Karate Kid: Legends has some pretty cool scenes and character moments, but the plot logistics are quite questionable. Jonathan Entwistle directed this film, which was written by Rob Leiber. The new kid is played by Ben Wang, and he is actually a pretty good choice. Ralph Macchio returns to The Karate Kid franchise as Daniel LaRusso, fresh off the completion of the series Cobra Kai. Jackie Chan reprises his role of Mr. Han from the 2010 The Karate Kid film.
The cast also includes Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, and Aramis Knight.
The movie begins with a flashback scene in which Mr. Miyagi explains to a young LaRusso the connection his family has to the Han Family. When we’re caught up to the present day, Mr. Han has returned to kung fu instruction fulltime and is doing quite well. One of his students is a great nephew named Li Fong who has been carrying a burden of guilt. His mother has accepted a job in New York as a doctor, so Li has another big adjustment to make in his life.
As usual, he meets a pretty girl and runs afoul of her ex-boyfriend, who is a karate expert. Li is also quite skilled in the martial arts, but this adversary may be better. Mr. Han eventually shows up in the Big Apple to lend a hand in training his nephew for the expected big tournament. He feels that he could use some help and take a quick trip to California to recruit Daniel LaRusso to give his expertise to Li’s training.
There is a lot in this film I liked. The newer characters were actually pretty good. Sadie Stanley was pretty entertaining as Mia, the cheeky but charming love interest. Her relationship with her father, played by Joshua Jackson, was pretty endearing as well. A friendship between Li and the father develops as well, which seems to be a break from the trope in these types of stories.
Ben Wang has quite a bit of charisma to go along with his martial arts skill. It was also great to see Ming-Na Wen in the role of Li’s mother. The mother was pretty dead set against her son continuing his martial arts study, but one can have a bit more sympathy for her once the reason is revealed. Also, Wen is just great to watch. It’s pretty hard to believe that she is just over sixty, but she is Asian and obviously takes well care of herself.
The fight scenes are unrealistic but still fun to watch. The good-natured bickering between LaRusso and Han was also well played by Macchia and Chan.
For the most part, I enjoyed the film, however the plot needs some serious examination. First of all, it’s not really clear what is so unique about Li’s situation that Han felt compelled to seek assistance from LaRusso. The whole idea to get the two sensei in the same place seems rather strange and frankly hard to swallow.
I could almost buy a more coincidental meeting more than Han taking a quick trip to California to make his pitch to LaRusso.
The film does hit the right chords of nostalgia, but I had to fight for that enjoyment since I was pretty distracted by the weak elements in the plot.
Anyway, it’s another one in which I did not find terrible, but a better, more credible reason needed to be found for Han and LaRusso to meet.
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