Carpenter's goal was to make an action flick that subverted the "mighty whitey" cliche. He didn't want this cultural outsider to swoop in and instantly better the natives at their own game.
Russel knew this from the beginning and was eager to be part of it.
I really liked the guy who played Wang. He really makes the movie for me. Seriously, classic stuff when he falsely translates the door to Kurt Russel's character, just to mess with him. My friends all hated this movie because everything is being explained constantly throughout by the characters themselves. I think it just adds to the charm.
As a kid I thought it was a movie about kung fu demons and green eyes. It took seeing it again as an adult to catch onto the main point of the story: putting the cliche American arrogant male stereotype in a lovable clown suit. My favorite Carpenter/Russel movie next to "The Thing" and "Escape from New York".
One of the greatest crimes in cinema history was the fact that not only did Kurt Russel fade away, but that he didn't get a Travolta like comeback after starring in a Tarantino movie.
I always wondered how movies would be different if Russell got the part of Han Solo instead of Ford. I thought Russell did the whole "tough guy grounded in reality with a comedic side" thing better. Imagine Russell as Indiana Jones.
Alt: Kurt Russell has had an overall solid career, and is winding up the late years gracefully without ever having gone crazy/become a scientologist/starred in Battlefield Earth.
I netflixed this movie a while back and found it patently unwatchable. Unless it got astronomically better after the first 20 minutes, I don't understand why anyone likes it.