By Jen Thuy-Tien
Contributing Writer
Published July 02, 2010
This summer, Columbia Pictures released their remake of "The Karate Kid" which stars Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith and Taraji P. Henson. Dre Parker (Smith), who moves from Detroit to Beijing, China, when his widowed mother, Sherry (Henson), has to move to China for her job. Dre quickly realizes the differences between Beijing and Detroit.
Dre has a hard time communicating in Beijing since he did not practice speaking Chinese like his mother insisted before they moved. At times, Dre attempts to replace the Spanish language for Chinese when he is desperate. Luckily, at school, most of the students and teachers speak English. Dre is an outcast at school and faces violent bullies frequently. In order to protect himself, Dre learns the art of kung fu from Mr. Han (Chan), who is the apartment’s maintenance man where Dre and his mother live at. As the film progress, Dre evolves into a kung fu fighter who is no longer intimidated by the school’s bullies and ends up making the best of his stay in China. Dre develops a relationship with a girl at school who is a violinist and the pair share several romantic moments in the film that makes you want to say “aww” out loud. However, the closer that Dre gets to the girl, it causes more tension between him and the school’s bullies because one of the bullies likes the girl.
This family flick has its funny, sad and happy moments. I found the film humorous when Dre acts out with his fiery attitude and when his mother, Sherry tries to fit in so much that she sticks out more. There is a scene in the movie that makes me snicker because Sherry is the only person wearing a traditional Chinese dress among people who are casually dressed at an event.
The sad moments in the film for me was watching Dre getting constantly beaten up by bullies, Mr. Han dealing with the deaths of his family members and when the only friend that Dre has in China, the girl from school, is not allowed to hang out with Dre because of her parents. Don’t worry though, all these problems are solved at the end. “The Karate Kid” is predictable but the cute plot line is enough to make “The Karate Kid” a good family flick to catch.
"The Karate Kid" is rated PG.
THE KARATE KID
Total Running Time: 140 minutes
Released June 11,2010