Film Talk: Latest reviews - Karate Kid: Legends, The Ballad of Wallis Island, The Salt Path
It’s a risky business, adding yet another film to a legendary canon, but, “I’ve been careful over the years with protecting this franchise, protecting this character,” says Ralph Macchio, 63, who played the original Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso in the hit 1984 martial arts movie.
“The evolution of these characters, the themes in the original movie, they still stand the test of time and win over each generation.”
“I wanted to come back to this role because the audience wants to come back,” adds Jackie Chan, 71, who is reprising his role as Mr Han from the 2010 The Karate Kid remake. “We’ve been looking for a good story. We’ve been waiting.”
And they believe this is it. Directed by Jonathan Entwistle, who created The End Of The F****ing World, Karate Kid: Legends follows kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang), who moves to New York from Beijing with his mum (Ming-Na Wen, star of Mulan). Threatened by a local karate champion, Fong decides to enter the ultimate karate competition and enlists the help of his kung fu teacher, Mr Han, and the Karate Kid himself, LaRusso, and begins learning to integrate their styles – with some boxing thrown in, courtesy of retired boxer Victor (played by Joshua Jackson, The Mighty Ducks) – in an effort to wow the martial arts world. Wang, who made a name for himself in The Long Walk and American Born Chinese, had just moved to the U.S. from Beijing when The Karate Kid remake came out, and Fong’s outsider story really touched him.
“It gets me emotional, this idea of going somewhere completely new and having to start over and finding people who help you along the way,” says Wang, 25, who was born in Shanghai, China. “That’s what these movies are really about, you know? Behind the kung fu and the karate and all that cool stuff, it’s about finding your way, learning to fit in, and finding good teachers.” Wax on, wax off. Let’s do this...
KARATE KID: LEGENDS (UK 12A/ROI 12A, 94 mins) ***
Released: May 28 (UK & Ireland)
A life-affirming sixth instalment of the Karate Kid franchise takes a bow three months after the TV spin-off Cobra Kai concluded its six-season run, stitching a narrative thread from the 1984 film starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita to the 2010 reboot starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith to create harmony between the Miyagi and Han schools of karate.
In terms of running time, the latest picture is comfortably the shortest instalment in the series and feels it.
Character development scrapes the bare minimum as screenwriter Rob Lieber sprints breathlessly between obligatory set pieces including the humiliation of Ben Wang’s athletic protagonist, amusingly described as “the Chinese Peter Parker”, at the hands of a bullying classmate.
Cue the training montages as he chases redemption, life lessons about courage under fire and a grandstand final showdown where the rejuvenated hero prepares to perform a signature fighting move to reclaim his honour.
The “wax on, wax off” training methodology of the original has been upgraded to the less snappy ritual of “jacket on, jacket off” but Jonathan Entwistle’s feature directorial debut is openly nostalgic about its roots, opening with a flashback to 1986 Okinawa and a tender scene between the young Macchio and Norita that dovetails sweetly with the present.
Karate Kid: Legends adopts a predictable fighting style that punches and dragon kicks with sufficient fury to consistently crowd-please but never truly delight.
Li Fong (Wang) studies kung fu in Beijing under Mr Han (Chan) against the wishes of his doctor mother (Ming-Na Wen).
“You practise violence, you get violence in return,” Mrs Fong warns her son, referencing the fatal stabbing of Li’s older brother Bo (Yankei Ge) after a fight tournament.
Li froze during the scuffle and that guilt weighs heavily on the teenager.
Mrs Fong secures a new position at a hospital in New York and relocates to the Big Apple where Li befriends classmate Mia (Sadie Stanley), whose father Victor (Joshua Jackson) runs the local pizza parlour.
Unfortunately, Mia’s ex-boyfriend Conor (Aramis Knight) is the hot-headed protege of karate sensei O’Shea (Tim Rozon) whose dojo abides by the same Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy mantra of the Cobra Kai of old.
Conor challenges Li to compete against him in the upcoming 5 Boroughs fight competition with a 50,000 dollar first prize, and Mr Han travels to New York to train Li for the tournament with help from Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) to enrich Li’s combat style with flourishes of the Miyagi school.
Karate Kid: Legends is a solid and satisfying underdog story.
Wang, Chan and co-stars confidently execute on-screen fisticuffs conceived by fight choreographer Xiangyang Xu as Lieber’s script flings romance, comedy and tragedy into the juicer.
Entwistle’s picture, made to a trusted recipe, goes down smoothly but we’ve tasted these flavours before.
THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND (UK 12A/ROI PG, 100 mins) ***
Released: May 30 (UK & Ireland)
Long-time comedy writing partners Tom Basden and Tim Key channel the warmth and wit of their real-life friendship in the quietly affecting comedy drama The Ballad Of Wallis Island.
Expanded from the duo’s award-winning 2007 short film, this crowd-pleasing tale of creative strife and deep-rooted regret directed by James Griffiths was filmed on location along the Welsh coastline.
Icelandic cinematographer G Magni Agustsson captures the raw, untamable beauty of locations that play a supporting role in the on-screen trouble and strife.
The humour in Basden and Key’s script is quintessentially British, leaning in heavily to puns, Dad jokes and intentional malapropisms to endear a chatterbox principal character who feels the need to fill the silence of a perfect sunset with his wittering.
His sudden excitement translates as an outburst of “Wowzers in your trousers” and when a visitor to the eponymous island tumbles into the sea and despairs they are drenched, the socially awkward protagonist cheerfully responds, “Yes, Dame Judi!”
Original songs composed by Basden as the back catalogue of a fictional folk rock duo are sincere in their heartfelt sweetness.
Key’s performance is the emotional linchpin and he is note-perfect shuffling through his character’s grief.
The script forcibly sidelines one point of the central love triangle to allow old wounds to heal, which feels contrived and at odds with the freewheeling, spontaneous spirit that washes over the rest of the picture.
Singer-songwriter Herb McGwyer (Basden), one half of disbanded double-act McGwyer Mortimer, desperately needs cash to complete a new solo album so he accepts a six-figure sum to play a private gig for unlikely millionaire Charles (Key) on Wallis Island.
Herb arrives alone and quickly deduces that the advertised audience of “less than 100” is in fact… just Charles.
The host’s wife Marie died five years ago and was a superfan of McGwyer Mortimer in their heyday so the low-key performance on the beach will be a nostalgic reminder of happier times for Charles.
Unbeknown to Herb, the widower has also invited his former bandmate Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) to the island with her husband Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen) in the hope of a musical reunion.
As Herb awkwardly navigates residual feelings for Nell, she encourages Charles to pursue his unspoken attraction to local shopkeeper Amanda (Sian Clifford) and invite her to the gig.
The Ballad Of Wallis Island is an appealing odd throuple comedy that mines humour and tears from our tendency to cling on to fanciful, rose-tinted memories of the past.
Basden’s gruffness contrasts pleasingly with Key’s childlike effervescence (“Kathmandu? More like Kathman-did!”) and Mulligan is a delightful foil for them both.
The simplicity of the set-up and its unfussy execution are in perfect harmony.
THE SALT PATH (UK 12A/ROI 12A, 115 mins) ***
Released: May 30 (UK & Ireland)
Life is a haphazard journey, interspersed with unexpected diversions.
For Raynor Winn and husband Moth, one of these detours was an impromptu trek along the 630-mile South West Coast Path after the couple became homeless.
The UK’s longest National Trail snakes around the English shoreline from Minehead to Poole.
The Winns’ long-distance odyssey inspired a best-selling memoir entitled The Salt Path in which Raynor reflects, “If we hadn’t done this there’d always have been things we wouldn’t have known, a part of ourselves we wouldn’t have found, resilience we didn’t know we had.”
Award-winning theatre director Marianne Elliott makes her feature film debut with screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s sure-footed adaptation of real-life events, casting Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as resilient spouses who entrust their fates to Mother Nature.
The two leads are convincingly weather-beaten as they relive moments in time along the picturesque route, including an amusing interlude with a well-to-do stranger (James Lance) and his family who mistake Moth for poet Simon Armitage and offer food and home comforts to a supposed celebrity.
You can feel Lenkiewicz’s script tugging firmly on heartstrings in more intimate moments as the couple stare enviously at holidaymakers tucking into a plated meal or huddle together for warmth inside their tent as rain lashes the fluttering canvas.
