Beneath The Outer Shell

for whatever reason or series of reasons brought me to where i am today, i thank Thee. for whatever reason brought me to watch the latest remake of The Karate Kid, i question Thee.

the movie is really good. it works, for the most part, and it's touching and meaningful. it's not quite as good as Macchio/Morita combo, but it comes ohh so close...and in a surprising way. the remake has 2 main characters, just like the original. the difference is that the 2 main characters are 1) The Karate Kid (or we should be saying The Kung Fu Kid) and 2) China.

i was so shocked when i saw how China was utilized to it's full potential. it was awesome! it was as if we got to take a field trip there! the busy streets, the luscious green foggy landscapes, the houses, the language, you name it. in The Karate Kid, we got a glimpse of it.

the second surprise for me regarding the film is the boring, unenthusiastic, non-personality ridden Mr. Miyagi character who goes by the name "Mr. Han" and is played by Jacki Chan. on paper i guess it does look good to have Jackie Chan play this role and i do know that Jackie Chan is not known for his acting ability. this was just plain wrong. the writers tried to have the characters similar, but Pat Morita nailed that role with the perfect amount of personality, discipline, and timed wit. Jackie Chan nailed down the training and fight sequences. unfortunately, if you know the story, most of the fight scenes are between Jaden Smith and the big bad bullies which means we only get incomprehensible fight sequences and continuous moments of "wait...what happened?" during the action. maybe the makers of The Karate kid were thinking if Jackie Chan was in the movie somewhere...all of the fight scenes would come together and look spectacular. good try.

but if you have a child around 7 or 8, i think this movie is perfect. Jaden Smith does pretty well as a young role model. i liked Ralph Macchio better, but the original was a very important movie for me, as it was for many kids.

however, i don't have any kids and i watched the 2010 version of The Karate Kid and i liked it. go figure.

during the movie i remembered back when i was in Hawaii. one day, i was on the bus going to work and facing me was an older Asian man and either his son or his grandson who was maybe 7 years old sitting on his lap. they were both quiet and minding their own business when the man stuck his bare finger in the child's ear and started scraping around and cleaning...sacrificing himself as a human q-tip. i was enthralled. i kept thinking to myself, "that's pretty gross", BUT that thought was overruled with one sweeping final thought on the entire situation. "THAT'S love".