The Kids and The karate Kid

I watched The Karate Kid for my movie in the real world assignment. Originally I am watching Cyrus on its opening weekend but turn out it opens only in NY and LA. So on the Sunday noon I went to UA Berkeley 7 on Shattuck Street for The Karate Kid (not on its opening weekend). When I was searching for showtimes on net I am quite surprise to find this movie ranked the top in the box office among the array of 3D movies, action, comedy and drama. Nonetheless, in Berkeley only three theatres are still screening it on the second week (to give way to Toy Story 3 perhaps!) The ticket for all movie and all time are standardise (across most theatres in Berkeley), regardless of the showing time or the length of the movie, adult at $10 and students got $2 off. I was encouraged to support their charity programme when I bought the ticket.

Promotional material of The Karate Kid is most prominent among all others. Beside the regular poster, smaller ones are found attaching to the walls, an even larger one behind the snack and beverage sales and a 3D promotional stand on the side of the lobby. The lobby is decorated by ‘Chinese lantern’ made by local school students and on most the figure of a karate kid is drawn. This is when I come to realise the movie actually targeted a wide range of audience—from kids to martial arts/ action movie lovers.

Before the actual screening four previews are shown, and most people come in at this time. In free seating people comfortably scattered. I watched the movie with around forty audiences, and as expected mostly are couples, some seniors, a few teenagers, and kids with their parents.

The pairing of Jackie Chan and the karate kid Jaden Smith is surprisingly appropriate. While I thought most people had choose to watch this movie starring Jackie Chan, turns out it is Smith who plays the lead and the movie is less a showcase of martial arts but more a melodrama.

With the light-hearted characterisation of Dre audience manages to engage in the movie perfectly. Smith’s performance is outstanding and natural, exhibiting all the essence of a kid in cultural transition—from annoyance, bitter, nervous, humiliated, to independent, cheerful and determination. The tinge of romance between him and the Chinese girl, Mei Ying, balances the tension between him and the gang of Kung Fu kid. Audience identified in silence when Dre was bullied and challenged by the ‘gangsters’. The kids in the theatre laugh out loud (and me too!) when Dre reluctantly ‘pick up/ hang on/ get/ wear on/ take off/ throw down’ the jacket on the hanger/ his body/ the ground as part of the ‘Kung Fu training’. Throughout the screening, audience’s laughter punctured Dre mimicking of Chan’s action and his wield Chinese.

The dramatic elements aside, with the deliberate selection and representation of China (the people, the locale, the language, the action)--which makes me recall then intentional framing, the film is to me is very much like a documentary/ ‘Introducing China’, which to a certain extent fits the situation of Dre and her mom, a black family in US new to China. The most traditional and typical locale are shot—Beijing, alleys, their house, the four section compound school, the great wall, the lantern festival etc, with relevance to Dre’s action—schooling and Kong Fu training etc. The whole idea of helping Dre (and his mom) fit in the community, and Chan’s teaching him ‘real’ Kung Fu is in general like getting the audiences know something about the real essence of Chinese Culture.

By the end of the movie I see reference to Clint Eastwood’s ‘Million Dollar Baby’. Both follows the training of the victim of bullying to (physically) fight back for him/herself, and on the battlefield s/he is unscrupulously beaten. The only difference is Maggie in Million Dollar Baby is forced to quit while Dre manages to revenge and win the championship. Though I sense a slight politics/ideologies behind this 'western over chinese', it's more or less toned down by the fact that the kid is taught by a 'real master' and that whom he's fighting is 'evil' (another deliberate painting).

This (highly tactful and commercial) film blended culture, action and emotion really well, though it is different from what I expected (from Chan), I enjoy the movie a lot, and so do the audience, walking out saying it’s a good one!