| Director | Harald Zwart, John G. Avildsen |
|---|---|
| Genre | children's film, comedy drama, drama film, martial arts film, sport film |
| Runtime | 140 min |
| Country | People's Republic of China, United States |
| Budget | $40 million |
| Box office | $359.1 million |
12-year-old Dre Parker and his widowed mother Sherry move from Detroit to Beijing after she gets a job transfer at a car factory. Dre meets young violinist Meiying, and immediately becomes infatuated with her. However, Cheng, a rebellious 14-year-old kung fu prodigy whose family is close to Meiying's, keeps them apart by constantly attacking, teasing, and antagonizing Dre. After a field trip to the Forbidden City, Dre throws a bucket of dirty water over Cheng and his gang as revenge for Cheng's rebellious behavior towards him, causing them to chase and brutally beat Dre. Maintenance man Mr. Han intervenes and fends off the bullies, revealing himself to be a kung fu master.
Han heals Dre's injuries using the Chinese medicine methods of fire cupping. He explains that Cheng and his friends are not inherently bad, but are taught to be merciless by their teacher Master Li. Dre asks Han to teach him kung fu, and Han accompanies him to Li's Fighting Dragons studio to make peace. Li rebuffs the peace offer and Han teaches Dre kung fu by emphasizing movements that apply to life in general. Serenity and maturity, not punches and power, are the keys to mastering kung fu. He has Dre repeatedly take off and pick up his jacket to develop muscle memory. Han takes him to a Taoist temple where Dre drinks the water from a Taoist well and witnesses a woman make a cobra reflect her movements. After weeks of training, Han gives Dre a day off. Dre persuades Meiying to skip school with him. After Meiying's parents find out, they deem Dre a bad influence and forbid Meiying from seeing him again.
Dre finds Han drunk and depressed, smashing a Volkswagen Scirocco he was working on. He explains that he crashed it years ago, killing his wife and his 10-year-old son. To punish himself, he spends a year fixing the car, then destroys it again on every anniversary of the accident. Dre resolves to train harder and help his teacher overcome his trauma. Han helps Dre write and recite an apology in Mandarin to Meiying's father. Meiying's father accepts Dre's apology and in return lets Meiying attend Dre's tournament as promised earlier on.
At the tournament, the initially unconfident Dre starts defeating his opponents. Li orders his student Liang to injure Dre in the semifinals. Liang reluctantly does so by delivering crippling blows to Dre's leg. He is disqualified and Dre advances to the finals against Cheng. Dre pleads with Han to heal his leg with the fire cupping method. Realizing this is more about overcoming Dre's fear than anything else, Han complies.
As the final match starts, on Li's orders, Cheng attacks Dre's injured leg, causing Dre to lose balance, but he manages to get up and uses the snake stance he saw at the temple. Dre defeats Cheng with a strong kick to the head, earning the respect of Cheng and his classmates. Cheng, instead of the presenter, presents Dre with the champion's trophy, and the Fighting Dragon students bow to Han out of respect for him as a real kung fu master, leaving Li outraged and defeated.