Karate Kid: Legends - A Nice Addition to the Beloved Long Running Franchise

Few months ago I saw the teaser of this movie which immediately excite me and my wife. Although it was public holiday on Thursday (a day after it was released in Indonesia), we were having other plans and ended up only seeing the film yesterday. OK, why don't I just get to it then?

Brief Story Line

Li Fong (Ben Wang - American Born Chinese TV serie etc) had been practicing Kung Fu with his great-uncle Master Han (Jackie Chan - Ride On, Skip Trace etc) despite the disapproval from Li's mother, Dr. Fong (Ming-na Wen - Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV series, Push etc). When Dr. Fong and Li decided to move from Beijing to New York, both had to adjust with new culture. Li Fong later befriended with Mia (Sadie Stanley - The Sleepover etc), the daughter of Victor Lipani (Joshua Jackson - Dawson's Creek TV series etc) owner of a pizza restaurant. But their friendship was disturbed by Mia's ex boyfriend Conor Day (Aramis Knight - Into the Badlands TV series etc) who was the champion of Karate tournament called Five Boroughs for 5 years in a row.

After involved in an incident, Li Fong decided to help Victor by winning the next Five Boroughs championship. However, he would need the help from Master Han and later sensei Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio - The Outsider, Ugly Betty TV series etc) who taught him the basic of Karate.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

My wife and I had seen both The Karate Kid movies whether it was the 1984 original starring Ralph Macchio & the late Pat Morita as well as the 2010 remake with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. Although she only remembered the Jackie Chan's version, I still fondly recollect the first one. However I have not seen Cobra Kai series which was set after the events of the Macchio version and its sequels. But after watching this film, I do not think it has very big significance on understanding the story, except maybe the scene before the end which should please fans of the Karate Kid franchise.

This movie at first seemed to use the same formula of the 1984 & 2010 version where a young kid had to move to a new location, adjust with new environment, became close with a local girl, bullied by martial arts prodigy and ultimately had to learn & defend himself. But as the story progressed, there was a significant change to the plot especially on the lead character Li Fong. In this film, there was also the nice combination of Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso which was smartly done by the movie makers cause it made them shared the same universe. 

The movie had a very short duration of 94 minutes especially compared to the previous films that were both more than 2 hours. Thing is, I felt some things did not have sufficient time to provide background or context. It also felt a bit rushed at certain times especially the resolution of conflicts like between Li with his mother or with Mia (my wife felt it to be too brief and did not make sense). Even the fights also seemed not long enough. Good thing the finale was at least still satisfying and enjoyable (my wife was entertained as she clapped her hands after it was finished). 

The cast in general were OK to me. I thought Ben Wang was pretty good as the lead character while Jackie Chan with Ralph Macchio were the obvious main attraction. Too bad Ming-na Wen did not get chance to show her own capabilities. Aside from the names I mentioned, there were not a lot of other cast, except for Wyatt Oleff (It etc) as Li's tutor Alan and Tim Rozon (Wynonna Earp TV series etc) as O'Shea the loanshark and Conor's sensei. The film was directed by Jonathan Entwistle creator of the critically acclaimed series The End of the F**king World, I Am Not Okay With This etc).  It was written by Rob Lieber whose experience included writing for Peter Rabbit, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day etc.

Overall this was something nice for fans of the franchise. For audience new to this stories, it might be Okay enough to just enjoy, but whether or not it would keep them coming back for more remains to be seen. At least it did not perform too badly in term of box office (having small budget made it easier to make profit). So if you are looking for a light teen drama with martial arts as background or if you are familiar with the Karate Kid stories, then I think you would enjoy this like us who are fine with simple story. But if you want a deeper story with great character development and a lot of emotions, then this might not be to your liking. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars