The Karate Kid

Yet another name from the 1980’s, The Karate Kid, makes its return to cinemas in the form of a new film. Does it live up to the original film? Who cares?! It’s a good film in its own right.

The new Karate Kid is Jaden Smith, who plays Dre Parker. Dre moves to Beijing with his working mom (Taraji P. Hensen). There, he meets aspiring violinist Mei Ying (Wen Wen Han), and incurs the wrath of Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), the star pupil of a brutal kung fu master.

The local handyman, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), steps in one day to save Dre from Cheng and his fellow bullies with his Kung Fu skills. Mr. Han agrees to teach Dre Kung Fu to prepare him for an upcoming tournament against Cheng’s school. And thus begins the kinship between student and teacher.

As Mr. Han, Jackie Chan has his best role to date. As an eccentric master, or as a broken man with a sad past, Chan creates a believable character. His chemistry with the much younger Smith also works well as does Smith’s own performance.

The filmmakers are also experts in picking locations. Director Harold Zwart and Cinematographer Roger Pratt film in such locations as The Forbidden City and the Wudang Mountains. Simply awesome visuals, almost like a travelogue of China and a very amazing one at that.

This is a remake done right. It’s not manipulative in the least; instead, it lets the characters act for themselves to get the appropriate audience reactions. It’s also around two and a half hours long, but it holds interest for that long. That’s what makes it worth whatever you pay for it.