...You're, what? 5?
There's a new Karate Kid movie on the way and, personally, I think it looks great. Except, as lots and lots of people on the internet have keenly noted, it is called the Karate Kid and yet features Kung-Fu. Kung Fu! Not Karate! There is no way the movie will in some way qualify the title! No screen writer on earth is that talented! And besides, how dare they remake the immortal 1980's classic!?
The original is good, and definitely a classic, but there are classics which are totally singular - which are amazing for precisely who is in and behind them - and classics which are great premises, well executed. Karate Kid is the latter. It's OK, I think, to revisit it. The martial arts are marvelous expressions of the human form and human spirit, and, frankly, we have a tendency to dilute them in the west. People still practice them with tremendous talent and sometimes great understanding, but more often MA's are consumed as exercise routines - jockhood.
A story like the Karate Kid finds the heart of what it means to practice a martial art. It's about self discovery and self discipline, friends and enemies - humor, even. It's a good story everyone enjoys, that most of us would like to experience, in some way. To have a great mentor, and to find the greatness in ourselves - our best.
The new Karate Kid looks like it's change and retained everything necessary to deliver these great thematic satisfactions while being as different a movie as possible. The kids are younger, and it's a collection of Chinese boys that antagonize our protagonist, rather than blond preps from Beverly Hills. In one of the trailers they mock their victim for striking, what I believe is the Crane Kick pose, by calling him The Karate Kid and promptly beating the ever loving garbage out of him. So, I think that's what's up with the title. Oh, and Jackie Chan plays Mr. Miagi, which is awesome.
No, it is. The man's best work is behind him, so why not play such a role? He's still enormously talented physically, he's the essential Asian name in the Western film market, and he can sell jokes. He gets the Miagi balance just right, as far as I can tell: aloofly amusing, but strikingly wise. And if there was ever a martial art prepared to depict the totality of its expression through seemingly mundane movement, it's Kung Fu. In the trailer, the protégé is told to remove and re-done his jacket, just as the original was instructed to paint the fence and sand the floor. "Everything is Kung Fu" Chan says, and I get chills every time.
It won't be perfect, just like the original wasn't perfect. In 20 years, it'll look like a 20 year old movie, and maybe by then Tony Jaa will be teaching Zack Efron's son about the beauty of Mui Thai. And if it looks half as decent and fun and comprehensive as this one does, I'll be just as willing to see it. I'm not worried about defacing a classic; that's impossible to do anyway. I'm much more concerned that the next generation of kids won't have any inspiration to take up martial arts - or, worse yet, any comprehension of what they mean.
The original is good, and definitely a classic, but there are classics which are totally singular - which are amazing for precisely who is in and behind them - and classics which are great premises, well executed. Karate Kid is the latter. It's OK, I think, to revisit it. The martial arts are marvelous expressions of the human form and human spirit, and, frankly, we have a tendency to dilute them in the west. People still practice them with tremendous talent and sometimes great understanding, but more often MA's are consumed as exercise routines - jockhood.
A story like the Karate Kid finds the heart of what it means to practice a martial art. It's about self discovery and self discipline, friends and enemies - humor, even. It's a good story everyone enjoys, that most of us would like to experience, in some way. To have a great mentor, and to find the greatness in ourselves - our best.
The new Karate Kid looks like it's change and retained everything necessary to deliver these great thematic satisfactions while being as different a movie as possible. The kids are younger, and it's a collection of Chinese boys that antagonize our protagonist, rather than blond preps from Beverly Hills. In one of the trailers they mock their victim for striking, what I believe is the Crane Kick pose, by calling him The Karate Kid and promptly beating the ever loving garbage out of him. So, I think that's what's up with the title. Oh, and Jackie Chan plays Mr. Miagi, which is awesome.
No, it is. The man's best work is behind him, so why not play such a role? He's still enormously talented physically, he's the essential Asian name in the Western film market, and he can sell jokes. He gets the Miagi balance just right, as far as I can tell: aloofly amusing, but strikingly wise. And if there was ever a martial art prepared to depict the totality of its expression through seemingly mundane movement, it's Kung Fu. In the trailer, the protégé is told to remove and re-done his jacket, just as the original was instructed to paint the fence and sand the floor. "Everything is Kung Fu" Chan says, and I get chills every time.
It won't be perfect, just like the original wasn't perfect. In 20 years, it'll look like a 20 year old movie, and maybe by then Tony Jaa will be teaching Zack Efron's son about the beauty of Mui Thai. And if it looks half as decent and fun and comprehensive as this one does, I'll be just as willing to see it. I'm not worried about defacing a classic; that's impossible to do anyway. I'm much more concerned that the next generation of kids won't have any inspiration to take up martial arts - or, worse yet, any comprehension of what they mean.
By Dave Beauchene
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