There was a backlash? By who? Most of the movie-going public didn’t even know it was a remake (or, more precisely, that it was based on the same source material as a previous movie.) The backlash against “I Am Legend” was largely from a small subculture of sci-fi geeks who (a) didn’t give a shit that Will Smith was black, (b) would certainly have disliked a lot of white actors more (Tom Cruise, anyone?) and (c) had a legitimate beef that the story’s best part - the ending - was fucked up.
“The Karate Kid” was an IMMENSELY successful and beloved movie, and for good reason; it’s an absolutely first-rate movie. The precedessors to “I Am Legend” were not immensely successful or popular, and for good reason; they weren’t all that great.
If they’d remade “The Karate Kid” with another white kid there’s no doubt in my mind, none at all, that the negativity would be about the same. I think we should all be glad they didn’t try to foist Shia LeBoeuf off on us as a teenager and the star of this movie.
And anyway, these days black actors take formerly white roles all the time. “The Taking of Pelham 123,” for example.
Because it wasn’t a remake.
I’ve heard a lot of people question this move, and question whether Chan has the acting chops to match Morita’s brilliant performance.
Nobody is knocking the Smiths for making things cushy for Jr. But when they say phoney shit like, “He has to audition like everyone else”, it just comes off as silly as hell.
I just saw the movie and liked it alot. At the end people in the audience applauded, which doesn’t happen to often that I notice. I think the kid worked hard and long to be that good in that flick, yet, I still dislike him and his whole family.
I have a random question about the movie. I will spoiler this for those who are anal about such things:
In the film, I noticed that the Chinese characters where fascinated with touching Dre’s hair. I have had this happen in real life…a Chinese girl liked to squeeze my daughter’s hair. WTH? Is that a Chinese thing, or the sort of thing that happens anywhere else that doesn’t see a lot of black people, or what?
I am a fan of the original Karate Kid and I must say, Mr. Chan turned in a very fine performance every bit as good as Mr. Morita’s. He was my favorite part of the movie. I guess I’ve never really seen a Jackie Chan movie (I’m not into kung fu flicks as a genre) but he stole the show. I’d see it again just to watch him.
But is that his real nose? It’s very, um, bulbous.
I don’t think it really needs to be spoilered, but the question was about Chinese people being fascinated with Black hair. Seems very reasonable - China is much more ethnically homogeneous than the US, and according to Americans who have lived there, they have a much less strong concept of “personal space” than Westerners.
I’m a white guy, and I have to confess that I’ve wanted to touch Black hair, but I’ve never dated a Black girl, and I’m culturally constrained from asking Black friends if I can fondle their head. But according to Chris Rock’s film Good Hair, not even Black men get to do that.
I’ve had Korean students at my university ask to touch my hair before, so yeah, I think it’s just because they had never been in close proximity to a person with kinky hair like mine.
You’re clearly a much more proper person than I am. My friend got her hair done in this…twisty sort of style…I’m not sure what it’s called, just a million little twists and it was so pretty I just reached out and touched it.
She seemed pretty startled, so in retrospect, maybe I did violate a cultural taboo. (I’m a white American.) Also, touching someone’s hair is kind of weird in general, I guess, but she was a friend.
This happened to me in my youth. I was part of a cultural exchange where I visited rural Wisconsin and stayed with a farm family there. There were several requests to touch my hair by the kids in the family who explained they’d never really been around Black people before (hence, the cultural exchange). I didn’t mind because they asked quite nicely and, on the whole as a guest, I was treated superbly.
There was also a thread here recently talking about the propensity of Chinese people to also be curious about and fascinated with blonde-haired babies.
I’ve been sick of him since he was in the goddamn womb, so, in fact, I’m especially sick of his goddamn attention whore fucking parents.
As regards Smith fils particularly, though, I fast forwarded past his guest spot on Letterman the other night, and even with the sound off and the images rocketing by at a faster than usual pace, I still had a near uncontrollable urge to shoot the li’l fucker in the goddamn face.
