I feel iffy on this. I loved the original Karate Kid growing up, but absolutely hated the 2010 remake. Partly because I feel like it is following the trend of just lumping every Asian character into a generic “Kung Fu Guy” stereotype with no room for nuance.
Like, in the original, Mr. Miyagi’s backstory as a Japanese war veteran was pretty significant to his character, and karate being a specifically Japanese fighting style made sense for him to teach.
Not to say you have to be Japanese to learn karate, but that wasn’t even the premise in the 2010 movie, where Mr. Miyagi was swapped out for the Chinese Mr. Han, and the discipline being learned is kung fu, not karate. But that doesn’t matter, does it? Because as far as the white people in the audience are concerned, there’s basically no difference. Asian is Asian, right?
(And being a movie made in cooperation with China Film Group, which is a propaganda arm of the Chinese government, they definitely couldn’t have Mr. Han also be a war veteran who regretted his years of service, because who could ever regret fighting for glorious communism?)
I never saw the Jaden smith film, but that’s a bad joke right? That it’s kung fu, not karate? How did they even think it appropriate to still call it karate??
I saw the Jaden Smith film and it’s…okay. But yeah…it’s not karate. It’s kung fu. They even say that in the movie.
Yet they still called it The Karate Kid.
Yeah, it was fine but as an Asian American, the name bothered me. I dunno why they didn’t just call it “The Kung Fu Kid” and market it as a spiritual successor.
