Karate Kid: Legends: So simple it's touching (**)

The redundant celebration of the 80s we're currently living in can only mean two things: that those in charge now are the teenagers of that time, and that we're doing badly. Looking back, just a few decades into the past, there are so many things to recriminate. The trend toward equality and redistribution that had guided developed economies after World War II was broken (Piketty dixit ); synthesizers (like today's Auto-Tune) filled pop music with embarrassing noises, and American cinema furiously embraced the High Concept scheme, which basically gave shape to Top Gun, Rocky , or, indeed, our Karate Kid and his crane kick. The pattern was always the same: the theme, plot, or purpose was announced in the first act and, without further explanation, the proposed dilemma was resolved through a challenge in the following two, which was, in reality, a single act with the coda of a very frenetic (and memorable) final sequence. Goodbye to any complex narrative endeavor.

Let's just say Karate Kid: Legends is still here. After the success of the Cobra Kai series, of which the film directed by Jonathan Entwistle is something (I'm not clear on what), it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. And what's happening? Exactly what you're thinking. In reality, the person who most closely relates this new entry in the Miyagi family (may he rest in peace) is the confusing 2010 sequel. The school run by Jackie Chan as successor to the throne is still operating in China, and one of its students, for reasons that are both mysterious and poorly explained, moves to the United States. There (or here, in the film's own terminology), he'll have to deal with the abusive guy who can either slap you while raising your tariffs or slap you while raising your tariffs. Anything to humiliate him. And, of course, to resist, we have, indeed, Ralph Macchio, whose real name is Daniel Larusso. Or the other way around. By the way, what if we asked Ursula von der Leyen to talk to Macchio? It's just a thought.

The film—we have to admit it—spreads across the screen like an exhalation or a sigh, whichever you prefer. Furthermore, Ben Wang, its new lead, not only displays charisma but also recalls Data and Plug; that is, the characters played by Ke Huy Quan in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in yet another unintended homage to the '80s. Incidentally, it's taken 40 years for the hero of all this to be Asian for the first time, which is a homage, somewhere between idiotic and merely obvious (did someone say racist?), to precisely everything Asian. And, if that weren't enough to make us feel guilty, the fight scene is so idiotic, or just surreal, that we have no choice but to surrender. More than a film, in fact, Karate Kid: Legends can be understood as a ritual, a celebratory Eucharist for those '80s that have done so much harm to us.

Absolutely, everything is so simple, repetitive, lacking in new ideas, and so karate-kid- like that it's endearing. And yes, despite everything, he beats us. On points, in the last breath, and because it's impossible to say no to Jackie Chan, but he wins.

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Director : Jonathan Entwistle. Starring : Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson. Running time : 94 minutes. Nationality : United States.