Trailer
Plot summary
Monks at a temple in Tibet watch a young boy with mystical powers bring a dead eastern rosella back to life, and the bird stays close to him. Men serving Sardo Numspa storm the temple, kill the monks and carry the boy off. In Los Angeles, Kee Nang sees a television appearance by Chandler Jarrell, a social worker and private detective who finds missing children. Kee tells him that the Child has been taken and that he is the one chosen to save him. Chandler dismisses the mysticism, though a bird follows him and he sees the Child as an astral projection. Kee brings him to Doctor Hong, who studies mysticism, and to Kala, a being who is part dragon and part woman.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Golden Child (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dennis Feldman, a photographer whose only writing credit was Just One of the Guys, wrote the script as The Rose of Tibet and intended it as a detective story rather than a comedy, with Mel Gibson in mind for the lead; Paramount bought it for $330,000 after a bidding war.
- J. L. Reate, the actor who played the Golden Child, the male titular character, was actually a girl, Jasmine Lauren Reate, who was six years old when filming began; it was her only theatrical performance, but as of 2019 she was executive director of events at the Toronto Film Festival.
- Paramount hired John Barry straight off his award-winning score for Out of Africa, but he left the project during post-production after differences with the producers and test screening feedback, and the producers replaced his score with a mostly "synthpop" one by Michel Colombier.
