Let's just get this out of the way.
No, there's absolutely no explanation in the film as to why it's called The Karate Kid. The closest thing to one would be Taraji P. Henson calling kung fu karate, and when corrected, brushing it off with a dismissive "Karate, Kung Fu, whatever." I'll bet money that this line was actually uttered by the studio, when someone working on the film pointed out that the title makes no sense.
Looking past that, the movie is pretty much identical to the original 80's teen flick, with some radical changes in details. In the place of Daniel-san is Dre Parker (Jaden Smith), a 12-year-old boy whose single mother (Taraji P. Henson) is transfered for work from Detroit to Beijing. There he falls for school beauty Meiying (Wenwen Han), who falls for him back. Not liking their relationship is tough guy bully Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), a martial artist belonging to a ruthless kung fu school sporting the motto "No weakness, no pain, no mercy!" Forced to agree to a kung fu tournament, Dre trains with his building's maintenance man Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), an old loner hiding a sad past. Sound familiar yet?
Often, we bemoan remakes for losing the spirit of the originals and making changes that don't even work on their own merit, let alone compared to their predecessors. So what happens when a remake mostly succeeds, manages to maintain the same fire as the original, but does so by sticking so closely that there's nary a point to doing it in the first place? Christopher Murphey's script works, but we knew that already because we know Robert Mark Kamen's 25-year-old story worked. Murphey's job was to imbue a cultural context and a modern voice, which he did just fine.
Then again, I've never held much adulation for the original, as fun as it is to watch. It's telling to me that most people have more memory and fondness for the film's cheesiest aspects than its only true point of excellence, which was Pat Morita's revealing performance as Mr. Miyagi, who in the film is not the caricature his legacy suggests. Jackie Chan's Mr. Han is not as rounded a character as Miyagi. There's a missing sense of grace and joviality that are replaced with a pretty one-note somberness, and his tragic past doesn't hold the same weight as Miyagi's, but Chan delivers that character as best as it can be played. During his obligatory breakdown, though the sad monologue comes out lukewarm, the resolution of that scene, how Dre invites him to mend their sorrows together using kung fu, is pretty enlightening. Jaden Smith is obviously being groomed to be a leading man by his dad. At 12, he's already showing signs of the same Smith swagger, though not the comic timing (most of the jokes involving him fall pretty flat). So if you're one of those people who find Will Smith annoying, here's a tween version of him.
This new Karate Kid is 2 hours and 20 minutes long. You might wonder why a Karate Kid movie needs to be that long, and it really shouldn't for a number of reasons, but for what it's worth, I didn't even notice until I walked out and did math with the clock. It doesn't rush through setting up the culture shock, the romance with Meiying, or the training process, and a good 30 minutes of the end are just the fights at the tournament.
The fight scenes are fun to watch, but that's expected. Unfortunately for Jaden, he's woefully outperformed by the Chinese kids. In fact, the best fight scene of the movie is the semi-final match between Cheng and a badass kid with a hilarious mohawk, rather than the expected showdown.
The absence of an explanation for "karate" in the title definitely colors one's perception of the film. It could have easily been more interesting to have the kid be a student of karate in a world of kung fu, playing up the tension between China and Japan a la Fist of Legend. it doesn't necessarily have to be that, but it's a better option than nothing. Without, it's impossible not to think that the film has no reason to exist other than to bank on name recognition. Of course the story is pretty much a carbon copy of the 1984 film, but given its generic hero's journey path (Dre even remarks at one point that his story mirrors Empire Strikes Back, with him as Luke and Han as Yoda), I doubt anyone would object to a rename. Especially since it's not the disaster it very well could have been, had it actually attempted to mimic the 80's SoCal cheese of the original. The changes this time are actually welcome.
"The Karate Kid" opens June 11, 2010 and is rated PG. Action, Drama. Directed by Harald Zwart. Written by Christopher Murphey (screenplay), Robert Mark Kamen (story). Starring Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith, Taraji P Henson.
