The Karate Kid (2010)

The Karate Kid is a 2010 martial arts drama film directed by Harald Zwart, and part of The Karate Kid series. It stars Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan in lead roles, and it was produced by Jerry Weintraub, James Lassiter, Ken Stovitz, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. This film does not take place in the same fictional universe as the four previous Karate Kid films, but is instead a remake of the original 1984 film with the setting moved to China, and the martial art changed (despite the film’s title) from karate to kung fu. The plot concerns 12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith), from Detroit, Michigan, who moves to Beijing, China with his mother (Taraji P. Henson) and runs afoul of the neighborhood bully Cheng (Zhenwei Wang).

He makes an unlikely ally in the form of an aging maintenance man, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), a kung fu master who teaches him the secrets of self-defense. The screenplay was written by Christopher Murphey. 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 film received generally favorable reviews and earned $359 million on a $40 million budget.

Plot.

12-year-old Dre Parker and his widowed mother Sherry, are leaving Detroit travelling to Beijing after Sherry gets a job transfer at a car factory. Dre goes to a nearby park where he eyes a young violinist, Meiying, who reciprocates his attention, but a 14-year-old Chinese boy named Cheng, a rebellious Kung Fu prodigy whose family is close to Meiying’s, holds a grudge against Dre and keeps them apart by brutally attacking, teasing and bullying Dre every chance he gets. After a school field trip to the Forbidden City, Dre throws a bucket of dirty water over Cheng and his gang as revenge, enraging them. They chase and eventually corner him at a backstreet alley, and brutally beat Dre until he is saved by the maintenance man, Mr. Han, who intervenes and fends off the boys and reveals himself to be a Kung Fu master.

Mr. Han heals Dre’s injuries using Ancient Chinese medicine methods of fire cupping while explaining that Cheng and his friends are not inherently bad, but made so by their teacher Master Li, who teaches his students to show “no mercy” towards their enemies. Intrigued, Dre asks if Mr. Han could teach him Kung Fu. Mr. Han refuses and instead brings him to meet Li at the Fighting Dragon studio to make peace. Li harshly rebuffs the peace offer and challenges Mr. Han or Dre to a fight with Cheng. Mr. Han instead counters that Dre compete against Li’s students one-on-one at the upcoming open Kung Fu tournament, requesting that his students leave Dre alone to train for the tournament. Li begrudgingly agrees to the terms as long as Dre shows up at the tournament, warning them that if they are absent, he will hurt them.

Mr. Han promises to teach Dre Kung Fu and begins to train him by emphasizing movements that apply to life in general. He conveys that serenity and maturity, not punches and power, are the true keys to mastering the martial art. He teaches this by having Dre perform repetitive motions using his jacket, though which Dre develops muscle memory. Han takes Dre to a Taoist temple in the Wudang Mountains. There, Dre witnesses a woman making a cobra reflect her movements and later drinks the water from an ancient Taoist well. After many weeks of grueling and laborious training, Mr. Han soon gives Dre a day off. Dre goes to see Meiying, persuading her to cut school for a day of fun. She is nearly late for a violin audition that was pushed up a day without her knowledge. Her parents thus deem Dre a bad influence and forbid her from ever seeing him again.

Dre heads to see Mr. Han, but finds him apparently drunk and depressed, smashing the car he was working on. A devastated Mr. Han tearfully explains to Dre that he crashed the same car years ago, and that his wife and 10-year-old son were killed in the crash. He fixes the car every year but smashes it to remind himself of what happened; this inspires Dre to train harder to help his teacher overcome his trauma and get past the incident. Mr. Han assists Dre in writing and reciting a note of apology in Mandarin to Meiying’s father, who accepts Dre’s gift and apology, promising that Meiying will attend the tournament to support Dre.

Release, Filming.

The film premiered May 26, 2010, in Chicago, with appearances by Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, and a brief surprise appearance from Will Smith. In the Mainland China version of the film, scenes of bullying were shortened by the censors, and a kissing scene is removed. John Horn of the Los Angeles Times said that the editing ultimately resulted in “two slightly different movies”. The Chinese government granted the filmmakers access to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, and the Wudang Mountains. On some occasions, the filmmakers had to negotiate with residents who were not accustomed to filming activity. The feature started being filmed in July 2009.