Kid’s Alright
Ben Wang goes a long way to making the latest Karate Kid chapter watchable. Him and his troubaour.
Karate Kid: legends
Director: Jonathan Entwistle • Writer: Rob Lieber
Starring: Ben Wang, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Joshua Jackson, Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio
USA • 1hr 34mins
Opens Hong Kong June 5 • IIA
Grade: B
If there’s an upside to Jackie Chan’s appearance in Karate Kid: Legends, it might be that at least he’s acting his age (hey, I’m trying here!). If there’s another it’s that there’s not all that much of Chan in Legends, the latest iteration of the unlikely IP that just won’t die. When OG K-Kid Ralph Macchio waxed on and waxed off as 90-pound weakling turned ass-kicker Daniel LaRusso in 1984’s The Karate Kid, no one could have predicted there would be five more films (!), a seven-year TV series (!!) that started life on YouTube Red/Premium (!!!), an animated show and five video games. But here we are. And if you claim you did see this coming you’re a lying liar who lies.
Legends picks up after the events of 2010’s innovatively-titled remake-now-not-a-remake The Karate Kid, with kung fu sifu Mr Han (duh, Chan) bidding farewell to his nephew Li Fong (Ben Wang) and Li’s nameless doctor mother (Ming-Na Wen): they’re moving from Beijing to New York in the wake of a tragedy that killed Li’s brother. This is a Karate Kid movie so you know what comes next. Li doesn’t fit in and draws the attention of the neighbourhood bully, Conor Day (the awesomely handled Aramis Knight, Into the Badlands) when Li starts mackin’ on Day’s ex, Mia (Sadie Stanley). Highschooler Mia refers to Day as “one of those bad life decisions” as if she’s 44 and divorced but whatever. Mia and her dad, boxer-turned-pizzeria owner Victor (Joshua Jackson) form Li’s new posse, and he teaches Victor some kung fu moves so Victor can enter a fight and get loan sharks off his back. Dr Fong disapproves of Li fighting, and she really scowls at the idea of him entering the Five Boroughs Tournament. Li pulls Day’s pants down and spanks him. The end.
Kid & Co.
Peter Rabbit writer Rob Lieber does some quick retconning to wedge the previously unrelated film into the traditional Karate Kid-verse, and create a generations-long link between Han and the dear departed Mr Miyagi (Pat Morita), and between the two martial arts forms. So when Ben needs to train for the Five Boroughs, knowing full well Day will be his final opponent Mr Han arrives in Manhattan just in time to help, and to rustle up some special skills lessons from LaRusso, now a sensei at Miyagi-Do Karate in California – a tendril that dangles from the Cobra Kai series. Television and shorts director Jonathan Entwistle ticks off all the boxes – conflict with his posse, training montage, third act self-doubt, grudging respect from the villain etc and so on – clearly as a gun for hire; there’s not much in the way of visual flair in Karate Kid: Legends, but then again, that tracks all the way from ’84.
Legends is safe and unchallenging, the same wholesome diversion as every other film in the franchise, spouting messages about determination, patience, inner strength and self-fulfilment on one’s own terms. It’s like a Disney film: the message isn’t necessarily a bad one. It’s just been done to death, the exact same way, by the exact same film. Fortunately Legends has Wang (American Born Chinese) on its side, a young actor (he’s 25 but shockingly convincing as a teenger) with an effortless screen presence and quite possible some legit chops. There’s not much nuance to Li on the page but Wang makes him likeable, and he’ll get a chance to show more in the forthcoming Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk. The stealth star, however is Wyatt Oleff as Alan, Li's tutor and eventual posse member – and his personal soundtrack in the film’s single biggest laugh out loud moment. Anyone who stans for Karate Kid (is that a thing?) will get exactly what they expect from Legends: It’s pedestrian. It’s predictable. And yeah, it’s pleasant.