Kung Fu | Offscreen
John Carpenter's "Big Trouble in Little China" was a rather unusual film at the time of its release. A mixture of redneck-adventure comedy with fantastic martial arts, in the spirit of Tsui Hark's "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain", still underestimated by western audiences. This extraordinary production with an extraordinary budget turned into a painful commercial failure for Carpenter, who afterwards returned to smaller productions.
"Ninja in the Dragon's Den" is an original confrontation between martial arts from Japan (ninjutsu) and Hong Kong (chinese boxing). It's the first film by Corey Yuen, the famous martial arts choreographer who mixed typical Hong Kong martial arts in western productions, like in the first films with JCVD and "Lethal Weapon 4". Yuen worked with some of the biggest stars in Asian cinema: Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li and helped launch their careers.
Big Trouble in Little China
A trucker searches for a kidnapped woman in Chinatown. Carpenter deftly juggles genres like kung fu, fantasy and adventure, while adding elements of romance, comedy and the buddy movie.
Ninja in the Dragon's Den
Two opposing warriors, a Japanese and a Chinese, are forced to work together after their master has been killed by a mighty enemy. Insane fighting ensues, one of the fighting scenes even sees them duelling on stilts!