Reel Talk: Karate Kid: Legends is muddled at times, but plenty of nods to the OG fans
3 stars
Starring: Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Jackie Chan
Rated: PG
In Cinemas: Now
If Karate Kid: Legends was a crane kick, it's fair to say it doesn't land as effectively as Daniel-san delivered the signature move in the 1984 original.
But the degree of difficulty this time around is considerably greater.
A remake in 2010, starring Will Smith's son, Jaden, and the great Jackie Chan in a Mr Miyagi-esque role, was mediocre at best, and certainly didn't offer much nostalgic charm for adults who watched the first movie when they were kids in the 1980s.
Legends is a standalone sequel to that movie, with only Chan's kung fu master, Han returning, but it also seeks to draw a direct connection between Han and Miyagi, thus connecting audiences with the source IP.
If that wasn't enough of a juggling act, Legends also attempts to lean into the nostalgia while offering something that will appeal to modern kids in the form of slick editing and on-screen graphics reminiscent of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.
So, yeah, it's a lot.
No surprise, then, that Legends feels muddled at times, but the film is at its best when it focuses on the core storyline that is eerily similar to the original.
Li Fong (Ben Wang), like Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) many years earlier, is the new kid in town, only this time, instead of going from New Jersey to California, it's relocating from Beijing to New York.
As per the original, Li Fong runs into trouble with local bullies, meets a girl, Mia (Sadie Stanley), and ends up fighting in a city-wide karate tournament.
Does it make any sense at all that the tournament has a $50,000 first prize, yet seems to have no sponsors, is not televised and is conducted in back alleys? Or that the competitors are dressed like characters in the video game Street Fighter? No. No, it does not.
But all you really need to know is Wang is extremely well versed in a variety of martial arts, and there's an extended montage of him training with Chan and Macchio, who, of course, is roped in to help.
It results in fight sequences that are far more sophisticated than anything in the original.
A side plot involving Mia's dad, a former champion boxer played by Joshua Jackson, adds an egregiously unnecessary montage and feels like it could've been replaced by something better.
LIKE MORE JACKIE CHAN.
However, Wang does a solid job in the titular role and the film's low-key examination of the migrant experience adds depth.
In 1984, kids around the world were doing the crane kick and 'wax on, wax off' to be like Daniel-san. Wang's technique, and signature dragon kick, is much harder to replicate.
Nonetheless, Legends is a fun addition to a franchise that has a number of forgettable entries.
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West Australian
12 hours ago
- West Australian
Karate Kid Ralph Macchio returns to the film franchise that made him famous
Back in the 1980s, there were a handful of truly iconic moves from hit films that every kid in the school playground could replicate, or at least attempt to. One was the Top Gun high-five, performed by Tom 'Maverick' Cruise and Anthony 'Goose' Edwards, which combined a traditional high-five with a sneaky, behind-the-back low-five as the other participant was walking away. Done right, nothing was cooler (to boys between the ages of eight and 16). A close second, and only because it was considerably more difficult to execute, was the legendary crane kick from The Karate Kid. Let's set the scene… After weeks of intense training under the tutelage of karate master Mr Miyagi (the late, great Pat Morita), protege Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) found himself in final of the All-Valley Karate Championship. But there was more at stake than just a trophy. To get to this point, Daniel-san had fought his way through the entire roster of the dastardly Cobra Kai dojo, who also happened to be the same boys who mercilessly bullied him at high school. Naturally, head bully, Johnny (William Zabka), the worst of the bunch, was Daniel-san's opponent in the final, but our hero was hobbled by a leg injury sustained through dirty Cobra Kai fighting earlier in the tournament. Even still, things were looking good until the Cobra Kai sensei delivered this unforgettable line: 'Sweep the leg'. Though conflicted by the unethical move, Johnny nonetheless obeyed, causing further injury to Daniel-san's leg, leaving him incapacitated. At least, he would've been if it wasn't for the one-legged crane kick he'd been working on in an extended montage earlier in the film. With Mr Miyagi watching on, Daniel-san delivered the decisive blow, winning the tournament (as well as begrudging respect from his opponent), and going down in cinematic history. Macchio went on to star in two Karate Kid sequels (Morita did a third sequel on his own) and, more recently, six seasons of spin-off TV series Cobra Kai. Now the 63-year-old brings the franchise back to the big screen with Karate Kid: Legends, and, though he's no longer a kid, his karate credentials have vastly improved since the 1984 original. You see, Macchio was no martial arts expert in those days, and only earned his black belt in April this year. Unlike Ben Wang, who plays Li Fong, the titular karate kid in Legends, and is proficient in karate, kung fu and taekwondo. So, the filmmakers were able to up the ante with the fighting sequences, and cast action hero Jackie Chan as his uncle Han, leading to a situation where the kid had two masters – Han and LaRusso. Elevating the technical know-how also meant it was time to retire the crane kick and replace it with something a little more impressive to modern audiences – an unbeatable flying, spinning move known in the film as the 'dragon kick'. A move you just know Li Fong will need to pull out to beat a fearsome adversary in his own version of the All-Valley tournament. Macchio laughs when asked what he would have done back in the 1980s if the director had asked him to perform such an advanced technique. 'I would've said, 'Where's my stunt guy',' the actor says over a Zoom call with Wang and PLAY. 'The crane became a piece of cinema history, a little bit of magic, but it was never teed up, it was just layered in the movie and then paid off. 'Where the dragon kick is, like, the thing that needs to be done, but hopefully it's another piece of magic.' A necessary piece of magic, according to Wang. 'The only reason we had to do the dragon kick was because the crane kick was already so iconic, right, so we had to top it somehow,' the 25-year-old says. Putting the two moves side-by-side is also a way to compare the character arcs of Daniel-san and Li Fong. 'Daniel LaRusso was the kid who had no business winning anything, he knew nothing of martial arts,' Macchio explains. 'So, the crane kick was that simplistic magic trick, but now we have a character that is very well versed in kung fu, so how do you create his struggle and his internal overcoming of obstacles?' To answer this question, Legends leans into the fish-out-of-water storyline of Li Fong moving from Beijing to New York, adding a stronger cultural element to the original movie's plot that saw LaRusso move from New Jersey to California. Though it leaves significant meat on the bone when it comes to examining the migrant experience, what Legends lacks in political punch, it more than makes up for in literal punches. Let's just say the training is a lot more gruelling than a bit of 'wax on, wax off'. In one particularly enjoyable sequence, Li Fong learns to combine kung fu teachings from Uncle Han with karate techniques from Sensei LaRusso. That's a nice way of saying the audience watches as Wang gets his butt kicked by both. Not that he's complaining, of course. Quite the opposite. 'It's really sort of the wildest dream scenario to get to do a fight scene with Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio at the same time,' Wang says. 'We prepped and prepped, and then we had a lot of fun.' A lot more fun than Macchio had during one specific fight scene in the original, in which he was jumped by the Cobra Kai boys on Halloween. 'Getting my ass kicked by five guys in skeleton costumes, that was a tough one,' Macchio recalls. 'It was one of the few times I actually caught one in the jaw, and we had to go home early, but I lived to tell about it. 'Me and William Zabka constantly joke about that – he says I leaned in and I'm like, 'You overreached', and we blame each other constantly.' With Legends, Macchio hopes history will repeat for the new Karate Kid, even if the chances of young boys successfully performing the dragon kick in the playground are slim to none (seriously, do NOT attempt it). 'This film is multi-generational entertainment,' Macchio says. 'I always talk about the communal experience of being in the cinema, cheering with your neighbour, on your feet. You know, we had that in 1984 and let's hope we have that in 2025.' Karate Kid: Legends is in cinemas now.
The Advertiser
a day ago
- The Advertiser
If it ain't broke...New Karate Kid is hard to dislike
The essential appeal of the Karate Kid franchise - across multiple movies and TV shows over 40 years - is pretty simple. It's a classic underdog story, in a martial arts setting with a little light philosophy and some life lessons added to the mix. Karate Kid: Legends has a few tweaks to freshen things a little - including an Asian lead - and a lot of callbacks for fans, but the basics remain. There are some dubious and coincidental elements if you're picky, but this isn't that kind of movie. If it ain't broke... At his new high school, Li becomes the target of bad-guy Conor (Aramis Knight), whose brand of martial arts is aggressive and dirty. Li's skills are rusty, so he's quickly defeated. Apparently, there are no repercussions for either boy: maybe something was lost in the edit (a thought that occurred to me more than once during the film). More happily, Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Sweet from Kim Possible), whose affable father Victor (Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek), a onetime local boxing champ, runs a pizza joint. Mia starts showing Li around the city, and he teaches her Mandarin to help her bargain with Chinese shopkeepers. Now we get into it's-a-small-world territory. See, Mia is Conor's ex (and, no surprise, he's not happy about seeing her with another guy). And Victor is in debt to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon), who runs the dojo at which Conor trains. There's soon a match, but not the one you might be expecting. Despite his age, Victor decides to enter a local boxing match to try to win some cash, and guess who takes on the role of trainer? Yes, it's Li, applying what to Victor are some unorthodox methods. And yes, there's a training montage. We know, of course, that his mother's edict, Li will eventually face off against Conor - in the 5 Boroughs Tournament, the biggest in the city, which for some reason takes place on a rooftop (isn't this meant to be a well-established, highly-publicised, lucrative, legitimate event?) And that he will be trained by Mr Han, whose way to inform his grandnephew about his arrival is decidedly unorthodox, and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). The former focuses on kung fu, the latter on karate, but these are, as someone sagely observes, "Two branches, one tree." This film - set a few years after Cobra Kai's ending - can be watched on its own, but takes place in the same universe as its predecessors. Devotees will relish references to previous instalments, including an appearance by Daniel's trainer, Mr Miyagi (the late Pat Morita). While a lot of movies feel padded, there's a little too much content for the modest running time. I don't know if Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) wrote it that way or if director Jonathan Entwhistle (The End of the F***ing World) just wanted to keep things moving along, and a lot was left on the now metaphorical cutting-room floor. The combat scenes are quite exciting, but some of the reflective and nostalgic moments and secondary characters feel underserved (but there's time for Daniel to say he's not coming when we know he will). Wyatt Oleff (It) does a lot with a little as Alan, Li's nerdy maths tutor. However, the warmth and spirit that have infused the best of the series remain, and it's hard to dislike. The essential appeal of the Karate Kid franchise - across multiple movies and TV shows over 40 years - is pretty simple. It's a classic underdog story, in a martial arts setting with a little light philosophy and some life lessons added to the mix. Karate Kid: Legends has a few tweaks to freshen things a little - including an Asian lead - and a lot of callbacks for fans, but the basics remain. There are some dubious and coincidental elements if you're picky, but this isn't that kind of movie. If it ain't broke... At his new high school, Li becomes the target of bad-guy Conor (Aramis Knight), whose brand of martial arts is aggressive and dirty. Li's skills are rusty, so he's quickly defeated. Apparently, there are no repercussions for either boy: maybe something was lost in the edit (a thought that occurred to me more than once during the film). More happily, Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Sweet from Kim Possible), whose affable father Victor (Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek), a onetime local boxing champ, runs a pizza joint. Mia starts showing Li around the city, and he teaches her Mandarin to help her bargain with Chinese shopkeepers. Now we get into it's-a-small-world territory. See, Mia is Conor's ex (and, no surprise, he's not happy about seeing her with another guy). And Victor is in debt to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon), who runs the dojo at which Conor trains. There's soon a match, but not the one you might be expecting. Despite his age, Victor decides to enter a local boxing match to try to win some cash, and guess who takes on the role of trainer? Yes, it's Li, applying what to Victor are some unorthodox methods. And yes, there's a training montage. We know, of course, that his mother's edict, Li will eventually face off against Conor - in the 5 Boroughs Tournament, the biggest in the city, which for some reason takes place on a rooftop (isn't this meant to be a well-established, highly-publicised, lucrative, legitimate event?) And that he will be trained by Mr Han, whose way to inform his grandnephew about his arrival is decidedly unorthodox, and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). The former focuses on kung fu, the latter on karate, but these are, as someone sagely observes, "Two branches, one tree." This film - set a few years after Cobra Kai's ending - can be watched on its own, but takes place in the same universe as its predecessors. Devotees will relish references to previous instalments, including an appearance by Daniel's trainer, Mr Miyagi (the late Pat Morita). While a lot of movies feel padded, there's a little too much content for the modest running time. I don't know if Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) wrote it that way or if director Jonathan Entwhistle (The End of the F***ing World) just wanted to keep things moving along, and a lot was left on the now metaphorical cutting-room floor. The combat scenes are quite exciting, but some of the reflective and nostalgic moments and secondary characters feel underserved (but there's time for Daniel to say he's not coming when we know he will). Wyatt Oleff (It) does a lot with a little as Alan, Li's nerdy maths tutor. However, the warmth and spirit that have infused the best of the series remain, and it's hard to dislike. The essential appeal of the Karate Kid franchise - across multiple movies and TV shows over 40 years - is pretty simple. It's a classic underdog story, in a martial arts setting with a little light philosophy and some life lessons added to the mix. Karate Kid: Legends has a few tweaks to freshen things a little - including an Asian lead - and a lot of callbacks for fans, but the basics remain. There are some dubious and coincidental elements if you're picky, but this isn't that kind of movie. If it ain't broke... At his new high school, Li becomes the target of bad-guy Conor (Aramis Knight), whose brand of martial arts is aggressive and dirty. Li's skills are rusty, so he's quickly defeated. Apparently, there are no repercussions for either boy: maybe something was lost in the edit (a thought that occurred to me more than once during the film). More happily, Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Sweet from Kim Possible), whose affable father Victor (Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek), a onetime local boxing champ, runs a pizza joint. Mia starts showing Li around the city, and he teaches her Mandarin to help her bargain with Chinese shopkeepers. Now we get into it's-a-small-world territory. See, Mia is Conor's ex (and, no surprise, he's not happy about seeing her with another guy). And Victor is in debt to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon), who runs the dojo at which Conor trains. There's soon a match, but not the one you might be expecting. Despite his age, Victor decides to enter a local boxing match to try to win some cash, and guess who takes on the role of trainer? Yes, it's Li, applying what to Victor are some unorthodox methods. And yes, there's a training montage. We know, of course, that his mother's edict, Li will eventually face off against Conor - in the 5 Boroughs Tournament, the biggest in the city, which for some reason takes place on a rooftop (isn't this meant to be a well-established, highly-publicised, lucrative, legitimate event?) And that he will be trained by Mr Han, whose way to inform his grandnephew about his arrival is decidedly unorthodox, and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). The former focuses on kung fu, the latter on karate, but these are, as someone sagely observes, "Two branches, one tree." This film - set a few years after Cobra Kai's ending - can be watched on its own, but takes place in the same universe as its predecessors. Devotees will relish references to previous instalments, including an appearance by Daniel's trainer, Mr Miyagi (the late Pat Morita). While a lot of movies feel padded, there's a little too much content for the modest running time. I don't know if Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) wrote it that way or if director Jonathan Entwhistle (The End of the F***ing World) just wanted to keep things moving along, and a lot was left on the now metaphorical cutting-room floor. The combat scenes are quite exciting, but some of the reflective and nostalgic moments and secondary characters feel underserved (but there's time for Daniel to say he's not coming when we know he will). Wyatt Oleff (It) does a lot with a little as Alan, Li's nerdy maths tutor. However, the warmth and spirit that have infused the best of the series remain, and it's hard to dislike. The essential appeal of the Karate Kid franchise - across multiple movies and TV shows over 40 years - is pretty simple. It's a classic underdog story, in a martial arts setting with a little light philosophy and some life lessons added to the mix. Karate Kid: Legends has a few tweaks to freshen things a little - including an Asian lead - and a lot of callbacks for fans, but the basics remain. There are some dubious and coincidental elements if you're picky, but this isn't that kind of movie. If it ain't broke... At his new high school, Li becomes the target of bad-guy Conor (Aramis Knight), whose brand of martial arts is aggressive and dirty. Li's skills are rusty, so he's quickly defeated. Apparently, there are no repercussions for either boy: maybe something was lost in the edit (a thought that occurred to me more than once during the film). More happily, Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Sweet from Kim Possible), whose affable father Victor (Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek), a onetime local boxing champ, runs a pizza joint. Mia starts showing Li around the city, and he teaches her Mandarin to help her bargain with Chinese shopkeepers. Now we get into it's-a-small-world territory. See, Mia is Conor's ex (and, no surprise, he's not happy about seeing her with another guy). And Victor is in debt to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon), who runs the dojo at which Conor trains. There's soon a match, but not the one you might be expecting. Despite his age, Victor decides to enter a local boxing match to try to win some cash, and guess who takes on the role of trainer? Yes, it's Li, applying what to Victor are some unorthodox methods. And yes, there's a training montage. We know, of course, that his mother's edict, Li will eventually face off against Conor - in the 5 Boroughs Tournament, the biggest in the city, which for some reason takes place on a rooftop (isn't this meant to be a well-established, highly-publicised, lucrative, legitimate event?) And that he will be trained by Mr Han, whose way to inform his grandnephew about his arrival is decidedly unorthodox, and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). The former focuses on kung fu, the latter on karate, but these are, as someone sagely observes, "Two branches, one tree." This film - set a few years after Cobra Kai's ending - can be watched on its own, but takes place in the same universe as its predecessors. Devotees will relish references to previous instalments, including an appearance by Daniel's trainer, Mr Miyagi (the late Pat Morita). While a lot of movies feel padded, there's a little too much content for the modest running time. I don't know if Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) wrote it that way or if director Jonathan Entwhistle (The End of the F***ing World) just wanted to keep things moving along, and a lot was left on the now metaphorical cutting-room floor. The combat scenes are quite exciting, but some of the reflective and nostalgic moments and secondary characters feel underserved (but there's time for Daniel to say he's not coming when we know he will). Wyatt Oleff (It) does a lot with a little as Alan, Li's nerdy maths tutor. However, the warmth and spirit that have infused the best of the series remain, and it's hard to dislike.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Karate Kid is back, and this time with Legends. But is it any good?
Karate Kid: Legends ★★★ There were two moments during the packed preview screening I attended of the latest Karate Kid offering when the audience erupted in cheers and applause, and each was a moment that Blind Freddy could have seen coming. And despite every cynical impulse in my body (and there are many), I was swept along a little too. This is the absolute definition of a crowd-pleaser. Packed full of fan service, cameos and nods to tradition – both within the film franchise and more broadly within families, cultures and martial arts – Karate Kid: Legends offers little by way of innovation and plenty by way of giving the people what they want. It's derivative, corny and, in its utterly predictable way, great fun. If you've seen the original The Karate Kid (1984), or indeed the Netflix spin-off series Cobra Kai that ran for six seasons from 2018, you've got the idea. Kid turns up in a new town, having sworn off the martial art he used to practise. A gang of bullies take a dislike to him, and beat him up. His single mum is busy working, so doesn't really notice how much trouble he's getting into. His only ally is a cute girl, who used to go out with the lead bully, who naturally wants to smash the new kid even harder because he's jealous. The new kid's only hope for escape from this vicious cycle is to win a local tournament, where he'll get to beat said bully in the ring. But to do that he'll need the help of a gifted sensei, who will teach him The Way. Wax on, wax off. Yada yada. Here, the kid is Li Fong (Ben Wang), who moves with his medico mother from Beijing to New York. Back home, he'd been tutored by his uncle, Mr Han (Jackie Chan). In New York, he himself becomes tutor to the pizza-shop-owning father of his sort-of girlfriend Mia (Sadie Stanley). It's an improbable move, but at least it gives Joshua Jackson (of long-ago Dawson's Creek fame) a chance to display his considerable charm and reasonably convincing chops as a boxer. Inevitably, the kid is himself drawn back to the ring, to compete in the Five Boroughs karate tournament. The thing is, he's only studied kung-fu up to this point. Enter Mr Han, who takes it upon himself to fly to LA and persuade Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to hop on a plane and help train the kid in the way of Mr Miyagi. And then … Well, as Morrissey sang, stop me if you think that you've heard this one before (and trust me, you have).
