I got to watch the Karate Kid today. I believe this film is a whole lot less cheesy than the initial offering. Surprisingly enough, I think the remake is actually better than the original. Then again, perhaps I am just biased against orientalist exoticization and all that.
Anyway first things first: It's NOT a karate show. Dammit...just why would they ride on the Karate Kid brand and make it a kung fu flick. Granted, there was a goodly bit more emotional involvement in this show, moving beyond platitudes on the code of conduct in martial arts towards some sort of backstory for the characters. I especially liked that the kung fu master was not just some guy living on a high mountain and not having very much to him besides that.
That aside, the show's really your average good vs evil tale, whereby an underdog protagonist has to deal with a bunch of really powerful and vicious "evil" dudes. Interestingly, the "evil" guys turned out to be more misled than actually intrinsically ill intentioned.
I'd say the show deserves a clean 8.5/10, even though I personally believe that kung fu shows should have fewer of the flashy techniques. That's just my personal bent, and I guess the kinds of things I'd like to see are not quite suited for public viewing.
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