Master Li is the main antagonist from the 2010 remake of the 1984 film The Karate Kid, as well as the alternate ending of said film. He is a Kung Fu teacher, who teaches his students to be merciless, and is the Master of Fighting Dragons studio. He is the Chinese counterpart of John Kreese, the main antagonist of the original Karate Kid trilogy.
He was portrayed by Yu Rongguang like in the final project.
Biography[]
The Karate Kid (2010)[]
Alternate ending[]
In the alternate ending, which was filmed, right after Dre's victory and after Cheng gives Dre his well deserved prize as a sign of respect towards him, as all people celebrate Dre for his performance, Li angrily stares at Cheng for his failure in front of the other students and raises his hand, ready to beat him as punishment. However, Mr. Han stops Li from hitting the boy, leading Li to engage Han in a violent fight, leading the audience to turn back and see their fight along with Dre, who fruitlessly tries to convince his master to stop it.
At one point, Li takes some benches and throws them at Han, who uses one of them to disarm Li and force him to the floor, but lets him go at the insistence of Li's students. However, Li doesn't accept defeat and turns back to kick Han, resuming his fight with him. Nevertheless, Han manages to knock Li down and holds him with the intentions of giving him no mercy just like he tells his students to do. However, Dre reaches them and convinces Han to not do it and just leave Li there as he isn't worth of it. With Li defeated, all the audience applaud at Han and Li's students show their respect for him. As Sherry and Meiying leave with Han and Dre to celebrate, Sherry stops for a moment and punches Li in the face for inciting his students to bully her son, leaving Li defeated and humiliated.
However, through unknown circumstances, this ending was removed from the finished film, which ends with Dre's victory, apparently because the fight sequence between Li and Han would have taken too much focus away from Dre's victory.
Trivia[]
- The alternate ending featuring Li and Han fighting right after Dre's victory might be a reference to the fight between John Kreese and Mr. Miyagi at the beginning of The Karate Kid Part II. Interestingly, such opening sequence was originally scripted for the ending of the original Karate Kid film, but was scrapped and filmed instead for the second film.
- The removal of the alternate ending featuring Li and Mr. Han fighting created a continuity error at the end of the film. Li is seen astounded when Cheng and his students bow to Mr. Han in respect, but when Dre and Mr. Han leave the tournament to celebrate, Li is seen on the floor without explanation.
- It has been recently announced that Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan are working on a new Karate Kid film that will crossover the original "Miyagi-verse" films with the 2010 remake, thus serving as a sequel of some sorts to the latter, so it's currently unknown if Li will return or not.