the Sky Father, with the Emperor symbolizing The Earth Mother. Sacrifice is not literal, it is symbolic of shunning something, making it into outcast. From a Jungian analysis, the sacrifice in Big Trouble in Little China is symbolic of shunning something, but it is not symbolic of shunning the consort.
Returning to the plot of the film: The hero of the movie is Egg Shen, a SF Chinatown Tour Bus driver. Like Lo-Pan he is known for magic, and it is alluded to that he is about as old as Lo-Pan, as such he can actually be symbolic of Lo-Pan’s alter ego. Egg Shen was derided by Lo-Pan for doing “peasant magic.” He is able to guide the protagonists to rescuing Miao Yin from Lo-Pan, whose palace is hidden within an ordinary office building guarded by henchman. The protagonist Jack Burton is played by Kurt Russel, a embodiment of The Anglo-Saxon Hero Archetype.
Wang Chi and Kack Burton learn that Miao Yin has been taken by Lord’s of Death to a brothel called The White Tiger, a White Tigress is a metaphor in Chinese Lore for a woman who attains immortality by feeding of the life-essence of men through their orgasms. They learn where she was taken at the Dragon of the Black Pool restaurant managed by Eddie Lee and his family. The Black Dragon Pool is based on a legend of a dragon residing in a pool in Yunnan Province. A dragon symbolizes power and wealth, with a pool representing it being hidden from public. At this restaurant we also meet Gracie Law, a Western woman with green eyes. A fellowship of them go together to The White Tiger to rescue Miao Yin, however The Three Storms manage to abduct Miao Yin first taking her to Lo-Pan.
This then leads to The Hero’s Journey to rescue Miao Yin from The Temple of Lo-Pan. The heroes are guided by the witan-sage Egg Shen from the Dragon of the Black Pool restaurant, indicating that Egg Shen is The Dragon of the Black Pool, for further context here are articles on the actual historic legend.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dragon_Pool
John Carpenter’s movie Big Trouble in Little China was partly based on Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain, a Xianixa movie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zu_Warriors_from_the_Magic_Mountain
The Three Storms are humans who have each mastered a patron element, one is the storm of lightning, one is the storm of thunder, and one is the storm of wind.
To bring a conclusion to the plot, Egg Shen guides them on the rescue mission but as they escape the underground palace they unwittingly fail to bring Gracie Law and Miao Yin with them leading Lo-Pan to decide to marry one and sacrifice the other. This culminated in a marriage ritual ceremony, that then gets broken up by the band of heroes, who manage to rescue both women. Throughout the movie both Wang Chi and Jack are known for their quips. In a sense it seems like it is Egg Shen who became the immortal through the defeat of Lo-Pan. Jack Burton at the end of the movie was offered a chance to be with Gracie Law, but rejected the offer, which can indicate a Western malaise of shunning one’s earthly destiny.
The Tradition of Western Magic, magic referring to the deliberate use of language to create willful effect in one’s surroundings and fate, would have been preserved in The Bible, however many Christians neglect the study of the Old Testament which is the meat of The Bible, with The New Testament being like the milk, a baby is started on milk but as it grows older it transitions to meat. The movie Big Trouble in Little China being a Western production has filtered some timeless concepts in absurd ways. Hindus and Chinese have preserved their own forms of magic in other ways, for example The Slogan Politics of China is a form of Chinese Magic.
A article that expands on the above.
Archived article and video from where the screen capture was taken.
Below is a 1980’s Chinese Wuxia, martial hero, movie ‘The Buddha Assassinator’ featuring a struggle against an evil King. Xianxia however is a combination of Wuxia, with legends of The Immortals. Big Trouble in Little China is a distorted Xianxia.
A retrospective article on Big Trouble in Little China: https://web.archive.org/web/20230116180533/http://www.erasingclouds.com/0428china.html