It's more Chinese Kung Fu than Karate
Posted on 06/10/2010 5:55:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Summary : It has kick from Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, but its running time may test its target audience's patience.
"The Karate Kid" is a kung fu kick of film that hits more than it misses, with its fresh prince of Beijing in Jaden Smith, its scene-stealing grand master flash, Jackie Chan, and a shiny-happy China travelogue thrown in for good measure, or tax incentives, one of the two.
The grit and the grime of the 1984 original are gone, swept under some Oriental rug no doubt in the spit-shine director Harald Zwart has given every nook and cranny of the production. But the bones of Robert Mark Kamen's story of a struggling, fatherless boy and the man and martial arts that help him is still very much the heart of the matter — screenwriter Christopher Murphey's just gone global with it.
Though the new job takes mom, the always sassy Taraji P. Henson, and Dre (Smith) to kung fu central, the producers have kept the "Karate" name and thrown in some bad dialogue to explain it. For the record, and for all the parents left to search for classes the kids will probably clamor for, the highly choreographed fighting style used here is wushu, a kind of power kung fu that frankly looks pretty brutal, so be prepared for kids to give and take a lot of punches.
Giving the movie even more currency today is its key dilemma of how to deal with the school bully. While cyber-bullying has become all the rage, for most kids reality is that bigger boy with a bad attitude who pushes and pummels them on the playground. For Dre, it's Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), who doesn't like the new American interloper or his interest in pretty violin prodigy Mei Ying (Wenwen Han).
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I’ll stick with the Ralph Macchio version, thanks.
I saw the trailer for the movie and it appeared VERY ‘pro-China’. Little concerned about taking my kid....as we both take Karate.
“Giving the movie even more currency today is its key dilemma of how to deal with the school bully.”
Fight him. Keep fighting him until he decides it isn’t worth taking some lumps himself. He’ll stop when he realizes you’ll get in a lick once in a while and he’ll get hurt too. And the bonus is, of course...if he doesn’t stop...you get to be stronger and learn how to fight. This is some sort of tough thing to figure out?
I’ll wait for Toy Story 3.
I’m not talking particular ‘styles’ and ‘origins’. Just concerned about the ‘message’. I know what you mean, tho. :)
still think it could've worked out ...
More interested in the A-Team than this one.
SnakeDoc
NO thanks....The movie looks terrible and the dialogue from what I’ve seen is beyond bad....I will take Pat Morita and Ralph (Can’t spell his last name).....
They make a new Karate Kid movie, but don’t make it about karate...
It’s not “Karate Kid”, it’s “Kung Fu Kid”, sheesh.
Does Dre have to wax an old car at some point?
Never saw the first one, have no intention of seeing this one. The charms of movies hold sway with me. I should infinitely prefer a book.
Not on my “to see” list. This was a film that should never have been remade. I just don’t understand why “Hollywood” can’t just be original and do something NEW. Why dredge up old flicks and remake them (usually making them more PC, less family-friendly, and a lot more repulsive in the process)?
Now - there have been some films in the past that NEED remaking - some that were so poorly executed (though they may have been based on a great book or story line) that they deserve another opportunity to right the wrong done against them with poor production/acting/budgets/whatever.
But don’t take what was a good movie just as it was and remake it just for the sake of it.
Karate is from Japan, Kung Fu is from China, Tae Kwan Do is from Korea. While they are similiar in being martial arts, they are distinctly different fighting styles.
2 months ago, someone uploaded the first 3 KK movies on Youtube but got pulled later. Reseda still hasn’t changed after all this time.
How exciting, another pointless remake — and WTF does Karate have to do with China ? The originals were clearly Japanese-oriented, as they should be. This film is top-to-bottom Chinese. Attaching a “Karate” name to it is about as absurd as having a film about bratwurst and sauerkraut set in Egypt (presumably, the filmmakers were counting on Western ignorance of Asian culture as to which customs and practices originate from which country).
I’m not sure I’m thrilled with Will Smith letting his progeny take a starring role in a film, either. The kid looks uncomfortable and sullen, and doesn’t have much presence to carry an entire movie. “C’mon, Jaden, finish this scene, and I’ll take you to Wally World to get you another X-Box game !” Oh, brother.
In the Age of Obama, we're basically using the "They All Look Alike To Me" excuse for racial insensitivity.
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