Summary of the movie Karate Kid (2010)
By MUZHEN, Li
The movie Karate Kid 2010 is a story of a kid called Dre, who endeavored to
extricate from mediocrity in order to become a splendid Kung fu performer. Dre
moved to Beijing due to his mother’s career transferred, he was bullied by
Cheng and his coterie, a motley group of kids who practiced Kungfu. Amidst
the tumult, Dre met Meiying and Mr. Han: the former is a girl who helped Dre to
adapt to his new life and the latter (Mr. Han) protected Dre in a grapple with
Cheng. Later, Mr. Han took the challenge from Cheng’s coach and taught Dre
Kungfu, Mr. Han integrated simple daily actions and the sublime philosophy of
this oriental martial art into Dre’s training. According to Mr. Han, Kung Ku is for
knowledge, defense. Not to make war, but create peace [sic]. Overtime, Dre
developed a kinship with Meiying, he also discovered the poignant secret of Mr.
Han, the lost his family in a car accident dragged Mr. Han to his nadir. Dre
mollified the grief of Han, and mettled in the arduous training of Kungfu. Finally,
Dre phased out other candidates of the contest and defeated Cheng—The
grand finale of the entire movie. The film was no longer a bland and didactic
narration, it ascended to the height of redemption, and anagnorisis from
lassitude and growth.
Different names but the basic premise sounds the same as the original Karate Kid movie that was released in the 1980s. Did the new movie retain the classic ‘wash on, wash off’ sequence as the hero automates his moves through menial labour?
Well, that was really a good question. I have to say that the first one in 1984 was a major success, the characterizations were nuanced and the plot were well-established. However, my theory on interpreting the sequels is that, perforce must the second, the third or the fourth one be trashes and chicaneries that fraud the customers. Sadly, the new one you mentioned was a maladroit parody to the former. Moreover, the new one prevaricated on the ‘menial labor’, part of the training procedure in the 2010 revision blended some sort of whimsical ‘spiritual water’ drinking and a lot of extensive training parts that probably will take an novice months and perhaps ages to ace. The training process was no longer an insipid one, it started to become something insane and supramundane! But in the end when people started to cogitate on the plots, they’d probably inveigh on the bizarre myth of a boy’s success. The storyline in both movies is preposterous for the reason that the protagonists gained dexterity of martial art within a short period of time. Hell knows what kind of legerdemains the two old folks taught them apart from the parts showed in both movies. Anyway, I tried to be pertinent when I was writing this summary without ranting Jackie Chan.