Drama would have to be the hardest genre to sequelize. Most other genres, especially action or horror, have some sort of repeatable quality to ensure the proliferation of future entries. Drama, on the other hand, is often founded on the idea of a distinctly closed narrative. Change is essential (usually), with characters overcoming primarily emotional problems in such a way that repetition would reduce its potency. Thus most dramas that prove popular enough to warrant sequels often introduce an entirely new conflict. That or they desperately hug whatever genre elements are in place. This is why The Godfather can have a truly excellent sequel; a new dramatic narrative is devised for Michael Corleone, and there is the gangster/crime element to provide the repeatable thrills.So by that preamble, it is clear that I consider The Karate Kid to be primarily a (family) drama, despite its martial arts trappings. And yet it is these martial arts trappings that afford the movie to become a franchise, for even if we lose interest in the continued emotional evolution of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi, we can always enjoy some cheesy karate goodness.
The curious thing is that The Karate Kid on its own it an uncontested 80s icon, standing alongside the surprisingly sequel-free Top Gun. I am unsure about how much the sequels have changed The Karate Kid’s reputation. They certainly act as a magnet of sorts, drawing even more attention to the first movie (and providing me with an excuse to write about it), but at the same time their natural diminishment in quality associates The Karate Kid with some far lesser films. Yes, sequels, and franchises more so, can be a double-edged sword, drawing attention but suctioning off quality. And there is always the possibility of irreparably ruining the first film, making changes to canon that contradict or sour earlier developments. Yes, there are a lot of odd, meta X-factors to a sequel that can make it more than simply a lazy retelling – even it that’s what it is.
I have to admit that, at this stage, I have never exposed myself to The Karate Kid’s sequels, for fear of how they might retroactively taint my appreciation of the original. The Karate Kid is not a story that can be immediately remade, anyway, as it concerns a coming-of-age arc. Telling that again would inevitably invoke character amnesia, that true bane of sequels. The point of The Karate Kid is that the nonsense with the bullying Cobra Kai dojo is over, and suggesting otherwise would weaken what the characters accomplished.
One happy fact of Part II’s creation is the complete return of all cast and crew, from director John G. Avildsen down to composer Bill Conti. A sequel automatically has at least a fighting chance, regardless of content, if the people with the greatest love and understanding of the first are back – even when the motivation is primarily monetary. (Or in the case of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies, crap simply follows crap. Boy I hope that series doesn’t get to four entries.)
The Karate Kid, Part II opens immediately following the conclusion of The Karate Kid, instantly connecting us to the emotions and conflicts…Actually, that is not technically true. Part II opens with a replay of certain events from the original, rehashing notable and iconic moments from the training between Mr. Miyagi (the irreplaceable Pat Morita) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Maccio, now taking his place alongside several Coreys in the 80s teen heartthrob firmament). From the perspective of someone who has not only recently watched the first movie, but also written in length about it, this is mightily redundant. But seeing as this is the 80s, and the VCR was just becoming a thing, audiences couldn’t be expected to be intimately familiar with a two-year-old movie like they are nowadays. Still, reused footage isn’t the best technique in cinema.
Okay, now we follow The Karate Kid’s conclusion, and Daniel’s victory at the All Valley Karate Tournament. And now, two years later, Ralph Macchio is looking less and less like the teenager he’s supposed to be playing – a common movie problem. And there is uber-fascist Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove, embarrassing himself again), physically beating second place finisher Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) right there in the crowded parking lot. Kreese, the petty jerk, is on the edge of actually killing Johnny when Mr. Miyagi intervenes, using an essentially non-violent fighting technique to utterly defeat Kreese. Miyagi then grabs Kreese by the throat, repeats his “Mercy is for the weak” dogma, and then – barely refuses to kill him. Miyagi’s justification for avoiding murder, as if he needed one, is that “For person with no forgiveness in heart, living even worse punishment than death.”
Now, this scene was originally written for the original film, but not filmed until Part II. But with the dramatic reorientation of this film, the scene is rejiggered to emphasize this episode’s new focus – Miyagi himself. It makes sense to make Miyagi, the first film’s breakout character, the star of the sequel. The problem with this approach, as seen in many other sequels (Pirates of the Caribbean) is that is robs the character of much of his mystery and charm. But since this is a dramatic film, as I lengthily discussed, this refocusing ensures a new story from the original, making it perhaps the best choice a Karate Kid sequel could make.
And now it’s…”Six Months Later.” Meaning that opening scene has little to no connection to the rest of this story. Daniel arrives at Miyagi’s house, lamenting his recent woes – Ali has broken up with him (probably because they couldn’t get Elisabeth Shue to return), and his mother (actress also not returning) shall soon be moving to Fresno. Residents of California all know this is essentially a death sentence. For what may be his final visit to Miyagi, Daniel is soon employed hammering nails – with an accompanying lesson about balancing what I assume to be “chi,” naturally. When Daniel asks whose guest house he is building, Miyagi reveals it is Daniel’s, ultimately fulfilling his surrogate father role. And then, all these issues resolved, a postman appears right on cue with a letter for Miyagi. It seems Miyagi’s father is dying.
While in line for his passport, Miyagi lays out this film’s extensive exposition for Daniel. Miyagi is to return to his birthplace, Okinawa (Japan’s Canada), where he hasn’t been since age eighteen. Here we learn some more of Miyagi’s mysterious past, for better and worse. As a youth, he was in love with a certain Yukie, who was, sadly, arranged to marry a certain Sato, Miyagi’s father’s karate pupil. Got that? Yukie: former love. Sato: Miyagi’s rival in love. Sato: connected to Miyagi’s family through karate. When Miyagi announced his own love for Yukie, and his disapproval of her imminent marriage, Sato’s anger provoked him to challenge Miyagi to a fight – to the death. Pacifist that Miyagi is, he opted to leave for the States rather than challenge Sato. All this info is related to us through dialogue, and it’s essential that you catch it, for the rest of the plot hinges upon it.
Daniel chooses to accompany Miyagi to Okinawa, in a step that furthers their already deep friendship. The interesting dramatic challenge for this movie is that the central focus of the original (Daniel and Miyagi’s developing friendship) is already so strongly in place that it can no longer provide the major narrative focus. Once in Okinawa, new developments will have to occur.
The mere choice to set this story in Okinawa (sequel trick number three – change the setting) would normally seem like an act of desperation. Given Miyagi’s natural, pre-established past in Okinawa, however, this step is justifiable, while still offering up the benefits of a location switch.
Once in Okinawa, Miyagi and Daniel instantly pass a prominent advertisement for Sato’s dojo. They are then greeted by Chozen Togushi (Yuji Okumoto, and SpellCheck hates every aspect of this guy), Sato’s pupil and nephew, who starts up an instant, plot-dictated rivalry with Daniel. In a move that would seem more at place in an action thriller than a karate drama, Chozen then forcefully kidnaps our heroes and drives them to Sato’s extensive, dark warehouse. The imminent conflict between Miyagi and Sato has already been well established, so it is rather damaging to the fundamental dramatic underpinnings to portray Sato as such an off-the-shelf Bond villain. I’d prefer a complex, non-evil foil to Miyagi, but it is a sequel’s duty to ensure a (family) audience by simplifying the product. Sato (Danny Kamekona) accuses Miyagi of cowardice (a theme for this film), and vows to have his death match with Miyagi once he’s resolved matters with his father.
This standard villainy accomplished, Chozen drives Miyagi to his Tome village. Miyagi visits his father at his deathbed, where he reunites with his long-lost love Yukie (Nobu McCarthy). A lengthy, wordless scene follows between them, many tears shed. When these movies want to, they can effortlessly conjure some complex emotions. At last Yukie reveals that, following the bad blood between Miyagi and Sato, she has never married. Another fact becomes apparent, one that rather ruins the moment, as we learn that Sato owns the entire village – gotta stack your villain’s deck as much as possible, you know. I really wish Sato weren’t such a boringly typical bad guy.
Paralleling Miyagi’s unrequited love for Yukie, Daniel-san soon meets her niece Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita, not quite the best substitute for Elisabeth Shue, but then again, I don’t have Yellow Fever). They soon start up a budding romance, entirely for movie reasons. Despite how rote this is, it’s strengthened by continued parallels of Miyagi romancing Yukie. To anticipate this movie somewhat, I will say that the story they devise for Daniel is a decent way of retelling the story of young Miyagi. Replace Sato with Chozen, and Yukie with Kumiko. For as long as Miyagi’s story remains front and center, the Kumiko stuff is perfectly adequate. (And I love that this Japan-set film almost exclusively employs Japanese actors. Take that, Tokyo Drift!)
In thinking back to Miyagi’s back story in The Karate Kid (never referenced here), I recall a central reveal concerning Miyagi’s long-dead wife and child, who perished at an internment during World War Two. Now I am being asked to reconcile that Yukie is actually Miyagi’s lifelong love, and I’m not sure how to take this. In the real world this would not be unheard of, but it does kind of retroactively taint Miyagi’s decades-long mourning in the first film – oh these sequels and their rectroactive taints.
Daniel has a brief karate lesson of sorts with Miyagi in the family dojo, but martial arts training can no longer be this series focus, so this doesn’t last for long. They wander through town when evil music plays and the skies darken – yeah, Sato nears. Stop insisting he’s a bad guy! Sato demands his death match this very night, but further imminent violence is delayed as they are called in to see Miyagi’s father. Huddled over the old man, a major mentor to both men, Miyagi and Sato join hands with his as he dies. Out of respect for Miyagi’s late father, Sato grants Miyagi three days to mourn before – da dum dum – the death match.
The time has come for this movie’s best scene, in my opinion, again focusing on the evolving relationship between Daniel and Miyagi. Following his father’s funeral, Miyagi ponders alone on the docks, scant heavenly light breaking through the ocean clouds (sure it’s a cliché, but it is effective). Daniel joins him and assumes the mentor role, consoling Miyagi with memories of his own father’s passing. Daniel asserts that the best thing he could ever do for his father was to be by his side in his final moments. Even typing this affects me, partially because death is so universal, and one can’t help but be reminded of one’s own life. As said, this is the dramatic highpoint of the movie – it’s all downhill from here.
Even though this movie is no longer centrally concerned with karate training, it still does need one central training scene, and here it is. Out on the docks, Miyagi opts to teach Daniel this movie’s special technique, undoubtedly set up for the finale – the Drum Technique. Because, as said before, every martial arts movie needs its trademark Ultimate Move of Power. You guessed it, Daniel does not manage to master (or even understand) the technique at this stage – rules of drama and all. What is accomplished is that Miyagi hurls deadly hooked winches twice at Daniel – okay, the second time was an accident. Couple that with a random moment later on when Miyagi randomly kicks Daniel in the groin (kids love that stuff), and I become a little confused here.
This point is where the Miyagi/Yukie romance and Daniel/Kumiko romances feature. This is also the unfortunate point where the dramatic focus starts to shift over to Daniel, and this sequel loses whatever it had going for it. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very competent picture, well acted and directed, but its very nature as a sequel make the story rather forced and inessential. Miyagi is an interesting character in this setting, but Daniel is essentially a mere tourist, with nothing to drive him like his former rivalry with the Cobra Kai. To answer that complaint, the movie really starts to emphasize Chozen’s growing resentment of Daniel, and would it surprise you if I said Chozen’s anger is essentially unprovoked? Of course not, because we need to keep the good guy/bad guy dichotomy clean.
Daniel’s dates with Kumiko go on and on, until finally something of note happens. They head into a major city (meant to be Naha, I think, but this whole thing was shot in Hawaii), where they witness expat thugs attempting to break ice blocks with their fists. Is this where that whole ice block thing originated? A quick Internet search says – no. Soon enough the plot has contorted enough so that Miyagi and Sato both have bets riding on whether Daniel can break six blocks at once. This is the point where Daniel’s “chi” lesson from way back at the start comes into play, and isn’t it a little early for that? Whatever, Daniel breaks the blocks. And now the soundtrack goes crazy and funky.
(I almost forgot. Cheesy musical montages are a major part of this series. The cheesy musical montage for this entry does not happen during karate training or anything like that, but simply during one of Daniel’s generic movie dates. This has to be the cleanest example of precisely how Part II compares to the first.)
The bad guy stuff is broken up by a little dance scene involving Kumiko. Then it’s back to business, as Sato shows up at the Miyagi family dojo with his bland thugs to challenge Miyagi to his long-delayed death match. Miyagi is not there, as he’s off someplace planning a dramatic last second appearance. Instead Chozen, acting as Sato’s henchman, thrashes the dojo and threatens Daniel with a spear. These various men are actually ready to straight up murder Daniel when Miyagi barges in, roundly thrashing the goons. The choreography here is clean enough for us question just how the elderly Miyagi can best all these young guys. The disparity here is far worse than with the relatively inexperienced Cobra Kai mooks, as these particular thugs are supposed to be amongst Okinawa’s greatest martial artists. Miyagi employs his patented “almost kill you but don’t” technique against Chozen, who in response accuses Miyagi of non-murderous cowardice. And then…the death match gets delayed again, for some reason that I didn’t pick up.
By the way, all this has been a mere vacation. It’s a lot harder to accept the dire consequences of everything when our heroes could simply go home. Of course then Daniel wouldn’t have a chance of banging Kumiko, so there’s that.
Ah, but once again this movie seems quite adept at anticipating my complaints, because in the next major scene Sato prevents Miyagi from simply leaving. You see, Sato arrives in town with his plentiful bulldozers (he owns the village, remember), threatening to raze everything unless Miyagi follows through on their death match – tonight at midnight. Miyagi debates further, ensuring that, regardless of outcome, the village shall get the land title and remain safe.
Miyagi’s death match now imminent, we get to spend some quality time with – Daniel?! Yes, the movie’s focus is irreparably on him. Daniel has another mostly useless scene with Kumiko, performing a slow, quiet tea ceremony – a nice parallel to one between Miyagi and Yukie way back when. And Yukie has completely vanished from this movie, gone ever since the focus shifted to Daniel.
But the plot gods will have none of this romantic nonsense, so they go and summon a deus ex machina typhoon. Village residents all flee to this giant central hut, while the special effects guys are having a field day. You know, this storm is pretty much just straight up random, apart from some earlier hints so subtle they don’t even count as foreshadowing. Soon Daniel, Kumiko, Miyagi and the whole town (and Yukie?) are gathered in the hut, as someone just up and announces that Sato is trapped under a collapsed house. Wait…He was in town?! Okay then. Chozen is there now, but he is too cowardly to go save his master, so the duty is left to Miyagi. Yes, Miyagi goes and saves Sato’s life – so that’s the reason for this storm. Then it’s Daniel’s turn to act heroic, as he heads out to save a little girl in a bell tower. Unlike Miyagi, Daniel’s act of bravery satisfies no plot threads. Oh, and Chozen, formerly too frightened to go save anyone, then randomly races off into the storm on his own, apropos of nothing, the very instant Sato disowns him. I guess he’s no longer the chozen pupil – heh heh…Sorry.
Come morning Sato does a good deed, summoning his once-evil construction equipment to aid repairing the ravaged village. Sato asks forgiveness from Miyagi, death match now permanently called off. So it seems that this story has totally resolved itself with an almost total dearth of karate action…
Indeed, it is the epilogue, with the entire village dancing merrily like so many victorious Ewoks in the village’s beachside castle, a traditional O-ban festival. Taking to the castle’s central island, Kumiko performs a choice solo dance (by the way, her passion is dancing, I’d forgotten to mention). All cheer. The end.
No, wait! Not the end. Now Chozen is there (what is he, a teleporter?!). He forces a knife to Kumiko’s throat, calling out Daniel-san for a death match over his presumed loss of honor, which he blames on Daniel for contrived reasons. See, Miyagi’s initial plot has become Daniel’s, with him acting out the young-love death match. Daniel alone crosses over – this island ensures no one else gets involved – and proceeds to engage Chozen in a lengthy karate battle.
Ah, finally some karate in this movie called The Karate Kid, Part II. And because we’re thinking, “Why doesn’t Daniel just use that Crane Technique that resolved the story in the original?,” Daniel uses that Crane Technique that resolved the story in the original. And Chozen effectively counters it, an act that contradicts things said in the first film. The fight continues, Chozen getting the upper hand, when the entire village starts to beat their little handheld drums for Daniel. Thus inspired, he suddenly understands the Drum Technique (as we all knew he would), and uses it to beat Chozen. As a final humiliation, Daniel employs Miyagi’s “not kill you” move, leaving Chozen to wallow in his own dishonor.
The film’s final shot echoes the final shot from The Karate Kid, with Miyagi smiling at his pupil’s triumph. The difference here is that it fade outs rather than freeze frames. No more 400 Blows references for these guys!
And to make up for the relative absence of gloriously cheesy music in this picture, the end credits are graced by a remarkably corny pop tune, “The Glory of Love.” It sounds like it’s by Phil Collins, but it turns out it’s by a guy named Peter Cetera. Man, this song is ch– Wait, it was nominated for an Oscar?! Whoa!
The Karate Kid, Part II does an admirable job of avoiding certain sequel pitfalls. The story pretty much shuns rehashing the content of the first, even if that means that the new story is not as heartfelt or engaging. There are still plenty of distinct plot parallels, the specific stations-of-the-cross for this franchise. The entire final fight with Chozen reflects that, with the final use of the film’s choice Ultimate Move. All in all, I am struck by the sense that this is a good faith effort to make a decent sequel to a movie whose content did not allow for a decent sequel. The Karate Kid’s central characters are not suited to further endless adventures. For a pacifist, Miyagi sure gets into a lot of fights, meaning endless plot contortions. It’s not like James Bond or Indiana Jones, characters who actively seek their next stories. Stories have to make Miyagi and Daniel the slaves of coincidence. On top of all that, this movie plays it safe, defining the villain out of convenience and sacrificing a moving friendship story for a couple of generic romances.
But let us never say it is a dumb thing for a sequel to go for the groundlings. The Karate Kid, Part II, for all its worse critical accolades, saw even better box office success than the original Karate Kid. This is a pretty typical outcome for a mainstream sequel to a sleeper hit, especially when that sequel has the same characters (unlike 2 Fast 2 Furious – geez, that franchise is becoming my benchmark). I think it’s safe to say a sequel’s success is often indicative of how well-loved the first film is, for people will go to see the follow-up largely for that reason. The real test of a franchise is then sometimes the third film, whose performance can then show just how loved the second movie was. And we shall see how that went down soon enough.
Related posts:
• No. 1 The Karate Kid (1984)
• No. 3 The Karate Kid, Part III (1989)
• No. 4 The Next Karate Kid (1994)
• No. 5 The Karate Kid (2010)
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