The wearing of amulets to ward off evil spirits and demons goes way back. How far back, no one really knows. Why would the Philippines be any different? In the Philippines, these pendants are called anting-anting, agimat or bertude, depending on the language.

I recently spotted one of the neighborhood children (a young girl) wearing an amulet and when I asked about it, she shied away and didn't want to talk about it. So… I decided to do a little research. A commenter mentioned anting-anting in response to an older article, but I didn't pay much attention to it.

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Big Trouble in Little China is one of my all time favorite movies. Me, my wife and my son sat down and watched it again (on DVD) back in February for the zillionth time.

I love cheesy movies, if they're done well and "Big Trouble in Little China" fits the bill. This movie had humor, action, and fantasy all rolled into one movie. You have to see it to believe it. The funniest part is that Jack Burton (played by Kurt Russell) always talks about himself in the third person, quote:

"Just remember what ol' Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big old storm right in the eye and says, 'Give me your best shot. I can take it.'"

Curiously, I started checking blogs to see who else had written about this masterpiece. Here are a few:

Thinking-Out-Aloud – Filmage
Made for Another World
CriticalBlogs – Film's from a Natist Perspective

I could probably find a thousand more that made references to it. The strange thing is that this movie was NOT a blockbuster. Big Trouble in Little China stars Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong, Victor Wong, Kate Burton, Donald Li and others, here's the trailer: