Ouch... Harry here with the death of one of my favorite character actors around... VICTOR WONG.

In 1986, as if delivered from the Heavens to a 14 year old Harry Knowles was the wisdom of Egg Shen in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA... I remember that summer well, it had been hot here in Austin. Blisteringly so. I had just come off a run of watching FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF for about the 12th time and Dad was worried that it was worming its way into my brain... possibly inspiring me to skip school constantly... and as we had no air-conditioning at the time, we needed a film every day during the nuclear hours of 3pm to 5pm. We coupled this with an undying love for film... Ah... movies were our savior.

At 14, I was living with my Mother in North Texas far from the worlds of comic shops and magazine stands that would carry STARLOG and FANGORIA, so I had read nothing about this... BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. So when I went on visitation with my father that summer with 4 year old Sister Satan in tow... We had not seen trailers... Nothing. We had been seeing everything at the ACT III Lincoln Theater... A sparkling wundertheatre of the day... and had stopped attending the old standards of the bygone years of my youth (hey I was 14, I thought I had a youth) so to escape Bueller, my father drove us to the CAPITAL PLAZA... the theater next to TOYS R US, and the WALGREENS where I stocked up on Movie Themed Gum Cards (they had gum then) and we walked up the stairs to see the posters for the films they were showing.

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA... hmph, I thought... I saw the poster, ran over to it... "OOOOOH!! EW EW EW EW, JOHN CARPENTER!!! YES YES YES!!!" And I was suddenly jazzed to see the film.

You all know how this film starts... but I didn't then. I sat there watching this seemingly old weak Asian fellow being questioned by this 'suit' and I thought... "What the hell is this?" There was talk of magic, and scoffing at the idea of it, then a Missouri Mule Moment... and then this man I've been told was named Egg Shen held his hands out... cocked an eyebrow and:

ZZZZaaaaaaPPPP!!!!!

"SEE? THAT was Nothing....
But that's HOW it alWAYS begins....
Very Small."

My eyes grew wide... I was, a believer, a 100% honest to goodness believer. Eggshen was some sort of God, I knew that much. That crazy wild eyed look, the cherubic smile... those classic lines folding like leather across that amazing face... This was someone that had it going on!

When next I saw him, he was giving us the audience... the theatrical tourists at this establishment a tour and history of his beautiful Chinatown. Be sure to click his mike!

Again absolutely captivating. I wasn't exactly sure where he fit in to this story yet, but dude... He can shoot lightning from his hands... He is the bomb! The film takes us into this amazing world beneath the upper layer of Chinatown... where we meet the storms, learn of David Lo Pan and that indeed Chinese Black Magic is real. But Egg Shen is taking a backseat to the action... an advisory position... Spouting off amazing bits about Goat butts against the edge and black blood of the Earth and that brilliant taoist salad bar thing of his... Just classic stuff. In a film of over the top performances, Victor Wong's EGG SHEN was stealing it for me...

At the end of it all... I was in awe of the film, that universe and in particular... EGG SHEN. Who is this person? Where did he come from? Can I visit again?

Very Quickly he appeared next in THE LAST EMPEROR, I didn't know that in advance, but when I saw the little emperor find him and his little cricket/grasshopper/thing in the box... I knew that would be special... And then at the end... I knew... Egg Shen was here as well...

Then that same year he showed up in John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS... one of John's grossly underestimated creepy ass films. I love this film, but all the more for Victor Wong's Professor Edward Birack, a quantum physics teacher. A perfect choice in having science embracing the world of the magic... as merely.... Well, Victor does it so much better than me!

Professor Edward Birack

Let's talk about our beliefs, and
what we can learn about them. We
believe nature is solid, and time a
constant. Matter has substance and
time a direction. There is truth in flesh
and the solid ground. The wind may
be invisible, but it's real. Smoke, fire,
water, light -- they're different! Not as
to stone or steel, but they're tangible.
And we assume time is narrow because
it is as a clock -- one second is one
second for everyone! Cause precedes
effect -- fruit rots, water flows downstream.
We're born, we age, we die. The reverse
NEVER happens. ...None of this is true!
Say goodbye to classical reality, because
our logic collapses on the subatomic level
... into ghosts and shadows.

Professor Edward Birack

From Job's friends insisting that the good are
rewarded and the wicked punished, to the
scientists of the 1930's proving to their horror
the theorem that not everything can be proved,
we've sought to impose order on the universe.
But we've discovered something very surprising:
while order DOES exist in the universe, it is
not at all what we had in mind!

That year of 1986 through 1987 was magic for Victor Wong and me because of him. Those where the years where I bridged from Junior High School into my Freshman/Sophmore years of High School and Egg Shen was there to introduce to new friends in North Texas.

As I sit here at the computer all I can think of as I look up and through my ceiling at the stars beyond is, "How'd you get up there?" and having Victor say...

"Wasn't Easy!"

Victor will be missed. For more images and quotes from Victor in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, check out WingKong, it is the best BTILC site I can find, and has wonderful images and wavs of Victor...