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"A challenge he never imagined. A teacher he never expected."
―Film slogan

The Karate Kid is a 2010 family martial arts drama film directed by Harald Zwart. It stars Jaden Smith, Taraji P. Henson and Jackie Chan in lead roles, and was produced by Jerry Weintraub, James Lassiter, Ken Stovitz and Jaden's parents Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Synopsis[]

When his mother's career results in a move to China, 12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) finds that he is a stranger in a strange land. Though he knows a little karate, his fighting skills are no match for Cheng, the school bully. Dre finds a friend in Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), a maintenance man who is also a martial-arts master. Mr. Han teaches Dre all about kung fu in the hope that Dre will be able to face down Cheng and perhaps win the heart of a pretty classmate named Meiying.

Production[]

The screenplay by Christopher Murphey was from the story written by Robert Mark Kamen for the original The Karate Kid. Unlike the original, this remake is set in China, and features Kung Fu instead of Japanese-Okinawan Karate. The film's music was composed by James Horner. It is an international co-production between China, Hong Kong, and the United States.

Principal photography took place in Beijing, China, and filming began in July 2009 and ended on October 16, 2009. The Karate Kid was released theatrically worldwide on June 11, 2010 by Sony Pictures. The Karate Kid received mixed reviews and it earned $359.1 million on a $40 million budget. The plot concerns 12-year-old Dre (Smith) from Detroit, Michigan who moves to Beijing, China with his mother (Taraji P. Henson) and runs afoul of the neighborhood bully (Zhenwei Wang). He makes an unlikely ally in the form of an aging maintenance man, Mr. Han (Chan), a kung fu master who teaches him the secrets of self-defense.

Plot[]

Dre Parker and his mother Sherry Parker move from Detroit to Beijing after Sherry gets a job transfer at her car factory. After a day in a park, Dre develops a crush on a young violinist, Meiying, who reciprocates his attention, but another boy Cheng, a rebellious kung fu prodigy whose family is close to Meiying's, attempts to keep them apart by violently attacking Dre, and later bullies him at school. During an attack, the maintenance man, Mr. Han comes to Dre's aid, and when Cheng and his friends try to interfere, Han defeats each of them in close combat, revealing himself as a kung fu master.

After Han mends Dre's injuries using fire cupping, Dre asks if Mr. Han could teach him kung fu. Han refuses, but meets Cheng's teacher, Master Li, at the Fighting Dragons studio to make peace. Li, who teaches his students to show no mercy to their enemies, challenges Dre to a fight with Cheng. Han instead proposes that Dre compete against Li's students at an open martial arts tournament, and also requests the students leave Dre alone to train in time for the tournament. Li accepts the offer, but warns Han that if Dre does not show up during the tournament, he will personally bring pain to Han and Dre.

Han promises to teach Dre kung fu and begins to train Dre by emphasizing movements that apply to life in general, and that serenity and maturity, not punches and power, are the true keys to mastering the martial art. He teaches this by having Dre go through various actions with his jacket, which teaches Dre muscle memory moves. Han then takes Dre to a Taoist temple in the Wudang Mountains where he trained with his father, and Dre witnesses a woman making a cobra reflect her movements and drinks the water from an ancient Taoist well.

As Dre's friendship with Meiying continues, they share a kiss at the Shi-Shi Festival. Dre persuades Meiying to cut school for a day of fun, but when she is nearly late for her violin audition, which was brought forward a day without her knowledge, her parents deem Dre as a bad influence for their daughter and forbid her from spending more time with him.

During the course of their training, Han gives Dre a day off. Dre goes to Han that night and finds Han, apparently drunk, smashing a car he was working on. Han tells Dre that he crashed the same car years ago, and that his wife and ten-year-old son were with him and died in the car crash, leaving him the only survivor. While they were in the car, Han and his wife were having an argument just as the crash occurred, making him feel responsible and guilty for the fatal accident. Han fixes the car every year but smashes it to remind himself of what happened, which makes Dre work much harder in his training in order to help Han forget about the incident and the trauma associated with it. Mr. Han also assists Dre in writing a note of apology to Meiying's father in Chinese, to show respect to her father and also a demonstration that he cares about Meiying. The man accepts and promises that Meiying will attend the tournament to support Dre.

At the tournament, the under-confident Dre is slow to achieve parity with his opponents, but soon begins beating them in the preliminary rounds and advances to the semifinals, as does Cheng, who violently finishes off his opponents. Dre goes up against Liang, one of Li's more sympathetic students and the least vicious of Dre's tormentors, who, under Li's goading, severely hurts Dre's leg in an attempt to break it, leading Liang to be disqualified as a result, while Dre is taken to the infirmary.

Despite Han's insistence that he has earned respect for his performance and doesn't have to continue fighting with his injuries, Dre convinces Han to mend his leg by using the fire cupping technique in order to continue. Dre returns to the arena, facing Cheng in the finals. Dre delivers impressive blows, but Li orders Cheng to break Dre's leg. Cheng is horrified at the order, but obeys under Li's intimidation. As the match continues, Cheng seizes Dre's leg and delivers a vicious blow, doing further damage to the limb. Dre struggles to get up, and attempts the reflection technique to manipulate Cheng into changing his attack stance. Cheng begins reflecting Dre's movements and it goads him into charging Dre, but Dre flips and catches Cheng with a kick to his head, winning the tournament along with the respect of Cheng and his classmates. Cheng, instead of the presenter, awards Dre with the 1st place trophy, and the Fighting Dragon students bow to Mr. Han in respect, showing him the respect over Li, leaving their teacher defeated. Dre and Mr. Han then walk out of the tournament building together happily as the crowd cheers for Dre and his victory, ending the film on a freeze-frame of the two smiling as they walk.

Cast[]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

The film recieved mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 66% based on 210 reviews, and an average rating of 6.17/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "It may not be as powerful as the 1984 edition, but the 2010 Karate Kid delivers a surprisingly satisfying update on the original."[1]

Box Office[]

The Karate Kid is the highest grossing film in The Karate Kid film series. The film was released on June 11, 2010, by Columbia Pictures to 3,663 theaters across the United States. The Karate Kid topped the box office on its opening day, grossing $18.8 million, and in its opening weekend, grossing $56 million in North America, beating The A-Team, which grossed an estimated $9.6 million on the same opening day, and $26 million in its opening weekend. It closed on September 18, 2010, after 101 days of release, grossing $176.7 million in the US and Canada along with an additional $182 million overseas for a worldwide total of $358 million, on a moderate budget of $40 million.

Trivia[]

  • The popular Nickelodeon show SpongeBob SquarePants makes two cameos on Dre's TV, when she watches the episode "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy III".
    • The theme song for that show is also credited in the songs part of the end credits.
  • A sequel was ordered for the film, though it never came to fruition for unknown reasons. Jackie Chan once cited that the initial script for the film didn't work well, with rewrites starting shortly after. Breck Eisner was set to direct.[2][3]
  • The canonicity of this film is debated amongst fans, with many believing it to be a remake that disregards the original continuity because it didn't feature the original story or cast. Moreover, the film focuses on Kung Fu and not karate.
    • In a 2021 interview with Slashfilm, Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald began to rule out the 2010 film as part of their "Miyagi-Verse". Because of this, the remake is separate from the rest of the Karate Kid franchise.
    • In 2023, it was announced that Jackie Chan is set to reprise his role as Mr. Han in The Karate Kid (2024) alongside Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso. This makes The Karate Kid canon with the original films and, by default, Cobra Kai.

Navigation[]

           TheKarateKidLogo
Films

The Karate Kid | Part II | Part III | The Next Karate Kid | The Karate Kid (2010)

Cobra Kai
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6

Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues - Johnny's Story
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The Karate Kid (NES) | Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues | Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising |
Cobra Kai Card Fighter

References[]

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