Reinventing THE KARATE KID with the same beats… and Kung-fu

Reinventing THE KARATE KID with the same beats… and Kung-fu

Jul 14

SPOILER WARNING for those who haven’t seen the original Karate Kid
(and shame on you…)

Like many who cherish their childhood films from the 80s, I was bemused to hear there would be a remake of the 1984 classic The Karate Kid, starring Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith in the lead role, and Jackie Chan playing the Mr. Miyagi character.

Arriving at the cinema I was quickly reminded of it being school break here in Australia (hence the cleverly delayed release of this film). The kids were everywhere. I was reminded one last time that this was definitely targeted at kids when the rows of families around me had to verbally read out the action that was happening on screen for their young…  I was in for a loooong session.

Maybe it’s not a complete remake? I thought. Maybe it’s a total re-envisioning and they’ve just used the same title? I hoped. Jaden and his Mother arrived in China. So far, so different. Jaden met the maintenance guy—he was a mysterious Chinese man shooing a fly with his chopsticks… Uh-oh… Then Jaden started showing off for a popular girl (and I bet he gets beaten-up by guys who don’t appreciate that) and he got beaten-up by guys who didn’t appreciate that… and so it went. Almost the entire film, in terms of character beats, unravelled exactly the same as the original. Without a doubt, The Karate Kid 2010 is a beat-for-beat remake of The Karate Kid 1984, right down to the final fight, the injury, the healing, and the triumphant return… It’s all just been revamped for a new generation. The set-pieces were shot close on annoying shaky cam and tightly cut, the punches boomed in Dolby 5.1 and the music was lifted from any 12-16-year-old’s current playlist on iTunes.

So, needing to convince the Western world that a kid from Detroit can learn Kung-fu in a matter of weeks and ultimately win a Chinese Kung-fu tournament, Jackie Chan was clever casting. We all know who Jackie Chan is and we all know he could kick your ass for real. Even the swarms of kids at the screening today knew who he was. Unsuspecting Mothers who were clearly dragged along by their kids were murmuring “Oh wow, I think that’s Jackie Chan… I didn’t know he was in this...” and just like that, they were convinced. So was I. While his character was extremely slow to unravel (I’ll rip into the pace in a moment) when I  finally saw Chan do what he does best – martial arts – I was reminded at just how damn entertaining the man is to watch. Mesmerising.

Aside from the fighting and mentoring, Chan also got to work on his dramatic side and actually delivered a heartfelt performance in his lead role. It got really soulful and emotional there for a moment, before the kids were, like, what the hell?! And the film quickly switched gears back to its premise: ASS-KICKING KUNG-FU!! Chan’s performance was also aided by the fact that he drew the occasional chuckle with his dry, straight-faced jokes; the kind of one-liners found in the Rush Hour films. Hey, they co-starred an immature black kid, too…!

Jaden Smith looks like his Dad. There’s no mistaking it. So often I was reminded of Will Smith during this film; it’s actually quite exciting to think about the kind of potential that may lay ahead for Jaden if he decides to take it seriously. Really seriously. There was evidence of effort in his role as fish-out-of-water Dre, and it’s hard to be critical of a kid who’s new to the craft and still very green (plus, he’s 12), but, there was much room for improvement. There were moments that lacked believability and some wise-cracking that wasn’t so wise. Not that any of my fellow audience members noticed. They were just lapping up how cute and cool and funny he was. I was probably the only one there deliberately scoping out things like shot selection, blocking and performances– which is not a smart thing to do while watching a cash-grab kids flick.

To his credit, director Harald Zwart tipped his hat to the original film often, which was a nice touch and sort of harked back to the theme of both films— win or lose, always show respect and you’ll ultimately earn the same. For instance, when Jaden first met Jackie Chan, he was shooing a fly with his chopsticks. During montages of martial arts growth, Jaden assumes the famous Crane Kick stance from the first film (not used in the final fight).  And, while watching Jaden practice his moves, Jackie Chan often waxed his car, paying homage to wax-on, wax-off.

Speaking of wax on, wax off—it was gone. And it was a problem. Replacing it was ‘jacket on, jacket off, jacket on floor, pick jacket up, repeat’, of course resulting in Jaden practicing Kung-fu movements without realising he was doing so (I told you, beat-for-beat remake). What was missing was the result of all the hard work he puts in. In the original Karate Kid, Daniel Larusso uses the wax on, wax off technique under instruction of Mr. Miyagi and evidently polishes a series of cars and the entire decking of Mr. Miyagi’s garden. He has something to show for his hard work. In this remake, the only result (next to his improved kung-fu abilities) is … he’s able to… I dunno… put his jacket on faster?

What made the remake harder to endure was the fact that, for whatever reason, they’ve taken those same beats and stretched them out to a challenging 140 minutes. Almost 2-and-a-half hours is a damn long time to wait for something you know is coming. I timed a good 45 minutes where the antagonist bullies were nowhere to be seen while Jaden got close with the girlfriend love interest (who was the reason for the bullying in the first place). The fact that their bad-ass teacher demanded they not bully Jaden so he could train for the tournament shouldn’t have mattered. The original Karate Kid was clever enough to let the beats of these plots overlap and let the film unfold naturally. The remake was segmented into sections like meeting the girl, getting beat up, meet Jackie Chan, learn to fight, romance the girl, etc. It was jarring and it held the film up considerably.

That being said, it was hard not to shed a smirk as the kids cheered for Jaden whooping ass in the final tournament. I knew what was coming from before the first act was through, but it was nice to hear them really getting into it the way my generation would have for the original film. For today’s audience the film definitely worked. And let’s be honest—how many kids have seen (or will ever bother to see) the original Karate Kid?

No matter how much today’s audience might dig the new Karate Kid, it didn’t have the same charm as the original—and I really don’t think that’s just nostalgia talking. Seeing the new, revamped approach—with the extra slow motion, the whipping cameras and the lacklustre score (almost nonexistent—and not in that good way), made me sad that films have been forced to go the way they have, catering to the ‘now’ generation. The majority of the film had that corporate, plastic feel to it. There were some truly original cinematic moments in the original Karate Kid, and those kinds of moments could never be matched in a copycat remake like this.

The Karate Kid (2010)