The Karate Kid 2010

WARNING!!!! Spoilers

This movie is directed by Harald Zwart, and written by Christopher Murphey (screenplay) and Robert Mark Kamen (story). It is a remake of the old movie series with the same name, with several variations.


Unlike the previous Karate Kid movies, the main character is black in this version. He's a 12-year-old boy from Detroit named Dre Parker. Also, he doesn't learn karate in the movie but kung fu, which is why some people call the movie the kung fu kid.

Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) was a very athletic boy, and had the potential of becoming very popular in his hometown. Due to financial reasons, more specifically job opportunities, Dre's mom Sherry Parker (Taraji P. Henson) had to move to Japan. However, when they got there, Dre didn't really like it because he was being bullied by a group of boys, additionally to the fact that he couldn't even say a complete sentence in Chinese, which kept him from making friends.

Although, depsite his language problem, he once attempted to talk to a girl he saw at the park and really liked. He only remembered one or two sentences in Japanese that he couldn't even spell right, but fortunately the girl spoke English fluently, and she had the same feelings for Dre. Her name was Mei Ying (Han Wen Wen). They got to know each other in time; it was the perfect love, until Mei Ying's parents were aware of their daughter's friendship with Dre, and they put an end to it.

Meanwhile, Dre was still being abused by the bullies, whose "leader" was Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), and he couldn't really do anything about it because the bullies were kung fu students and they kicked his butt every time he tried to fight back. One day, Dre tried to get back at the bullies, but in a furtive way; he threw a bucket of dirty water at them and started to ru n away. Unfortunately, the kung fu kids were very good athletes (OBVIOUSLY) and they easily caught up with Dre. After trapping him in a corner, they started beating him up. They kept hitting him over and over. And over. A few punches and kicks later, the kung fu fighting bullies stopped, but Cheng, the most talented (despite his ridiculously small height) of them all, continued to hit Dre heartlessly, keeping in mind the slogan of his kung fu classes, "no pain, no fear, no mercy". Something like that.

As Cheng was getting ready to throw another deadly punch at Dre which would probably knock him out, he got stopped by Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), the "maintenance man", who pushed him away and told them to go back to where they came from. When they heard him say that, the young bullies didn't want their swagger to be ruined by an old man, so they attacked. That is when Mr. Han, who was previously only known as a maintenance man, finally showed off his kung fu skills. No one would've expected that, especially from an old guy who couldn't even stand straight. He was truly talented. So talented that he made the bullies beat themselves. Literally.

After all that happened, Mr. Han took Dre to his home, and cured his pain with an almost magical ancient Japanese trick. After finally being able to move again, Dre got back on his feet and started begging Mr. Han to teach him kung fu, but Mr Han didn't seem ready to do that. Desperately wanting to end his problems with the bullies, Dre asked Mr Han to take him to the academy of kung fu, where the bullies were being taught a kung fu based only on violence, unlike the "real kung fu" as Mr. Han mentioned. When they got there, they got in the kung fu class were the bullies were, and were challenged by their teacher, Master Li (Rongguang Yu), to fight now, after the incident that happened earlier with his students who were left harmed and scarred. But Han, never seeking violence, did not accept. When Li insisted, Han had to react, so he told him that Dre would participate in an upcoming kung fu tournament. Dre was clueless though about what wa happening, the conversation being held in Japanese. After Han and Dre finally got out, the conversation went kind of like this:
DRESo are they finally gonna leave me alone?
HANYeah.
DRE:)
HANWhile you practice.
DRE o_O
DREPractice for wat?
HANYou're going in the kung fu tournament.
DREWhaaat?!! So now they get to kick my ass iN pUbliC?!!
DREWT*
DRE >:/
HANI will teach you real kung fu.
DREYESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS :D
Then Dre went on his training sessions, which started in a very unorthodox (but efficient) way...


At the end, with Han's help, Dre wrote an apology letter to Meiying's dad (Zhensu Wu), and he accepted that his daughter become Dre's friend again, so she was able to be present on the day of the kung fu tournament...
The day had finally come. It was time for Dre to prove himself...

Like most of these typical stories, Dre arrived at the finals. Although, he had a major problem; after being told to do so by his master, one of the bullies who was facing Dre in the semi finals attacked his leg, attempting to break it. He got disqualified after that, but Dre couldn't continue either because his leg was awfully injured. Fortunately, Han was able to perform his miracle healing trick backstage, and Dre was able to get back for his final battle, which of course was against Cheng.

Cheng was told the same thing by Master Li, and jump on Dre's leg with a strong three sixty kick. Dre couldn't even stand at that point. He had to stand on one foot. And he took profit of the occasion to do the legendary "Karate Kid" one-foot-down-two-hands-up position.

However, the final hit was quite more interesting than the original movie. And unexpected. And impossible. As Cheng was running at him with full speed, he turned and made a vertical spin in the air to kick Cheng on the head and landed right on his foot. Not to mention that he performed on Cheng a mind-controlling technique that allowed him to know and control his opponents every move, and Han clearly told him earlier that it takes a lifetime to master this technique. Great movie though. Below are the trailer and a clip of the last fight scene.