Long, long time ago, in the wonderful 80's, a film was made about a kid who got beaten up bad enough that a neighbourly old Japanese guy came to his rescue, taught him some moves and made him a champion. The storyline made the movie a hit, and created a cult following.
Zoomed into 2010, some Smith family taught it was time to push the boy in the family forward and made him the next famous Smith. So, Karate Kid was remade with 2010 storyline and allowed us to see the kid, who was expected to be beaten up, followed his mother to stay in China. Now, how this film avoided to be a racist film was an effort to be understood. Actually, I did not.
What I did see was the film director, producers and story-writers wrote how Chinese liked to kick the ass of a little black guy who moved to China. I wonder how many nice Chinese people would be shown in the film. So, conclusion - one. Jackie Chan's character. Sure, there was that little girl, with strange hair, and way too bigger size for the skinny little hero. But she was not qualified to be counted because she was supposed to be blinded by crush.
And that was another issue. With an older teenager played by Ralph Macchio in the original film, it made sense that a boy that age was experiencing teenage love and such. But in this 2010 remake, a 12 year old having a crush and doing that kissy-kissy thing?? It was like watching a Hallmark film badly made. There was no click in the film for a boy not-well-known to have this lovey-dovey moment. Like, seriously.. who cared? My friend who sat beside me commented like it was already almost 2 hours and hardly there was any fight, because we kept watching meaningless blossoming of two mismatched kids in I-don't-even-know-what-to-call.
So, we have a bunch of Chinese kids who beat up a black American kid. And a merciless Chinese martial art teacher who did not have sympathy for a shaken, beaten-up American kid.
So, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) had to teach Dre how to hang up his jacket, which sounded so ridiculous, compared to the original wax-on, wax-off move in the original film. And then took train to go somewhere to climb up staircase and to drink some kind of water, which guaranteed winning streak. I mean, the poor Chinese boys did not stand a chance now that Dre drank the water and they did not.
And I knew Dre would win. Come on. He got to train on the Great Wall of China, and those Chinese kids did not.
So, how did the movie end? It was about a black American kid going to China to kick the Chinese people's butts and won. I mean, kungfu, not karate - Chinese martial art, and not even one Chinese was able to uphold their pride and got beaten by an American who was there in China in less than one year. And that snake move? Puh-lease....
Posts
