Hey guys, another delayed blog post. Need to post more here :\
Anyhow, the latest instalment to Cynical Images is perhaps a surprising one... I certainly wasn't planning on it any time soon. I am, of course, talking about the Karate Kid remake.
Hands up if you thought it was a bad idea.
Yeah, me too.
Hands up if Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith were the worst choices for the main roles.
Oh, funnily enough I thought that too.
What if I told you that it was, in a way, as good as the original?
That's right.
I, along with the rest of the Internet, was proven wrong and I am happy to admit it... This is perhaps one of the best remakes I have seen in a very, very long time and it is definitely up there with the first Halloween remake ( Which I enjoyed. Sue me.) in my best recent remakes of all time list... Sure there's only two on it, but y'know.
The story begins with Dre Parker, played by Jaden Smith (Yes, that is Will Smith's son) moving out of their Detroit home with his mother to begin a new life in China. As Dre struggles with his surroundings, notably the new language, his attention is soon caught by a young girl, named Meiying. As they talk, Dre is targeted by bullies, and before you know it Dre tries to fight them without knowing that the leader of the pack is skilled in Kung Fu - And discovers the hard way when he gets his ass kicked and humiliated in front of Mei Ying.
Before going onto the rest of the story, I'd like to point out a little peeve with the film, mainly surrounding the title: The film is called "The Karate Kid", however the fighting style that it revolves around is Kung Fu....
Now, unless I'm totally mistaken, what relation does Karate have with Kung Fu? Aren't they totally different fighting styles? Why not call it The Kung Fu Kid?
Anyway, back to the plot.
After his rather public beating, Dre returns to his apartment where he is told to find the establishment's maintenance man, Mr Han, who is essentially the same character as Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi from the original, but this time the character has a different name and is played by Jackie Chan, who might I add that, after seeing him in a fair amount of non-serious action comedies and kids films for quite a while now, plays the role very well and proves that the man does have some decent acting ability when the need arises. He's no Pat Morita, but he does a fine job.
What I liked considerably about Chan's portrayal is the emphasis on the tragic and tortured history that Mr Han embodies which was only hinted at with Morita towards the end of the original Karate Kid.
Mr. Han is a tortured soul. He is who he is today because of his bad history, he has no children or wife and, like Mr Miyagi of old, he still resents violence and those who would abuse any martial art for that purpose.
When Dre first meets Mr. Han, he's trying to get him to fix the hot water for the shower, but Han blanks him - Instead, he is focusing on trying to catch a fly using chopsticks - Which is oddly familiar, until he decides to give up and just swat the fly - Mr Miyagi wouldn't even swat the fly, Mr. Han is slightly more aggressive in his actions and so killed it, a scene which I believe is completely out of character, a risky move for the purpose of a nod to the original.
After this scene, it's mainly filler which sets the scene for later on, such as Dre literally hiding away from his bullies and his disapproval of moving to China in the first place, as well as Mei-Ying's violin practice.
Eventually, the filler takes a step back when we get to one of the most memorable scenes in the movie - The scene where Dre provokes the bullies into chasing him. This time, they get doused in mud and they chase Dre through the streets of China back to his apartment. It's a fairly intense parkour-style chase which is weird to see when you have children who aren't even 13 doing it, but it's well shot.
Dre is lead into a dead end at his apartment, and soon the bullies catch up and lay into him before Mr. Han intervenes. As mentioned earlier, this bit is one of the most memorable scenes because this is where we see the fighting, this is the bit which decides Chan's credibility as Mr Miyagi/Han, and he nails it.
The camera work is quick and well-done, it's well choreographed and Chan is giving the bullies the beating of their life - Yet he's holding back! It's really one of those moments which either make you feel uncomfortable, as a grown man is beating up children, or make you yell "HELL YEAH!" if you're morally undecided like me.
Naturally, after this scene, Dre asks Mr Han to train him. Han is hesitant at first, refusing to get involved but eventually caves and takes Dre to the dojo in which the bullies train. It was disappointing for me that the dojo wasn't called Cobra Kai, it had a different name which eludes me, but Han signs Dre up for the upcoming martial arts tournament so that a deal can come into place - Dre will train, and the bullies will leave him while he does so, in order for their dispute to be settled in tournament.
That's the basic plot, obviously there's more going on but to detail the rest would be going into spoiler territory which I don't want to do.
All in all, the film is pretty damn decent, with a few niggles here and there, but Jaden Smith proves he has an acting career ahead of him. It won't be his best role, but it's a good start. I found him to actually be held back, as though he was playing a character that just wasn't him. Dre's character played on his race a bit to the point where he was very stereotypical in places, but look past that and you'll have no problem.
There wasn't much chemistry between Dre and Mei-Ying, the love story was better in the original but that's fine also, there wasn't much focus on it so much as before.
One thing which got me was the fight scenes. A 12A certificate here, yet you see intense fight scenes with one involving a kid getting dropkicked in the face off a fighting stage. HELL YEAH!
Drawing this one to an end here, getting tired so I'll give the Karate Kid (2010) a good 7.5/10, or 3.5/5 stars.
A good film, but flawed in places, but all the same worth a watch.
Recommended.
