'Karate Kid: Legends' star Jackie Chan: 'I'm not the action star anymore. I'm the actor who can fight'
The Karate Kid universe is expanding once again with the release of the new film Karate Kid: Legends (now in theatres), starring Ralph Macchio, Jackie Chan, Ben Wang, Sadie Stanley and Joshua Jackson. While Karate Kid and Cobra Kai fans all have a special place in their hearts for Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi, now Macchio's Daniel LaRusso and Chan's Mr. Han are taking on that role.
"I look at Ben, that's the old day Jackie Chan," Chan told Yahoo Canada. "I'm becoming a Miyagi."
"This takes place probably three years after the events of Cobra Kai, which was important to me to separate some time," Macchio added. "So now, when you find Daniel LaRusso, he's gone through all those highs and lows of the Cobra Kai soap opera, because it was very much a karate soap opera in the best possible way."
"And now he's landed in a very Miyagi kind of grounded, mature, balanced place in his life, and when it's time to help someone else out. Now we have a new story with an urban setting that we haven't seen before, and a style shot a little bit different, but we maintain the embrace of the nostalgia while telling a relevant story for families ... and young people, for today. So I'd like to believe that that's just the beginning of that section of this ecosystem in the universe."
Teenage Li Fong (Ben Wang) is a particularly impressive kung fu prodigy, studying under Mr. Han in Beijing. But he has to leave his training behind when he moves to New York as his mom, played by Ming-Na Wen, gets a new job. She also has one rule for him: She doesn't want Li fighting anymore.
A fish out of water in a new city, Li finds friendship with Mia (Sadie Stanley), whose father Victor (Joshua Jackson) owns a pizza shop, and he used to be a celebrated boxer.
When Victor runs into some trouble, owing money that, if he can't pay back, means he could lose the pizzeria, the ex-boxer enlists Li to help him train for fights. But as things shift, the only way to get the money is for Li to participate in The Five Boroughs Tournament, a karate competition.
When Mr. Han unexpectedly visits Li, that's when his training really starts again, with Mr. Han, who was friends with Mr. Miyagi, enlisting the help of Miyagi's protégé, Daniel LaRusso.
Throughout the film, Li is also working through a significant past trauma, something he needs to reconcile with to both succeed in the competition and to have a constructive personal life.
Karate Kid: Legends is a movie with a lot of heart, but also really leans into comedy, with the benefit of having Chan's expertise in that department. The actor highlighted that the family-friendly nature of the film is something he's partveryicularly proud of.
"We talk about, how can we make the action sequence more family, not violent," Chan said. "Right now, in this moment, this movie makes me so happy."
One of the best moments for that comedy is when both Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han are trying to train Li, going back and forth knocking Li to the ground to try to prove which move, from karate or kung fu, will work better against Li's opponents in the tournament.
"I feel like, if you have a movie with Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan, you've got to get them fighting each other a little bit," Wang said.
"It's nitpicky and it's fun and it's enjoyable, because he's [Li] is in middle of getting his butt kicked," Macchio added. "That's the entertainment part of it."
As Macchio went on to highlight, director Jonathan Entwistle had a special approach in mind to film this movie, including the karate and king fu sequences, that differed from the original Karate Kid film.
"The camera angles are inside the fight," Macchio explained. "Really, the camera's very close all the time. Very wide lenses, which is very different than how the original Karate Kid was shot, a little bit more ... romantic, longer takes, different styles."
Karate Kid: Legends also really utilizes practical stunts, which does give the film a unique feel, especially when most new films use CGI for their action sequences.
"I really admire the people [who are] so clever they can use this AI, CG, special effects to do all kinds of action," Chan said. "I don't know CGI, I have to do my own thing. In the old day, we had no money, we had no schedule. ... No rehearsal, boom, you have to jump."
"I always tell the director, please hire me to do an Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman. But no, they just hire me Rush Hour, Karate Kid. ... But honestly, me personally, I like the real things. I like to show the audience what I can do. Like 50 years ago I could do a triple kick. Twenty years later, OK double kick. But now one kick. ... I tell the audience, I'm not the action star anymore. I'm the actor who can fight, just like Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman."
Now it's time for Wang to take on many of those famous Chan stunts.
"One and a half is where I'm at right now," Wang said.
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