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The Karate Kid
(2010)
Will Smith's son Jaden
plays Dre Parker, an American 12 year old uprooted from his Detroit home
and sent into Beijing on account of his mother's work. That she is noisy
and superficial is due to Christopher Murphey’s script and direction
from Harald Zwart (who delivered us Agent Cody Banks in 2003),
rather than Taraji P Henson’s performance.
Things start out okay
at the Hollywood Luxury Apartments, Beijing, where Dre is immediately
befriended by a fellow American boy. However, it gets tense on the
basketball court where attention paid to a pretty girl practising the
violin, Mei Ying (Han Wen Wen), leads to unwanted attention from
bully-supremo and kung fu trainee Cheng (Zhenwei Wang).
Jackie
Chan and Jaden Smith training in “The Karate Kid”
Dre's first day of
school starts with a black eye and things only deteriorate from there.
It isn't until the apartment block's Mr Fix It, Mr Han (Jackie Chan),
takes him under his wing and promises to teach him real Kung Fu
that the bullying ceases. Han's techniques are initially obtuse and
frustrating to the 12 year old (“Jacket on, Jacket off”), but there’s a
method in his madness, and after that the course to the great tournament
is clear.
Comparisons must be
made with the eponymous 1984 film of the same title, where the karate
master was the Okinawan Mr. Miyagi (Oscar nominated Pat Morita). I think
that film is more naïve, with more heart (those were simpler times),
even though the young protagonist was much older. The scenario here is
very similar, with some scenes, shots, and dialogue lifted verbatim, but
it feels like an affectionate homage rather than laziness.
The original is also
slightly shorter—this 2010 production runs to 140 mins. Watching it with
younger children may prove a challenge. Indeed, there is controversy in
some quarters after the original M15+ rating was revised to PG on
distributor appeal. Some of the fighting and resulting physical pain is
unflinching, all the more so because those hurting and being hurt are
children.
Beijing, and indeed the
Great Wall and mountain-top scenes are photogenic heaven and feel like a
lush tourism postcard. It is curious to consider how an African-American
Westerner would be received in vastly changing China. Issues of
East/West tension, superiority complexes and foreignness are hinted at
in the guise of the elite parents of Dre's crush, Mei Ying. This mirrors
the country-club parents of 1984, but with an added racial component.
The Karate Kid
is a touching story for the school holidays, and the landscape and fight
choreography look amazing. I would have preferred those fighting were
older but the storytelling itself is solid if overlong. And it should
really have been called The Kung Fu Kid; the Chinese setting is
very apt. |
