when life knocks you down

best fights are the ones we avoid.
- mr. han



director harold zwart's remake of the 1984 film Karate Kid starring jackie chan as mr. han and young jaden smith as dre parker wonderfully depicts the art of overcoming obstacles.  when dre's mother's job moves them to China, everything dre has ever known seemingly gets tossed out the window.  new language, new food, new (hopefully) friends and new life.  Karate Kid is a film that several of us can relate to, even if our experiences are not exactly the same as dre's. 

jackie chan's role as mr. han is almost an exact mirror of mr. miyagi's in the original film.  he takes in a young kid who is down on his luck and teaches him kung fu, possibly out of pity, or possibly because mr. han is down on his luck himself, mourning the tragic losses of his beloved wife and son.  dre's determination to learn martial arts has taught mr. han arguably the most important advice in film to viewers since yoda taught the youthful luke skywalker in Star Wars, "life can knock us down.  but we can choose whether or not to stand back up."

the artistic filming of nature and the great wall of China is incredible.  director of photography roger pratt potrayed the environment surrounding the subjects so perfectly to the point where i felt i was there besides dre and mr. han, sharing their struggles with them.  

mr. han's character arcs simultaneously with dre's, triumphing together as victors over language barriers, personal struggle and bullies.  kung fu is a tool not just to make peace with the enemies, but also to make peace within ourselves. 

what's more? dre gets the girl.

i give this film 3.5 stars out of 5.