THE KARATE KID (1984) Dir: John G. Avildsen

Try to be best but you're only a man and a man's gotta learn to take, try to believe that when the going gets rough, you gotta hang tough to make it, history repeats it's self, try and you'll succeed, Never doubt that you're the one and you can have your dream...You're the best around, no-ones ever gonna brake you down, you're the best around...etc...

“Karate come from China, Sixteen Century called te, “hand”, Hundred year later, Miyagi ancestor bring to Okinawa, Call “Kara”-Te, mean “Open hand”.

Having been on a massive 80s binge these past two weeks, I decided that I’d revisit the classic 1984 flick The Karate Kid. Well I didn't just revisit the first one, I actually watched all three of the Karate Kid films in two days, I don't have The Next Karate Kid so I couldn't revisit that one but who would want too, it's a terrible film, anywho, So yeah, this was a pretty cool revisit having not seen this films in quite a while and still thoroughly enjoying them even though you realise certain things while watching as an adult but i'll get on to those in a bit. Obviously The Karate Kid was a late comer to the martial arts craze that started in America in the 70s thanks to films like Enter The Dragon, but even though there had been subsequent martial arts based movies between that film and Karate Kid, no other film reached the heights of popularity as this film. Sure you had Chuck Norris kicking ass in Lone Wolf McQuaid, The Octagon and A Force Of One, but those films were for a niche audience and aimed more at the adult viewer, The Karate Kid was more of a family friendly flick and I still wonder to this day why the film is rated a 15, sure these some violence in it but nowhere near what you'd fins in something like The Dark Knight or even the recent Robocop remake, but for some reason, this is still rated 15, I don't recall any fucks or cunts being uttered in the film either to warrant that rating. I think the reason for Karate Kid's success is it's underdog story, the bullied kid who finds a friend in a kindly old man who turns out to be a hardcore Karate teacher, who trains bullied kid for a karate tournament against his bullies leading to the inevitable final showdown where the victim becomes the victor. Of course we've seen this plot so many times, most notably in Rocky, which co-incidentally was directed by the same director as this, John G.Avildsen.

So lets look at the plot in a bit more detail. The plot follows 17 year old Daniel Larusso, forced to move from Newark, New Jersey to California for his mothers new job, his second day there while chilling on the beach with his neighbour he some how manages to pull Elizabeth Shue (lucky bastard) who plays Ali (with an “I”) but his night is ruined when Ali's ex-boyfriend, Johnny and his cronies arrive at beach and start some shit, Daniel steps up and tries to protect Ali but gets his ass kicked by Johnny, the best student at the Cobra-Kai dojo. Daniel has some karate skills from classes he took at the YMCA but he's basically shit, at a school dance Daniel gets his revenge but it's short lived when he's chased down by Johnny and his gang who preceed to fuck him up again, only this time he has a saviour, in the shape of elderly maintenance man Mr. Miyagi, who happens to be a master at karate, so Miyagi beats the shit out of all of the Cobra-Kai gang, thus saving Daniels ass, something that happens in each film BTW. Miyagi agrees to teach Daniel-san karate. He does this by getting him to wax his car, paint his house and fence and sand his porch (sounds like a rude act), unbeknownst to Daniel-san, Miyagi has been teaching him blocking techniques, which he demonstrates by actually attacking him. Daniel and Miyagi make a deal with the Cobra-Kai's master, a Vietnam vet and Karate Champ himself, John Kreese, who is a bit of dick already and seems to really hate Daniel-san, like Daniel pissed on his kids or something, so the deal is that Johnny and his band of merry douche-bags stay away from Daniel until the Karate Tournament. One day at the beach, Daniel is trying to control his balance in the sea and see's Miyagi doing the now famous crane kick, which leads us to the bout of the century and Daniel goes up against the Cobra-Kai's. Daniel fucks everyone up then gets to the semi-finals where Kreese tells one of his goons to put him out of action. Dan the man gets kicked in the leg and is taken to the changing room where a doctor tells him he can't fight so Miyagi does this hand rubbing shit that fixes his leg, bare in mind that he was just told by a qualified medical professional that he can't fight while Miyagi rubs his hands together and places them on Dan's leg. IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE, Dan rejoins the tournament after his previous opponent is disqualified and comes face to face with his nemesis, Johnny, the fight starts and Dan is in pain but they equal each other, Kreese tells Johnny to “Sweep the leg” which seems really bad but in truth it's not really that bad and he doesn't even lose points for it but dan is fucking pissed by now, he's getting his ass handed to him by a nazi poster child who wears Michael Jackson's Thriller jacket and a head band because, well it was the 8os so why not. So Dan breaths deep and moves into the crane kick position, Johnny goes in for the kill and BOOM!!! a full force kick to the face takes Johnny down and secures Daniel and Miyagi's position in the next two sequels.

It's a pretty simple straight forward plot and it rewards the viewer with that ending that we didn't actually get in Rocky, but did in Rocky 2, 3, 4 and 5. The build up and the growing friendship between the fatherless Daniel and the Japanese master is not only sweet but feels genuine, more so in the sequels but the beginnings of a beautiful relationship is shown here and it's to the credit of both main stars, Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, who work brilliantly together and from what I hear had a very close friendship outside of the films to the point at Morita's funeral, Macchio, addressing the mourners, said “Forever my Sensei”. What's quite shocking to realise is that Macchio was actually 22 when the first film was made, having graduated in 1979 and 27 by the time the third film had finished, making him older than the main villain, played by Thomas Ian Griffiths playing a Vietnam vet and friend of Kreese when in fact Griffiths was only 13 when the Vietnam war ended and is a few months older younger than Macchio. It's quite odd, what with Macchio looking like a 15 year old and sounding like one but being legally old enough to drink. Weird.

The rest of the cast are pretty good too with an early role for Elizabeth Shue who was at Harvard at the time, as Ali (with an “I”), still yet to come into her best role too date as Jennifer number 2 in Back To The Future 2, William Zabka as the mean star pupil Johnny and Martin Kove as John Kreese, who was still filming Cagney & Lacey at the time and gurns and growls throughout the entire film as the ruthless Karate Sensei who really has a grudge against Daniel-San even though he's done absolutely nothing, not a great role model and a bit of a dick head 2.

So that wraps up this review of 1984's The Karate Kid, it's a very nostalgic flick for me and one that i'd not seen in a long ass time so this re-visit was well worth it. The acting is great especially from Macchio and Morita who was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Miyagi, Elizabeth Shue is cute and tubby but in a nice way, Kove was an asshole but a great asshole and Nazi boy Johnny was a pretty ruthless cunt. Anywho I really did enjoy this re-visit, it still stands up well 30 years later and even though the film was remade with Jackie Chan and Jayden Smith and featured fuck all Karate, even that was a pretty decent film, but out of all the Karate Kid films including the remake and the one with Hilary Swank, the original Karate Kid is still....THE BEST AROUND!!