golden child

The Golden Child

Big Trouble in Little China by any other name...

Eddie Murphy's The Golden Child

Is a good movie ruined by an awful ending.

Eddie Murphy's character is a hero via Socratic irony. He is clever,

but not smart. He is tough, but not strong. He is rude and

insensitive, but charming. He believes in nothing yet does what is

right. He has an action girlfriend (Charlotte Lewis, who is so not

Asian it is funny) with magical fighting powers to make up for the

"tough, but not strong" trait. Charles Dance is an excellent demon.

The film has no fat: everything is funny, plot, or both.

All this is wasted on an terrible ending. The film loses itself when

Kee Nang (Charlotte Lewis) is killed. She goes from a super powered

woman with a genuinely charming, funny, and useful comic relief

boyfriend to a damsel in distress. The special effects are

unimpressive and dated.

This is how the film should have ended:

The heroes are assaulted at the Chinese medicine shop and the Dragon

Lady and the fat mongol are killed. This happens instead of the scene

where Mr. Jerell (Eddie Murphy) and Ms. Nang (Lewis) go to Mr.

Jerell's house and are attacked. Ms. Nang and Mr. Jerell stage an

attack on Sardo Numspa's (Charles Dance's) mansion. Mr. Jerell and the

knife is sent to one location as bait and Ms. Nang stalks. Numspa,

aware that it is a trap, sends in the last of his forces but stays

back to jump the trappers. Mr. Jerell is attacked, and Ms. Nang

springs into action and defeats all the baddies. Then Numspa teleports

in and grabs the knife in Mr. Jerell's hand. He is himself grabed by

Ms. Nang. He teleports again, this time taking all three to the room

with the child.

His cape/jacket is on fire and he throws it aside. Mr. Jerell's amulet

shatters.

"The artifact has saved you from the brimstone. It will not save you

from me"

Numspa pulls the dagger from Mr. Jerell's hands. Ms. Nang and Numspa

fight. Numspa is faster than her, and must avoid her holds. Mr. Jerell

runs toward the child. Numspa turns to him and gives him the old magic

eye beams of light. Mr. Jerell collapses and Ms. Nang shouts "No!" as

is customary. She attacks Numspa again but still cannot get him pinned

down. Mr. Jerrel limply crawls toward the cage holding the Golden

Child, grabs one of the bars and breaks it off.

The child leaves the bars. Numspa runs at the Golden Child to stab him

but is stopped by Ms. Nang. He teleports out of Ms. Nang's hold, and

stands before the child. The child keeps both hands behind his back

with his right index and thumb extended but all other fingers curled.

He look respectfully at Numspa. Mr. Jerell, still crawling, grabs

Numspa's ankle. Numspa looks at Mr. Jerrel and readies another eye

beam, but instead his eyes melt away and his face as well. The dagger

falls as Numspa fades away, and the Golden child lifts it with his

left hand, keeping his right hand behind his back. The Golden Child

turns and his face beams with pride over the achievement of the pair.

Cut to the post ending. It is identical to the post ending in the

movie, except that the Golden Child is dressed the same as he was when

captured and holds the dagger.

This ending would have made The Golden Child a great movie instead of