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Character Name: Dre Parker

Canon: The Karate Kid (2010)

Point taken from canon: After the final match, when he has won the tournament. 

Age: 12


Gender: Male


Preferred Village: Kusasato



Appearance: Dre is a young African American boy with lighter skin, big brown eyes, and soft childish features. He is small for his age, extremely slim, but extremely athletic. With cornrows that come down to the back of his neck and a baby face, he definitely doesn’t look like the fierce warrior type at all. However, after all his training with Mr. Han he has developed strong muscular yet thin arms and as much of a six pack as a twelve year old can get. However, like any growing teenage boy he is lanky in the arms and legs.

As he is a young boy, he is thus prone to a variety of facial expressions, yet most of the time he tries to maintain a tougher or disconnected countenance because he wants to dissuade anyone from believing he needs help with his problems. He often looks pensive or serious when he is training, though Mr. Han repeatedly tells him “no face” because sometimes the expressions look silly. 

Ye none of this removes the fact that he is often smiling or laughing like a normal twelve year old. He doesn’t, however, like to let anyone see him cry, though he does allow Mr. Han to see him do it once.

Though usually Dre would be wearing his striped jacket, sleeveless shirt and running pants combo or his orange school uniform, the point from which I am taking him would mean he would be wearing his white kung fu tunic and black uniform pants that were given to him by Mr. Han as a gift before the tournament started.


Background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_Kid_%282010%29

In addition to the information provided by Wikipedia, I would like to add that we do find out that Dre’s father died in 2009 but we are never given an explanation of how or why as the event does not have an effect on the story of the film.

Personality: Dre is an adolescent boy who is given to many emotional swings. Having been dragged halfway around the world and transplanted into an entirely different culture with no other option he has come to often react defensively to his surroundings. He often feels scared because of the threats of the bullies at school and finds himself clashing with the initial rigidness of the Chinese culture. But even despite all his confusion and fear, Dre hates asking for help. He hates feeling weak and this is part of the reason why he seeks out a teacher to train him so that he can stand up for himself.

Aside from his need to defend himself and be independent, Dre is a fun-loving kid who loves to dance, play basketball, skateboard, and watch cartoons though he has recently become frustrated to find that the cartoons in China are in Mandarin, a language he has yet to learn despite his mother’s best efforts. This also means that he’s the type of kid who leaves his clothes on the floor, fights with his mother, and throws tantrums when he can’t keep his emotions in anymore.

At first Dre had no interest in learning about China, whether it be understanding the culture or learning the language. Instead, his interest in it really only seems to kick in when he meets Mei Ying and wants to impress her, and after he starts his training with Mr. Han. Then he realizes the beauty and the values of the place he has been brought to. He realizes he has to stop fighting China and let himself become a part of it. It’s not a matter of survival, but balance.

Through the course of the story we learn that Dre doesn’t have many friends, especially not in China, and although he had been close to people back in Detroit, he admits to Mr. Han before the big tournament that he was the best friend that Dre has ever had. Because of this Dre hangs on desperately to the friends he does have, Mr. Han and Mei Ying, and goes through waves of emotions with them, culminating in the scene where Mr. Han reveals his past and Dre sheds tears beside him, sharing his pain. This is the first time Dre has let anyone see him cry other than his mom and it’s a big step for him to become that open with anyone.

When Dre makes a promise, he will do anything to keep it, and when Dre sets a goal he is always determined to give it everything he’s got to make it. This is why in the final fight he decides to fight through his injuries because that’s what he has decided he needs to do. In order to not be scared anymore he needs to see things through to the end.

Abilities/Strengths: Physically Dre is of an athletic build, especially after all his training. Thus his greatest physical strength and ability come from the kung fu he has been taught by Mr. Han. He becomes extremely gifted with this, as in the end he does win the tournament, but this does not mean that he doesn’t still have training to go through. As Mr. Han says, kung fu “takes a lifetime.”

Mentally Dre’s greatest strengths are his endurance and determination. Dre gets knocked down and beaten up a lot, and whilst at first he tried to just hide from his problems, he has developed a new determination to stand and fight no matter how many times he has to get back up. This is something he had to learn, and the process through which he learned it is the source of most of his strengths. His new sense of acceptance and peace with living in China and his newfound respect for others that starts moving him away from his initial adolescent selfishness.

In the end one can really say that his strength is his budding maturity that, whilst it still has several bumps in the road, has grown a great deal and has better equipped him for dealing with what is thrown his way.

And just for fun, Dre is a very talented dancer though not much can be said about his basketball skills.

Weaknesses: As a preteen boy Dre has all the weaknesses of a preteen boy. He overreacts, he gets emotional, he refuses to ask for help, and he’s small in size.

Initially all Dre did was hide from his problems and he never spoke up for himself. He let others push him around, make his decisions, and that is only now changing with Mr. Han as his teacher but in the end Dre is still a little scared of what he doesn’t know or understand about China and about people.

He also is prone to moments of bad judgement, deciding to run or slack off at the inappropriate time and this can often get other people into trouble.

“Because I am still scared. When I walk out of here tonight I don’t want to be scared anymore,” –Dre to Mr. Han about why he has to finish the fight.

“Oh I get it, it’s like the force…. You’re yoda and I’m like a Jedi” – Dre to Mr. Han about his understanding of the Chinese concept of “chi”

Mother: “Just tell me what happened! …Please Dre, let me help you.” Dre: “We moved to China! That’s what happened!”  - When his mother confronts him about why he’s so upset

“You weren’t looking close enough, Shao Dre, the lady was not following the snake, the snake was following the lady. Like calm water the snake reflects her”- Mr. Han to Dre about the importance of peace and observation

“I have brought dishonor to your family […] But, if you give me a second chance, I promise to be the best friend to your daughter that I can be” – Dre speaking to Mei Ying’s father about why he deserves a second chance to be her friend

“Look, I get it Mr. Han! I shouldn’t have treated my mother that way! I get it!”- Dre when he gets frustrated about having to redo hanging up his jacket for days on end and misunderstanding why Mr. Han was having him do it.

“Kung Fu lives in the way we take off a jacket, in the way we put on a jacket. Kung fu lives in the way we treat people. Everything… is kung fu”- Mr. Han teaching Dre.

“Your focus needs more focus” – Mr. Han to Dre

Dre :“Mr Han… how do you say water in Chinese?”  Mr. Han: “Shui”  Dre: “Mr Han… I need some shui.”

Mr. Han “Good news, bad news. Good news is they’ll leave you alone.” Dre: “…okay…” Mr. Han “Bad news is you’ll have to fight them at the tournament.” Dre : “wait…. Are you telling me the good news is they’ll leave me alone but the bad news is that now they get to kick my ass in public?” Mr. Han “yes.” Dre “Thanks a lot.”

Other: N/A

[ The screen is dark, tucked away in a dark pocket but a voice can be heard]

Okay… this definitely doesn’t look like China.

Mr. Han? Mr. Han?!

Aw man. This is not funny.

[Only when he steps forward does he realize that there is a new weight in his pocket.]

What the…is this a cell phone? [He brings the hitomi up to his face and holds it steady. He turns it around in his palm to see if there is a name, or some indicator as to who owns it.

Nothing]

Mr. Han! I think you left your cell phone in my pocket!

MR. HAN!

[With a sigh and the sagging of his shoulders he finally gives up. He tries poking around with the device.]

How do you find the apps on this thing? Are cell phones different in China?

[After a good deal more poking he’s managed to pull up the map and close it again but none of it makes sense]

Man… where am I? This map doesn’t help… where am I on this thing?

Wait… Is this a dream?

…I don’t think they gave me any drugs for my leg… but maybe I fell asleep…

[Still nothing from the device. Finally he throws it down in frustration]

This sucks!

Dre dug his fingers into the dirt then flicked little clods of it into the grass. Then once they had disappeared into the green he started over again. He was bored. He was tired. He was hungry. And he was dying to find anything familiar. For the hundredth time he scanned the skyline but nothing. No skyscrapers punching into the sky like needles and no people so far as he had seen. No Mom, no Mr. Han, no Mei Ying, and no Cheng. Well… that last thing was good at least. Getting his ass kicked was the last thing he wanted to worry about at the moment. Still, what he wouldn’t give for some clue of what to do.

This definitely wasn’t China. Well, actually he couldn’t even be sure it wasn’t China. He had only ever seen Beijing and the Kung fu temple that Mr. Han had taken him to and everything in between that the train had passed through. So he in all fairness he could  still be in China but that knowledge really didn’t help. It still meant that he knew nothing. He was weak once again. What else was new?

Though its not like he had moved. He hadn’t done anything yet. Just sitting there he could hear Mr. Han’s voice in his head “there is a great difference between being still and doing nothing, Shao Dre.”

“Yeah, I get that, but what am I supposed to do?!” he mumbled to himself before instantly grimacing. Great. Now he was talking to himself. “Come on, Mister Han. Is this some kind of lesson?” He spoke to the air. And the dirt. And everything Mr. Han had told him was important for balance but also everything that was of no help to him right now.

Finally he tugged himself up. He had to do something and the only choice he seemed to have was to go exploring. I mean hey, maybe this was some sort of lesson, though it would certainly be far more elaborate than the hung up sheets, the wooden poles, and all the other more simple and rustic tricks that Mr. Han usually had up his sleeve. Either that or maybe it was just some dream and if he kept walking he’d find the end of it soon enough.