Runtime: 113 minutes
Directed by: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Nobu McCarthy, Tamlyn Tomita, Danny Kamekona, Yuji Okumoto
From: Columbia
Yes, Karate Kid: Legends is a reason why I viewed this sequel. No, I won’t be viewing the upcoming Legends and who knows how much more in the franchise will be viewed. After all, not a single episode of Cobra Kai has been witnessed and I didn’t see the Jackie Chan picture that should have been called The Kung-Fu Kid. At least the iconic original movie has been reviewed here, albeit 6 years ago. It happened to be a revival screening & the movie is still a lot of fun. Incidentally, the last Mission: Impossible picture is the big picture for me in May; if I revisit the franchise beforehand, it likely won’t be mentioned on Letterboxd.
As for Part II in the adventures of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi, the opening credits helpfully show some highlights of the original. As we see the aftermath of the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship-where ultimate heel John Kreese receives a nice comeuppance-the highlights made sense. They also hinted at the direction the story would take. Miyagi returns to Okinawa as his father is on his deathbed; Daniel tags along at the last minute. Yeah, that was silly by today’s standard how he had his passport ready and used his college savings to make this sudden sojourn halfway round the world. That may have been silly even in the mid 80’s.
There are a few “hey, wait a minute” moments; that said, it was nice that Miyagi was the focus of the story and there was a compelling backstory to why he ran away from Okinawa, along with why his rival Sato is generally a despicable person. So is Sato’s nephew Chozen, who is a natural rival to Daniel. At times the movie does feel like it’s spinning its wheels and should get on with it. Even so, Oahu as Okinawa was at least scenic and it was nice to learn some new aspects of Japanese culture. The action beats were fine and the Bill Conti score was good, if possibly a “stereotypical Oriental” score in some people’s eyes.
The Karate Kid Part II is of course not as good as the original. That doesn’t mean there were regrets in spending the time to view then review the movie. Chozen’s loud period clothing and the spectacular 80’s ballad Glory of Love from Peter Cetera alone were amusing at least to me.
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