The Karate Kid/Headscratchers


 * In regards to the remake, who moves to China to get a better life?
 * Well, with China becoming the rising dragon of economic prosperity, perhaps there is good hopes for a new life. On another in movie note, several outside source materials depict this as a job transfer, so with their livelihood at stake, they had to move in order to keep and perhaps further develop their "better life".
 * China's economic power is a bubble caused by them intentionally inflating their currency to near-worthless levels in order to keep their populace poor and oppressed. Living conditions in China are sharply contrasted with that of the United States.
 * Americans who already have a job with a company based in China. In such cases the company will generally pay your rent and various other expenses, and money goes a lot farther in China than it does in America... someone on what an American would consider a fairly meager salary can afford to live a very upper class lifestyle there. However, that's only if you've been specifically scouted by one of these companies and have a job waiting for you... just moving to China and hoping you'll get a job is probably one of the absolute dumbest things you could do.
 * Really? More people have a problem with whether Johnny's "the bad guy" than whether or not you can defend yourself against a formidable and experienced opponent after four days of chores? I don't know anything about karate, and this is one of my favorite movies, but I've always felt that I'm suspending quite a bit of disbelief to believe that Daniel can deflect all of Miyagi's volley of blows after house-painting day, even if Miyagi is in Training Mode.
 * The film happens over a series of weeks, not days. The first few days of Daniel's training is chores but once that's done Miyagi does start earnestly training him in martial arts.
 * It takes place over the course of several months, although the timeframe of the chore part specifically is unclear. It really would take only a few days, though, for him to unknowingly get so much into the habit of performing those moves that they've become utterly second nature to him, which is the entire point of the scenes.
 * Specifically two months. Miyagi specifically says he will prepare Daniel for a tournament in two months when he confronts the jerk teacher at his dojo. Daniel probably spends at least a week doing chores to teach him the basics of defense before Miyagi moves to teaching him in earnest. And that's basically all he focuses on... he intensely coaches Daniel on his defense and only teaches him a few strikes and when to use them. Considering that the guys he's fighting are focused on attack and pitting strength against strength, it's not a bad strategy or an unreasonable one to expect to work.
 * In the tournament in the remake, when Cheng tried to attack his opponent and refused to let go of holds after winning, why didn't he get disqualified? I'm pretty sure that's against the rules of a normal kung fu tournament. Also, if Cheng was exempted from normal rules, why did his teammate get disqualified for the same thing? At least they could have been consistent and ignored what was going on flat out instead of being selective of who and who not to crack down on.
 * In the original (and I may be remembering this incorrectly), wasn't it against the rules to kick someone in the face? If so, how did Daniel win by kicking Johnny in the face?
 * Foot probably connected with the chest first or something.
 * Actually rewatching it, the face is apparently not off-limits. Daniel's girlfriend explains to him as he's getting ready for his first match that the tournament apparently works on an "anything above the belt" points system. Which is why the leg attack that injured Daniel got Bobby disqualified.