Hollywood is constantly making remakes. For the most part, they need to leave the originals alone. A few nights ago I decided to go to the movies, (thanks to a friend named Edward Hong) with a posse of friends, including fellow AMIN writers: Lara Visconti and Jessica Dawson to watch The Karate Kid 2010 movie. I was so skeptical. I am a fan of the original one with all of its cheesiness. I do admit that I watched all of The Karate Kid sequels ever made. Part two was my favorite, because Mr. Miyagi, played by the late Pat Morita, and Daniel, played by Ralph Macchio, went to the beautiful island of Okinawa. I hated part three and the feminist in me likes part four just because for a change a girl was The Next Karate Kid.
Now the title of this movie really bothered me. This movie is based off the original series of movies, but yet it’s set in China, Dre, played by Jaden Smith, is taught by a Chinese teacher named Mr. Han, played by Jackie Chan, and he is learning a Chinese style of martial arts. Karate is from Japan and if movie goers haven’t noticed, Kung Fu is from China. Wouldn’t the title “Shaolin Kid” or “Kung Fu Kid” fit much better?
The first part of the movie was quite funny when Dre’s mother, played by Taraji Henson, demanded that he practice his Chinese on the Asian guy sitting across the aisle from him. Dre musters out “Ni Hao Ma, Ni jiao shenme ming zi” Which means, “How are you? What’s your name”? The guy says, “I’m from Detroit”. I laughed hard, because so many non-Asian people run up to any Asian person and assume they will respond to any number of Asian languages that are blurted out to them. One of the many parts of the movie that was definitely reminiscent of the original was that Dre and his mother were moving to a new place due to a job. Dre didn’t like the new place and eventually cried to his mom that he wanted to go home just like Daniel did. Then Dre got his cute little butt kicked all over the school playground by Chinese kids I swear were trained by Jet Li himself. I do have to say that the martial arts skills of these kids was utterly awesome. They definitely would have me running all over China too just like Dre did in the movie. After Dre picked up his face off the ground of course he decided to go find a martial arts school. He does and just like in the original he sees that it’s the bully’s school so he decides not to take any lessons after all for the moment.
Eventually Mr. Han begins to teach Dre kung fu, not karate people, after they confront the kung fu teacher of the bullies and a decision is made to duke it out at a martial arts tournament. In the spirit of the original movie, the difference between a “good sensei and a bad sensei” is shown. Instead of “wax on, wax off” we have “jacket on, jacket off” which was a bit strange, but when Mr. Han showed Dre how to use the “jacket technique” to fight it was actually pretty cool. Mr. Han lost his wife and child just like Mr. Miyagi did except not in a war, but in a car accident.
Dre, also like Daniel in the spirit of The Karate Kid II, falls for a pretty girl native to China, named Meiying. It was a cute, puppy love relationship. I do have to add that Meiying’s panda bear violin case was absolutely adorable! It was refreshing to see Dre learning as much as he could about the Chinese culture when at first he was reluctant to. I am a huge martial arts fan so the tournament scene had me on the edge of my seat. My friends and I were lucky enough to be in the midst of an interactive audience that clapped and cheered throughout the scene. We saw awesome eye punching, body slamming, and bone kicking moves. There was a “special kick” just like in the original and thank goodness it was different! I liked it a lot and some of the audience members gave a standing ovation for it. Go Jaden for that awesome kick and for making reference to Bruce Lee for the smooth, white tournament shirt you wore.
Overall I enjoyed the film, Jaden was an excellent actor, I adored his facial expressions, and it was refreshing not to see Jackie in a comedic role for a change in Western film.
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