Enredo

Work causes a single mother to move to China with her young son; in his new home, the 12-year-old boy embraces Kung Fu, taught to him by a master.

12-year-old Dre Parker has moved to China, and finds himself like a fish out of water. He befriends a fellow classmate, Mei Ying, only to make a rival, Cheng, who starts to bully and attack Dre. Soon, Mr. Han, the maintenance man of Dre's apartment, fends off Cheng and his friends when they are attacking Dre and signs Dre up to fight in the Kung Fu tournament in return for the bullies laying off of Dre. Dre realizes Mr. Han is much more than a maintenance man, when he's revealed as a master of Kung Fu and Dre soon learns that Kung Fu is about self defense and peace, instead of violence and bloodshed.—Kennedy

In search of a fresh start, the widowed mother, Sherry Parker, and her 12-year-old son, Dre, move from Detroit to Beijing in China, after a job transfer. Before the obvious language barrier and the daunting task of acclimatising to a foreign culture and a new school, Dre is indeed a friendless stranger in a strange land, and to make matters worse, he will soon catch Cheng's eye, the school's fearsome bully. As Dre tries to impress the young violinist, Meiying, he will learn the hard way that his pitiful karate is no match against Cheng's excellent but vicious kung fu; something that the building's janitor and inconspicuous kung fu master, Mr. Han, is eager to remedy. Suddenly, an upcoming tournament will give a new meaning in Dre's life, however, will he finally make a stand against his powerful opponent?—Nick Riganas

12-year-old Dre Parker could've been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother's latest career move has landed him in China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying - and the feeling is mutual - but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows only a little karate, and Cheng puts "the karate kid" on the floor with ease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han, who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life.—Columbia Pictures

12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mother Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) move to Beijing from Detroit after she gets a job transfer. Dre's father died about 3 years ago. Dre had to leave behind his entire family and was not excited about moving to China, where he knew nobody and had no friends. Sherry works in a car factory. Dre does not speak Chinese and while the TV channels carry American shows, they are all dubbed in Chinese.

Dre befriends Harry (Luke Carberry) who takes him to the local park. Dre notices a pretty girl on the bench and tries to impress her with his sports skills. But he is soundly beaten at basketball and then tries to challenge an old man at a game of ping pong. After a friendly rally, Dre is obliterated at ping pong. Dre develops a crush on a young violinist, Mei Ying (Wenwen Han) (the girl on the bench), who reciprocates his attention, but Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), a rebellious Kung Fu prodigy whose family is close to Mei Ying's, attempts to keep them apart by beating Dre, and later bullies him at school.

After a field trip to the Forbidden City, Dre encounters Cheng and his friends hanging out close to his apartment. Dre tries to pass by without them seeing him. When he finds a bucket of water catching overflow from a steam vent, Dre gets revenge by splashing dirty water over Cheng. Cheng and the others catch Dre and beat him. During the attack, the enigmatic maintenance man of Dre's building, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), comes to Dre's aid, revealing himself as a Kung Fu master who dispatches Dre's tormentors.

Han heals Dre's injuries using the ancient Chinese medicine methods of fire cupping. He explains that Cheng and his friends are not inherently bad but are taught to be merciless to their enemies by their teacher, Master Li. Dre asks if Mr. Han could teach him Kung Fu. Han refuses, but meets Cheng's teacher, Master Li (Yu Rongguang) at his Fighting Dragons studio, to make peace.

Li, who teaches his students to show no mercy to their enemies, challenges Dre to a fight with Cheng. When Han declines, Li says they will not be allowed to leave his school unless Dre or Han fights. Han acquiesces, but insists the fight take place at an upcoming tournament, and that Li's students leave Dre alone until the tournament. Li agrees but tells Han that if Dre does not show up during the tournament he will personally bring pain to Han and Dre.

Dre is shocked when Han tells him that he will fight in a Kung Fu tournament. Han promises to teach Dre "real" Kung Fu. Han begins training Dre, but Dre is frustrated that Han merely has him spend hours taking off his jacket, hanging it up, dropping it and putting it on again. After days of this, Dre refuses to continue until Han demonstrates that the repetitive arm movements were Han's method of teaching Dre martial arts techniques, which Dre displays instinctively when prompted by Han's mock attacks. Han emphasizes that the movements Dre is learning apply to life in general, and that serenity and maturity, not punches and power, are the true keys to mastering the martial arts. Han takes him to a Taoist temple in the Wudang Mountains where Dre witnesses a woman making a cobra reflect her movements and later drinks the water from a Taoist well.

Dre's friendship with Mei Ying continues. After many weeks of training, Mr. Han gives Dre a day off. Dre goes to see Meiying, persuading her to cut school for a day of fun. But when she is nearly late for her violin audition which was brought forward a day without their knowledge, her parents (father (Zhensu Wu) and mother (Zhiheng Wang)) deem him a bad influence and forbid her from spending more time with him.

When Dre finds Han intoxicated, despondent and breaking the car, he had in his living room, Dre learns that it is the anniversary of Han's wife Zhang and 10-year-old son Gong Gong deaths, which occurred when he lost control of the car due to anger caused from an argument he was having with his wife. Every year, he destroys the car on the anniversary of the accident and spends the rest of the year fixing it to punish himself.

Dre reminds Han that one of his lessons was in perseverance, and that Han needs to heal from his loss. Dre then works harder than ever to master Kung Fu. Han assists Dre in reading a note of apology to Mei Ying's father in Chinese. He accepts and promises that Mei Ying will attend the tournament to support Dre.

At the tournament, the under-confident Dre is slow to achieve parity with his opponents, but soon begins beating them and advances to the semifinals, as does Cheng, who violently finishes off his opponents. Dre comes up against Liang (Shijia Lu), another of Li's students, who is instructed by Li to injure Dre's leg. When Liang insists that he can beat Dre, Li sternly tells him that he does not want him beaten but broken. Liang reluctantly does so by delivering a series of crippling blows to Dre's leg. He gets disqualified as a result, and Dre advances to the finals against Cheng.

Despite Han's insistence that he has earned respect for his performance, Dre convinces Han to mend his leg by using fire cupping in order to continue. Dre returns to the arena, facing Cheng. Dre delivers impressive blows, but Cheng counters with a strike to Dre's injured leg. This causes Dre to lose balance. Dre struggles to get up and attempts the reflection technique (that he had learned from the lady on the mountain) to manipulate Cheng into changing his attack stance. Cheng charges Dre, but Dre flips and catches Cheng with a kick to his head, winning the tournament along with the respect of Cheng and his classmates.

Cheng, instead of the presenter, awards Dre the trophy, and the Fighting Dragon students bow to Mr. Han, accepting him as their new master, leaving Li defeated.