KARATE KID: LEGENDS Review: Old-School Formula Reworked for the 21st Century

The 1980s were a veritable Golden Age for fans of The Karate Kid franchise.

 

Beginning at the height of the Reagan Era with the John G. Avildsen-directed The Karate Kid in 1984, the loosely structured trilogy took Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), a lifelong underdog and first-time martial artist, and his Japanese-American mentor, Nariyoshi Keisuke Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita), into adventures involving life-affirming lessons, occasional romances (for LaRusso), and periodic hand-to-elbow-to-foot combat, sometimes in the street, sometimes as part of a local tournaments, for modest amounts of fame and glory.

 

An audience-friendly formula not dissimilar from another Avildsen film, the Oscar-winning Rocky released almost eight years earlier, The Karate Kid, a box-office hit at the time, naturally led to sequels, one two years later, The Karate Kid II, the third and temporarily last, The Karate Kid III, five years later. But while LaRusso’s story seemingly came to an end, the rights holders thought differently, introducing future two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank as The Next Karate Kid in 1994 before the series went into hibernation for the next decade and a half. 

 

Released in 2010 with Jackie Chan as Mr. Han, a Chinese kung-fu shifu (master) and Jaden "son of Will" Smith as the titular hero, the “new” Karate Kid, meant as an internationally flavored series reboot, won over audiences, but ended at a single entry. Setting aside the multi-season, 65-epside streaming series, Cobra Kai, for now, the Chan-led reboot officially enters franchise canon with the latest big-screen entry, Karate Kid: Legends. A legacy sequel that brings Chan and Macchio into a comic book-style shared universe, Karate Kid: Legends adds a new lead, Ben Wang (American Born Chinese) as a China-to-America transplant, Li Fong, and leans heavily on the underdog and tournaments formula that made the series so popular in the first place. 

 

Karate Kid: Legends opens in modern-day Beijing, China as Mr. Han, the owner-operator-instructor of a successful training academy, hides Li from his mother, Dr. Fong (Ming-Na Wen), a typically stern, if loving, physician. Due to a wrenching family tragedy, Dr. Fong opts for a full-on restart, moving to the United States, New York City to be exact, with a reluctant Li in tow. 

 

Sidestepping obvious questions about immigration, citizenship, or Dr. Fong's medical liscense and its applicability stateside, Rob Lieber’s (Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, Peter Rabbit, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day) efficient screenplay includes a line about Li learning English in Hong Kong in a dual-language school and stops there (i.e., both speak English with American accents) and hopes the audience either won’t notice or, more likely, won’t care. There’s a familiar story to be told, of course, and it’s better to just get on with it.

 

That story centers on a fish-out-of-water Li, adds the usual obstacles, annoyances, and encumbrances related to a move to an entirely new state or country, adds an age-appropriate romantic interest, Mia Lipani (Sadie Stanley, Kim Possible), and her jealous, possessive ex-boyfriend, Conor (Aramis Knight). Unfortunately for Li, Conor’s more than just a glowering, brooding, rage-filled bully. He’s also an expert-level martial artist and multiple time winner of the so-called Five Boroughs Tournament. Winning includes a cash prize of $50K.

 

The college-bound Li doesn’t need the prize money himself, but Mia’s father, Victor (Joshua Jackson), the owner of a local pizzeria with a sizable debt to a loan shark, does. A onetime promising boxer, the 40-something Victor’s self-belief borders on the delusional. Despite every natural indicator suggesting the opposite, Victor somehow believes he can fight professionally again. Seeing Li’s skills firsthand one night, Victor entreats Li to become his trainer. 

 

Despite a running time well under two hours, Karate Kid: Legends oddly segues into a Rocky-inspired boxing flick before inevitably returning to the central conflict between Li and Conor. Before long, Li finds himself back under the tutelage of a visiting Mr. Han and the latter, apparently mindful of the film’s title, takes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it trip to Los Angeles, convincing a hesitant LaRusso that Li needs a mix of their fighting styles, Han for his kung-fu expertise, LaRusso for his Miyagi-style karate, to win the tournament.

 

Cue, as expected, the obligatory training montage, a rapid-fire rise through the martial arts ranks for a newly rededicated Li, and the inevitable, Mortal Kombat-inspired fight atop a skyscraper for some reason. Staged competently by director Jonathan Entwistle (I Am Not Okay With This, The End of the F***ing World) and Jackie Chan’s regular stunt team (among others), the too-short, if dynamically staged, fight scenes don’t disappoint.

 

It’s template storytelling from start-to-finish, but as with most of the earlier entries, it’s template storytelling, tweaked for a swap in actors, characters, and settings, that works, always predictably, but sometimes exceptionally. Wang makes for a winning lead, carrying the heavier exposition-laden moments and the lighter ones with virtual ease. A martial artist in his own right, the 20-something Wang handles either all or most of his character’s fight scenes, adding a welcome touch of verisimilitude to Li’s cheer-worthy journey from a stranger in a strange land to the top of the world.