The Karate Kid

Welcome to another episode of The "D" List.

Today's review is The Karate Kid. Directed by Harald Zwart. Written by Christopher Murphey. Based on the 1984 screen story The Karate Kid written by Robert Mark Kamen.

MPAA Rating : Rated PG for bullying, martial arts action violence and some mild language.


Cast

Jaden Smith - Dre Parker

Jackie Chan - Mr. Han

Taraji P. Henson - Sherry Parker
   
Wenwen Han - Meiying
   
Rongguang Yu - Master Li
   
Zhensu Wu - Meiying's Dad
   
Zhiheng Wang - Meiying's Mom
   
Zhenwei Wang - Cheng


The Karate Kid (1984) was a classic film by every possible definition. It was a coming of age tale combined with the bonding of 2 unlikely friends that taught each other a valuable life lesson. Oh yeah it also had some karate thrown in as an added bonus. When it comes to the ever popular fad of Hollywood remakes, this film in my opinion fell into the LEAVE IT ALONE category. Of course that didn't stop the powers that be to go ahead and change the vision that everyone has of Daniel LaRusso standing in front of Johnny with both arms raised and 1 leg in the air in the famous crane position. To make matters worse Will Smith's snotty son Jaden was tapped to play the lead. This was a recipe for disaster. Then I saw the film and guess what..........

It was pretty good.

The premise of the Karate Kid is pretty much a blanket re-hash of the original. Dre and Mom move to China. Dre has a hard time accepting his new home and the people. He fancies a young girl and it immediately confronted by a bully. The beatings ensue until Mr. Han saves Dre from an attack and reveals to everyone that he knows Kung Fu. You remember the rest.

Here's what didn't work with this remake and this is the most obvious problem. 

The film is set in Beijing. The martial art displayed is Kung Fu. You CANNOT title this movie The KARATE Kid. While homaging the original you are insulting the discipline the movie features. Especially when ALL martial arts and I do mean ALL of them were derived in 1 way or another from Kung Fu. Traditional Martial Arts were born from the integration of traditional chinese battle techniques with Buddhist Monk Bodhidharma's Zen philosophies and yoga. Thus the birth of what we know now as Kung Fu.

The next thing was the interaction between Dre and Meiying. It was very awkward to see the 2 of them be around each other making goo goo eyes. I realize that they are both pre-teens and that's how they are supposed to act but in the film there was a little too much apprehension and nervousness for my taste. That should have been brought down a couple of pegs to avoid some very uncomfortable moments.

Next is Dre's mom Sherry. As we all remember in The Karate Kid (1984) Daniel's mom was a very small part of the story. She was the reason for the move, she reacts like any mom would after seeing her son beaten but that was about it after Mr. Myagi takes over. Here Sherry is a little more involved which once again is understandable when you are dealing with a younger child but her scenes didn't provide much except annoyance. Nobody wants to see Sherry complain to Dre to pick up his jacket 1,000 times. You want her to care for her son, be concerned when he's down and support him during his training. That was present but you had to weed through the other fluff to get to it and it just created a lack of caring toward her.

Finally, the tournament. Aside from Jaden who did have martial arts training prior to filming. The rest of the tournament fighters were kids from the thousands of martial arts academy's across China. This gave the movie an opportunity to showcase some very talented and athletically gifted boys. What we get in return are glimpses of what these kids could do. Once again to emphasize speed and power the crew went with handheld camera work during the matches.

This was a bad idea because these kids are so fast that there was no way a moving camera could capture the action cleanly. Just put a rig on these guys and let us see what these kids can do. They train all of their lives we deserve and more importantly THEY deserve to show us what they are made of. Despite my continuous rant about shoddy camera work during a fight scene, the choreography was impressive and hard hitting. They didn't hold back just because these were kids fighting.

Now on to the good.

Believe it or not Jaden was pretty convincing as Dre. He along with his father have been hated on in the past for previous projects that Will Smith was in or produced and cast in the child's role was Jaden. The Pursiut of Happyness and The Day The Earth Stood Still come to mind here. Many believe (myself included) that he was getting these roles based on nepotism and not his ability to act. This became much more magnified when he was cast as the lead in this film. Well I have to be honest here. I bought this kid's act. In previous roles he's played a snotty kid with a nasty attitude. This lead to a perception that this was the only way he could play a part since this is how he was supposedly in real life. Since The Karate Kid had a kid in this type of position. Reluctant to accept his new life and defiant towards authority figures this seemed right up Jaden's alley.

Not so.......

This kid for a change made you feel his pain and struggle to adapt to his new life in a new world. Instead of him acting out in little punk fashion he showed an emotional side that expressed true pain and home sickness. He truly showed fear against his adversary Cheng and his boys when their paths crossed and he showed the right amount of respect toward his teacher when he realized that he was really learning Kung Fu.

This leads me to my next positive........Sifu Jackie Chan.

If you had to attempt to re-imagine the great Mr. Miyagi played expertly by the late Noriyuki Pat Morita. The ONLY one that could have pulled this off was Jackie. Like Morita, Jackie is a comedian and has the timing to pull off a joke in the driest fashion and delivery that you have no choice but to laugh. His portrayal of Han was not as comical. He was much more deadpan and brooding. This is explained later on and I accepted the adjustment to the character. Several critics complained that Chan's performance could have used some more of Miyagi's humor but in my opinion you can't re-create a perfect character so you have to tweak it a little and it works here.

Next is Han's training methods. We all remember the wax on wax off stuff in the original. The question I had here was how was that going to be introduced in this film. You get a glimpse of it in the trailers and it works here very well. It's not as over done as in the original where you had the wax on wax off, sand the floor, paint the fence and paint the house techniques. Han uses 1 training technique and presto, shows Dre how Kung Fu is around you in everyday life, including something as trivial as hanging up your jacket. More importantly, the techniques Dre learns is actually used when he fights. If you recall in the original, Daniel NEVER uses the wax on wax off stuff during the tournament.

Fact people.

On the 5 star scale. The Karate Kid gets 3.5 stars with a "Go See It" recommendation.

This was an entertaining film that will be an uplifting experience for the little ones. Since most kids today are too young to know what the original film was all about. These guys did a pretty good job of recreating what made the 1984 film such a classic among us old farts.

That's all for today. Up next is Toy Story 3. Do I even have to review this one? You all know what score I'm going to give this one.

Until Next Episode......"I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"