Director: John G. Avildsen
Writer: Robert Mark Kamen
Starring: Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki Morita, Elizabeth Shue
You’re the best around; nothing’s ever going to bring you
down. Truly words to live by. The Karate Kid is the timeless and shape shifting
fable of a disproportionate teenage male overcoming the odds and kicking an
utter scum in the face. To do this, he uses sympathy to trick a withering,
Japanese puppet into teaching him how to perform manual labour. The most
effective strategy of all.
The film absorbs the aura of the entire 1980s and spews it unto celluloid. Montages are more commonplace than shoes and people actually meet in person, a practice that was lost with the advent of radio waves. The maturity of this cinematic cheese is what makes the film so enjoyable. While the ending is more predictable than an arithmetic sequence, you purely want this skinny human beat a slightly less skinny human to a human pulp. This comes about because of the numerous scenes they spend showing this gang of karate wielding victimising the protagonist.
None of the characters seem quite real. Our “relatable” protagonist, Danny, is magnetic to his fellow characters but honestly just acts like a pretentious cocky scumbag. Showing off his skills at keeping a sports sphere airborne as a sort of mating call. The martial arts mentor, Miyagi, is a cackling, reclusive goblin whose origins are simplistically vague. He’s enjoyable to watch because he the wittiest retired, Japanese army general in California. The screenwriter seemed to think it a good idea to make Miyagi more human by giving him a slightly less cheery backstory. Does it mean anything? No! Not mentioned by Danny. Not mentioned by Miyagi but mentioned by me. The scene felt entirely pointless.
What I did very much like about the film is the message to both the characters and the viewers that martial arts are not just punching people as many movies (which are admittedly still excellent) may portray. It’s important to remember that these forms of self-defence are such. Along with this is strapped another message of balance in life. While vague, the message will forever be pertinent.
While the fight scenes are not near as jaw-dropping as other films bound with the martial arts label, the underdog story is truly the backbone of the film. I wanted the blonde scumbag to get kicked in the face so much that I wasn’t too concerned with the visual spectacle of the combat. The main characters were often nearing levels of contempt rivalling that of the movie’s villains and one scene is entirely unnecessary. Nevertheless, the film is wholly enjoyable.
The Karate Kid receives a: 7/10
You should buy it!
The Karate Kid [Blu-ray] From AmazonThe film absorbs the aura of the entire 1980s and spews it unto celluloid. Montages are more commonplace than shoes and people actually meet in person, a practice that was lost with the advent of radio waves. The maturity of this cinematic cheese is what makes the film so enjoyable. While the ending is more predictable than an arithmetic sequence, you purely want this skinny human beat a slightly less skinny human to a human pulp. This comes about because of the numerous scenes they spend showing this gang of karate wielding victimising the protagonist.
None of the characters seem quite real. Our “relatable” protagonist, Danny, is magnetic to his fellow characters but honestly just acts like a pretentious cocky scumbag. Showing off his skills at keeping a sports sphere airborne as a sort of mating call. The martial arts mentor, Miyagi, is a cackling, reclusive goblin whose origins are simplistically vague. He’s enjoyable to watch because he the wittiest retired, Japanese army general in California. The screenwriter seemed to think it a good idea to make Miyagi more human by giving him a slightly less cheery backstory. Does it mean anything? No! Not mentioned by Danny. Not mentioned by Miyagi but mentioned by me. The scene felt entirely pointless.
What I did very much like about the film is the message to both the characters and the viewers that martial arts are not just punching people as many movies (which are admittedly still excellent) may portray. It’s important to remember that these forms of self-defence are such. Along with this is strapped another message of balance in life. While vague, the message will forever be pertinent.
While the fight scenes are not near as jaw-dropping as other films bound with the martial arts label, the underdog story is truly the backbone of the film. I wanted the blonde scumbag to get kicked in the face so much that I wasn’t too concerned with the visual spectacle of the combat. The main characters were often nearing levels of contempt rivalling that of the movie’s villains and one scene is entirely unnecessary. Nevertheless, the film is wholly enjoyable.
The Karate Kid receives a: 7/10
You should buy it!
The Karate Kid [DVD] From Amazon
I disagree with your assessment of Mr. Miyagi's backstory. To that point in the movie Miyagi was an unblemished unicorn of a man. The scene you are reffering to humanizes Miyagi and makes him relatable. He isn't JUST a "cackling, reclusive goblin"; He is a man who has experienced love and loss and duty and service. All of those things helped shape him into the goblin you see on screen. They don't go into his story further because that isn't what the movie is about. To learn more about Miyagi's backstory watch part 2.
ReplyDeleteI liked your review a lot...just disagree with the Miyagi scene.
Thanks for leaving a comment. Excellent point you put forward and I agree with the concept of the scene in theory. In practice however, it didn't really resonate with me. Something about Danny reading out Miyagi's letter in English took me out of the scene considering it was likely written in Japanese. I don't think the scene was a poor idea from a writer's perspective but it somewhat stood out as one of the sloppier scenes to me.
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