The Karate Kid is a 2010 martial arts drama film directed by Harald Zwart and produced by Jerry Weintraub, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter, and Ken Stovitz, from a screenplay written by Christopher Murphey, based on a story conceived by Robert Mark Kamen, the writer of the first three Karate Kid films.
It serves as the fifth film in The Karate Kid franchise, and stars Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan in the lead roles, with Taraji P. Henson, Wenwen Han, Zhenwei Wang, Luke Carberry, Zhensu Wu, Zhiheng Wang, and Yu Rongguang in supporting roles.
The story follows 12-year-old Dre Parker (Smith) from Detroit, Michigan, who moves to Beijing, China with his widowed mother Sherry (Henson) and runs afoul of the neighborhood bully Cheng (Zhenwei Wang).
He makes an unlikely ally in the form of an ageing maintenance man, Mr. Han (Chan), a kung fu master who teaches him the secrets of self-defense.
12-year-old Dre Parker and his widowed mother Sherry move from Detroit, Michigan to Beijing, China after she gets a job transfer at a car factory.
Cheng, a rebellious kung fu prodigy whose family is close to Meiying's, keeps them apart by constantly attacking, teasing, and antagonizing Dre.
[10] Jackie Chan told a Los Angeles Chinatown concert crowd in 2009 that he was leaving for Beijing to film the remake as Jaden Smith's teacher.
[9] Despite maintaining the original title, the 2010 remake does not feature karate, which is from Okinawa (Japan), but focuses on the main character learning kung fu in China.
[11] This theory held true in the People's Republic of China, where the film is titled The Kung Fu Dream (Chinese: 功夫梦).
[15] The Chinese government granted the filmmakers access to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, and the Wudang Mountains.
Parts of the song, "Back in Black" by AC/DC and "Higher Ground" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, were also used in the film.
[21] It also features Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", Flo Rida's "Low" and Gorillaz' "Dirty Harry" (being performed in Chinese).
20 is featured, arranged for strings, in Meiying's violin audition scene, along with Sergei Rachmaninoff's piano transcription of "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Rimsky-Korsakov.
The site's critics consensus reads: "It may not be as powerful as the 1984 edition, but the 2010 Karate Kid delivers a surprisingly satisfying update on the original".
[29][30] Simon Abrams of Slant Magazine gave the film one and a half stars and noted that "the characters just aren't old enough to be convincing in their hormone-driven need to prove themselves" and "this age gap is also a huge problem when it comes to the range that these kids bring to the project" and noted the portrayal of the child antagonist Cheng includes an "overblown and overused grimace, which looks like it might have originally belonged to Dolph Lundgren, looks especially silly on a kid that hasn't learned how to shave yet".
[40] In April 2017, Eisner returned as director,[41] but in October, Chan stated that the initial script for the film did not work well.
[43] By November of the same year, Chan officially joined the cast alongside Ralph Macchio in their respective roles as Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso.
The studio announced a world-wide open casting call for an actor to star as the film's iteration of the titular character.
Jonathan Entwistle directed the film with a script written by Rob Lieber, where the plot involves a teen from China moving to the east coast and beginning to study martial arts.
[44] Originally scheduled to be released on June 7, 2024, the film was delayed to December 13, 2024, in part as a result of the 2023 writers and actors strikes.