By Brontë H. Lacsamana, Reporter
Movie Review
Karate Kid: Legends
Directed by Jonathan Entwistle
MTRCB Rating: PG
IT SEEMS Karate Kid is a franchise that will never die, coming from the recently concluded comedy drama TV series Cobra Kai which took us into the lives of rivals Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence 30-plus years after they first faced off in 1984 in the original Karate Kid film.
They managed to stretch that out over six seasons, and now the film Karate Kid: Legends serves as the icing on the cake. Fans of the engaging teenage-level melodrama and flashy fight choreography in the TV show will rejoice with this one, which introduces a new “karate kid” in town.
The film follows kung fu prodigy Li Fong (played by Ben Wang), who is forever changed by a family tragedy and moves with his mother from their home in Beijing to New York City. Li meets new friends, who need his help even though he has sworn off fighting, leading him to enter a ruthless karate competition.
For many viewers, a major draw for the film are Li’s mentors — kung fu teacher Mr. Han (a role reprised by Jackie Chan from the 2010 Karate Kid with Jaden Smith) and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (reprised by Ralph Macchio). Together, they teach Li their respective styles of fighting in preparation for the coming showdown, with the mantra of “two branches, one tree” tying in some Mr. Miyagi lore.
The story starts out simply enough, with Li’s mother (Ming-Na Wen) forbidding her son from fighting following the family tragedy, but that doesn’t last very long. In New York, he falls in love with a girl named Mia (Sadie Stanley) who used to date a bully renowned in the neighborhood for being a brutal martial arts champ (Aramis Knight).
Wang as Li is the best part of the movie, showcasing his ability to garner sympathy as a lead with his own angsty and heartwarming moments, and the ease with which he takes on Jackie Chan-style action choreography. This comes out the best in one scene where he must fight off some goons in an alley.
There’s also the character of Mia’s father (Joshua Jackson) who has a subplot where Li trains him in the ways of martial arts to prepare him for a boxing match that will save his pizza place. Despite the far-fetched storyline — sprinkled with training montages of the father and lovey-dovey date montages with the daughter — Wang’s natural acting as Li makes you root for him regardless.
It will please Karate Kid fans to hear that Wang pulls off the sympathetic and likable “new kid on the block” vibe that Macchio and Smith achieved as the titular “karate kids” before him.
Perhaps what’s bringing this joint down is the fact that it feels like many different movies in one. Though it’s great to see Macchio step in as an additional mentor, his inclusion is a bit forced and ultimately irrelevant — if you take him out of the picture, nothing really changes. With that said, it’s a great way to give Cobra Kai fans a little more to enjoy after concluding the six-season show.
What Karate Kid: Legends is actually about is Li’s personal evolution as he comes to terms with the family death that changed his and his mother’s lives. Of course, the ideal way to cope with this would have been through therapy, but since he is in a Karate Kid movie, the emotional journey must come hand in hand with learning to kick ass.
This film ultimately follows the tried-and-tested Karate Kid formula of making the new kid with a pure heart a champion, but little changes made it more reasonable than the first and second iterations. Firstly, Li is already a kung fu fighter and a not a total newbie, leading to the whole deal about training the pizza place owner that makes him as capable a mentor as he is a student.
If you can stomach the very-Gen Z TikTok hits soundtrack that plays throughout the movie, and not think about how farfetched and clunky the whole thing is, it’s actually a fun ride. The final showdown had great moves, and the training scenes with the two mentors and Li have some crowd-endearing silly moments. The main bully, unlike Johnny Lawrence in the original 1980s films, has zero-character development, and is simply there to look menacing and be a mean fighter.
While the “Legends” tacked on to the title is unearned and purely nostalgia bait, and while it’s ridiculous to see a full-on street karate tournament playing out all around different pockets of New York, this Karate Kid ties down the insanity in a digestible way. It’s not groundbreaking, but it distills what made the original films beloved by a generation, and dials up the sentimentality to keep it relatable to new generations.
A kid is knocked down by life, then he trains and fights, and wins. That’s what Karate Kid is all about.