MOVIE REVIEW: The Golden Child (1986)
When I was a young Black child, we didn’t have a lot of positive representation in films and TV. Mr. T spoke jive too much to be effective, Dr. Huxtible was a bit too far-fetched for some Black people and seen as “unrealistic”, and Benson’s wisdom was wasted by writers that advertised him as ONLY a servant. In any case, I write about the types of Black people I wanted to be…I wanted to help people and fix problems. In short, I wanted to be a hero. Comics and comic books didn’t give me much of that, as the only Black males I saw in comics were G.W. Bridge or Curtis. But then Eddie Murphy came along.
A man of immense talent and an understanding of what could be done without stated intent, Eddie Murphy began to change the face of Hollywood. He did this by simultaneously playing the roles White Hollywood wanted for him the way HE wanted to (criminals and effete urbanites to suggest unwholesome behavior forbidden by the MPAA), and then making enough money to make the movies we didn’t even know we wanted or needed. His IMDB page is legendary and one of my favorite movies, The Golden Child, takes him from East LA to the exotic realms and situations of the Far East in his quest to save the spiritual leader of a mystical sect…and true to form, the journey is greater than the destination.
Chandler Jarrell (Eddie Murphy, the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy, Dolemite Is My Name, Eddie Murphy: RAW) is a private investigator who specializes in finding lost and missing children. The 1980s was chock full of those, and Jarrell was intense about his work. Such intensity caught the eye of a Tibetan mystical sect and their representative Kee Nang (British-Iraqi model/actress Charlotte Lewis, Embrace of the Vampire, Excessive Force) meets with him. She expected a man with such intensity to be noble and pure; instead Jarrell is foul-mouthed and rude. Despite his shortcomings, she and her supervisor Dr. Hong (legendary actor James Hong, Dodgeball, Kung Fu Panda, Everything Everywhere All At Once) employ Jarrell to find “the Golden Child”.
The Child is a bald 6-year-old boy (played by actress J.L. Reate) who has been kidnapped from his Tibetan monastery by the evil creature called Sardo Numspa (Charles Dance, Alien 3, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” [TV]). He has disguised himself as a human to move through the Mortal World to prepare for a great act of blasphemy: to slay the Golden Child with the magical Adjanti Dagger. The dagger is the only thing that can hurt the child, as the Child is possessed of great positive spiritual power…but the Child believes in the sanctity of ALL life so strongly he would give up his own to preserve the life of another and will not defend himself.
If the Child is surrounded by evil, ignorance, and darkness, then filled with the filth of the Mortal World (i.e., made to eat food considered impure or from an unknown source, i.e. the best salad ever made sourced from an unknown food chain) it would be easier to kill him — thus, Sardo Numspa uses agents to trap the Child in markings of dark magic, kidnap other children and sacrifice them to make porridge from their blood. The Child brought leaves from his monastery to eat which can only sustain him for a time; once those are gone, he will be temped to eat whatever is put in front of him. Once sufficiently tainted, the Child will have no magical defenses and can be slain, thus plunging the world into darkness. Thankfully Sardo does not have the Adjanti Dagger; it’s under guard…in far-off TIBET.
It’s a race against time to save the Child by taking the Adjanti Dagger, but the real barrier is not just the minions of Sardo trying to kill Jarrell and Kee Nang, but Jarrell’s resistance and irreverence for the whole quest and his constant attempts to get into Kee Nang’s pants. Asking him to go to Tibet was a hard sell, but Jarrell went with the impossibly tolerant Kee Nang. It was in Tibet where he faced many tests (like a full-on dungeon with traps, among others) by a strange old man (the late Victor Wong, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Emperor, The Joy Luck Club) who turns out to be the head priest of the mystical sect…and Kee Nang’s father.
In spite of being a non-believer, Jarrell passes the tests and is able to bring the Adjanti Dagger back to America. By bringing it to America, Sardo was able to take it from Jarrell and tried to kill him; unfortunately Kee Nang died trying to save Jarrell. The only way to save Kee Nang is to save the Golden Child, whose power can restore her life as long as the sunlight rests on her body. Leaving her at Dr. Hong’s, Jarrell embarks on another race against time. The stakes are higher because this street-smart hero has to fight Sardo Numspa in a monstrous form with no weapons, save the Golden Child, and get back to Dr. Hong’s before the sun goes down. They succeed at the last minute, and all is well —Kee Nang is brought back to life, the newly-believing Jarrell and Kee Nang start a relationship, the Golden Child gets to be a normal kid before he goes back to Tibet, and Sardo’s plans are foiled.
And now let’s talk about Charlotte Lewis as Kee Nang.
Y’all. This movie was deeply formative for a kid like me: the hero looked like me, he was smart in his own way, and got to do cool stuff like travel and be a hero and have a hot lady sidekick. Kee Nang was the Kato to Eddie Murphy’s Green Hornet…for those of you that get the joke. Whatever the actress was doing with her line delivery and whatever the director was trying to pull off (it was the 80’s after all) really marks Kee Nang as one of my all-time favorite characters. No matter what, Charlotte Lewis’ portrayal of Kee Nang has always been a focal point of the movie for me.
Because of this movie, I have a D&D fighter/rogue character named “Garills” — a play on the name Jarrell. He even has the leather kufi and a special weapon (not the Adjanti Dagger, but close enough to count). For everything this movie has shown me and what it has inspired, I say thank you to Eddie Murphy — IT’S ALL DUE TO HIM.
CHOICE CUTS:
- Reading the Xī Yóu Jì/Journey to the West, I realize that many of the characters are mirrored to the characters of the story, with a twist. The twisted hairy guy with the chain is Sun Wukong/Monkey called Fu (puppeteer Pons Maar, Return to Oz, Masters of the Universe, “Dinosaurs” [TV]), the fat guy with the crossbow is Zhu Bajie/Pigsy (wrestler Tiger Chung Lee aka “Kim Duk”, Red Heat, Blind Fury), and the big white guy is Sha Wujing/Sandy (Randall “Tex” Cobb, Raising Arizona, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective). Quite the opposite of their literary counterparts, all companions mentioned are rendered as evil servants of Sardo Numspa in this movie.
- Continuing the comparison, that means Kee Nang is probably Guanyin/Kwan Yin, Bodhisattva of Compassion (she’s more tolerant than any woman on Earth), and Chandler Jarrell is like Tang Sanzang/Tripitaka, who goes west and comes back with greater understanding. He could also serve as a combination of Tripitaka AND Monkey, given his brash behavior and good heart. But what role does the Child serve — is he a stand-in for the Buddha? That last one escapes me; perhaps more comparative reading is necessary.
- RE: the mysterious mystic advisor living at Dr. Hong’s office and hiding behind screens: According to Kee Nang, the advisor’s ancestor was “raped by a dragon.” I’M SORRY WHAT~
- On that same note, we later get to see that the mystic advisor’s ancestor being “raped by a dragon” is not hyperbole.
- The scene with the Buddhist prayer wheel is amazing (I was rubbing columns for years in imitation because of this movie), but not as amazing as the response: “Let him ask AGAIN.”
- “Ha! HAAAAA! I got the knife! Now turn on the goddamn lights!” When you see this movie, you will understand.
- The airplane to and from Tibet…OH HELL NAW.
- Sardo Numspa has to be a rakshasa, a spiritual creature (what Western ideas would call a demon) from Hindu mythology that is also found in Buddhist mythology.
- Charlotte Lewis’ jawline and pout is incredible.
- Eddie Murphy is so funny, he ruins takes with ease — watch how many times Charlotte Lewis has to cover her face.
- I had no idea Kee Nang was so powerful when she stopped Tommy Tong (Peter Kwong, Never Too Young to Die, Theodore Rex) from swinging those swords around.
- Victor Long, Peter Kwong, and James Hong also starred in another mystical Asian Adventure in 1986 — Big Trouble in Little China, starring Kurt Russel and Kim Cattrall.
This movie is right up there with Flash Gordon (1980), and will always stay with me.
