Karate Kid: Legends (12A)

Kung fu prodigy Li Fong relocates to New York City with his mother and immediately makes a new friend, classmate Mia. Local karate champion Conor Day picks a fight with Li and humiliates him in front of the school. Li turns to his mentor, kung fu teacher Mr Han, for advice. The mentor seeks out Daniel LaRusso and persuades the original Karate Kid to travel to the Big Apple to teach Li the ways of Miyagi Karate. Supported by Mr Han, Mia and her father Victor, Li nervously prepares to face Conor.

LondonNet Film Review

Karate Kid: Legends (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

A life-affirming sixth instalment of the Karate Kid franchise takes a bow three months after the TV spin-off Cobra Kai concluded its six-season run, stitching a narrative thread from the 1984 film starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita to the 2010 reboot starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith to create harmony between the Miyagi and Han schools of karate. In terms of running time, the latest picture is comfortably the shortest instalment in the series and feels it. Character development scrapes the bare minimum as screenwriter Rob Lieber sprints breathlessly between obligatory set pieces including the humiliation of Ben Wang’s athletic protagonist, amusingly described as “the Chinese Peter Parker”, at the hands of a bullying classmate…

Cue the training montages as he chases redemption, life lessons about courage under fire and a grandstand final showdown where the rejuvenated hero prepares to perform a signature fighting move to reclaim his honour. The “wax on, wax off” training methodology of the original has been upgraded to the less snappy ritual of “jacket on, jacket off” but Jonathan Entwistle’s feature directorial debut is openly nostalgic about its roots, opening with a flashback to 1986 Okinawa and a tender scene between the young Macchio and Norita that dovetails sweetly with the present. Karate Kid: Legends adopts a predictable fighting style that punches and dragon kicks with sufficient fury to consistently crowd-please but never truly delight.

Li Fong (Wang) studies kung fu in Beijing under Mr Han (Chan) against the wishes of his doctor mother (Ming-Na Wen). “You practise violence, you get violence in return,” Mrs Fong warns her son, referencing the fatal stabbing of Li’s older brother Bo (Yankei Ge) after a fight tournament. Li froze during the scuffle and that guilt weighs heavily on the teenager. Mrs Fong secures a new position at a hospital in New York and relocates to the Big Apple where Li befriends classmate Mia (Sadie Stanley), whose father Victor (Joshua Jackson) runs the local pizza parlour.

Unfortunately, Mia’s ex-boyfriend Conor (Aramis Knight) is the hot-headed protege of karate sensei O’Shea (Tim Rozon) whose dojo abides by the same Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy mantra of the Cobra Kai of old. Conor challenges Li to compete against him in the upcoming 5 Boroughs fight competition with a 50,000 dollar first prize, and Mr Han travels to New York to train Li for the tournament with help from Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) to enrich Li’s combat style with flourishes of the Miyagi school.

Karate Kid: Legends is a solid and satisfying underdog story. Wang, Chan and co-stars confidently execute on-screen fisticuffs conceived by fight choreographer Xiangyang Xu as Lieber’s script flings romance, comedy and tragedy into the juicer. Entwistle’s picture, made to a trusted recipe, goes down smoothly but we’ve tasted these flavours before.

– Jo Planter