The Karate Kid has made a comeback thanks to the latest flick starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. The film, which is a new take of the 1980’s original starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel and Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, diverges from the original in many ways. Although it sticks to the general plot of the original, one very important difference between the films is the style of martial art portrayed.
While in the original movie Mr. Miyagi teaches Macchio’s character Daniel Larusso about the art of Karate, the new film actually takes protagonist Dre Parker through the process of learning Kung Fu. This means that the new flick should more appropriately be re-named “The Kung Fu Kid”.
Kung Fu and Karate are two very different styles of the collective martial arts. While lay people may not know the difference, the differences are easily distinguishable and are such that they needed to be addressed by the dialogue itself. An exasperated Dre Parker explains to his mother, “It’s not Karate, it’s Kung Fu!”
Karate in it’s modern form originated in Japan. It is characterized by short, choppy movements that are powerful and rigid. In the original film, this history was complemented by Mr. Miyagi’s character: a World War II veteran who fought against the Germans and who’s wife and son were sent to the Manzanar Relocation Camps where many Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans were sent during the war. As a young boy in Okinawa, Mr. Miyagi learned his craft from his father, who was a fisherman and martial artist.
Kung Fu on the other hand has its roots in China. Movements in Kung Fu are very fluid, swift and resemble a choreographed dance. It is speculated that the martial art in the remake was changed both as a refreshing twist of the 1980’s classic and as an accommodation for Jackie Chan, who plays the wise martial art master Mr. Han and has been successfully portraying Kung Fu to American audiences for years.
What’s more, both movies use the popular concept of muscle memory, otherwise known as repetitive action. The goal is that the motion becomes instinctive, and instant reaction. This is an important attribute in any martial art.
While the wax was a major part of this process in the first original film, achieving the goal of teaching young Daniel Larusso the fundamentals of karate blocking, it plays a similar, though smaller role in the 2010 remake.
In the recent version, Mr. Han does something very similar, instructing the young Dre to repetitively take off, hang up, throw down and put on his jacket. This lesson is even less obvious than the original, but it holds up to the plot and unlike the first version is the only example of such a lesson in the entire movie. This is probably because the basics of Kung Fu are slightly more complex and Dre has to go considerable extensive training before he is ready for the tournament. In this way, the new Karate Kid is probably more believable than the first.
All in all, the values remain the same: both masters agree that neither martial art is meant as a pure avenue of violence, but rather a way to sustain a connection with oneself and the balance of the world around them.
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