The Karate Kid (2010 film)

12-year-old Dre Parker and his widowed mother Sherry Parker move from Detroit to Beijing, after she gets a job transfer at a car factory. Dre meets young violinist Meiying, and immediately becomes infatuated with her. However, Cheng, a rebellious 14-year-old kung fu prodigy whose family is close to Meiying's, keeps them apart by constantly attacking, teasing, and antagonizing Dre. After a field trip to the Forbidden City, Dre throws a bucket of dirty water over Cheng and his gang as revenge for Cheng's rebellious behavior to him, causing them to chase and brutally beat Dre. Maintenance man Mr. Han intervenes and fends off the bullies, revealing himself to be a kung fu master. Han heals Dre's injuries using the Chinese medicine methods of fire cupping. He explains that Cheng and his friends are not inherently bad, but are taught to be merciless by their teacher, Master Li. Dre asks Han to teach him kung fu, and Han accompanies him to Li's Fighting Dragons studio to make peace. Li rebuffs the peace offer and challenges Dre to fight Cheng, but Han counters that Dre compete against all of Li's students at the upcoming open kung fu tournament, requesting that the rebellious behavior cease until the tournament. Li accepts Han's request ordering Cheng and the gang to stay away from Dre till the tournament, but threatens that if Dre doesn't show up, he will inflict pain on the both of them. Han teaches Dre kung fu by emphasizing movements that apply to life in general. Serenity and maturity, not punches and power, are the keys to mastering kung fu. He has Dre repeatedly take off and pick up his jacket to develop muscle memory. Han takes him to a Taoist temple where Dre drinks the water from a Taoist well and witnesses a woman make a cobra reflect her movements. After weeks of training, Han gives Dre a day off. Dre persuades Meiying to skip school with him. After finding out, Meiying's parents deem Dre a bad influence and forbid Meiying from seeing him. Dre finds Han drunk and depressed, smashing a Volkswagen Scirocco he was working on. He explains that he crashed it years ago, killing his wife and his 10-year-old son. To punish himself, he spends a year fixing the car, then destroys it again on every anniversary of the accident. Dre resolves to train harder and help his teacher overcome his trauma. Han helps Dre write and recite an apology in Mandarin to Meiying's father. Meiying's father accepts Dre's apology and in return lets Meiying attend Dre's tournament as promised earlier on. At the tournament, the initially unconfident Dre starts defeating his opponents. Li orders his student Liang to injure Dre in the semifinals. Liang reluctantly does so by delivering crippling blows to Dre's leg. He is disqualified and Dre advances to the finals against Cheng. Dre pleads with Han to heal his leg with the fire cupping method. Realizing this is more about overcoming Dre's fear than anything else, Han complies. As the final match starts, on Li's orders, Cheng attacks Dre's injured leg, causing Dre to lose balance, but he manages to get up and uses the snake stance he saw at the temple. Dre defeats Cheng with a strong kick to the head, earning the respect of Cheng and his classmates. Cheng, instead of the presenter, presents Dre with the champion's trophy, and the Fighting Dragon students bow to Han out of respect for him as a real kung fu master, leaving Li outraged and defeated. ==Cast==

• Jackie Chan as Mr. Han (), a Chinese maintenance man and kung fu master who becomes Dre's kung fu master. Based on Mr. Miyagi. • Jaden Smith as Dre Parker (). Based on Daniel LaRusso. • 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 () Based on Johnny Lawrence. • Yu Rongguang as Master Li (李师傅 Lǐ-shīfu). The main antagonist of the film. Based on John Kreese. • Luke Carberry as Harry (), a boy who befriends Dre. Based on Freddy Fernandez. • Shijia Lü () 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 Dutch. • 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 A remake of the Karate Kid entered the development in the late 2008. Jackie Chan told a Los Angeles Chinatown concert crowd in 2009 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. 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. The film began filming in July 2009 and ended on October 16, 2009. ==Music==

Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson 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 film's official theme song, "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. 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 film. 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 Frédéric 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". Video game A mobile game based on the film was released for iOS devices by Sony Pictures on April 2, 2010. 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 67% based on 207 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 that "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, 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. • 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) ==Sequel==

Shortly after the film's release, a sequel was announced to be in development, with Smith, Chan, and 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, but in October, Chan stated that the initial script for the film did not work well. In August 2023, it was reported that Chan would be reprising his role in Karate Kid: Legends. By November of the same year, Chan officially joined the cast alongside Ralph Macchio in their respective roles as Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso. The studio announced a world-wide open casting call for an actor to star as the film's iteration of the titular character. Jonathan Entwistle directed the film with a script written by Rob Lieber, where the plot involves a teen from China moving to the United States and beginning to study martial arts. Karen Rosenfelt will produce the film, with principal photography beginning in April 2024. Originally scheduled to be released on June 7, 2024, the film was delayed to December 13, 2024, in part as a result of the 2023 writers and actors strikes. It was delayed again to May 30, 2025, to avoid conflict with the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai. ==See also==