Tag: star pupil

Karate Kid
Legends

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 29 May 2025
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Legends
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Director – Jonathan Entwhistle – 2025 – US – Cert. 12a – 94m

*****

Latest franchise entry plays by all the rules that you would expect, yet somehow manages to completely break the mould and come up with something fresh and original – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, May 28th

All a Karate Kid movie has to do is put a boy in peril from a bully or similar, then have him schooled in martial arts by a trainer to discover his inner strength and ultimately overcome the bully in combat. This is facilitated by a fight competition at the end, in which the two come face to face with one another. While the original The Karate Kid (John G. Avildsen, 1984) clearly struck enough of a chord to spawn more films, some entries, such as The Karate Kid Part III (John G. Avildsen, 1989), have felt worn, tired and clichéd.

That changed with the genuinely brilliant idea of introducing Hong Kong’s clown prince of kung fu Jackie Chan as the trainer in the two decades later remake The Karate Kid (Harold Zwart, 2010), which breathed new life into the big screen franchise (there have also been live action and animated spin-offs made for television).… Read the rest

Tags about to kiss, Aramis Knight, Ben Wang, bereavement, Big Apple, boxing, bruised eye make-up, bull, cameo., champion boxer, combat, competition, cram for exams, debt, exploring, failure, fathers and daughters, fight competition, Five Boroughs, former boyfriend, franchise, from whom he had learned the rudiments of kung fu. Doctor, girlfriend, guilt, Hong Kong, hospital, inner strength, interrupted kiss, Jackie Chan, Japan, Jonathan Entwhistle, Karate Kid: Legends, karate school, kiss, knockabout, kung fu, kung fu school, martial arts, martial arts training, memory, Ming-Na Wen, moneylenders, mothers and sons, New York, Okinawa, older brother’s death, overcome the bully, personal tutor, physical comedy, pigeons, pizza parlour, prize money, Ralph Macchio, remake, romance, rooftop training space, Sadie Stanley, star pupil, store owner Joshua Jackson, teabag, teenage romance, teenager, torment, tournament, trainer, US, violence, Wyatt Oleff

Features Live Action Movies

If Only I Could Hibernate
(Baavgai Bolohson)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 18 April 2024
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(Baavgai Bolohson)
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Director – Zoljargal Purevdash – 2023 – Mongolia, France, Switzerland, Qatar – Cert. 12a– 96m

****

A gifted Mongolian boy is torn between providing for his siblings and pursuing his studies – out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 19th

Teenager Ulzii (Battsooj Uurtsaikh) lives with his mum and his three younger siblings in the yurt district of Ulaanbaataar, Mongolia’s capital city, their father having long since disappeared. Mum (Ganchimeg Sandagdorj) is illiterate and struggles to find work, and there is much antagonism between her and Ulzii, who is going through the school system his mother never experienced and took money from his summer job to buy sneakers before giving the remainder to his mum, who needs it to buy coal for their yurt’s stove to keep the family warm in severe, subzero wintry conditions. Sometimes it’s all too much for their mum, who often gets drunk at night.

In class, Ulzii is the star pupil at physics, often completing complex equations using solutions his teacher wouldn’t expect from anyone less than two years older. His teacher (Batzorig Sukhbaatar), finding a prodigy on his hands, starts to coach him to do well in the National exams in order to win a free university scholarship to study physics, which the boy wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.… Read the rest

Tags alcoholism, Battsooj Uurtsaikh, Batzorig Sukhbaatar, bunk off school, capital city, chop up wood, city and countryside, coach, coaching, coal, complex equations, cut down trees, Davaasamba Sharaw, dependents, drinking, drunk, earning money, eldest child, exams, family, fuel, Ganchimeg Sandagdorj, gifted, heating, illegal job, illiterate, logger, Mongolia, mothers and children, National exams, Nominjiguur Tsend, physics, play truant, pregnant, prejudice, prodigy, pull out of the school, responsibility, scholarship, school, school system, schoolboy, seeking work, siblings, sneakers, star pupil, student, subzero, summer job, teacher, teaching, teenager, Tuguldur Batsaikhan, Ulaanbaataar, unemployment, university, university scholarship, Winter, yurt, yurt district, yurt’s stove, Zoljargal Purevdash

Features Live Action Movies

Great Sertão
(Grande Sertão)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 10 November 2023
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(Grande Sertão)
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Director – Guel Arraes – 2023 – Brazil – Cert. none – 114m

*****

The constantly shifting relationship between a man and his friend constantly shifts against the backdrop of a war between a street gang protecting their turf and an army trying to impose law and order – premieres in the Critics’ Picks Competition at the 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Riobaldo (Caio Blat) tells his story. As a young boy in the urban jungle of Brazil’s Sertao, he bonds with fearless kid his own age Diadorim, who shows him how to scale brutalist towers and scare off predatory adults with an effective flick of the knife.

By the time Riobaldo has grown up to become a teacher, this concrete sprawl has become the battleground for a struggle between a gang led by local, criminal warlord Joca Ramiro (Rodrigo Lombardi) and forces under the command of Colonel Zé Bebelo (Luis Miranda) determined to restore law and order to the country. They may trade in violence, but both leaders are honourable men.

Not so one of Joca’s lieutenants Hermógenes (played with great relish by the ingratiating Eduardo Sterblitch), a seemingly unstoppable force of nature who has sold his soul to the devil to advance his own ends.… Read the rest