The Karate Kid (2010)

Work causes a single mother to move to China with her young son; in his new home, the boy embraces kung fu, taught to him by a master.

Director:

Harald Zwart

Writers:

Christopher Murphey (screenplay), Robert Mark Kamen (story)

Stars:

Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P. Henson

4 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jaden Smith	...	Dre Parker
Jackie Chan	...	Mr. Han
Taraji P. Henson	...	Sherry Parker
Wenwen Han	...	Meiying
Rongguang Yu	...	Master Li
Zhensu Wu	...	Meiying's Dad
Zhiheng Wang	...	Meiying's Mom
Zhenwei Wang	...	Cheng
Jared Minns	...	Dre's Detroit Friend
Shijia Lü	...	Liang
Yi Zhao	...	Zhuang
Bo Zhang	...	Song
Luke Carberry	...	Harry
Cameron Hillman	...	Mark
Ghye Samuel Brown	...	Oz

Storyline

12-year-old Dre Parker could've been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother's latest career move has landed him in China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying - and the feeling is mutual - but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows only a little karate, and Cheng puts "the karate kid" on the floor with ease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han, who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life.

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu | kid | karate | china | bully | 

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Taglines:

A Challenge He Never Imagined. A Teacher He Never Expected.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Family | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for bullying, martial arts action violence and some mild language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA China

Language:

English Chinese

Release Date:

11 June 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kung Fu Kid

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£4,882,306 (UK) (30 July 2010)

Gross:

$176,591,618 (USA) (17 September 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, China Film Group, Jerry Weintraub Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

140 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the very beginning of the movie, one of the markings on Dre's wall says 7/8/07-9th birthday. This is the actual 9th birthday of Jaden Smith, who plays Dre.

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Goofs

The Qixi Festival that Dre attends with his mom and Mr. Han falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. Though the exact date in our modern calendar varies from year to year, it is usually sometime in August. However, a few scenes after this festival, Mr. Han says the date is June 8th. This is not possible unless 11 months had passed in those few scenes.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sherry Parker: Dre, you ready?

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Crazy Credits

Stills from the production of the film are shown alongside the credits.

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Connections

Featured in The Nostalgia Critic: Old vs. New: The Karate Kid (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Never Say Never"
Written by Adam Messinger, Nasri Atweh, Justin Bieber, Kuk Harrell (as Thaddis Harrell),
Jaden Smith and Omarr Rambert
Produced by The Messengers
Vocals produced by Kuk Harrell
Additional Rap Vocals produced by Omarr Rambert
Performed by Justin Bieber featuring Jaden Smith
Justin Bieber appears courtesy of RBMG/Island/Def Jam Music Group

User Reviews

No wax-on wax-off but this Karate Kid would make Mr. Miyagi proud

Over the years, I have taken a lot of grief from friends for making The Karate Kid, the 1984 movie directed by Rocky Oscar winner John G. Avildsen, one of my five favorite movies of all time. So it was with apprehension and low expectations that I went to see the remake.

Wow, what a magnificent job of re-creating the first film while modernizing it, setting it in China, and bringing all the tension, man-love, and depth back to the big screen. This time, Dutch director Harald Zwart added wonderful scenic views of China and lost a bit of the sometimes-cheesy dialog. But to his credit, he kept a great deal of the original plot intact. Mom is transferred to Beijing and takes her son with her without much worrying about his feelings. Dre immediately finds trouble as the American outsider who befriends the beautiful Chinese girl. There is the evil sensei of the trained-to-maim thugs who rule the school that our hero, Dre Parker (Jaden Smith), has been thrown into. The bad kids target him, and he gets the heck beat out of him.

To the rescue comes the maintenance guy in the apartment building in which he lives. Played by Jackie Chan, Mr. Han isn't quite as sage as Mr. Miyagi but he uses almost the same technique (not exactly wax-on-wax-off, paint-the-fence, and sand-the-floor but close). His personal secret remains essentially intact, too, which when discovered by Dre, motivates him to work harder. The role of Dre's mom, played here by Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), is beefed up from the part that Randee Heller played in the original. The young girl, Meiying (Wanwan Han in her first role), looks vaguely like Tamlyn Tomita, who played the love interest in The Karate Kid: Part 2. The rest of the film plays close to the original as well but I won't tell you if he wins (as Daniel LaRusso did in the original) or loses (as Rocky did).

Jaden Smith proves that he may be a force in the business for a long time. His parents, of course, are Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and they have created a natural. That was evident in The Pursuit of Happiness. Hand it to the kid: he worked really hard to learn kung fu (it's not karate). And while I preferred Ralph Macchio because he was so raw and not talented as an actor, Jaden Smith knows the camera is always there, which I think he will grow out of over time. Jackie Chan is really quite good here, shedding the recent tongue-in-cheek comedy roles. This part fits him perfectly and Morita would have been proud had he lived to see it.

After my disappointments with so many other remakes, I was pleasantly surprised. The director and cast clearly found the balance.