The Karate Kid - Analysis

Titles

The film opens with a title card indicating the rough location and time of the film. The title card reads “Newark, New Jersey September”. Over the remaining of the opening, the production companies names are placed over the opening shots, which eventually resolves to the main title of the film. Over the next few minutes of the film, actor names and other names are overlayed on screen.

Music

The music starts with an orchestral instrumentation that continues throughout the opening scenes of the film. The music is quite upbeat yet relaxing, with differing dynamics and instrumentation to reflect the camera shot on screen. I would say that the music for this opening challenges the codes of this genre as you would most likely expect something much more rock-styled than orchestral for an action film.

Shots/Mise en scene/Character

An orchestral instrumentation begins behind the entire opening. After a few seconds on screen, the title fades to black, and then fades back in to several wide and medium shots of what appears to be the docks of Newark city and the surrounding scenery. The time is day and the weather is clear and sunny. The shots gradually change to become closer to the centre of the city, and eventually ends up with a shot of an urban street and pans down onto a shot of a car leaving it’s parking space with several children saying goodbye to whoever is inside. The camera follows the car as it makes its way down the street with the children running alongside. The camera zooms out to a wide shot of the street and the film title is put on screen. As the names of the actors are shown on screen the camera zooms out further to get a shot of the surrounding scenery of the city.

The camera slowly fades to a medium shot following the car going along the highway and we get a better look at the occupants of the car. We can make out two figures in the car, and from the dialogue we know that it is a woman and a boy, specifically a mother and son. The two characters exchange a few lines in the car. The mother starts singing a song about California, indicating their destination, when she is cut short by her son and she complains to him, asking him, “What’s wrong? Don’t you like my singing?”. The boy is clearly unenthusiastic about going to California and his mother offers words of encouragement telling him “You’re going to love California.” and telling him of the swimming pool that she is clearly excited for. The son still seems unconvinced, however the mother tells him that “This isn’t exactly a dump we’re moving to, y’know.”. From this we can gather the motive of their journey, that they are moving to California from New Jersey.

The shot fades out and what follows is a collection of various shots, presumably they are the sights on the journey to California. The shots fade to transition between each shot. The first shot is a shot of the setting, orangey sun from between two cacti, with more desert imagery in the background and one road running through it. We see the car travelling on this road and the camera moves to follow the car, and we can see some mountains in the background and the lens flare of the sun. As the car disappears behind various plants, the camera stops and stays on a long shot of the desert and gradually fades to a day time shot of the car going along a road and it gradually zooms out and pans over and eventually the car is removed from the road to get a shot of some natural rock formations in the background and a large desert. The shot fades to another wide shot of more scenery and it slowly pans down to a shot of Canyon Portal Motel where we can only assume that the two characters stayed overnight. The camera continues to pan down to the two push starting the car onto the main road. The pair eventually get the motor running and jump into the car and continue on their journey. The shot fades to yet another medium shot of the car on the road. The camera slowly pans down and the car gradually drives out of frame, just as the shot fades to a medium shot of some palm trees, which then zooms out to show the front of their new home. The camera stays still to allow the car to pull up just outside the complex. This cuts to a close shot of the two in the car. The mother gets out of the car and leaves the son, Daniel, in the car. The camera zooms in slightly to keep the window out of frame. Daniel sits there for a few seconds and then gets out of the car. The camera follows him from the other side of the car as he gets up and begins to take his bike off of the roof of the car. The camera then switches to Daniel’s side of the car and follows him with a medium shot to the door of the apartment complex.

General Analysis

I think that the target audience for this film would be teenagers and up. It would be especially appealing to anyone who already has knowledge of karate, as well as anyone who enjoys watching a character grow and progress.

Daniel has been portrayed as a relatively lonely kid, just moving to a new town without many friends. Perhaps he is seen by the others in the school as the weird kid. He is a social character and manages to make a few friends within his apartment complex and with Ali in school, however it is certain to say that Mr. Miyagi is Daniel’s closest friend throughout the film. This may relate to everyone in the target audience, but more likely to relate to the younger ones in the audience who may feel a bit like Daniel did towards the start of the film, but he overcomes his challenges and defeats his enemies.

The film was distributed by a known film publisher, Columbia Pictures Inc,.

Overall, I would say that this opening would challenge the main codes and conventions of the action genre. The opening is quite slow and well paced, with calming music and large scenic shots to take in the landscape of their journey. I think that they have used this long opening to reflect the long journey that Daniel had to undertake going from one side of the U.S. to another.