In 1980s Hollywood every successful film was supposed to have a sequel. In case of The Karate Kid, popular teen drama about underdog learning martial skills from eccentric elderly Asian, work on sequel began mere days after end of production. The result was The Karate Kid Part II, one of few such sequels not to turn into major disappointment.
After a prologue that recaps major events and shows immediate aftermath of first Karate Kid, plot starts six months after South California teenager Jake LaRussso (played by Ralph Macchio) has won local martial arts tournament. He looks forward to spending summer holidays as guest of his teacher and friend Mr. Miyaghi (played by Pat Morita). However, Miyaghi must travel back to his native island of Okinawa in order to visit seriously ill father. Jake decides to accompany him, which is opportunity not only to continue his trading but actually learn something about birthplace of karate. There it is revealed that Miyaghi has many decades ago left Okinawa in order to avoid fighting his best friend Sato (played by Danny Kamekona) over beautiful Yukie (played by Nobu McCarthy). Sato, who in the meantime became rich and powerful industrialist, still holds grudge and insists on fight to the death. While he tries to intimidate Miyaghi into showdown, Jake meets and befriends Miyaghi’s beautiful niece Kumiko (played by Tamlyn Tomita) while also getting in conflict with Sato’s young thuggish nephew Chozen Toguchi (played by Yuji Okomoto).
John G. Avildsen, director of the previous film and also known for his work on Rocky, has returned to director’s chair for the sequel. Obviously taking a cue from Rocky series, he cleverly starts second film exactly where the first one ended, thus clearly establishing continuity. However, it quickly becomes clear that Part II is actually quite different film. While Jake is nominally still protagonist, the main character this time is Miyaghi and plot revolves mostly around his background. Avildsen also tries to make film refreshing with the change of setting to Okinawa (which is competently recreated on Hawaiian island of Oahu) and composer Bill Conti contributes to it with Asian-inspired musical score, accompanied with “Glory of Love”, theme song performed by Peter Cetera which became great hit. Script by Robert Mark Kamen, on the other hand, is much inferior to his work in previous film. There is little bit too much “soapy” melodrama that quickly descends into predictable cliches and there is too little actual martial action, although Avildsen improve impression with well-staged final showdown in an abandoned local castle. Cast, however, remains inspired. Macchio and Morita retain their wonderful chemistry from previous film, while new characters are competently played even when they look one-dimensional compared with previous film. Okinawa-born Tamlyn Tomita is very good in her debut film role, although her character was brought as replacement for Jake’s girlfriend from previous film, written out after Elisabeth Shue became unavailable for shooting due to her studying at Harvard. Part II ultimately had better results at box office than previous film, although critics were predictably less favourable. Although slightly overlong, it is still a very entertaining film that should be recommended even to viewers who aren’t nostalgic towards 1980s nor fans of Cobra Kai.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
