The Brilliance of The Karate Kid, by the Mr.
Dana and I just watched The Karate Kid, a brilliant movie for so many reasons:
• Mr. Miyagi, one of the greatest mythical characters of all time (how good is this guy at karate, if he can wipe out 5 Kobra Kai black belts in 30 seconds? Is there anything higher than black belt?)
• Johnny, the ultimate 80’s movie bad guy. And his awesome pompador haircut.
• Daniel’s mother, with that great New Jersey accent and that beater station wagon. She makes a mysterious exit from the plot about halfway through the film though, only to make a token appearance at the All Valley Karate Tournament.
• An evil Vietnam War vet-turned Sensei, who is basically the anti-Miyagi. I think he may have been a take on the Rambo character, only he really is a bad guy who turns teenagers into bad guys.
• “Fear does not exist in this dojo, does it?” “NO, SENSEI!!”
• “You’re the best, around! And nothing’s ever gonna let you down!”
• “Johnny, get him a body bag!” (on that note, I challenge any of our readers to visit this site for longer than 30 seconds and tell me you don’t start to get creeped out: http://gethimabodybag.ytmnd.com/)
• The entire tournament, culminating with that Crane Technique kick to Johnny’s face. The director pulled out all the stops in that final scene, including Mr. Miyagi’s magical healing powers and the evil sensei’s schemes. The payoff at the end was great.
The film does have its funny oddities as well:
• The entire cast of high school-aged actors are clearly all in their 20’s. I think Hollywood has gotten better about this in the past 20 years.
• The fact that Mr. Miyagi is apparently a horrible employee. This isn’t originally my idea, I listened to a Sports Guy podcast on ESPN where they mentioned it. The pool is in horrible shape, and Miyagi’s in his workshop shaping banzai trees. And then you go to Miyagi’s house, and the place is spotless. Tarnishes the Miyagi mystique a bit, if you ask me. But the pool shot was funny.
• A screwy timeline. Miyagi doesn’t begin teaching karate to Daniel until the beginning of November, because it’s the school’s Halloween party where Miyagi defends Daniel from a 5-on-1 attack. The All Valley Karate Tournament takes place on December 19, so Daniel basically learns a high level of karate in 6 weeks. We think he did most of his training during the Thanksgiving break, because that’s where he came to Miyagi’s house for several days in a row and spiffed the place up in order to learn karate. By my estimation, Daniel spends at least 4 of those weeks learning to defense and balance. Then for two weeks he finalizes the basics, learns to punch, and picks up the Crane Technique (which I saw a kid try in a fight in grade school once, but to no avail. “If do right, no can defend,” says Miyagi).
In closing, I’d like to mention something that my friend Brett and I talked about a lot in college: you can literally watch this movie from the perspective that it’s about Johnny and not about Daniel. Johnny is starting his senior year, has all sorts of plans to make it go well, has lots of friends, etc. Then some kid moves in from Jersey, starts hitting on his girlfriend, and acts like he knows karate. Watch the movie again sometime, and tell me that Daniel isn’t provoking a lot of those confrontations with the Kobra Kai, 
especially at the Halloween party. But by the end of the film, it’s Johnny that wants to present the All Valley trophy to Daniel in a gesture of true sportsmanship. Johnny learns a valuable lesson. Daniel learns that you can cram a few karate lessons in over the course of six weeks and beat a bunch of guys that have probably been training for over a decade. But hey, I still love Karate Kid. It’s a top 5 sports movie.
15 comments:
Hahahaha... great post. I don't think I've ever seen the whole movie. Now I must.
And I see no problem with learning advanced karate in six weeks (and really the bulk of it in two). Haha! Oh, movies.
Casey.... a confirmed nerd. I have seen the "Get him a Body Bag" site before, but for nostalgia went to it again. Jake(6) and Drew(3) were watching it with me and 20 seconds into it, Jake said 'Dad that's really annoying.'
So funny! It must be in the air. Since Braedon started Karate we have been living Karate at our house..Then my mom bought us the dvd..then it was on t.v. Then your post! What's up?? Classic movie. We watched the "body bag" part at least 5 times. Gotta love it!
When all of my friends were swooning over Kirk Cameron, Jon Bon Jovi, and Michael J. Fox, I... I was writing "Mrs. Teresa Machio" on all of my brown-paper-bag-covered text books. I'd have hidden in that shower curtain with him any day.
Fun post, Casey!
Keep the posts coming, Casey! I want to know what Dana's take is on the movie. I watched the Karate Kid movie everyday after elementary school (from a VCR tape that my parents had copied) and I remember in college that Dana would sometimes break into her "Put him in a Body Bag" imitation. So obviously, she was into it as well. Dana? Dana?
I never thought I could find someone who is "enjoys" K.K more than my husband. HILARIOUS!
Kristen, YES, I did have a thing for Karate Kid in college and still do! But to be honest, I really don't have much more to add. I agree with all his points!
Although I will add:
* how great is the restaurant scene where Daniel sees Johnny kissing Alli? He turns to walk away, runs into the server and has a big fall and then ENTIRE restaurant turns, points, and laughs and laughs. So unbelievable. The whole irony of it though, is that Daniel is dressed like a server. Why in the world is he wearing white pants with a white shirt (and a red Members Only jacket)?? Great date outfit.
Sweep the leg!
Something I wish I had added to my post:
There's a guy that makes it to the semi-finals of the tournament, and he's doing all sorts of acrobatic moves and kicks and stuff. Honestly, he looks like a video game character, because his moves were maybe more artistic than effective. When he gets to the semi-finals, Johnny just destroys him. As a kid, I remember thinking, "man, in real life I think that guy would have won the whole tournament". As an adult, I've gone the other way with it. He's a cirque d'soliel performer. I'm not sure he even knew karate.
One of the great movies of all time, but I can only watch it from Johnny's point of view these days.
I do not like that Laruso kid.
Great post! It has been *MANY* years since I have seen the movie, and I liked it, but still have some uncomfortable memories of it. One: I believe there is a scene where Mr. Miyagi is drunk, sad about his dead wife or something. As a seven-year-old, I was very ill-at-ease during this occurence- didn't his mother teach him alcohol was bad? Also, Johnny (who I found hot in a frightening sort of way) got kicked in the nose a time or two and never bothered to wipe away the blood, but let it run down his face. Was quite uncomfortable with this as well. He could at least use his sleeve, I reasoned. Finally, the hideous apartment building they moved into. To this day, I can't see apartments in the valley without studiously inspecting them and wracking my memories to decipher if I have finally found it.
i really enjoyed reading that analysis. very nicely presented too.
Daniel and mister myagi both are dipsticks.
Go johnny
The karate kid movies suck and let me explain why.
Johnny is misunderstood
Firstly when the movie first starts the viewer can observe daniel waving goodbye to Judy and young friends that all look roughly 10 years old so Judy is likely not be much older - daniel doesn't look good so far.
The bullies mother is driving a barely roadworthy car - driving half way across the country in such a car - that's real clever especially from a grown adult that's supposed to be looking after her son ( not the brightest star in the galaxy )
Kicks the gate and on the other side - we get introduced to freddy fernandez - freddy invites, our so called hero ( daniel to a beach party after daniel taunts the old ladies dog for being thirsty ( what a clown ).
Goes over to see myagi attempting some fly torturing and myagi then proceeds to snake eyes, daniel
They play a basic game of soccer.
Daniel the punk looks at ali and her space age looking radio - don't like daniel so far and even his leg soccer ball juggling skills. Daniel asks about ali and freddy explains - she's out of your league yet daniel goes back to check out , ali then daniel glares towards ali and almost makes her cry.
They go flirt then ali kicks away the soccer ball away after she spots johhny and the cobrai kai on their road and trail bikes. Johnny comes in a jealous rage then practically demands to speak with ali and then blackmails her by holding the radio behind her back then chucks the radio on the sand - vandalism - daniel then sticks his nose in and decides to be a snotty arrogant dipstick then gets shoved by johhny the battle liker ( courtesy of the cobra kai sensei ) morally daniel should have walked away ; however, legally he was covered as this is classed as assault with a weapon giving daniel the legal right to fight.
I would tag daniel and johnny both alis bullies
Daniel goes to soccer tryouts with a black eye - way to go - that's real clever especially when he should be making friends instead of showing off his so called soccer skills when what he should have done is go clear the air with johnny - instead daniel allowed ali make johnny jealous all while ali was on the rebound then gets tripped by bobby deliberately - instead of just saying - don't ever do that again he then proceeded to ground and pound him mma style ; however, if look closely - the cobra kais were planning more - possibly a headlock or push him over again - giving daniel the legal right to defend himself.
Daniel could have been going to the karate school so he can up his repertoire so he can get revenge on johnny. Here's my gripe - daniel was having lunch where his criminal looking mother was employed then the viewer observes him riding his new looking bicycle he brang from new Jersey home in the dark so makes me think what was he doing in that time ( was danny casing apartments or houses with plans to break in or was he doing something else ) but, I think i remember mother larusso saying to daniel - be careful riding your bicycle before it gets dark so he could have been there before dinner. The cobra kai threaten daniel basically telling him to back to new Jersey or else then attempt a attempted vehiclar homicide feat and you still want to go on totally on johnny's side - so how exactly did they find out daniel was originally from Jersey - my guess is that the cobra kai either overheard the details or threatened freddy fernandez for the details.
The viewer then observes danny chucking his likely stolen bicycle in the dumpster ( how did the larussos afford such a grand pushy - so either it's stolen or mother larusso was arrogant and selfish individual who was connected to the mafia )
Myagi then proceeds to take the bike then placed it on the larussos doorstep ( classic stalking behaviour ) then danny goes over to the myagi workshop but, here's another gripe - how did mother larusso know where danny was - my guess is a super bitch or she somehow spotted daniel going there
Daniel goes through a faze of avoiding
The cobra kai and even ali as he figured out that if spotted ali he would get another beating
So daniel decides he can get even by soaking, johnny with water through a water soaking prank so the viewer naturally thinks there's no telling what this un balanced and violent individual will do after causing a multiple car collision - daniel runs with dumb shower costume - I say myagi put some kind of slummy evil spell on
Ok so danny needs some recalibration in his life in form of a beating. Along comes myagi ( the stalker and war criminal ) climbs the fence like an animal then proceeds to save daniel from these cobra kai - well within the parameters of the law; however, it was an excessive takedown but, in reality johnny and his cobra kais have committed some pretty serious offences - gang stalking, serious assault and battery with the intent of causing grevious bodily injury and the last kick was attempted murder or had that kick landed - all the charges so the cops would have sent detectives after Danny's remains were found and the investigation would have led to tagging johnny and his thug associates in prison awaiting trial for gang stalking, the very seriousl assault and homicide and that would have been the end of the film.
You can cheer for johnnys gang all you like but , the fact is - johnny, Tommy and Dutch in the movie were all dipsticks. If there was any flawed hero to be had in the k k film - I would tag, bobby, as he constantly attempts to stop what was happening
So stupidly myagi and danny boy go to the cobra kai dojo in an attempt to get the cobra kai off his back.
They get to school and danny taunts the cobra kai lowering himself down to their stupidity levels.
The cobra kai then proceed to get close to danny to give him another beating apparently forgetting their so called pact with their sensei ( that's real good from folks who are supposed to be in prison - luckily there's a teacher walking past so this time the cobra kai familiarity tricks don't work.
Still interested in encouraging the cobra kai and their toughened sensei that looked psychotic
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