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Please don't go basing your PhD Thesis on anything I write here.
The information I provide comes with no guarantee of accuracy, and I'm just as likely to provide the most entertaining answer, as I am the factually correct answer.

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Sunday 11 July 2010

Why is The Karate Kid (2010) movie about Kung Fu?

I haven't seen the movie myself, but a recent Facebook post by a friend drew attention to the anomaly that is the title vs. the subject of this film.

Some say the original Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita version cannot be surpassed. Those same champions of the 1984 film, are probably still waxing on and off in the Cobra Kai Dojo of their long-gone youth, and there they should stay.

However, Columbia Pictures, in their Hollywood wisdom, decided the time was ripe to challenge for the top spot in The Karate Kid franchise. With the producing skills of Will Smith behind the project, they have tried to best such notable opponents as The Karate Kid, Part II, The Karate Kid, part III and The Next Karate Kid.

And so we have The Karate Kid (2010) starring Jaden "my-dad-is-a-triple-threat" Smith and Jackie "I-also-sing" Chan.

This version however, is not set in Japan, the home of Karate, but China, the home of Kung Fu in its myriad forms.

As Chan is a Kung Fu expert in real life (as is his character Han in the movie), Smith's bullied Dre Parker is taught this discipline in the movie, rather than karate.

So why not call the movie The Kung Fu Kid?

Well they did. Just not in the English-speaking versions. They obviously didn't trust us to make the connection with the original movie(s), even with a re-creation of the famous *spoiler alert* catching-flies-with-chopsticks scene in all the trailers.

At a stretch, you could say that Dre is The Karate Kid at the beginning of the film because he knows a little bit of karate, but not enough to defeat his pre-pubescent nemesis Cheng. A tenuous link, but there none the less.

The movie translates to The Kung Fu Kid in International versions and Best Kid in Japan.

Added fact thrown in for free - Did you know Jackie Chan lived and worked in Canberra, Australia in 1976?

And now I leave you with this Funny Or Die video about what happened to Ralph Macchio. Tragic.



By Monique Kowalczyk

So what do you want to know?
MoniqueWillKnow@gmail.com

*Disclaimer*
Please don't go basing your PhD Thesis on anything I write here. The information I provide has no guarantee of accuracy and I'm just as likely to provide the most entertaining answer as I am the factually correct answer.

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