I grew up in the 80s and 90s and I’m guessing the current crop of producers and studio execs did as well, which is why we’re seeing so many remakes of films and TV from that era.
With a new version of The Karate Kid due in cinemas at the end of the month and the original out on Blu-ray for the first time on Monday I got offered a review copy.
It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, I would have been too young to see it on its initial release, but it is still a legend to my generation. This is the movie that brought phrases like ‘wax on, wax off’ and ‘Daniel-san’ into everyone’s lexicon.
It was so popular it spawned two sequels with the original cast and they even tried to resurrect it with Hilary Swank as The Next Karate Kid.
It’s probably worth some history here, the 80s were big on martial arts and karate was king. Today the top dog is probably kung fu, as evidenced by the fact that the new movie has the lead learning it as he ‘only knows’ karate.
The 80s was an era filled with the likes of Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme, Mark Dacascos, Jackie Chan (yes, he is that old) and Steven Seagal. You had films like Best of the Best, Bloodsport, and Kickboxer. These were too old for the prime teen audience, who had to make do with the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sidekicks and The Karate Kid. Even the likes of James Bond got in on the martial arts action. It was also a big decade for underdogs, with Sly Stallone winning hearts in Rocky and Schwartzenegger single-handedly taking on an alien in Predators and showing real emotion when terrorists kidnap his daughter in Commando.
The Karate Kid is also the movie inspiration for James Corden’s recent use of the song ‘You’re the Best Around’ by Joe Esposito.
So with that in mind, and my hazy memory, I sat down to watch.
There’s a whole start to the film I completely forgot about, I remembered the girlfriend and Daniel (the main character) getting beat up by a group of Cobra Kai students, but he doesn’t start training until well into the second half and most of the action, the karate tournament, is in the last ten minutes. Those are the bits I remember most. It shows you how much movies have changed in the intervening decades. I’m betting the new one doesn’t wait that long before throwing you into the action.
In a similar vein, seeing high school kids who aren’t stick thin and dressed like models is something of a novelty. Girls who aren’t sporting short skirts and tight tops and guys not showing abs and flexing their pecks are something of a rarity these days. They were both played by people much older than their characters though, so some things don’t change.
For a comparison to today, look at The Karate Kid and then compare it to Never Back Down, which has a similar storyline and both have a 15 rating in the UK.
Kids today may find it amazing that none of the characters has a mobile, they can’t text each other, or use Facebook, no computers at all at home, even the arcades largely consist of mechanical games. Even videos were fairly rare.
Something else that was nice was that they couldn’t rely on fancy effects and wire work to make the fights seem spectacular, or have long, violent bouts. They’re all fairly low key and over quite quickly. Having said that, it does mean HD doesn’t add much. Though the picture quality is clear and bright, surprisingly so (most of my memories of 80s movies are slightly hazy, due to watching them on VHS I suspect).
The movie has a lot more soul searching and depth and moves at a much slower pace than anything made in the last decade, which generally only pay lip service to the martial arts ethos, though some of the Chinese films do spend more time discussing the spiritual side.
So what did I think? Well, it’s cheesy. Pat Morita is rightly lauded for his portrayal of Mr Miyagi, being funny, thoughtful and masterful; a perfect wise mentor. You could say it moves a little slow, but actually it’s engaging, giving you rounded characters and making you will for their success all the more. It’s still a great movie and with the 80s making something of a comeback I’m sure it’ll win fans new and old.
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
