The Karate Kid (2010)

"Jacket on, Jacket off"

To me, this Karate Kid film is one very beautiful piece of artwork. The cast and the people behind the movie has given their best of their abilities. The writer of the story delivered us an amazing, dramatic and inspirational story, the fight choreographers (including Jackie Chan) delivered us plenty of amazing Kung Fu, the cinematographers and principal photographers captured a lot of scenes beautifully and I applaud the actors and actresses, especially the young ones and their first time in acting, they really did put in a lot of effort and their best in their abilities to fleshed out their characters and their role in the film. I am also very impressed at the scale of the movie, as well as the decision to go on location in Beijing to shoot the film.

This is so much more awesome Jedi training!

You can tell that Will Smith has really trained his son, Jaden Smith in the art of acting. Jaden Smith gave an amazing performance as Dre Parker, and I am most impressed with his effort in learning and training in Kung Fu. There was just so much that is required of this 12 year boy, and he delivered it all. Jackie Chan also gave an amazing performance as Mr Han, Dre's mentor. This is unlike his previous American movies, where he doesn't really need to act with his superficial characters but to only deliver crazy and insane stunts and fights. But delivering amazing fights and stunt is his art, especially with adding a comedic flavor to it and we see that only in a scene where he took down Dre's bullies but otherwise his skill is not in the limelight this time but the character he brings out. I absolutely love his chemistry with Jaden Smith as the mentor-student relationship and the emotion and depth he brought into his character, being a man who lost his family in a tragic car accident. His portrayal as Mr Han proved Jackie is more than just a martial artist or a stuntman but also an amazing actor. I'm also very impressed with Wen Wen Han's performance who played Meiying. Her skill with the violin got the limelight and I enjoyed the scenes with her and Jaden together, which was not only sweet but the friendship and relationship they had, I felt really added to the depth of their characters, especially for Jaden's Dre Parker. I really praise her acting skills for a first timer in such a big film and alongside with veteran actors, and I'm going to give her the credit with all the grueling violin practice she has to go through in preparation for the role (not as grueling as Jaden's Kung Fu training).

One of the most beautifully shot scene that I absolutely love, especially the silhouette shots

I'm more impressed with these young acting newbie, Han and Jaden's chemistry than I did with a much older, more veteran actor, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in Star Wars.

I'm unhappy at some people's negative feelings and reviews about the film as well as the upset over the supposedly misleading title. I really did enjoy and love the film. This is definitely one of the most satisfying film I've ever came out watching in the cinema. I was already amazed from the trailer, and I was blown away while watching the movie. To me, this is definitely a kind of film that Hollywood has lost touch in making. True, it is based on the original Karate Kid, borrowing elements and the formula. It is after all, a "Karate Kid" movie, but remember too, this is not a movie about a kid learning Karate (The movie made that very clear). The movie paid many homages to the original and elements that we loved, and yet introduced something new and fresh. Overall, I give this beautifully made film a 10 out of 10 CD's of Dre's downloaded "Non-Bach" violin music into a CD for Meiying.

Jackie Chan doing the Matrix

Comment below, who do you want Dre Parker to fight with in a future sequel? I don't know how they would do it but I'm rooting for Ralph Maccio's Daniel LaRusso to take on Dre Parker.