The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid wasn’t a particularly big box-office hit when it was released in 1984. But the film, in which the geeky 16-year-old karate student Daniel LaRusso (played by fresh-faced Ralph Macchio) is taught to deal with a high school bully by a wise old Japanese handyman named Mr Miyagi (played by Pat Morita), grew in popularity as VHS recorders took off, and by 1988 there can’t have been a single child in the Western world who wasn’t familiar with the phrase “Wax on, wax off”, or hadn’t had their shins shattered by a “friend” attempting to re-enact the “sweep the leg” karate move at the end of the film.

For many thirtysomethings the movie is as essential a childhood memory as BMX bikes, Duran Duran and teachers making them do cross-country runs in underpants. And hearing that it is being remade for a new generation, with Will Smith as a producer, his son Jaden Smith in the title role and Jackie Chan playing “enigmatic maintenance man Mr Han”, is the celluloid equivalent of hearing that your father has had a sex change and is eloping with Peter Stringfellow.

Indeed, given the significance of the film to my youth, nothing, short of the BP oil spill, the remake of The A-Team and the news that Russell Brand is pointlessly reprising Dudley Moore’s role in Arthur, has filled me with more dismay this summer…

Read atThe Times