Karate Kid

[Fenrazer]

So I am watching the new Karate Kid on my Megavideo account, but I cannot find a version with English Subs. Did the theatrical version have subs, or is this just wishful thinking?

So, what does the playground have to say? Who is the greatest of the three Karate Kids?

[Nerd-o-rama]

I keep seeing trailers for this movie, and I know it's pedantic, but all I can think is "why is this called Karate Kid? No one in it knows karate. Why not Kung Fu Kid? That's just as alliterative."

[playswithfire]

The theatrical version I saw had subs more most of the Chinese dialog, but I think some wasn't.

In their defense, they do make it clear within the movie that what they're doing is Kung Fu, not Karate. They just wanted the, for lack of a better term, 'brand recognition' of reusing the original movie's title (and portions of the plot).

[Fenrazer]

I think it's catering to mainstream American viewers and their children. I remember before I actually started learning things about life that...

1. All insects/arachnids/annelids were all "Spiders".

2. If it came from the body, no matter what place, it was always "BoBo"

3. All fighting styles, no matter how they varied in name or technique, were Karate or branches of Karate.

:smallbiggrin:

After all, a majority of Americans Generalize (see how I just generalized Americans? :smallsmile:) things and only recognize it as the umbrella they place on it.

[Irenaeus]

I keep seeing trailers for this movie, and I know it's pedantic, but all I can think is "why is this called Karate Kid? No one in it knows karate. Why not Kung Fu Kid? That's just as alliterative."Because of branding.

That's it, really.

[Jayngfet]

I keep seeing trailers for this movie, and I know it's pedantic, but all I can think is "why is this called Karate Kid? No one in it knows karate. Why not Kung Fu Kid? That's just as alliterative."

China changed the name to Kung Fu Kid, and Japan and South Korea changed it to "best kid".

Just saw it in theaters, some of the stuff was subbed, but some of it wasn't. Outside legal versions subs often get lost if they were originally included. I had to watch District 9 without understanding what the prawns were saying.

[Erts]

I had to watch District 9 without understanding what the prawns were saying.

Try watching Ong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong_bak) Bak (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368909/), which is completely in Thai without subtitles online. Of course, it is a martial arts movie with a lackluster plot, so it doesn't really matter, and wikipedia helped after I was done.

Luckily, the film finally was available at a store, so I bought it. Slightly improved the experience.

[Jayngfet]

Try watching Ong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong_bak) Bak (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368909/), which is completely in Thai without subtitles online. Of course, it is a martial arts movie with a lackluster plot, so it doesn't really matter, and wikipedia helped after I was done.

Luckily, the film finally was available at a store, so I bought it. Slightly improved the experience.

Yes, but thats a language pronounceable by a human tongue unlike prawn, or welsh. Unlike a human a prawn makes gestures people can't, and you have to interpret it on the fly and pick things up from the english side of the conversation.

[Alindo]

The theatrical version I saw had subs more most of the Chinese dialog, but I think some wasn't.

In their defense, they do make it clear within the movie that what they're doing is Kung Fu, not Karate. They just wanted the, for lack of a better term, 'brand recognition' of reusing the original movie's title (and portions of the plot).

And the finale.

[LCR]

I've just seen the film, it was a mediocre vehicle for Jaden Smith at best.
Smith plays an annoying little twit who finds himself bullied in a theme park version of China, falls in love with a girl (which leads to two pre-teens pining for each other for almost two and a half hours) and learns Karate Kung Fu from maintenance man Jackie Chan. Kung Fu, as Chans character puts it, is about inner peace and calm, which is, of course, completely subverted by the fact that the whole movie is about preparing for a martial arts tournament, in which the bad guys are given a good thrashing. The one redeeming feature of this otherwise bland and superficial affair is Jackie Chan, who does almost no (!) fighting and instead focuses on portraying a man, deeply broken by the death of his family, who regains his confidence and will to live by teaching a child. One scene in particular, in which Chans character breaks down in tears while a helpless Smith looks on, gives a glimpse of what a surprisingly convincing actor Chan is and what a great movie "Karate Kid" could have been, if it were a little quieter and a little less flashy. As is now, it just leaves the audience with the strange feeling, that despite of what they tell you, inner peace is nothing compared to the ability to punish bullies with a sound roundhouse kick to the head.

[Mr. Scaly]

I freakin' love this movie. :smallbiggrin: So far it's the best one to come out of 2010.

Jaden Smith is a surprisingly good actor, considering I didn't even know Will was married...curse my total indifference towards celebrity lives.

Anywho, the plot is largely the same as the original film except the kids are all three or four years younger and the bully was even more of a psycho. What really struck me about him was how...well normal he was. Except for the ability to kill people with his bare hands you could have put him in my grade school and he wouldn't be amiss.

Jackie of course is the best actor in the whole movie and steals the show whenever he shows up.

And Beijing did feel a lot like Beijing to me. Never been there myself but I didn't see it as 'Hollywood' or anything like that.

Really though, this was such a good movie...even if the title is weird.

[SolkaTruesilver]

The movie was a good "feel-good" movie. If you don't expect it to be the Second Coming of Dark Knight, it's a very enjoyable movie.

The blatant backing by Beijing Government to promote the tourism in their country was a little annoying. "Hey do you want to film on the Great Wall? 'Cause tourists will come there!"

Smith's kid was very good. Although I believe the part was written to be easy to act, as it's hard to miss the "I am a kid who tries to act tough" attitude. Yet, it's rare that a movie with child actor doesn't annoy me.

I really don't see why people are annoyed at the Roman sub-plot. It added flavor to the movie, and really made us sorry for the lil kid.

[LCR]

All in all, Jaden Smith played a heavily stereotyped part, that of the "streetwise kid from the ghetto". I am aware that "Karate Kid" is supposed to be light entertainment, but why is he so readily buying into the "black kid" stereotype? I would have wished for a more differentiated performance. Maybe have the mother not wear a tracksuit all the time. Maybe have Smith's character show a little interest in other things besides rap and sports. Would it have been so detrimental to the movie if he had known who Bach was? I don't think so, but it would have added another layer besides the very one-sided machismo, which in my opinion, is very troubling to find in a twelve-year old anyway.

I have yet to visit China, but from what I've read and heard, the Chinese culture (if it can be summed up as such) is supposed to be quite xenophobic, especially towards westerners. Why wasn't this addressed at all?

[SolkaTruesilver]

I have yet to visit China, but from what I've read and heard, the Chinese culture (if it can be summed up as such) is supposed to be quite xenophobic, especially towards westerners. Why wasn't this addressed at all?

Yes it was. The girl's father did not wanted her hang out with a black kid (at least, that's how it came across to me as to why he broke them up).


Otherwise, see "Backed by Beijing". When the chinese government is allowing you to film in landmark area, you don't go out of your way to check their skeletons.

[LCR]

Yes it was. The girl's father did not wanted her hang out with a black kid (at least, that's how it came across to me as to why he broke them up).


Otherwise, see "Backed by Beijing". When the chinese government is allowing you to film in landmark area, you don't go out of your way to check their skeletons.

No, it was not. The girl's parents did not want her to spend time with Dre because he kept her from practicing. This is clearly established as she is late because of their trip through Beijing together.
The father shows no further animosity towards Dre once he has shown himself to be a reliable, disciplined friend.

Without going into politics, maybe they shouldn't have collaborated with the local government. There is a rich history of movies being made in countries other than those they are set in. It would've made it easier to show a less picturesque version of China, for example the extreme poverty in huge parts of rural China, contrasted with the splendor of the larger cities.

[Prodan]

I have yet to visit China, but from what I've read and heard, the Chinese culture (if it can be summed up as such) is supposed to be quite xenophobic, especially towards westerners. Why wasn't this addressed at all?

You know how the rest of the world sees us (Americans) as [insert various negative adjectives here]?

[LCR]

You know how the rest of the world sees us (Americans) as [insert various negative adjectives here]?

How is this relevant?

[SolkaTruesilver]

No, it was not. The girl's parents did not want her to spend time with Dre because he kept her from practicing. This is clearly established as she is late because of their trip through Beijing together.
The father shows no further animosity towards Dre once he has shown himself to be a reliable, disciplined friend.

That is quite ironic, because the way I saw it, the reason she was late is because they warned her at the last minute that her recital was being scheduled NOW. Can't blame somebody for not showing up immediately when you call them saying: "recital is happening in one hour. We are waiting for you in front of your school".

And for what I gathered about Chinese sociological system (which, I agree, can very well be unexact, so please no flak) the network of Friends/Family is very important to many people's personnal career and achievement potential.

Having your talented daughter dating a black american with no family connection could potentially be both face-losing to your social network, but also causing some resentment among the family of the people who were eyeing said daughter. (Who knows how important the bully's family was?)


Without going into politics, maybe they shouldn't have collaborated with the local government. There is a rich history of movies being made in countries other than those they are set in. It would've made it easier to show a less picturesque version of China, for example the extreme poverty in huge parts of rural China, contrasted with the splendor of the larger cities.

Eh. Like said earlier, it's pretty much like any movie Backed by the Pentagon. If you depict people, organisation in a good light, they will allow stuff for you. So filming U.S. military propaganda pieces like Rules of Engagement, Black Hawks Down or Any Tom Clancy Movie(tm) will net you military hardware. I can't blame Karate Kid for going the same road regarding China.

Off course, what you define as propaganda, slandering or "realistic" will change from one person to the other. One movie can be seen as realistic by some will seen as slandering by others.

[SuperPanda]

I have yet to visit China, but from what I've read and heard, the Chinese culture (if it can be summed up as such) is supposed to be quite xenophobic, especially towards westerners. Why wasn't this addressed at all?

Because China isn't actually like that?

I mean, you don't have to take my word for it... I've only been living here as an ESL teacher for almost three years.

The chinese are complex enough that one stereotype won't sum them up, but this is the internet and we'll have to accept that generalizations will be made.

The chinese people are highly prone to generalizations themselves, this is partially do to the fact that they are taught to behave in a "harmonious" was, and presented with an education paradigm that has a very good/bad view of the world. Its not too different from America in that regard, if you're dealing with the people who have never been outside of America and yet "know" what the outside world is like.

The culture is different also, and the people have as much pride in their ways as we do in ours, but their pride is presented as being dutiful to the power structure here (mostly Family > Government > else) while our pride tends to take the form of being loud and arrogant (just like the kid in the movie).

Lastly the vast majority of the Chinese people know that they will never have a chance to travel to our country and many of them have never met one of us, so their ideas of what we are are formed by their government controled news programs and our movies.

Despite all this, the people are very welcoming and curious, they are eager to make friends and wish to both learn about our culture and show us theirs. Speaking some chinese helps a great deal.

Actually, in the movie the way the children just accepted the white kid as one of them but pushed around the new kid because he was... well, new... That was pretty accurate. I was very impressed. The most accurate part thought was the "can I touch your hair?" bit. Different kinds of hair and eye colors facinate alot of people here because they don't have much, if any, variations in those areas while we varry in them alot.

-----------------------

On the Dad getting upset, there were alot of reasons for that:

One is: he interupted her studies.

Test scores in China are everything. You don't have any time for other activities so the only thing the good schools look at is your scores.

two: She was late.

Yes it makes sense that she shouldn't be held accountable for "your recital is now." But thats how things work here. You live at the beck and call of whoever has the upper hand and pray they are feeling nice.

three: Black american. Maybe, but not the American part. The American part would be working in the boy's favor (once he showed he could be respectful of their culture). China has been strongly influenced by American media and adopted alot of our racism though.

Four: Anyone notice what he did at the end of the recital? Making a big amount of noise like that would come off as mocking her to alot of people, what's more that me made the guy in the back (probably the equivilent of a talent scout) get up and walk away means that he very likely sunk her chances at getting into her art school.


Four is the big one. The other three he could probably smile his way through and get off with a frown because he's new and he's foreign. But Four? He betrayed a friend and dishonored their family (the same things he appologizes for towards the end).

Culturally they did a great job.

Scenery wise... no other city in China still looks like that, I seriously doubt Beijing still does (going in October). Chengdu has places like that, few and far between, so it could all be on location, just not as close as it seems to be from one place to another.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Insightful Comments

Thanks man. That was really interesting.

Can I put you on my list of "people I should ask some advice if I ever get to live in China"?

[Prodan]

How is this relevant?

Think about it.

[LCR]

Think about it.

Still can't see your point. Maybe it would help if you would care to illuminate your thoughts, especially regarding their relevancy to an ongoing discussion.

[SuperPanda]

Thanks man. That was really interesting.

Can I put you on my list of "people I should ask some advice if I ever get to live in China"?

Sure thing, further more if you come to Chengdu in Sichuan anytime soon let me know and I'll see if I can't get a day (probably a weekend) to show you about.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Sure thing, further more if you come to Chengdu in Sichuan anytime soon let me know and I'll see if I can't get a day (probably a weekend) to show you about.

Sichuan?

Whoooo... that is uber-mainland. I think if I ever work in China, I'll have to stick to the financial centers :smallfrown: Like Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Beijing...

You seen these cities?

[Prodan]

Still can't see your point. Maybe it would help if you would care to illuminate your thoughts, especially regarding their relevancy to an ongoing discussion.

The world has many stereotypes and false assumptions about how Americans act. While they have a kernel of truth to them, they are not very accurate as a whole.

Same applies to preconceptions we have (and you listed) regarding the Chinese.

[SuperPanda]

Hong Kong is part of China in name but in many ways it is its own animal.

Shanghai is a fun city, but walking one or to streets in different directions changes it completly. One street is all western style shops and European archetecture, two blocks off to the side and your in third world slums, another few blocks and there are mesums or so.

I could give you pointers, but not show you about really in other places. As I mentioned before, I'm going to Beijing on vacation in October (moon festival).

Now Chengdu is a great party city though, so if you come to China for work, consider vacationing out here. Panda's, reputation for the hottest girls in China (your mileage will varry, but the average is better looking than elsewhere.) And there are great mountains about, and its on Tibet's door step. Vactioning here is wonderful, I just chose not to leave.

[Avilan the Grey]

The world has many stereotypes and false assumptions about how Americans act. While they have a kernel of truth to them, they are not very accurate as a whole.

Same applies to preconceptions we have (and you listed) regarding the Chinese.

The problem with stereotypes though, as long as they are not totally over the top, tends to be that the people that fit them stands out and therefore enforces them, like the "Large Japanese Tour Group with 4 cameras per person" or "Really Loud Texan Guy With Hat and Blue-Haired Wife With Sunglasses".

I have found though that the "minor" stereotypes (or rather cultural significant details) are far more often true though, like American tourists always wearing white shoes* and the women always wearing slightly more makeup than Scandinavian women (you can pick out most Americans in a crowd, even those who have lived here for several years, but especially tourists).

Anyway, my point is that the major stereotypes, "Type 1, Type 2" as TVtropes calls them, are not true very often, but those who fit them stands out so much in a crowd that that's what people will remember as "American" or "French" etc.

*This is how you quickest can tell if an American is in Sweden for business or pleasure: If here for business, he or she always wears black shoes even with casualwear.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Now Chengdu is a great party city though, so if you come to China for work, consider vacationing out here. Panda's, reputation for the hottest girls in China (your mileage will varry, but the average is better looking than elsewhere.) And there are great mountains about, and its on Tibet's door step. Vactioning here is wonderful, I just chose not to leave.

Oh man... :smalleek:


the hottest girls in China

You done it :smallmad:

[Will Save]

I hope

[Will Save]

you are hap..

[Will Save]

..py. Now I

[Will Save]

have to struggle

[Will Save]

...
...

[Will Save]
[Will Save]
[Will Save]

*clear mind*

[Will Save]

I hate

[Will Save]

you!! :smallfurious:

[SuperPanda]

You sir, are a stronger man than I. I failed that will save after visiting here once (though the food sealed it. Absolutely amazing spicy food and a people who love their cusine. China has 8 different styles of cooking, Sichuanese is one of the big names among those eight. Sichuan is also a farming capital in China, so lots of fresh produce and....

yeah, I guess I failed my will save versus [Show off]. You mentioned big financial center so I should mention that I teach kindergarten and make alot less than you probably would if you came over here.

Anyways back on track. I was rather impressed with the facet's of Chinese culture displayed in the movie. The punk kids is a side of the culture I've heard about but not seen, if only because Chinese parents tend to discipline their children like crazy and beating up the new foreigner would mean loosing alot of face for your family. I guess they dealt with this by having the kid just not admit it which meant the bullies kept getting away with it.

[SolkaTruesilver]

You sir, are a stronger man than I. I failed that will save after visiting here once (though the food sealed it. Absolutely amazing spicy food and a people who love their cusine. China has 8 different styles of cooking, Sichuanese is one of the big names among those eight. Sichuan is also a farming capital in China, so lots of fresh produce and....

I'd love to visit it all, that's for sure. The country is just so frakking big, both in geography and cultural diversity. Even among the Han, I am sure there is quite a lot of diversity between regions.

And it's not a matter of "strenght", but just of financial capability. And a current Pinay gf.. :smallredface:


yeah, I guess I failed my will save versus [Show off]. You mentioned big financial center so I should mention that I teach kindergarten and make alot less than you probably would if you came over here.

You said Hong Kong is a totally different animal. How is it?

Is there any other financial centers rather than HK, Shanghai and Beijing? I don't know much about cities in China except for those big 3...


Anyways back on track. I was rather impressed with the facet's of Chinese culture displayed in the movie. The punk kids is a side of the culture I've heard about but not seen, if only because Chinese parents tend to discipline their children like crazy and beating up the new foreigner would mean loosing alot of face for your family. I guess they dealt with this by having the kid just not admit it which meant the bullies kept getting away with it.

Point. I guess kids will always be kids. Boys will always be boys.

Specially if the kids are all part of the same Kung Fu school who promotes such ruthlessness. They are probably acting under the "pack animal" mentality, where loyalty to each other is very important.

To be honest, I was disapointed we never saw the white kid ever again. What happened to him?

[Mr. Scaly]

To be honest, I was disapointed we never saw the white kid ever again. What happened to him?

I think I saw him in the background at the tournament.