THE KARATE KID PART II (1986)

THE KARATE KID PART II (1986)

Tagline: This time, the combat is real.

(Action, Family, Tea Time) [PG]

Out of respect for my teacher, I give you three days to mourn. When finish, I come back. You prepare to join him.

This movie actually picks up right where THE KARATE KID left off, but then skips ahead a bit. As it turns out Mr. Miyagi’s father is dying and Daniel's mother allows him to take a trip to Okinawa with Mr. Miyagi. While there Mr. Miyagi manages to anger his old rival when he sees that Miyagi still has feelings for a woman they both had eyes on. Daniel promptly follows Miyagi's lead pissing off a local bully and falling in love again. The big difference this time around is that this is not about a tournament. It’s about life, loyalty, love, and death. 

I might be in the minority on this one, but THE KARATE KID PART II is without a doubt my favorite “anything” in the entire KARATE KID franchise. I even like it better than anything in the COBRA KAI TV series and I love that series. Part of the reason is the setting. Getting to see Mr. Miyagi’s roots and heritage was really cool and also seeing Daniel get involved in something a bit more serious than what he had with Ali in the original movie just really stuck in my heart as a kid watching this thing. It was just very rich in every sense. The sets are all outstanding, they filmed in a place that would really capture the spirit of the real Okinawa. The lighting is near perfect and the score is outstanding. 

When it comes to the acting we get the same cast we had in the first one and the new additions bring a ton of depth to the film. Pat Morita who plays Mr. Miyagi really came into the role in this movie and is probably best known for THE KARATE KID series, but continued acting until 2014 and ended up in over 170 productions. Ralph Macchio who plays Daniel is quite a bit more mature and well-rounded in this flick than he was in the first one and still plays Daniel to this day. The TV series COBRA KAI recently completed its 5th season as of the writing of this review. The film also leans heavily on Tamlyn Tomita who plays Kumiko and does an amazing job as Daniel's love interest and local Okinawa tradition expert. Tomita is still acting and has had appearances in the COBRA KAI series. She is probably most famous for THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW and this movie. Another stand-out is Danny Kamekona who plays Sato, one of the two antagonists in the storyline. He is probably most famous for PROBLEM CHILD, but I remember him most from this movie and ROBOT JOX. I should also mention Yuji Okumoto who plays Chozen. He does a great job in this as an antagonist as well, but I really wanted Daniel to kick his teeth in. Okumoto also appeared in the COBRA KAI series and I love the story arc they gave him. 

Where this movie succeeds is in taking a completely different direction from the first film and still making it feel very much in the same “student to teacher” vein as the first film. With two romances carefully crafted into the story it comes across as not only more mature than the first movie but like the stakes are higher without getting to the point of being over the top ridiculous like some of the sequels of the 80s tended to be. Also, the addition of Peter Cetera's “Glory of Love” to the soundtrack was a stroke of genius even though it ended up in this movie due to getting turned down by the producers of ROCKY IV. ROCKY IV went with “Hears On Fire” instead which fit that movie perfectly. 

If there are any complaints here, it’s that Daniel's relationship with Ali was so easily shrugged off. I personally have been in relationships that survived a summer apart and apparently that was in the script for this thing. Ali was going to Europe for the summer. That is not a great reason for a breakup. It’s barely even an issue. However, in your teenage years, everything seems like the end of the freakin world, so maybe it was supposed to be the stress of it that caused the breakup?

Overall THE KARATE KID PART II was one of my top 50 or so movies of the 80s and I try and re-watch it whenever I get a break between movie reviews and other stuff I want to re-watch. THE KARATE KID II is a 7 out of 7 for me.

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