The Kung-Karate-Fu Kid
The Karate Kid 2010: Same, same? No, no!
by Jess Hemerly at 9:54 AM March 4, 2010
… the 2010 [remake] version of The Karate Kid looks like it tries to be faithful to the 1984 version … instead of the lovable maintenance man and gardener Pat Morita (RIP) we get maintenance man Jackie Chan; instead of Ralph Macchio’s Danny LaRusso, the Jersey boy in LA, we get Will Smith’s son as Dre, the Detroit boy in Beijing; and instead of karate we get kung fu.
… This comes across more like “all look same.” Karate has its roots in Chinese kung fu, but the martial art has evolved over a really, really long time and is not the same, neither culturally nor in practice. Japanese and Chinese cultures are not interchangeable yet the toss-up between film names would make it seem that way, at least as far as Hollywood’s marketing arm is concerned.…more…
If you view the trailer of The Kung-Karate-Fu Kid remake above, you’ll notice the cultural change does make it a different movie. You’ll notice that the Kid, Wil Smith’s kid Jaden Smith, looks waaay too young for his unnamed love interest in the film too. More interesting is that all the Mainland Chinese actors are unnamed on the official site and on IMBD.com.
(Damn those teen growth spurts—Love conquers all, even age and height.)
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March 5th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Miss Unnamed Violinist cum Love Interest looks ten years older than the Kid! No wonder the official website and the IMDB does not give ANY info on the China based actors.
March 5th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Calling it “The Karate Kid” is like remaking “The Natural” but having them play cricket rather than baseball. Yes, there’s a similarity and they come from the same roots, but they sure ain’t the same.