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Film Review

Title : The Karate Kids
Genre : Action
Director : Harold Zwart
Year : 2010
Duration : 2 hours

The latest Hollywood update of The Karate Kid by a famous and talented director, Harald Zwart. He does not simple reply all of what made the original so memorable. He rip out the guts and try somethings completely new by keeping a similar structure. Updating when necessary and covering the whole thing in a slick polish, Zwart provides viewers with a definitive example of what a remake should be.
Jaden Smith plays Dre Parker, a young boy raised by his single mother Terry, played by Taroji P. Henson. The film wastes no time, a Detroit preteen, dre who gets uprooted and moved to Beijing, China when his mother’s job transfers her there.
Although he makes fast friends with an American neighbor blond hair boy and a cute Chinese girl named Mei Ying played by Wenwen Han, and a school bully named Cheng played by Zhenwei Wang promptly makes his life a living hell. So, Dre Parker does not like that new home very much.
After a feeble attempt at revenge gets him beat up by Cheng and his kung fu-school best friends, a local repairman named Mr. Han played by Jackie Chan intervenes on his behalf. But when Cheng’s martial arts instructor demands a fight to repair the school’s honor, Mr.Han agrees to teach Dre, real kung fu to defend himself for an upcoming tournament eventually learning a few lesson of his own while trying to teach the boy.
In terms of addressing those initial, going in problems, there was a mistake for the filmmakers to call the film The Karate Kid. Rather than chalking it up to cultural insensitivity, however, it seems more like a byproduct of marketing paranoia, the fact that people might not have the same recognition factor if the film were titled The Kung Fu Kid (which it should be note the film is titled outside the U.S.).
Young Smith also does a fine job as underdog. His banter with Henson is believable and while not fully buy his turn as Kung Fu Master at film’s end it doesn’t ruin anything. He also has a perfectly-handled relationship with a girl at school, who is working towards her goal in a violin audition, another nice added element.
Aside from smartly updated script (courtesy of Christopher Murphey), what sets it apart from other updates is the level of production value. In a brilliant move, they decide to head to China instead of California. The cinematography is gorgeous, whether it be the busy city or the desolate mountains. Both the sound team and stunt coordinator, Gang Wu, deserve credit because, for a family film, the punches have more weight than some adult action flicks. This helps the audience invest more into Dre’s situation, making it clear that when he gets knocked down and he gets knocked down hard. All of this only makes the cheers louder as the story progresses.