| “ | Hey. Can I touch your hair? You gonna do something? Just stay away from us. All of us.
You're fast. Not fast enough. | „ |
| ~ Cheng to Dre |
Cheng (in Chinese: 陆伟程) is the central antagonist of the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid.
He was portrayed by the Chinese movie actor and martial arts expert Zhenwei Wang.
Biography
Cheng was born in 1998 in China and resides in Beijing, China. He started practicing martial arts at the Fighting Dragons dojo at a young age and rose up the ranks to a high ranking member of the dojo with a black belt, becoming an extremely skilled fighter. He is also friends with Liang, Song and Zhuang and became friends with them during his childhood. At some point before Dre moved to Beijing, China, Cheng met his love intrest Mei Ying and his family and his parents is closer to Mei Ying's. It also is implied that Cheng was bullying the neighborhood for quite some time with his friends before Dre moved in. Cheng is the counterpart of Johnny Lawrence in the original film: being the bully, wealthy, well-known, the top student of their martial arts dojo, the leader of their own gang of friends representing their dojo (though Cheng’s group numbers six, contrary to Johnny’s gang of five), and distressing and thrashing both films' main protagonists. He is a student of Master Li in the remake. He harasses Dre Parker (the remake's protagonist) for his interactions with both boys' love interest Mei Ying.
Throughout the film, Cheng continually harasses Dre and bullies him at school. When Dre beats him in the finals, he earns Cheng's respect both to him and to Mr. Han. Cheng then personally awards the trophy to Dre. After offering the trophy as an apology, and showing respect and friendship, Cheng and Dre part on good terms and Cheng and all of his friends are convinced by Mr. Han and Dre to cut ties with Li. They all become Mr Han's students and abandon Master Li, much to Li's dismay and anger.
Personality
In the beginning of the film, when Cheng first appears, he is seen to be quite rude, obnoxious, disrespectful, uncomplimentary, and vituperative, as he abruptly marches in without warning. He is shown to have a short fuse, especially when Dre keeps goading and provoking Cheng by constantly interfering in an argument between Cheng and Mei Ying by constantly retrieving and giving the music sheet, only for a frustrated Ceng to throw it away. As Cheng grows increasingly agitated, he pushed Dre over. Dre musters up some courage and challenges Cheng to a fight but in the fight at the park, Cheng overpowers Dre and viciously attacks him. Dre loses the fight and gets beaten up and bruised. Throughout the film, Cheng is seen to be arrogant, opprobrious, uncompromising, manipulative, and merciless to Dre, but is happy and friendly with his friends from the dojo. He behaves very violently, uncivilized, uncaring, cruel, and ruthless to Dre and is also very standoffish, hateful, mean, unfriendly, and sadistic. He consistently picks on Dre and loves to torment him, beating and bashing Dre and turning his life into a living hell, even when Dre minds his own business. He is also very contumacious and rebellious, resisting civilized authority. When Dre's principal stops Cheng from attacking Dre and reprimanding Cheng, he stops but this only makes him more frustrated and angry. However, when Cheng tries to be extremely loyal, fearless, and trustworthy to his love interest Mei Ying, she grows uninterested in him after Cheng beats up Dre and instead, she and Dre fall in love and become extremely close.
Surprisingly, Cheng and his friends are not purely malicious, unpleasant, cunning, evil, and pitiless at heart. As Mr. Han tells Dre, there are no bad students, only bad teachers. Instead, they are taught to be spiteful, nasty, unkind, loathsome, and unsympathetic towards their enemies by Master Li, their Kung Fu master. He even intimidates them and forces them to be mean, and be bloodthirsty savages. Their dojo, the Fighting Dragons run by Master Li, is crooked, dishonest, and fraudulent with the unforgiving and monstrous Li teaching his students a new form of child abuse: kids fighting and beating each other up. Cheng does not necessarily enjoy bullying people and he knows what he is doing is wrong but feels compelled and committed into doing it as he feels like he is turning his back or betraying his master by being nice and making peace to his enemy, since his Kung Fu coach taught him to be a monster. In the finals, Cheng is also initially fearful, horrified, pusillanimous, and reluctant to do such an illegal and brutal/deadly move (not only beat up Dre but also break his bones) but Master Li threatens and intimidates him into doing it anyway. After Cheng loses to Dre in the finals, he realizes that he was doing it all wrong. Cheng has a change of heart and shows friendship and respect to Dre by personally offering the trophy as a peace offering as well as an apology to say he was sorry for beating and bashing Dre. After congratulating Dre and offering him the trophy, Dre and Cheng part on good terms and Cheng allows Dre to win Mei Ying's heart.
Trivia
- Cheng served as The Heavy because he was Dre's arch-nemesis and drove the plot of the film, which makes Master Li the Big Bad and the one behind the plot.
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