Filmstalker: Jackie Chan in Karate Kid

Jackie Chan is in negotiations to play Mr. Miyagi in the remake of The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith as the kid who learns the ways of the martial art. There's also a director been signed, Harald Zwart who has just directed The Pink Panther 2.

Yes, that's much what I thought. With the news that the film is to be relocated in China, and that Karate isn't even Chinese, I'm struggling to see what this has to do with the original series.

Okay, there's a kid learning a martial art from an older mentor and there will probably be struggles on the way, but it's far from the remake of The Karate Kid, and shouldn't that be a good thing? We're sick fed up of remakes anyway aren't we?

Well I can see that there's room to remake The Karate Kid and do some good. A remake could touch on many moralistic themes and maybe inspire a few kids to do something a bit more with their lives, perhaps show some positivity in the cinema.

The whole story of trying to teach a Western boy struggling with the same day to day rubbish the lessons taught in the martial arts could come out with so much relevance today. Just thinking of what the original had to say about honour, perseverance, focus, not to listen to others pettiness, to rise above the words of others and be yourself, and be strong, not to enter into fights just for the sake of it, but to defend your honour, etc. There's a lot in there that could be taught.

However moving it all to China loses a huge connection for the western audience, and I do believe that was a large part of the original story, that's how we all found the connection.

All that aside, the film is being loosely remade and it's superb news that Jackie Chan is now being talked to regarding the role, and according to The Hollywood Reporter is in active negotiations. He would make a perfect mentor character.

The real question is will Harald Zwart be able to do something positive with the film and rise above The Pink Panther 2? I'm starting to lose hope frankly, and anything positive I saw in the project is starting to fade into a mist of child friendly Rush Hour-ness.

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Love Jackie Chan!

Posted by: Billy | January 14, 2009 8:15 AM

To clear up some of this Internet confusion regarding the "ethnic" origin of karate...

In Okinawa (Japan) Karate-do was developed from indigenous fighting common among the territorial Ryukyu Islands, a system known as "ti" or "te" used among a class of Ryukyuans. Following trade relations with China’s Ming dynasty in 1372, many forms of martial arts were introduced. And together with the Chinese kenpō method, what evolved was the art of punching and kicking with knee and elbow strikes; grappling, throwing and restraining; open-hand techniques, hitting vital points of the human body taught in various styles.

A karate practitioner is called "karateka" and the first-ever fight scene in an American motion picture in which a karateka faced off against a karateka occurs between actors Frank Sinatra and Henry Silva in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962).

Posted by: Frederick Richardson | January 14, 2009 4:02 PM

Thanks for that, in the previous story about the film I mentioned:

"...the Japanese art of Karate is adapted from various fighting styles and in particular a Chinese fighting style called Kenpo, so this would be The Kenpo Kid surely?"

reading from the Wikipedia entry. So my understanding is that Karate is not a martial art from China, it's derived from a Chinese martial art and some other fighting styles.

Overall though, fighting styles and story, it seems strange to locate it in China.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | January 14, 2009 8:15 PM