Comparing Versions: Identifying the Ultimate ‘Karate Kid’ Champion

Could the Karate Kid be catching up to its spiritual predecessor? The movie The Karate Kid from 1984 was essentially a younger version of the underdog sports drama Rocky, even sharing the same director John G. Avildsen and composer Bill Conti. Instead of a soulful bruiser from Philly, we got a teenager from New Jersey. Similar to Rocky, The Karate Kid led to a series of sequels: two direct continuations featuring Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his wise mentor Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita); a spinoff with a female karate student paired with Miyagi (Hilary Swank in her first major role); and a 2010 remake focusing on kung fu rather than karate, with Jaden Smith as the young underdog trained by Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) in Beijing. The new intertwined sequel Karate Kid: Legends, involving Macchio and Chan coaching the more experienced teenage fighter Li Fong (Ben Wang), brings the total to six movies, matching the Rocky franchise.

Rocky led to three and more Creed films, giving Philly a slight advantage for now. Conversely, The Karate Kid boasts a six-season spinoff TV show named Cobra Kai, following the original movie’s antagonist in middle age and eventually including Daniel played by Macchio. Now, there is a plethora of Karate content available for your enjoyment, and you may need assistance in deciding which iteration of an underdog kid mastering martial arts and triumphing against the odds is the best choice.

For this edition of Version Control, we will exclude the Macchio sequels, which are evidently not as strong as the original 1984 film, as well as the TV series, which is undoubtedly additional material aimed at fans of the first movie. This leaves us with four movies spanning the last 41 years to scrutinize and determine which Karate Kid truly reigns as the champion.

1. The Karate Kid was released during the summer that inspired the PG-13 rating from the MPAA, which debuted later that year. Doubtless it would get a PG-13 today, not because it pushes boundaries like fellow summer ’84 titles Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but because that’s more or less become the default rating for almost anything that isn’t a children’s animated film. But on the eve of PG’s eventual destruction, The Karate Kid became almost a platonic ideal of the PG movie that both kids and adults can enjoy in equal measure. Watching it today, the story of New Jersey transplant Daniel (Macchio) and his growing bond with karate master Mr. Myagi (Morita) is especially notable for how clearly yet casually it respects its young audience, and its characters. Daniel and Myagi are both so well-drawn, and so endearingly performed by Macchio and Morita (whose Oscar nomination was richly deserved), that it’s no wonder at all how a movie that cribs substantially from Rocky was able to nonetheless surprise people with its feel-good bona fides. This is one ’80s classic that genuinely holds up, and gives the neglected PG rating a good name.

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3. This flop sequel/reboot, released a decade after the original movie, deserves credit for mixing up the series formula, with Hilary Swank as a troubled teenage girl who Myagi trains to further refine her karate skills. It’s neat to see the athleticism and grit of Swank’s Oscar-winning turn from Million Dollar Baby a decade earlier, and the movie avoids the training-for-a-big-tournament structure of so many other Karate Kid movies. It’s also kind of low-rent and cheesy, with a band of would-be military-style fraternity members serving as an evil gang. Like Rocky V, which also ends with a street fight rather than an officially sanctioned sports match, The Next Karate Kid is somewhat underappreciated while still not being all that good.

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4. This remake of the original film, originally divorced from earlier continuity, was such a smash in 2010 that it’s a wonder no further sequels were produced until now. Then-rising star Jaden Smith (son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith) plays a 12-year-old kid who moves from Detroit to Beijing, where he learns kung fu from Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) in order to better defend himself from bullies and eventually enter, yes, a big tournament. The Beijing location shooting gives the movie some automatic interest, and it’s fun to see an older Jackie Chan play a part with some dramatic meat, even if the movie goes overboard with his angst. After The Next Karate Kid, this is ample proof that the old formula still works. Unfortunately, it also suffers from inexplicable blockbuster bloat, running a punishing 140 minutes. That’s only about 15 minutes longer than the original, but it feels much more belabored – especially as it becomes increasingly clear that the aim here is less to tell a grounded yet entertaining coming-of-age sports story, and more to launch Jaden Smith as a multi-hyphenate brand like his dad. (It worked, but then After Earth and Smith’s seeming lack of interest in movie stardom seemed to stall further ascendance.) It’s a small detail, but throwing the movie to its end credits with a new mix of Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never” with Smith contributing a verse makes the whole thing feel more like a marketing maneuver than its more charming source material.

   where to stream the karate kid (2010)

5. This legacy sequel might seem as if it depends too heavily on previous movies to stand on its own. Yet it actually features mostly new characters, with Chan and Macchio in supporting roles. (Macchio doesn’t even turn up until halfway through; fans may be confused that Joshua Jackson is the resident middle-aged guy before then, playing a Rocky-esque boxer.) Obviously it will have additional resonance for fans of the 1984 and 2010 films, yet it might also play better overall to kids less specifically attached to those movies, who will just focus on the highly likable Ben Wang as Li Fong, a kid trained by Mr. Han back in Beijing before his mom’s new job transplants him to New York. She forbids him from fighting because of a family tragedy, but when he befriends Mia (Sadie Stanley) and her father Victor (Joshua Jackson), he winds up in an unexpected trainer role – at least for a little while, until the movie reverts back to the big-tournament formula of all the Karate Kid movies. Wang and Stanley are cute together, Jackson has surprising gravitas, and it’s fun to see Chan and Macchio team up, however briefly. This is a brisk next chapter, sincere and even corny in all the right places. But it lacks the grounding of the original. (It’s hard to really master a sense of place when your New York-set movie is shot in Canada.)

It may be obvious to point out that the original is still the best, but not every beloved ’80s movie is as rock-solid as this one.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn podcasting at www.sportsalcohol.com. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others.