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The Karate Kid has made a comeback thanks to the latest flick starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. The film, which is a new take of the 1980′s original starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel and Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, diverges from the original in many ways. Although it sticks to the general plot of the original, one very important difference between the films is the style of martial art portrayed.

In fact, as many who have already seen the new flick would agree, a better title for the remake would be “The Kung Fu Kid”. This is because there is no actual karate in the movie–a detail that was as political as it was a move to refresh the old story.

Kung Fu and Karate are two very different styles of the collective martial arts. While lay people may not know the difference, the differences are easily distinguishable and are such that they needed to be addressed by the dialogue itself. An exasperated Dre Parker explains to his mother, “It’s not Karate, it’s Kung Fu!”

Modern Karate finds its roots in Japan, where it evolved to a rigid style of fighting that is powerful and exact, distinguishable by its short, quick movements. In the original version, Mr. Miyagi’s backstory integrated perfectly with karate’s history and gave way to his philosophy behind the self defense art.

In contrast, Kung Fu as a martial art is inherently very fluid since it has its roots in a kind of Chinese animal style fighting. It is very much like a dance, with swift, quick movements and nearly acrobatic maneuvers. It is not a coincidence that it is also Chan’s specialty, as he has been commercializing Kung Fu via action comedies for years and making it an accessible art to the American public.

In both versions, the martial art masters mentor their naive students through a process called muscle recognition, where a repetitive action is learned and “memorized” by the muscles involved and allows them to react more quickly.

In the original, the method was introduced through the iconic “wax on, wax off” scene. The purpose is unknown to the audience until the later confrontation.

Chan instills the same in Jaden via a similar tedious demand: that he hang up his jacket, throw it down, put it on, take it off and then repeat. This also helps the young Dre progress in his kung fu training, albeit secretly, by teaching him kung fu’s blocking basics.

Although both assert that their martial art is not for fighting, but a means to discover and maintain balance, the similarities end there. This is not because the new version wants to deviate from the plot of the old version (in fact it sticks to it rather well, while at the same time being different in detail) but is probably more credible to the differences between the two martial styles.

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