Niexter: The Karate Kid

THIS era seems to be an era of remakes. The Karate Kid too is a Chinese-American remake of the 1984 movie of the same name.

And yes, the movie is based upon martial arts. The cast has some big names - Jackie Chan and Taraji P. Henson acting alongside Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s son). The movie is directed by Harald Zwart and produced by Will and Jada Smith.

Twelve-year-old, Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mum, Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) move from Detroit, USA, to Beijing, China, as she is offered a job there. They move into an apartment in Beijing to start a new life. So, the movie starts from there and soon shows Dre befriending a boy by the name of Harry who lives in the same apartment block. Harry invites Dre to play with him in the park.

Dre goes to the park and plays ping pong with some elderly people and gets thrashed. Dre develops a crush on a young violinist, Mei Ying (Wen Wen Han) who responds to his attention, but Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), a Kung Fu whizz whose family is very close to Mei Ying’s family tries to keep them apart by beating Dre up and later harassing him in school.

After a school trip to The Forbidden City on his way home, Dre finds Cheng and his friends hanging out in an alley near his apartment. A ‘situation’ develops and Cheng and his friends eventually beat Dre up. And drum rollll... Mr Han (Jackie Chan), the unfathomable maintenance man of Dre’s building reveals himself as a Kung Fu master and rushes to Dre’s aid! Dre asks Han to teach him Kung Fu but he declines. And instead Han takes him to the school where Cheng learnt Kung Fu to make peace with Cheng’s master, Master Li (Yu Rongguang). Master Li is a man who teaches his students to have no mercy for their opponents. Master Li says that to leave the school either Han or Dre must fight. Han says that Dre will fight in an upcoming tournament but on the condition that Li’s students leave Dre alone until the tournament.

Han trains Dre, but Dre is disappointed that all they do for many hours is put on and take off his jacket. One day, Dre invites Mei Ying to play truant but what Mei Ying does not know is that her violin recital has been rescheduled to that day. Mei Ying’s father deems Dre a bad influence and doesn’t allow them to be friends. Han helps write a note in apology to Mei’s father and Dre recites it. Mei’s father is impressed and permits their friendship. Things begin to look up for Dre as Mei agrees to go to his tournament. In an important lesson in the Wudang Mountains Dre sees a female Kung Fu practitioner imitating the moves of a cobra and points it out to Han. He replies that it is not the practitioner that is imitating the moves but it is the cobra imitating the moves of the practitioner. Dre wants Han to teach him this technique.

The big day arrives and Dre is doing well and has reached the semi-finals with Cheng. He is up against Liang (Shijia Lü), another of Master Li’s students. Master Li tells Liang to break Dre’s leg but when Liang insists he can defeat Dre, Master Li tells him that he wants Dre broken not beaten.

Liang does as told and breaks Dre’s leg and delivers a series of illegal blows that gets him disqualified. Meanwhile, Cheng brutally finishes off his opponent. Meanwhile, time is running out. Dre is about to be disqualified as he is late but manages to make it just in the nick of time. Does he win the tournament? Does he gain the respect of Cheng and his classmates? Well you have to watch the movie to find out. Even if it isn’t Jaden Smith that has you glued, Jackie Chan is his awesome self and is sure to keep you spell-bound.