- "That's not Kung Fu. That's a bad man teach them very bad things."
- ―Mr. Han about Master Li to Dre
Master Li (李师傅), first name unknown, is the main antagonist of the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid. He was portrayed by Yu Rongguang.
He is the Kung Fu teacher of the Fighting Dragons studio and teaches his students to be merciless in battles. He is the equivalent of John Kreese from the original series.
Biography[]
The Karate Kid[]
Master Li is the owner of the Fighting Dragons Kung Fu studio, which is similar to the Cobra Kai dojo in the original trilogy and the Cobra Kai dojo under Kreese/Silver in Cobra Kai as well as the Alpha Elite in The Next Karate Kid, which teaches their students to break their opponent's bones and to be absolutely merciless towards their enemies at all costs.
One day, Dre Parker and his apartment's maintenance man Mr. Han, interrupt a lesson due to an earlier incident when some students from Li's studio had beaten up Dre before Mr. Han intervened to make a peace offering. Li harshly rebuffs the peace offer and then he orders his students to prepare for a match, ordering that either Han or Dre fight his top student, Cheng. Han refuses and attempts to leave with Dre, but Li says that Mr. Han attacked his students, disrespected his studio, and now they both him and Dre want to leave, Li ensures it will not be that easy. Li then says that since both Dre and Han both showed up, one of them must fight. Han then notices a poster for an open Kung Fu tournament and tells Master Li that Dre will be fighting there instead of the studio. Li chuckles for a bit and tells Mr. Han that both he and his students accept the challenge, and they also agree to a particular condition from Mr. Han. The condition that Mr. Han makes Li agree to is that Dre will enter the tournament, but Dre is to be left alone so that he can train under Mr. Han's guidance. In Mandarin Chinese, Master Li strictly instructs all of his students that Dre is to be left alone in order train until the tournament where they will then fight. Li then asks his students if they understand, in which his students reply in Mandarin that they get the message. As Dre and Mr. Han prepare to leave, Li momentarily stops them and then tells them if Dre does not show up to the tournament, he will personally bring pain to both of them.
On the day of the tournament, Li tells his second-best student, Liang, to break Dre's leg. Liang was the least vicious of Dre's tormentors and hesitant to do so, but went ahead with it anyway by severely injuring Dre's leg on his teacher's command. As a result, Liang was disqualified. In the finals, Li's top student, Cheng, fought against Dre despite his leg injury. Using dirty tactics Li taught and recommended, Cheng also injures Dre's leg. However, in the end; Cheng winds up getting defeated, presenting the trophy and apologizing to Dre for the mistreatment he put him through. Afterwards, Cheng and the rest of the Fighting Dragons students end bow to Mr. Han, accepting him as their new master.
It is unknown what happened to Li after the tournament, but it is implied that he was exposed as a cheater and was probably arrested for his terrible influencing on his students. With Li's students now choosing to follow Mr. Han as their master, the Fighting Dragons Studio most likely went bankrupt and defunct.
Personality[]
Master Li is a man of few words, but what is for certain, is that he is a ruthless, cutthroat, and merciless man.
Li strongly believes that kung fu is a weapon that can only be fully developed by discarding concepts such as compassion and benevolence. He despises any acts of mercy in his presence, and is willing to go as far as to abuse his students if they go against his orders.
Li does not tolerate anyone who questions his methods, believing anyone who does so is an insult to his honor and a direct challenge. He is quick to confrontation and even refuses to listen to reason, implying that he follows a very “might makes right” philosophy. Li is also shown to be quite sadistic as he ordered one his students to go as far as to break Dre’s leg in order to break his spirit during the tournament.
Throughout the film, Master Li shows little interest in Dre Parker, referring to him as a “thing” rather than as a person, implying that Li does not acknowledge weaker people. Master Li’s focus seems more fixated on Mr. Han, who presented himself as a contradiction to Master Li’s methodology of martial arts, and he seems more interested in proving to Mr. Han that his philosophy is stronger than his.
Fighting Style[]
Master Li fights like John Kreese and Paul Dugan. All three fight aggressively and mercilessly, not pulling their punches and sharing the aim of taking down their enemies using whatever tactics deemed necessary. However, Li is much faster and more formidable than Dugan and Kreese. This is especially seen when Li fought against Mr. Han in the alternate ending, having been extremely quick and hard hitting, also using the environment around him to his advantage.
He is above the likes of John Kreese, George Turner, Dennis de Guzman, Julie Pierce, Paul Dugan, and Cheng.
In the overall franchise, the only people that can beat him are Mr. Han, Mr. Miyagi, Daniel LaRusso, Johnny Lawrence, Chozen Toguchi, Sato Toguchi, Kim Da-Eun, Mike Barnes, the Cobra Kai instructors, Terry Silver, Feng Xiao, Sensei Ivanov, and Master Kim Sun-Yung (in his prime).
Trivia[]
- Li is the mainland Chinese counterpart to John Kreese from the original Karate Kid trilogy and Cobra Kai as well as Paul Dugan from The Next Karate Kid.
- In a deleted scene, Li was about to slap Cheng for losing to Dre but was stopped by Mr. Han. Mr. Han then fought Li and subdued him (mirroring the beginning of the original sequel). After being defeated, Li was seen resting angrily and was later punched by Sherry Parker as payback for instructing his students to brutally attack her son.
- Li never speaks English throughout the whole movie, which might suggest that he does not know English or knows it very little.
 Villains
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