Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Karate Kid


Do you remember The Karate Kid?  The original?  Back in 1984 when The Karate Kid first came out my brother insisted on watching it and it became a family favorite along with Star Wars and Indiana Jones.  It was the perfect underdog story and while I wasn't very keen on the violence of some of the scenes I did enjoy the craftiness with which the teacher got the student to learn.  It helped me get into my mind the fact that there is more than one way to learn something and often times the unorthodox way of learning is quite successful.  With each subsequent film we watched as only children can, over and over again.  We reenacted scenes and tried our best of get a nail to go into a board with one strike of the hammer, until my dad confiscated the hammer because we were making deep indents into the deck and fence when we would miss the head of the nail. 

In June of this year a new version of The Karate Kid was released.  After the 4th installment of the franchise I wasn't so sure about how this film would turn out.  Then I learned that it would be set in China and I totally could not understand why they would label it The Karate Kid.  Then I watched some of the previews and it helped me understand why they would use that title since the young boy was using TV Taught Karate to try and keep from being beat up by Kung Fu students. 

Today, my husband decided to celebrate my not having to return to work by suggesting that we go to the theater to watch a movie.  The last time we did that was back in January when we went to see Avatar.  Not being crazy about the movie selections that are out right now we looked at some of the less expensive theaters to see what older films were still playing.  Our luck was in.  Both of us had been wanting to watch The Karate Kid and now was our chance.  The bonus was that it was less than $4 per person. 

I think we both thoroughly enjoyed the film and would watch it again with my niece and nephew if they wanted to see it themselves.  The film was a good original adaptation of the story line and kept the audience wrapped up in the story.  I even liked how they treated the end of the film during the tournament by using the same material in the dishonorable intentions of the rival instructor.  I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out how they would get from here to there since I knew how it would end, I just didn't know any of the middle part.  They also did a great job in playing homage to specific scenes from the original film: using the chopsticks to catch the fly, waxing the car, and the instructor getting drunk on the anniversary of his wife's death. 

The only negative part that both my husband and I agreed on was that we didn't like the punk attitude of the main character, the blatant disrespect of his mother and elders, and the slang (i.e. ass).  They didn't have to add these qualities to the character.  I know lots of people who would never dream of having such a bad attitude around the people they love.  And yet, I do know people who dared to talk back and who got away with it; but why do we need to dwell on the absolute negative.  Can we not hold up that which is loving and positive?  Maybe it would have gotten less favorable reviews because it would be, "less real", but who cares.  I want to show this to my children and I'll have to wait till they are a little older so they won't be picking up the behavior I don't want them to have.

All in all, it's a good film and age appropriate for 10 year olds. 

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