That Guys!: Big Trouble in Little China

Big Trouble in Little China is stuffed full of recognizable actors, but it's That Guys still manage to stand out!

James Hong: This Minneapolis native is credited on IMDB with 399 acting and voice credits. That's 119 more credits than Sir Christopher Lee, and that's amazing. Movies: Bladerunner, Bloodsport 2 & 3, Tank Girl, Golden Child, Airplane!, Missing in Action, R.I.P.D.. TV shows: Doogie Howser, M.D., Malcolm in the Middle, Friends, Ellen, Falcon Crest, Dynasty, Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, Key and Peele, Drunk History. Voice work: Mulan, Kung Fu Panda, Dexter's Laboratory, Jackie Chan Adventures, Archer and so on.






Victor Wong: 3 Ninjas wouldn't be the same without him, but neither would Tremors, The Golden Child, Prince of Darkness, or of course Big Trouble!










Peter Kwong: Not only was was he in Big Trouble, The Golden Child, Gleaming the Cube and bit parts in TV shows from Jag to 227, but he was also John Stamos' best friend in a little film called Never Too Young to Die.

It's these through lines make watching movies so much fun, especially with a group. When you're watching something like Big Trouble and you see Peter Kwong, you might ask "why do I know that guy?" and from that question you might learn your friends know a little too much about Gleaming the Cube. Or maybe they'll introduce you to Never Too Young to Die. Or maybe it'll start an hour long debate about whether Golden Child was better than Coming to America. Regardless, That Guys burn into your memory, steal scenes, or hold entire movies on their shoulders and are some of our favorite actors.

And (you might have guessed) our Mystery Movie this month is bursting with That Guys, come nerd out on them with us this Thursday!!

Big Trouble and John Carpenter's legit band.

John Carpenter directed some of our favorite movies, and nearly all of those movies he scored himself. Likely utilizing latent talents to save on budget costs, those scores have influenced countless filmmakers and musicians through the years. As if that wasn't enough, in the mid 80's Carpenter recruited fellow filmmakers Tommy Lee Wallace (dir Halloween 3, It, Fright Night 2) and Nick Castle (dir The Last Starfighter, Major Payne, and writer of this magical number "Everyone's coming to NY"  from Escape From New York) and formed the band “The Coupe de Villes”.

And, for what seems to be a hobby band, they were fairly prolific. They released a full length album, wrote some songs for soundtracks, and made a music video. Yes, that's right: a music video. It is as splendored, as it is painful.

Obviously that song was written for Big Trouble in Little China, and if watching that amazing feat of musical courage reminded you how much you love Big Trouble, hit up Trylon Microcinema April 18-20^th. They're also screening Buckaroo Banzai in a weekend in a line up Trylon's had on their wish list for years. (I was lucky enough to help them celebrate by designing the poster for the double header!)

Obviously we'll be attending one of these screenings since few things are funner than filling* a Trylon screening with 15 of your friends and watching a movie you all love to death!

Psst: If you want to buy one of those posters, they're for sale at Trylon. They sell small prints of all their posters for 10 bucks. Sales towards keeping the (completely non-profit) theater going for another year. Support a cool theater and get a sweet poster in the process!

*To actually fill a Trylon screening, you'd have to bring 50 of your friends, but 15 of your posse will make you feel like a film nerd gangster to be sure!

-Tim