(W5) Writing up movie review

Week 5 (24.10.13)

• All of us meet again at KAA at 5pm to proceed writing up movie review.
• we had write the review on Karate Kid and Fright Night based on the guide question provided.

KARATE KID

A Teacher He Never Expected. A Challenge He Never Imagined.

The Karate Kid literally "The Kung Fu Dream" is a 2010 American martial arts action drama film. The film was Directed by Harald Zwart and produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, the film stars Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. The 5 most important characters in the movie Karate Kid is Dre Parker, Mr. Han, Sherry Parker, Lu Wei Cheng and Master Li. The character Dre Parker is played by Jaden Smith, Mr.Han is by Jackie Chan, Sherry Parker is by Taraji P. Henson, Lu Wei Cheng is by Wang Zhen Wei and Master Li is by Yu Rong Guang.

Dre Parker is a young boy from Detroit, Michigan who is bullied by a kung fu student, and must learn to stand up to him. Mr. Han is the maintenance man who teaches Dre kung fu. Sherry Parker is Dre's mother who is very protective of Dre. Lu Wei Cheng is the main antagonist and student of Master Li. Master Li is a Kung Fu teacher who instructs his students to be merciless towards their enemies.

The plot concerns a 12-year-old boy from Detroit, Michigan who moves to Beijing, China with his mother due to his mother’s latest career move. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying - and the feeling is mutual - but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. Hence, he’s also runs afoul of the neighborhood bully. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han, who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu, the secrets of self-defence is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life.

Dre’s chance of coming China already change his life totally. He met Mr Han, teacher of Kungfu and philosophy of being better man. Having a good teacher really helps a lot in ones life. Beside, Dre also faces a challenge that he never think of before he going China. He is entering a Kungfu tournament where he never know anything about Kungfu. However, his willingness to learn has bring him towards successful. He never waste his chance of being changed in China.

The part which attracted our attention in the whole movie is when Han begins training Dre, but Dre is frustrated that Han merely has Dre spend hours taking off his jacket, hanging it up, dropping it, and then putting it back on again. After days of this, Dre refuses to continue. This made me think of teenagers nowadays will never really obey what the elder asked to do. Teenagers normally will think that they had grown up and is big enough for them to do things according to their opinion and thinking. Actually there is always a strong reason why elder people asked us to do something which we thought is nonscene. As in the case of movie, Han asked Dre to practice with his jacket is to show him the repetitive arm movements in question were Han's method of teaching Dre defensive block and strike techniques, which Dre is now able to display instinctively when prompted by Han's mock attacks. Han emphasizes that the movements Dre is learning apply to life in general, and that serenity and maturity, not punches and power, are the true keys to mastering the martial arts.

                Another interesting part in the movie is during one lesson in the Wudang Mountains, Dre notices a female kung fu practitioner (played by Michelle Yeoh) apparently copying the movements of a cobra before her, but Han informs him that it was the cobra that was imitating the woman, as in a mirror reflection. Dre wants Han to teach him this technique, which includes linking Han's hand and feet to Dre's via bamboo shafts while practicing their forms. This scene made me amaze of the powerful level of Kungfu. The female kungfu practitioner is so concentrate and focus on the energy flow inside her body until she succesfully influence the surroundding. This can be seen clearly when her movements can be followed by a snake.

                The most exciting scene in this movie is definately the scene wher Dre is in the tournament with Cheng. At the tournament, the under-confident Dre is slow to achieve parity with his opponents, but soon begins to beat them, and advances to the semifinals, as does Cheng, who violently finishes off his opponents. Dre eventually comes up against Liang, another of Master Li's students, who is instructed by Master Li to break Dre's leg. When Liang insists that he can beat Dre, Master Li sternly tells him that he doesn't want him beaten, but broken. During the match, Liang delivers a devastating kick to Dre's leg, along with a series of brutal follow-up punches. Although Liang is disqualified for his illegal strikes, Dre is incapacitated, which would allow Cheng to win by default.

                After watching this scene,we were really curious why there are this kind of people like Master Li, who teaches his students to win in such a violent and cheating ways. Besides did not show a good model as a teacher, he also did not practise the main purpose of kungfu. We felt that Liang actually is not a negative boy as at first he also has the heart and mind to win Dre fairly. However, he is being influence by his teacher to win the tournament by cheating. If he has a right teacher, he will be in the right path and can understand more about the real kungfu.

The part which touches me is when Dre is badly injured, he still insists of getting on the stage to continue his match with Cheng. Despite Han's insistence that he has earned respect for his performance in the tournament, Dre convinces Han to use his fire cupping technique to mend his leg, in order to see the tournament to the end. When Han asked Dre the reason of getting up on stage again, Dre answered, “Because I'm still scared. And no matter what happens, tonight, when I leave, I don't want to be scared anymore.” Through this sentence, we can see clearly Dre detemination. He has grown up to a better man which make his mother, his teacher and even himself proud of him. He has change his attitude of living espeacialy towards people and totally transform to another personality. Han not only did well in being Dre Kungfu’s teacher and also teacher of life as he teaches Dre Kungfu and ways to be a better man.

Hence, Dre returns to the arena, where he confronts Cheng. Dre delivers impressive blows, but Cheng counters with a debilitating strike to Dre's already injured leg. Dre struggles to get up, and adopts the one-legged form he first learned from the woman on the mountain, attempting to use the reflection technique to manipulate Cheng's movements. Cheng charges Dre, but Dre flips, and catches Cheng with a kick to his head, winning the tournament, along with the respect of Cheng and his classmates, both for himself and Mr. Han.

Through this movie, we have learned a lot. A person has to stay strong in whatever situation. Never give up easily, stay strong and keep doing it until success. A person also have to suit himself  into new environment and community. Not everyone in this world will follow your way of living but you have to suit urself their way of living. This is the rule of living.

FRIGHT NIGHT

DURING THE MOVIE.

1  1) Who are the 5 important characters in the film? List out the names of the actors playing them.

   ž Anton Yel Chin as Charley Brewster

          ž Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Ed Lee

          ž Colin Farrel as Jerry Dandrige

          ž Imogen Poots as Amy Peterson

          ž David Tennant as Peter Vincent

2   2)      What is the story about?

            The story was about Charley, a teenager who lived in Las Vegas. He discovers that a new neighbor  had moved to the next door to him who names Jerry. His friend, Ed Lee, claims that Adam’s family (their classmate) missing is related with Jerry, the vampire. At the beginning, Charley did not believe to Ed’s accuse until one day, he found that Ed was disappeared. He came to Ed’s house and found an evidence showed that Jerry was a vampire. After that, Jerry started to hunt Charley’s mum and his girlfriend, Amy because Charley know about Jerry’s secret. Charley’s mom was hospitalized due to Jerry’s attack.

            Amy and Charley were attacked by Jerry and Ed when they nearly arrived at Peter’s penthouse. Ed was killed by Charley, and then Amy was kidnapped and turned into vampire by Jerry. In the desperate situation, Charley asked for help from Peter Vincent, the expert on vampire.  At the moment, Peter refuse to help him, but then he gives Charley a stake blessed by Saint Michael that will kill Jerry and turn all of his victims back into human form.

            Charley goes to Jerry’s house where Peter decides to join him after all. Lastly, Charley manage to stake in Jerry’s heart and returning his victims to their human form.

3    3)      What group of people would like to watch this film?

Most of people that would like to watch this film are probably among teenager. This is because the film is more like sci-fi genre that make young people especially teenager attracted to watch the film.  Furthermore, the film is not suitable for age under 13 because there are violence scene in the film.

  AFTER  THE MOVIE.

1    4)      Do you like the movie? Why or why not?

Yes I like the movie because Charley is a responsible person who willing to risk his life to protect the people he loved.

2    5)      What rating would you give for this movie?

I will rate this movie 8/10.

3     6)      What spoilers would ruin this movie if you told your readers about it?

The spoilers that would ruin this movie is when I told about that there is a way to defeat Jerry by stab him with stake blessed given by Saint Michael .

4     7)      All movies teach a lesson ( theme or moral ). What did you learn from this movie?

From the movie that I have watch it teaches me to be brave to face the upcoming challenge in  my  life. Furthermore, it also teach me how to be responsible. I learn this when Charley try his best to save the person that he loved.