At first, I had wanted nothing to do with the idea of Will Smith using his influence and pull to recreate one of the greatest movies of all time, in The Karate Kid, but using his own kid as the titular role. And then when the premise of the plot was butchered to where instead of being in the United States, but instead China, I was a little beside myself; obviously from the get-go anyone with half a brain knows that it’s no longer karate. I thought the idea for the film was utter crap. However, that ended up changing somewhere down the line.
And that was when I found out that Jackie Chan was the actor chosen to essentially be “The Mr. Miyagi” of the film, and then suddenly, my tune began to change real quick. I’m a huge admirer of Jackie Chan, not just for the entertainment of all his acting, acrobatics, and martial arts, but I really admire the guy’s intelligence. He speaks so many different languages, has a massive fanbase both in the United States as well as Asia, and there’s something about the guy that seems genuine and that he truly puts himself into all his roles. With him as part of the flick, suddenly the movie didn’t seem like it could be that bad.
In conclusion? I was right. The Kung Fu Kid wasn’t bad at all . . . Mostly because pretty much, we’ve already seen the entire movie before. (Potential spoilers, plot summaries ahead)
Aside from semantics like races, settings, ages, languages, and practice, the entire Kung Fu Kid movie is structured pretty much just like the original Karate Kid. And I’m going to show you exactly how, and turn this into somewhat of a little competition here.
The role of Daniel LaRusso is recreated in Dre Parker, played by none other than the son of the Fresh Prince himself, Jaden Smith. About 4-5 years younger, and possibly 4-5 times more legitimately athletic than Ralph Macchio, he does a good job of getting his ass kicked like Daniel did, but he’s definitely a lot more disrespectful and kind of a punk. Whether or not it is a sign of the times, or a racial thing, who knows. Point goes to Daniel LaRusso.
The “New Mr. Miyagi” is now Mr. Han, portrayed by the legendary Jackie Chan. I’m pleased to see that he didn’t just out try to recreate Mr. Miyagi, but instead created his own similar, but different character as a whole. But Mr. Miyagi was funnier than Mr. Han, and he always had the advantage of deception of being this short little Asian guy who kicked ass. And ain’t nobody topping the original. Point goes to Mr. Miyagi.
Johnny Lawrence was brought back to life in the form of Cheng, a dastardly young youth who has a penchant of beating the snot out of Dre Parker. As much as I appreciated the job that this young boy performed, with his steely glares and seemingly legitimate athletic ability, he’s still a schoolboy who has to occasionally wear a uniform. NOWHERE near as badass as Johnny, who smokes pot in the bathroom, rides around on dirt bikes, and can get away with wearing headbands in the 80s. Point goes to Johnny.
The love interest of the film, Ali, was reincarnated in the form of Meiying, also a classmate, but with loftier goals. Now that I think about it, Ali existed as nothing but a piece of ass that Daniel was trying to impress, and nothing more. Meiying was a more complex character, also developed better, and had some personality. Point goes to Meiying.
John Kreese, the evil grandmaster sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, was recreated by Master Li, whom this isn’t his actual picture from the movie, because google can’t find me any, but it is the same actor, because I remember him from such HK flicks such as The Storm Riders, and Iron Monkey. Both preach extreme discipline, and that the fight is never really over until the opponent is incapacitated, and that there is no such thing as mercy. It’s not even close. Chinese are too polite, and even when they’re evil, he’s nowhere near as batshit over-the-top as John Kreese was. Point goes to Kreese.
What used to be (the awesome) Cobra Kai was brought back to light as the Fighting Dragons. Where as Cobra Kai pretty much was a fairly uniform group of guys ranging from the same age, the Fighting Dragons don’t seem to have such limitations, as this pack of young martial artists are led by a 12-year old, but as one can see, contains guys that range from ages 10 through 31. This really isn’t a difficult comparison to make, since the Fighting Dragons couldn’t hold one jobber Cobra Kai member’s jockstrap. Cobra Kai’s identity, logo, and motto are all 1,000x better than the Fighting Dragons. Point goes to Cobra Kai.
It would have been even too blatant for the Kung Fu Kid to get away with using the Crane Kick again, so in the new flick, they introduce something entirely new. However, they don’t actually show what kind of move it eventually is until the very end, and I guess I won’t go over the top and reveal it myself. But as for the new technique, there is no mention about how If do right no can defense, so I have to imagine that the move itself is quite fallible. Point goes to the Crane Kick.
One thing that stood out to me so blatantly was the obvious attempts to not only recreate all the characters in some way, shape or form, but to also get some of the side characters as well. Now I have no idea what his name was, since they were all given generic Chinese family names, so for all intents and purposes, I’ll call him the Chinese equivalent of Bobby. He was known for two things – his occasional sense of compassion as he had an apparent limit to how much abuse should be doled out onto Daniel/Dre, but also being the one in charge of “taking him out,” in the semi-finals. But whereas Bobby simply executed a jump kick to the leg, Chinese Bobby goes so much further over the edge. And for that, Point goes to Chinese Bobby.
Now this kid’s a little interesting – he not only is the reincarnation of one character, but debatable two characters. He has the sociopath/borderline crazy look in his eyes and behaviors that of the character Dutch, but in the tournament montage, he’s the one fighter that actually lands the hard blow to the ribs, just like Tommy (who is best known for the “get him a bodybag . .. YEAAAH” line). This never works well however. The fact that Dutch grew up to do porn, and Tommy’s iconic line, I’d have to say that the points go to Dutch and Tommy.
Now this comparison saddens me a little bit, because I couldn’t find his Chinese counterpart anywhere on the interwebs. But if you were to see the movie, it’s totally worth it. But basically, the guy in the white gi is Darryl Vidal, a legitimate martial artist who was given a role in the movie after winning a tournament. That being said, I have to say that his Chinese counterpart had to have had a similar path, since like Vidal, he’s one of the only guys that actually gets montage time, shown kicking some ass of his own. However, Chinese Vidal also has a mohawk, and is shown being very pompous, arrogant, and flamboyant, all of which are far from being redeemable qualities in kung-fu. Tsk, tsk. Point goes to Vidal.
The last comparison I’m too lazy to generate any imagery for, but it’s basically the venue of the tournament – what was previously known as the All-Valley Karate Tournament in somewhere in Southern California, it became simply seen on screen as Public Tournament, which is held somewhere in Beijing, China. As much as I can appreciate old school, no-nonsense, no-fluff venues and organizations, I have to admit that the bling of the Public Tournament made for some great amusement. Nothing like seeing 360 degree pannings of the individual fighters, and direct instant replay of all the action of the matches, whether they be point-worthy strikes, or when Bobby decides to go postal on Dre’s leg. Point goes to Public Tournament.
So if you’ve been paying attention, the original Karate Kid buries the Kung Fu Kid by a score of 8-3. It wasn’t really that close, and showed that it really hasn’t evolved that much, which I think may not have been such a bad idea. For what it was worth, the Kung Fu Kid wasn’t a bad movie, but if you were to be looking for some ground-breaking remake, then you’ll likely be disappointed.
