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The Karate Kid (2010 film)

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Wikipedia article




{{Infobox film

| name = The Karate Kid

| image = Karate kid ver2.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Harald Zwart

| producer =

| screenplay = Christopher Murphey

| story = Robert Mark Kamen

| starring =

| music = James Horner

| cinematography = Roger Pratt

| editing = Joel Negron

| studio =

| distributor = Sony Pictures Releasing (International)
EDKO (China and Hong Kong)

| released =

| runtime = 140 minutes
132 minutes (Hong Kong/China cut)

| country =

| language =

| budget = $40 million

| gross = $359.1 million

}}

'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 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 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 be merciless towards their enemies. Intrigued, Dre asks if Han could teach him Kung Fu. 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 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 dont show up, he will personally 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.

At the tournament, the under-confident Dre is slow to achieve parity with his competition but soon begins beating them and advances to the semi-finals. Cheng does the same by violently finishing off his opponents. Dre then beats Master Li's students, causing Li to order one of his students named Liang, Dre's semi-final opponent, to injure Dre. Liang reluctantly does so by delivering a series of crippling blows to Dre's leg, getting himself disqualified as a result. Dre advances to the final against Cheng but has limited time to return to the ring, or Cheng will claim the trophy by default. Dre pleads with Mr. Han to heal his leg via the fire cupping method. Mr. Han reluctantly does so when Dre tells him that he just wants to overcome his fear. Thus, Dre is set to face Cheng in the final.

The match goes back and forth with Dre gaining a 2-to-1 lead. On Li's orders, Cheng attacks Dre's injured leg with a powerful kick, thus causing Dre to lose balance. Tied at two points apiece, with the next point to determine the champion, Dre struggles but manages to get up and uses the snake stance used by the woman at the temple. The move is successful, and Cheng changes his technique and charges at Dre, who does a backflip and catches Cheng in mid-air with a kick to his head defeating Cheng and Dre winning the tournament along with the respect of Cheng and his classmates. Cheng presents Dre with the trophy and all of the Fighting Dragon students bow down to Mr. Han in respect, accepting him as their new master, leaving Li defeated. Ending the movie, Dre and Mr. Han walk off happily.

Alternate ending

In this alternate ending, Master Li raises his hand to slap Cheng for not beating Dre in the tournament (he uses this method to punish his disciples), but he is stopped and reprimanded by Mr. Han, who thought that Master Li's students had already suffered too much at his hands. This eventually leads to an epic Kung Fu fight scene with Mr. Han against Master Li, who end up facing off in front of a surprised audience, the frightened Fighting Dragons and a shocked, confused, and injured Dre, who even with a limp, tries to go where Mr. Han is fighting, without understanding what happened.

Mr. Han and Master Li face off in a Kung Fu showdown, which starts in the middle of the audience, goes to the stands (where Master Li knocks over a young boy and Mr. Han saves him from getting hurt seriously), they go back to the audience where Mr. Han asks the people in the audience to stay away so they don't get attacked by Master Li and it's where Master Li throws wooden benches at Mr. Han and some people from the audience. The two end up taking two wooden benches and fighting each other using these benches, in which Mr. Han ends up getting the best, knocking Master Li down with his bench and immobilizing him.

The Fighting Dragons (Master Li's team of fighters) try to get close to their master, but they end up pulling away after Mr. Han gives them a menacing glare. Thinking they had already finished, he removes Master Li's top bench, not knowing that he would attack again, which leads to the 2nd round of the confrontation, when Master Li kicks Mr. Han towards where there are some kung fu weapons, where the two hit each other, try to immobilize each other and try to knock each other out. This confrontation ends up going where an old kung fu master (and possibly organizer of this martial arts tournament) was sitting, who scared and shocked by this confrontation between Han and Li, ends up leaving as quickly as not to be in the middle of this crossfire. In a final blow, Mr. Han kicks Master Li off the stage where the old master was sitting and furious, leaps from the stage towards Master Li, pinning him down and with his fist raised says against Master Li in Mandarin with a menacing tone: "Do not stop when our enemy is down. No mercy. No mercy in studio. No mercy in competition. No mercy in life. Our enemy deserves pain".

Dre and the Fighting Dragons watch from afar. One of the members of the Fighting Dragons, who has had enough of Master Li's abuse, asks, angry, for Mr. Han to knock out Master Li. However, he is stopped by Dre, who says that Master Li has had enough of a beating. Then Dre hobbles down from the arena and he and Mr. Han are congratulated by Cheng and the Fighting Dragons not only for winning the tournament, but for teaching their abusive master a lesson. In the end, leaving the arena, Sherry (Dre's mom), along with Meiying, leave with the tournament trophy won by Dre, but not before punching Master Li for his students actions against Dre.

Cast





* Jaden Smith as Dre Parker . Based on Daniel LaRusso.

* Jackie Chan as Mr. Han , a Chinese maintenance man who becomes Dre's instructor and mentor. Based on Mr. Miyagi.

* Taraji P. Henson as Sherry Parker , Dre's mother. Based on Lucille LaRusso.

* Wenwen Han as Meiying , a violinist and Dre Parker's love interest. Based on Ali Mills.

* Zhenwei Wang as Cheng ("[http://www.filmbiz.asia/reviews/the-karate-kid The Karate Kid] ." 'Film Business Asia'. Retrieved on November 10, 2012.) Based on Johnny Lawrence.

* Yu Rongguang as Master Li ( 'L-shfu'). Based on John Kreese.

* Luke Carberry as Harry , a boy who befriends Dre. Based on Freddy Fernandez.

* Shijia L as Liang , a friend and classmate of Cheng's. Based on Bobby Brown.

* Ji Wang as Mrs. Po , the principal of Dre's new school.

* Zhensu Wu as Meiying's father. Based on Mr. Mills.

* Zhiheng Wang as Meiying's mother. Based on Mrs. Mills.

* Yi Zhao as Zhuang , a friend and classmate of Cheng's. Based on Jimmy.

* Zhang Bo as Song , a friend and classmate of Cheng's. Based on Tommy.

* Cameron Hillman as Mark

* Ghye Samuel Brown as Oz

Production



Development

On November 10, 2008, 'Variety' reported that work on a 'Karate Kid' remake had begun. 'Variety' stated that the new film, to be produced by Will Smith, "has been refashioned as a star vehicle for Jaden Smith" and that it would "borrow elements from the original plot, wherein a bullied youth learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor." On June 22, 2009, Jackie Chan told a Los Angeles Chinatown concert crowd that he was leaving for

Beijing to film the remake as Jaden Smith's teacher.

Despite maintaining the original title, the 2010 remake does not feature karate, which is from Okinawa (Japan), but focuses on the main character learning kung fu in China. Chan told interviewers that film cast members generally referred to the film as 'The Kung Fu Kid', and he believed the film would only be called 'The Karate Kid' in America, and 'The Kung Fu Kid' in China. This theory held true in the People's Republic of China, where the film is titled 'The Kung Fu Dream' . In Japan and South Korea, the film is titled 'Best Kid' after the local title of the 1984 film in both countries.

Sony had considered changing the title of the film, but Jerry Weintraub, one of the producers, rejected the idea. Weintraub was also the producer of the original 'Karate Kid'.Horn, John. "'[https://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/30/entertainment/la-ca-karatekid-20100530 Karate Kid' update breaks down some Chinese walls]." 'Los Angeles Times'. May 30, 2010. Retrieved on August 27, 2012.

Filming

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.Horn, John. "'[https://web.archive.org/web/20160306064425/http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/30/entertainment/la-ca-karatekid-20100530/2 Karate Kid' update breaks down some Chinese walls]." 'Los Angeles Times'. May 30, 2012. Retrieved on August 27, 2012. The feature started being filmed in July 2009.

Music



Icelandic composer Atli rvarsson was originally hired to score the film, but he was replaced by American composer James Horner. 'The Karate Kid' marked Horner's return to scoring after his work on the 2009 film 'Avatar'. The score was released on June 15, 2010.

Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith recorded the official theme song to the film "Never Say Never", written by Adam Messinger, Bieber, Travis Garland, Omarr Rambert, and others, and produced by The Messengers (Adam Messinger and Nasri Atweh). The music video was released on May 31, 2010.[http://defpenradio.com/music-video-justin-bieber-feat-jaden-smith-never-say-never/ "Music Video: Justin Bieber feat. Jaden Smith Never Say Never"] Def Pen Radio; May 31, 2010

The film started with "Do You Remember" by Jay Sean featuring Sean Paul and Lil Jon. "Remember the Name" by Fort Minor was used in the trailer to promote the movie. Parts of the song, "Back in Black" by AC/DC and "Higher Ground" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, were also used in the movie. The song "Hip Song" by Rain is used for promotion in the Asian countries and it appeared in the trailer. The music video was released on May 22, 2010. "Bang Bang" by K'naan featuring Adam Levine and "Say" by John Mayer are also featured in the movie. It also features Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", Flo Rida's "Low" and Gorillaz' "Dirty Harry" (being performed in Chinese). An abbreviated form of Frdric Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 is featured, arranged for strings, in Meiying's violin audition scene, along with Sergei Rachmaninoff's piano transcription of "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Release



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".

Home media

'The Karate Kid' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 5, 2010, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and it was released on Mastered in 4K Blu-ray on May 14, 2013.

Reception



Critical response



Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 66% based on 211 reviews, and an average rating of 6.17/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "It may not be as powerful as the 1984 edition, but the 2010 'Karate Kid' delivers a surprisingly satisfying update on the original." Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, the highest of the franchise.

Ann Hornaday described Jaden Smith as a "revelation", who "proves that he's no mere beneficiary of dynastic largesse. Somber, self-contained and somehow believable as a kid for whom things don't come easily, he never conveys the sense that he's desperate to be liked. Which is precisely why 'The Karate Kid' winds up being so likable itself." Roger Ebert of the 'Chicago Sun-Times' gave it a positive review, rating the film three and a half out of four stars, and calling it "a lovely and well-made film that stands on its own feet". Claudia Puig of 'USA Today' and Owen Gleiberman of 'Entertainment Weekly' each rated the film a 'B', stating "the chemistry between Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan grounds the movie, imbuing it with sincerity and poignance" and that the film is "fun and believable".

Simon Abrams of 'Slant Magazine' gave the film one and a half stars and noted "The characters just aren't old enough to be convincing in their hormone-driven need to prove themselves" and "This age gap is also a huge problem when it comes to the range that these kids bring to the project" and noted the portrayal of the child antagonist Cheng includes an "overblown and overused grimace, which looks like it might have originally belonged to Dolph Lundgren, looks especially silly on a kid that hasn't learned how to shave yet." Finally, Abrams noted "What's most upsetting is Dre's budding romance with Meiying. These kids have yet to hit puberty and already they're swooning for each other."

Box office

The film was released on June 11, 2010, by Columbia Pictures to 3,663 theaters across the United States. 'The Karate Kid' topped the box office on its opening day, grossing $18.8 million, and in its opening weekend, grossing $56 million in North America, beating 'The A-Team', which grossed an estimated $9.6 million on the same opening day, and $26 million in its opening weekend. It closed on September 18, 2010, after 101 days of release, grossing $176 million in the US and Canada along with an additional $182 million overseas for a worldwide total of $359 million, on a moderate budget of $40 million.

Awards and nominations

'People's Choice Awards 2011'

* Favorite Family Movie (Nominated)

* Favorite On-Screen Team Jaden Smith & Jackie Chan (Nominated)

* Favorite Action Star Jackie Chan (Won)

'2011 Kids' Choice Awards'

* Favorite Movie (Won)

* Favorite Buttkicker (Jackie Chan) (Won)

* Favorite Movie Actor (Jaden Smith) (Nominated)

'2011 MTV Video Music Aid Japan'

* Best Song from a Movie ("Never Say Never" by Justin Bieber featuring Jaden Smith) (Nominated)

'2011 MTV Movie Awards'

* Biggest Badass Star (Jaden Smith) (Nominated)

'32nd Young Artist Awards'

*Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film (Jaden Smith) (Won)

'2010 Teen Choice Awards'

* Choice Summer: Movie (Nominated)

Future



Shortly after the film's release, a sequel was announced to be in development, with Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan and Taraji P. Henson all reprising their roles. Breck Eisner was initially set to direct, but by June 2014 the film had gained new writers and lost Eisner as the director. In April 2017, Eisner returned as director. However, in October 2017, Chan stated that the initial script for the film did not work well, and that they would work on new drafts.

In a 2021 interview with 'Slashfilm', the writers of 'Cobra Kai', which is a sequel to the original film series, stated that characters from the 2010 remake will not be making appearances in the series, as they are not a part of the "Miyagi-verse": "Weve ruled that out completely. Jackie Chan is mentioned in season 1 of the show as a human, so I think in our world, Jackie Chan is an actor and a performer. If the characters on our show have seen a movie called 'The Karate Kid', theyve seen that one."

In September 2022, a new 'Karate Kid' film was confirmed to be in development, with a release date of June 7, 2024.

See also



*List of black films of the 2010s

References




Buy The Karate Kid (2010 film) now from Amazon

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