While it was difficult to pry myself away from comparing this film with the campy and enjoyable 1980’s classic of the same name, the Karate Kid failed to disappoint.
Jaden Smith (son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith) plays Dre, a 12 year old Detroit native (demonstrated by his attire primarily) who gets uprooted and moved to Beijing when his mother’s job in the automotive industry transfers her there. (I kept thinking of what sort of deal Tata Motors would have made for an out-of-work GM employee…) Although Smith makes fast friends with an American neighbor boy with tousled blond hair and a cute Chinese girl named Mei Ying (played by Wenwen Han), the school bully named Cheng (played by Zhenwei Wang) promptly makes his life difficult. After just a few hours in Beijing in fact Dre is seen defending Mei Ying from Cheng who then spends what seems to be an inordinate amount of time pummeling Dre into the ground. Dre concocts a few poorly designed attempts at revenge against Cheng and again gets beat up by Cheng and all of his kung fu-school pals. The maintenance man in Dre’s apartment building named Mr. Han (played by Jackie Chan) intervenes on Dre’s behalf, delivering a kung fu whooping to the gaggle of pre-teen martial artists. Mr. Han and Dre go to visit Cheng’s kung fu instructor to apologize for the altercation and make peace. The evil kung fu instructor demands a fight between himself and Mr. Han or Chen and Dre to repair his school’s honor. (I think the whole audience wanted to see Jackie Chan whoop up on the evil instructor) Mr. Han agrees to teach Dre to defend himself for an upcoming kung fu tournament where he would face Cheng and his minions, eventually learning a few lessons of his own about control… while trying to teach the boy how to defend himself.
The disturbing first fight scene has the super-skinny featherweight Jaden Smith being beaten, tripped, kicked and stomped. Disturbing primarily because of how Hollywood was able to have a 70lb bully deliver a blow that would lift their pre-teen opponent off the ground and across the room. The fact that the fights were between 12-13 year olds and not 16-17 year olds was not lost on the audience. This age difference from the original Karate Kid also made Smith’s pre-teen love interest awkward and uncomfortable for many.
For the purists out there I wanted to mention that this movie was only titled “The Karate Kid” in the United States.. It is named “The Kung Fu Kid” in Europe and Asia to better recognize the martial art being displayed. Columbia Pictures obviously believed that ‘Karate Kid’ evoked a natural marketing interest in US viewers and didn’t want to lose that box office advantage. Overall I would give the film 4 stars out of 5 as it was a credible and well acted delivery of a classic theme. Theater goers will enjoy the moments when Jaden Smith memes his father Will Smith, executes his dance moves and demonstrates charm and resilience both physical and mental. the Karate Kid releases in theaters nationwide today June 11th, 2010.
