It is your DESTINY to join me for another Movie Rewatch of Great Nostalgia! You cannot deny it! It was on a scroll and everything!
Today’s entry covers one of my favorite movies to quote of all time: 1986’s The Golden Child. Sweet!
Previous entries can be found here. Please note that as with all films covered on the Nostalgia Rewatch, this post will be rife with spoilers for the film.
And now, the post!
So! The Golden Child, boys and girls, was a 1986 Paramount Pictures fantasy comedy film starring Eddie Murphy and half the cast of Big Trouble in Little China, which also came out that year, because in the ’80s there were only like six Asian actors in the entire world, and they all could be from anywhere.
Murphy plays Chandler Jerrell, a P.I. who specializes in finding missing children and wearing funky leather hats. A Tibetan woman named Kee Nang (Charlotte Lewis) tells him that he is the Chosen One, destined to rescue and protect the prophesied Golden Child, who has been kidnapped by an evil sorcerer and/or actual demon of hell, depending on how you want to interpret it, played by some guy with no experience whatsoever with playing seriously evil dudes:
Naturally, Jerrell doesn’t believe a word of it all, and wacky violent hijinks ensue.
LIZ: The most amazing thing about this movie is that we were actually allowed to watch it as kids.
ME: Well, it was released in 1986, but I think it was 1987, 1988 by the time it came on TV? Maybe even later. So I think by then Mom had started to loosen up on things a little.
LIZ: Okay, but:
LIZ: This is the first joke of the film. I’m just saying.
ME: …Point.
Concurrently, I suppose I should warn you (if a bit too late) that The Golden Child is, shall we say, a wee bit saltier in the language department than most of the other films we’ve covered so far on the MRGN. Not to mention its blithe depictions of (among other things) murder, child endangerment, human trafficking, casual sex (OMG!), and of course lots and lots (and lots) of semi-graphic violence.
But then again, it’s an Eddie Murphy film, so I have no idea what else anyone would be expecting.
KATE: …Except for all the millennial kids who only know him from, like, Shrek onwards.
Ouch.
Okay, so if you weren’t around for the 80s, here’s a thing you need to know about Eddie Murphy before he became a family-friendly talking donkey: 80s-era Eddie Murphy was the king of raunch. He was in fact noted for his profane material, in a decade where comedians routinely gained fame for their embrace of shock value vulgarity. 80s-era Eddie Murphy was not family-friendly. Which is probably why we were so gleeful about getting to watch his films. Allure of the forbidden and alla that.
Given that, the lack of any obscenities stronger than “ass” means that The Golden Child qualifies as one of the more demure offerings of his early career, all things considered. It was also one of his lesser successes of the time, compared to films like Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop. Unfortunately, one must suspect that the SF nature of the movie was at least partially responsible for that; as I’ve noted before, science fiction and fantasy did not have nearly the cachet back then as it does nowadays. So I think that, even though The Golden Child was released at the height of his career, it’s not one of the movies most people tend to think of when asked about Eddie Murphy movies in the 80s.
Of course, as usual, the young Butler Sisters cared not a whit for the whims of public opinion, and we adored this movie with cheerful obliviousness as to its wider reception or lack thereof. Because make no mistake: whatever else it is, this is a very funny movie. In terms of quotability, it is right up there with films like Spaceballs and The Princess Bride in our personal lexicon of “awesome lines from movies we like to randomly yell at each other for LOLZ”.
LIZ: “You better have a spatula where we’re going, ‘cause my ass is frozen to this yak!”
The question is, of course, whether we enjoyed the movie as much today as we did when we were young ‘uns. And… well. Both the good and the bad about this movie is more or less perfectly encapsulated in this clip:
On the one hand, the “scrolls as joints” bit is hilarious, and is still one of our favorite lines of dialogue. The whole movie is filled with similar moments of Murphy charismatically nailing every last joke, making it genuinely entertaining the whole way through.
On the other hand, all three of us let out an involuntary sound of disgust at the invasive and condescending chin chuck Chandler gives Kee at the end of the clip, and that is also indicative of the general level of offensiveness displayed to various groups of people throughout the film—most notably, obviously, to people of South Asian descent and to women.
Basically, The Golden Child is a stellar example of the kind of tone-deaf ignorance of fair representation that was rampant in the 1980s (well, in a lot of decades, but the 80s kinda stands out on that score), but which mostly flew right over the heads of both the (white) people creating it and the (white) people like us watching it. That I can say this about a movie with a black man in the lead role is kind of amazing, but nevertheless it managed it.
Kee Nang’s role this time around bothered me for reasons I had a little trouble identifying at first—beyond the obvious, I mean. Originally I loved her because she kicked ass even though Chandler continually dismissed her as an asset (and even though the movie insisted on objectifying her while she was doing it). And honestly, I still love her for that, but Kee also represents a really specific yet irritatingly common brand of seemingly-progressive-but-actually-sexist portrayals of female characters that, bizarrely enough, no one seems to have named yet. It’s related to The Smurfette Principle (i.e. there is exactly one girl allowed per giant cast of dudes), and to its slightly more evolved modern version (i.e. in which there’s only one girl but she’s really kickass!), but it’s more than that.
And since I can’t find anyone’s else’s name for this trope (even though I’m sure someone has named it somewhere), I’mma gonna coin my own: Kee is a great example of what I think of as the Passed Over For Hero Promotion™ trope.
It can be identified whenever you have a female character about whom you must ask the question: Why, exactly, is this woman not the hero of this movie? And its answer, which is: because she isn’t the Chosen One. Why isn’t she the Chosen One? Because this dude is.
Yeah.
Even though this female character is qualified (and usually overqualified) in every way to do the job of the hero, her role is invariably to stand aside, and instead mentor, assist, and (of course) eventually fall in love with the clueless schmuck who is, inexplicably, the Hero, despite the fact that (especially at the beginning of the movie) he is completely unequal to the job, and she’s been waiting in the wings, brimming with competence and (often) frustrated as hell, since approximately forever.
Other examples of female characters Passed Over For Hero Promotion™ are Trinity in The Matrix, Wildstyle in The Lego Movie, and even Leia in the Star Wars movies. (They’re twins, both equally the offspring of Anakin Skywalker, so why exactly is Luke the Big Damn Hero and Leia the backup version? Well, we know why, don’t we.) And, of course Kee in The Golden Child, who apparently has every last one of the skills, knowledge, and connections to be the Chosen One and rescue the kid, but instead is obliged to go find this oblivious American dude, and drag him kicking and screaming to his destiny, being hit on and condescended to the whole way.
Now don’t get me wrong: I love all of these characters. I love all of these movies! And some of them even explicitly acknowledge the basic unfairness of the situation. But acknowledging the imbalance, while certainly a step up from the movies of yesteryear which didn’t even notice it, is still not actually doing anything to address the situation. So while I heart all my kickass ladies, I can’t help but find this particular pattern a little disheartening.
Anyway!
As to the representation of Asian peoples in this movie, I don’t feel comfortable making any definite assertions on that account, but I have a pretty good feeling that The Golden Child’s score on the sensitivity scale there is probably not terribly high. On the other hand, movies set in Nepal seen by a wide Western audience are pretty thin on the ground (the recent Dr. Strange, which had its own issues with representation, notwithstanding), so maybe that’s a good thing? Dunno. If there are any folks reading this who are more qualified to speak on this matter than me, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The issue of representation as it applies to Eddie Murphy himself is interesting, as he belonged to a very select group of African-American actors (they’re pretty much all men) who enjoy mainstream Hollywood leading man status—i.e. they regularly starred in movies that appeal across racial demographic lines. This is great, but sometimes ended up imbuing the characters they played with weirdly erasing attributes, or at least so it seems to me. In The Golden Child, for instance, the fact that Chandler Jerrell is black is never once remarked upon or acknowledged in any way for the entire movie. In the 1980s, this counted as racially progressive; nowadays, I think opinion might be a bit more divided. Again, though, I am less qualified to make assertions on this than others might be, so I won’t.
But now on to fun random things!
Liz has officially promised to end me if I do not bring up her absolute favorite moment in the movie when she was a kid:
Aw, he’s playing with Mr. Cabbagehead Henchman! So cute!
(Although, the Golden Child? Not actually a boy! Or not played by a boy, anyway. I was weirdly shocked when I learned this.)
I should mention that Bridget (of Tor.com TPTB awesomeness) commented that she couldn’t eat oatmeal ever again after watching this movie, and I don’t blame her.
Also, this:
LIZ: Ooh! Ooh! That’s Judo Gene!
ME & KATE: …who?
LIZ: Judo Gene Lebell! He introduced jujitsu and judo to movie fight choreography! He’s worked on hundreds of movies! He trained Rhonda Rousey and made Steven Seagal poop his pants! He’s awesome!
ME & KATE: …’kay.
(Liz and her husband both practice jujitsu and love watching MMA competitions. Kate and I… do not. Also, I have no idea if that Seagal thing is true, but it is hilarious either way.)
KATE: But at least they put in all the totally accurate “whoosh” noises that always happen when you do martial art things in movies!
KATE: He totally spilled some water in this scene.
ME: Okay, if we’re rating this test thing on realism, we have waaaaay bigger problems than whether he spilled the water.
LIZ: True. …Still an awesome scene, though.
ME & KATE: “Ha! I got the knife! Now turn on the goddamn lights!”
Also, I’m not going to embed it but you should watch this scene if you want to see Charles Dance being awesomely evil (and awesome at staying in character despite Eddie Murphy’s best efforts).
So what did we think overall?
LIZ: Well, it was still a pretty great movie—up until the climax.
Yeah. Probably because it featured, well, this:
Unlike Ghostbusters, which (as the commenters on that post were kind enough to remind me) actually sunk quite a bit of its budget into the special effects, the makers of The Golden Child were, uh, pretty obviously cutting a few corners by the end, there. It was bad enough that it came pretty close to killing the movie for us personally.
However, it only came close. Which, as you know, Bob, only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
So, if you can handle some bad Claymation and some wince-worthy stereotypes, in the name of watching Eddie Murphy be really, really funny, The Golden Child is probably still worth your time. If nothing else, this is exactly the kind of movie best enjoyed with friends, booze, and gleeful heckling of the bad bits, in between genuine enjoyment of the good ones.
And thus we end with our Nostalgia Love to Reality Love 1-10 Scale of Awesomeness!
Nostalgia: 8.5 (we will never ever stop quoting this movie…)
Reality: 6 (…so it gets extra credit despite its issues.)
And that’s our show, kids! Before you toddle off, though, a quick note re: scheduling. As you may have noticed, the end of the world the year is nigh, and I will be traveling for most of the holidays. ERGO, the next post, scheduled for Thursday Dec. 22nd, will be the last MRGN post of the year, and we’ll return on January 5th.
But fret not, dear readers, for I have a real treat for y’all for the last post of the year: we will be covering, with great glee, that eternal holiday classic—1988’s Scrooged! Let’s watch Charles Dickens spin in his grave for maximal holiday cheer, yeah? Yeah! Whoo! See you then!
I think the Passed Over trope should be named after Princess Leia.
Edit: and as soon as I go back to finish the article I see you already thought of that.
Just want to say that I have cut my fingers up so many times trying to make that Pepsi can man, and have never once been successful. Its really a shame how terrible my crafting skills are.
I’m gonna risk a tangent here, because I think the Passed Over For Hero Promotion(tm) trope is a super useful concept that needs a name, but that Ratatouille is actually a pretty bad example.
Linguini isn’t the hero of the movie, his arc hinges on realizing that he’s NOT the Chosen One despite his lineage, and his romantic relationship with Tatou centers on learning to respect her as a chef. Remy IS the hero and the conflict of the movie is fundamentally about Remy’s background (ie, he’s a rat) – without Remy you don’t have a movie, unlike Star Wars where, without Luke, you still have an Empire to fight and a perfectly good Hero (Leia) to fight it.
Not that Ratatouille isn’t without sexist tropes – namely Tatou as Yoko Ono to Remy/Linguine’s Lennon/McCartney, or the fact that the Type A, heavily trained career gal can’t recognize Remy’s genius – but they all are different categories than The Golden Child, or (as you point out quite well) Star Wars.
PS: I love the MRGN. Almost all the movies in this rewatch hold nearly identical places in my personal canon, and it’s a blast to watch you do your thing to them.
Though I don’t recall if I’ve ever actually seen the film (maybe parts of it on TV), I do recall seeing it covered in the media, and my impression was that its poor reception was not due to being a fantasy film, but due to being not a very good one compared to stuff like Indiana Jones. If anything, I think the attitude in the reviews I saw was more that it was a fantasy film undermined by being an Eddie Murphy comedy, rather than that it was an Eddie Murphy comedy undermined by being a fantasy film. Although maybe people felt both ways about it depending on which of those two things they preferred.
You’re right about the Big Trouble in Little China cast, though. There’s a Chinatown-based episode of the 1987 Beauty and the Beast TV series that features fully eight cast members from Big Trouble (including bit players and stunt performers), even pitting James Hong as the bad guy against Dennis Dun and Victor Wong as good guys, which is kind of awesome. It’s also very, very racially and culturally condescending, with the white heroine needing to convince the insular, exotic community that there’s a more enlightened alternative to their harsh, intractable traditions.
1. Another example of the Passed-Over trope? Gamora in the GotG movie. She’s the one with the personal stake in what happens, the desire to atone, the skills, the actual character motivation, etc., yet she’s reduced to a side character.
2. I read the novelization of The Golden Child before I saw the movie, and I was actually disappointed in the film as a result. The original concept of Jarrell’s character (at least as my 30-year-old memories suggest) was more “guy trying to do the right thing” and less “Eddie Murphy as himself.” It was one of the first times I remember realizing that a character could be rewritten to suit an actor (I was twelve; this was surprising then), and I liked the guy in the book more because he was less abrasive than the one in the movie.
So, is Galdalf an example of the passover trope? Is Dumbledore? Is Moiraine? After all, they are all far more qualified than the heroes of their stories. But stories like to be about growth, about the development of heroism in a character that starts off underqualified. It’s unfortunate that often this coincides with gender imbalances, and that can be improved upon with a better mixture of male and female heroes. But the overqualified character is never the hero. The overqualified character is the mentor.
Now Hermoine, there’s a passable example. She’s a child and student like Harry, not an already established badass. So she could have been the hero. She could have been a great example, if not for the fact that she and Ron are basically 90% as much the heroes of the story as Harry is.
I, I, I want the knife…
I’m surprised no one has mentioned one of the biggest, most recent examples of Passed-Over – Hope in Ant-Man.
I’m going to have to agree with CLB here (which is not all that unusual). I do remember the film and the mix of Eddie Murphy with fantasy story just never meshed well. I was a big fan of both – I still have a copy of Eddie Murphy: Raw around somewhere and obviously I like sci-fi/fantasy – so I should have loved this movie. I didn’t. I didn’t hate it either, but it was a disappointment. It was a PG version of Eddie for one, shoehorned into an interesting story where it didn’t really fit.
I’m surprised there’s not a Passed Over For Hero Promotion™ trope out there already. That’s a pretty common element to a lot of stories, and it’s not always a girl being passed over. It’s kind of a specific case of a Hyper-competent Sidekick and sort of like The Reliable One, but different enough to be worthy of a trope of its own. Of course a lot of the stories resolve with the hero proving that they’re the hero for a reason; not sure if this one ends that way or not. I just remember the ending being rather anticlimactic.
@6/eep: I don’t think mentors count as an example of this trope, because part of being good at what you do is being able to pass on that knowledge and experience. That’s not being unfairly marginalized — that’s having already done your part in the past and now readying the next generation to do the same.
Anyway, while there’s certainly a degree of sexism in marginalizing capable women, there is something to be said for the idea of the hero of a story not being the most capable character. After all, there’s no suspense if it’s too easy for the hero to succeed. A vulnerable hero makes for a more dramatic story, and a more impressive victory. It’s the underdog factor, the desire to see less obviously capable protagonists succeed against the odds. Also, there’s the functional issue of exposition. It’s a good idea for the viewpoint character of a story to lack knowledge that the smarter characters around them can explain to them, so that the audience will get those things explained as well. So it makes sense for the hero to be less of an expert than the supporting players. Although there’s certainly no reason why the hero can’t be female in that formulation (Katniss Everdeen is a good example).
For what it’s worth, I suppose I could qualify as one of those kids who’d never heard of Eddie Murphy outside of films like Shrek and Mulan – right up until my Dad showed me Trading Places one Christmas as a teenager. Might have to check this out.
For those looking for some reason to like this film, consider that Murphy decided to do this rather than take the role in Star Trek IV. That’s gotta be worth, like, half a star or something. And apparently this was originally pitched as a serious action film and a vehicle for Mel Gibson. I’m not sure if that would have been more successful or not.
Another point to the film’s problems with Asian actors is that the closest Charlotte Lewis comes to being Asian is that she’s part Iraqi. OK, technically Iraq is in Asia, but it’s really not anywhere close to being related to Himalayan peoples. Lewis was a virtual unknown at the time, though she had caught some attention for Pirates. Still, I think they could surely have found an East or South-east Asian actress for the role.
(And speaking of slightly dumb, slightly problematic action comedy fantasies, may I just toss out Firewalker as a candidate? Also 1986 and very, very much of its time.)
Huh! I learned something I never knew before the Golden Child was played by a Girl. I love the MRGN keep it up. I may actually have to sit down and watch Scrooged all the way through in one sitting but, I probably won’t have time. On the upside it will be on cable at least 4 more times between now and the 25th.
It’s also true that in the 80’s apparently there were only around 9 Asian actors in all of North America. They all showed up in every kind of film and tv show of the era. I also agree that I’m amazed I was allowed to watch this Eddie Murphy movie too but, I just realized I was older than I thought and my brother could watch pg-13 with the rest of us kids. The parental figures didn’t mind non gory violence but had a big problem with sex scenes. Besides I don’t think they watch the show with us it would have been to silly for them.
I keep expecting it to show up, but it hasn’t, so I’m gonna ask.
Once upon a time, when I was a wee child in daycare, I remember watching a movie about three (white? not positive) kids who inherited/discovered some kind of ninja island kingdom? Each of them had some kind of coping mechanism in real life that held them back, but turned into a superpower in the ninjaland. The one I specifically remember is that the youngest brother (it was…probably three boys? possibly two boys and a girl?) had a handheld video game that he could use to see ninjas who were otherwise invisible.
What movie is that? It seems like exactly the kind of thing I expect Leigh to cover.
I agrew with @3 regarding Ratatouille. Remy is the hero, and he needs a completely incompetent person in the kitchen to be his “body”. Imagine if Linguini and Colette changed places in the story. Colette would be the incompetent person and Linguini would be the competent love interest. It would look even worse for gender relations.
And why does Remy need an incompetent cook to be his body? Because, as Colette said in the movie, chefs have very big egos. Colette and Remy do clash when they’re cooking together the ratatouille in the final part of the movie. This is after one day of work. They wouldn’t last as partners, as most good chefs don’t. Remy needed the incompetent Linguini, who took days/weeks/months (whatever timeframe the story happens) to clash with the rat and say that Colette also knew how to cook and had a different opinion on how to do stuff (this happens right before Remy gets angry with Linguini and invites all his rat friends to the kitchen).
Leigh, isn’t what you’re describing as being passed over called Trinity Syndrome at the Mary Sue and other sites?
For anyone who wants to watch Scrooged but doesn’t have easy access to a physical copy, it is available on Netflix streaming right now.
I love that so many of y’all immediately came up with more example of the Passed Over For Hero Promotion trope, that makes me happy.
ChristopherLBennett@9:
Exactly. It’s not the actual “clueless protagonist” trope I’m objecting to; it’s that it nearly always ends up being a guy.
SunDriedRainbow @13:
The description of this movie, unfortunately, does not ring a bell with me. Anyone else know what this is?
Ryamano @15:
Trinity Syndrome! I knew I couldn’t have been the only one needing a name for it. Oh well. (I still like my name for it better, nyah!)
@13/SunDriedRainbow: I don’t know if this fits your description well enough, but there was a ’90s kid-movie franchise called 3 Ninjas.
Good lord. If you think this is objectifying you all are going to loose your mind if you watch Poorkies. Interesting note. This was the first of his movies that was not rated R. I remember my friends and I walking out of the theater saying it was pretty good, but no Beverly Hills Cop. This was kind of the beginning of a long list of meh Eddie Murphy movies.
SunDriedRainbow@13 There was a movie called Surf Ninjas with 2 brothers where I kind of Remember the younger brother having the handheld. The Older brother did hook up with a teenage girl when they reached the island. It came out in 1993 with Ernie Reyes Jr as the lead brother, Rob Schneider as the bumbling best friend and Leslie Nielsen as the villain.
I have to agree with @3 Passed over for promotion is not a bad thing, it’s one of movie tropes, gender based or age based or just anything. While, being PC, watching Trinity battle would’ve been only half as interesting as seeing character battle and discover himeslf/herself in process. But totally doable in action movie.
What would not be doable is to have a comedy based on Kee defending Golden Child.
@13, Definitely Surf Ninjas. I have very vague memories of seeing it.
It’s The Golden Child, not The Golden Boy. But I recall characters referring to the Child as “he”, so….
Best line was “I- I- Iiiii want the kniiiiiife.” Second best: “Let him ask again.”
Charles Dance and William Atherton should’ve teamed up for an Evil Buddy Movie.
If Kee had been the Chosen One, we would have a superhero movie. And most superhero movies start with the pre-Super Hero as a regular person- just like most of the intended audience. It’s easier to identify with a less overpowered protagonist.
And I fail to understand why a character’s attributes (here, Murphy’s race) is taken as it is and not being remarkable.
The plot where the female martial artist has to protect a “chosen one” child sounds a lot like Ultraviolet..
In retrospect the most remarkable thing about THE GOLDEN CHILD is it’s a Hollywood fantasy blockbuster where none of the heroic protagonists are white.
For all the heat he’s gotten over the years Murphy deserves praise not just for managing to be the biggest film star in a mainstream movie era that wasn’t diverse but in the case of this and COMING TO AMERICA bringing white audiences to movies with the kind of casts biased or prejudiced execs in Hollywood said those audiences wouldn’t watch.