Karate Kid: Legendslooks as if it will follow the original movie’s formula, but there’s one way that it should be entirely different from Daniel’s story. At this point, theKarate Kidformula has been used and reused several times. The 1984 movie follows a bullied, underdog teenager as he learns martial arts from a wise teacher with a tragic past to defeat his nemesis at a tournament. This same template was applied to Jackie Chan’sThe Karate Kid(2010), as well as the start of the spinoff seriesCobra Kai. Now,Karate Kid: Legendswill continue the trend.
The upcoming movie will bring together Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso and Chan’s Mr. Han to teach Ben Wang’sKarate Kid: Legendscharacter, Li Fong. In this way, the originalKarate Kidformulahas been slightly altered since there are two wise teachers this time around. Still, things look pretty similar in every other way. Li is obviously the new underdog karate kid, andhis training should prepare him to take on a bullying villain in a tournament. As exciting as it will be to see this familiar story brought to the screen with new characters inKarate Kid: Legends, the new movie needs an additional twist.
Li Should Lose The Tournament At The End Of Karate Kid: Legends
The Typical Formula Would End With A Win
The newesttrailer forKarate Kid: Legendsreveals that Li will be forced to move to a new city (New York this time), meet a girl, and make an enemy out of one of her acquaintances. To handle this enemy, Li must compete in the 5 Boroughs, the biggest martial arts tournament in New York. This all falls right in line with the originalKarate Kidmovie’s formula, soit seems like we could expect Li to pull out some obscure final move that will knock his bully out of the tournament—a heartwarming underdog victory. However, the fact that we expect this is precisely why it shouldn’t happen.
This time around, Li should lose the final round of the 5 Boroughs inKarate Kid: Legends. This would go against the formula we have come to know and love, but it’s the only way to keep the story fresh compared to all the otherKarate Kidmovies that have used the same ending. Sure, Li having two teachers is a great shift, butKarate Kid: Legendsneeds more if it’s going to stand out against its franchise predecessors.
The Karate Kid (1984), The Karate Kid Part 3 (1989), & The Karate Kid (2010)
The big tournament ending we expect forKarate Kid: Legendshas already been used several times in the franchise. There is, of course, the 1984Karate Kidmovie, in which Daniel famously beat Johnny Lawrence with his crane kick. Daniel got another miraculous tournament win inThe Karate Kid Part 3when Terry Silver told Mike Barnes to keep the score tied. Then there isThe Karate Kid2010. This movie duplicated the original movie’s formula to a tee, and Jaden Smith’s Dre used a crane-style move similar to Daniel’s to defeat his own bully.
After so many movies in the same franchise have ended the same way,Karate Kid: Legendsreally has no choice but to switch things up.Li losing could give this new movie aRocky-like feel, granting Li a meaningful message about how some fights don’t turn out as expected.Karate Kid: Legendswould have to make this ending just as impactful as the original formulaic version, but this shouldn’t be too hard given the various examples set byNetflix’sCobra Kai.
Cobra Kai Has Many Examples Of How To Subvert The Tournament Formula
A Big Twist Is A Must
As previously mentioned, the villain-focused spinoffCobra Kaialso used the originalformula fromThe Karate Kid. The twist was that bad-boy Johnny Lawrence stepped in as the wise sensei and subverted Mr. Miyagi’s sage character archetype in just about every way. Still,Cobra Kaitook things further with several big twists surrounding theKarate Kid’s standard tournament structure. For example, in season 1,the underdog hero (Miguel) won the All-Valley tournament, but he did so by playing dirty. Then there is Robby, who was a solid fighter but lost every tournament he competed in.
Formulaic predictability is good to an extent, but audiences must be surprised with a fresh new ending after all these years of sameness.
Cobra Kaiwas established on the idea of subverting tropes and formulas, soKarate Kid: Legendsis disadvantaged in this way. This movie feels much more like 2010’sKarate Kid, but this movie failed to perform in the same way asCobra Kai. The newest installment in the franchise must, therefore, take an example from the more successful installment. Formulaic predictability is good to an extent, but audiences must be surprised with a fresh new ending after all these years of sameness.
