The Karate Kid (2010)

A Challenge He Never Imagined. A Teacher He Never Expected.

Long, but very good. The new film keeps to the same general plotline of the old film, with neat twists to the iconic moments. What's great about the storyline is that the main characters' stakes are strong and clear from the outset (except of course for the mystery about why Kung Fu master Chan is content to work as a handyman). There's a similar story arc, as I think the Spill Crew or maybe the Filmspotting guys said, as Rocky (1976): boy loses respect of peers, boy trains hard, boy gains respect of peers by excelling in competition. Or is it, more generally, boy is taken over by fear, boy trains to battle fear, boy battles and conquers fear.

In any case, the stakes are high: Smith must cope with bullies who have no mercy and can't be avoided.

Jackie Chan, in particular, is excellent, with real gravitas, a little like Beat Takeshi. Jaden Smith, in the lead role, also does very well; the girl, WenWen Han, is very cute, and the romantic sub-plot is well handled; the rest of the cast is good.

The action sequences are very well handled. As Mark Kermode (if I remember right) pointed out, however, the violence to Smith in the first and final reels is pretty extreme, and the script writer's have to stretch credulity to allow Chan and Smith's mother to permit Smith to fight on despite very serious injury.

In the end, does it matter if the martial art is not karate, but kung fu?

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 15 Aug 2010
• Where seen: Cinema
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

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Amendments: "As Mark Kermode (if remember right)" corrected to "As Mark Kermode (if I remember right)". Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

Crime Story (1993)

The World's Toughest City Needs More Than An Army To Stop The Mob... They Need One Man!

A fast-moving violent story of kidnapping and corruption in Hong Kong, with Jackie Chan excellent as a gung-ho police inspector, up against crooks and a corrupt colleague (Kent Cheng) working against him behind the scenes.

According to script-writer Teddy Chen, in the DVD extras, the story was intensively researched and the results appear realistic, with authentic-looking locations and convincing police procedures. According to Chen, this was Chan's first serious action film and I guess there were question marks over the issue of how well he would be able to play this kind of dramatic role but if so, people needn't have worried. Chan is very good, as is Cheng, as the crooked cop.

Some of the action sequences are breath-taking and there are some phenomenal extended fight sequences along the way, with Jackie Chan performing some amazing feats of athleticism. This is especially commendable when you consider that the stunts would all have been done "in-camera" as they say, without the luxury of post-produced computer effects. I remember Jackie Chan in interview describing the number of injuries he had had while filming, and watching this film, I can well believe it.

Interesting that the kidnap victim is portrayed with some complexity, on the one hand, as a very unsympathetic character, a wealthy property developer ruthlessly cutting corners and exploiting his workers in pursuit of profits, but on the other hand, as a human being in jeopardy who really seems to care for his family.

Apart from the apparent affection between the kidnap victim and his wife, there is little to distract the audience from the main kidnap story-line. Over-used to Hollywood movie conventions, perhaps, I expected Chan's relationship with an attractive young police psychologist early on in the story to blossom into a romantic sub-plot, but no, she does not even appear in the second half of the film. The story is stripped down, and all the better for it.

• Rating: High matinee
• When seen: 17 Mar 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

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Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.