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The Karate Kid Part II

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"They have one more lesson to share. About the price of honor, the power of friendship, and the way you must fight... when only the winner survives."
―Film slogan

The Karate Kid Part II is a 1986 American martial arts drama film. It serves as a sequel to the 1984 film, The Karate Kid, and is the second film in The Karate Kid movie franchise. It stars Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita as Daniel LaRusso and his mentor Mr. Miyagi.

Plot[]

The film first shows a flashback to the first movie, then the movie actually starts. John Kreese, furious over his star student Johnny Lawrence's second-place finish in the All-Valley Karate Tournament, viciously berates Johnny in the parking lot. Johnny argues with Kreese and calls him a loser to which Kreese responds by breaking his trophy and nearly killing him by putting him in the headlock choking position. Despite pleads from Tommy, Bobby and the rest of Johnny's friends to let him go, Kreese refuses, hitting Johnny's friends away as they approach Kreese and Johnny. Mr. Miyagi, who is leaving the venue with Daniel, rescues Johnny and shoves Kreese off of him. Kreese then tries to punch Mr. Miyagi twice, but Mr. Miyagi dodges both times, making Kreese accidentally punch his hands into a car window, Mr. Miyagi then mocks Cobra Kai's founding tenets, implying that he will show no mercy. Mr. Miyagi then threatens to deal Kreese with a heavy blow, but comically "honks" Kreese's nose instead. Horrified by Kreese's behavior, Johnny and his friends quit the Cobra Kai dojo en masse, while Mr. Miyagi leaves with Daniel. When Daniel asks why Mr. Miyagi did not kill Kreese when he could have, Mr. Miyagi explains, "For person with no forgiveness in heart, living even worse punishment than death."

Six months later in June 1985, Daniel is upset that after the senior prom, claiming to Mr. Miyagi that his girlfriend Ali has left him for a football player who will be attending UCLA along with Ali. To make matters worse, he learns that he and his mother are soon moving to Fresno for the summer. Mr. Miyagi surprises Daniel by telling him that he has made arrangements with Lucille LaRusso to have Daniel live with him for summer. Mr. Miyagi then receives a letter telling him that his father is terminally ill. He intends to return to Okinawa, Japan alone, but Daniel decides to accompany him. When Daniel asks Mr. Miyagi why he had left Japan in the first place, Mr. Miyagi answers that he loved a woman named Yukie, who was arranged to be married to Sato Toguchi, son of the richest man in town, and Mr. Miyagi's best friend. Sato and Mr. Miyagi had studied karate together under Mr. Miyagi's father, in defiance of what was then the strict one-to-one father-to-son tradition of karate. One day, Mr. Miyagi had announced before the whole town that he wanted to marry Yukie. Sato had been insulted and had challenged Mr. Miyagi to a fight to the death. Rather than fight his best friend, Mr. Miyagi left Japan.

When they arrive in Okinawa, Japan, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel are greeted by a young man, Chozen Toguchi, who is Sato's nephew. Sato has neither forgiven nor forgotten his feud with Mr. Miyagi and once again demands to fight Mr. Miyagi. Again, Mr. Miyagi refuses, so Sato calls him a coward.

Mr. Miyagi and Daniel are welcomed to Tomi village by Yukie and her niece Kumiko, to whom Daniel is immediately attracted. They learn that Sato has now become a rich industrialist, whose supertrawlers have destroyed the local fish population, impoverishing the other villagers, who have turned to small farming to survive. Worse yet, all the villagers are now forced to rent their property from Sato, who now actually owns the entire village. Yukie also reveals that because she truly loved Mr. Miyagi and carried a torch for him, she never married Sato.

Despite Mr. Miyagi's father's dying wish for his son and student to make peace with each other, Sato still insists on fighting Mr. Miyagi, though, after his sensei's passing, he gives Mr. Miyagi three days to mourn, out of respect for his sensei. Daniel comforts Mr. Miyagi, admitting that when his own father passed away, Daniel thought he had not been a very good son, but eventually realized that by being at his father's side when he was dying and getting to say goodbye to him was the greatest thing he could have done for him. Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel that the secret to his family's karate lies in a handheld drum that beats itself when twisted back and forth. This "drum technique," as Mr. Miyagi calls it, represents the block-and-defense that Daniel begins to practice diligently. Mr. Miyagi warns him that the powerful technique should only be used as a last resort. Later, Yukie and Mr. Miyagi perform the tea ceremony together, which, Kumiko explains to Daniel, is a sign that they are renewing their love.

Daniel inadvertently reveals that the grocery business of Chozen and his cronies, Taro and Toshio, has been defrauding the villagers with rigged weights. The outraged farmers set upon Chozen and demand appropriate compensation. Because of this, Chozen accuses Daniel of both insulting his honor and being a coward like his sensei. He and Daniel have a series of confrontations, first in the village, then later in Naha City, and at a 1950s-themed dance. Chozen attempts to humiliate Daniel by demanding he demonstrate his karate skills by chopping through six blocks of ice, a seemingly impossible feat. However, Mr. Miyagi appears just in time to express confidence in Daniel by taking Chozen up on his bet at a dollar amount which Chozen cannot cover, but which Sato agrees to cover Chozen. Daniel successfully fulfills the challenge, which Chozen protests, but Sato informs Chozen not to embarrass Sato and honors the terms of the wager.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Kumiko begin to grow closer. She brings him to an old castle on the seacoast that Sato is allowing to deteriorate and be plundered. Both Daniel and Kumiko express incredulity at why Sato would allow a historical relic like the castle to suffer thus.

The feud between Daniel and Chozen eventually comes to a head when Sato, at the conclusion of the three-day mourning period, shows up to fight Mr. Miyagi. Because Mr. Miyagi is not present, Chozen and his cronies destroy the Miyagi family dojo and much of the garden; then, Chozen viciously attacks Daniel when he tries to intervene. When Mr. Miyagi arrives, Chozen, Taro and Toshio attack him, but Mr. Miyagi defeats them easily, even as Chozen wields a spear. Realizing that he has put Daniel in grave danger, Mr. Miyagi makes plans to return home to Los Angeles.

Before they can leave Japan, however, Sato shows up with earth-mover machines and threatens to destroy and redevelop the village if Mr. Miyagi continues to refuse to fight. Mr. Miyagi reluctantly gives in, but only on the condition that no matter who wins, Sato must sign the titles to the villagers' homes back over to them. Sato agrees to this condition. On the day the fight is to take place, Daniel and Kumiko, like Yukie and Mr. Miyagi, perform the ancient tea ceremony, ending with a kiss. Meanwhile, a typhoon strikes the village. The villagers take cover at a storm shelter, but Sato is still at his family's dojo. When the Sato family dojo is leveled by the storm, trapping Sato inside, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel rush to rescue him. Sato believes that Mr. Miyagi has decided to unfairly defeat him while he is incapacitated, but Mr. Miyagi instead breaks a support beam that had pinned Sato down, freeing him.

After the three return to safety, Daniel goes out again, this time to rescue a girl named Yuna trapped in the bell tower. Sato orders Chozen to go help Daniel, but Chozen refuses, not wanting to cooperate with Daniel in any capacity. Just as Mr. Miyagi goes on to help Daniel, Sato insists in helping him instead as gratitude for saving his life. After the child is safe, Sato disowns Chozen for refusing to cooperate. Humiliated, Chozen later runs off into the storm in anger.

The next morning, the villagers set about rebuilding the village, and Sato returns with the bulldozers, not to raze the village, but to help get rid of debris and repair storm damage. Sato hands over the titles to the villagers' homes, and also humbly asks Mr. Miyagi for forgiveness. Though Mr. Miyagi insists that there is nothing to forgive, he accepts his old friend's apology. Daniel asks Sato if the village may hold their upcoming O-bon festival on the castle grounds. Sato agrees, and grants them this right in perpetuity. Sato has one condition, however: that Daniel join him and the other villagers in the celebration. Daniel accepts.

At the O-bon festival, Kumiko is on stage performing the traditional dance that she rehearsed earlier. However, Daniel notices a figure in yellow and black zip-lining down the lantern installments. When the figure emerges into visibility, it turns out to be a now-deranged and vengeful Chozen, who evilly crashes the festival, seizes Kumiko, holds her hostage at knifepoint (after brandishing a switchblade). Sato tells Chozen that he was wrong to hate Mr. Miyagi and implores Chozen to similarly let go of his hatred for Daniel. But after being disowned, Chozen sees no point in listening to his uncle and refuses, saying that doing so will not give back his "honor" and that he is now "dead" to Sato. Now thirsty for revenge and restoration of his honor, Chozen then threatens to kill Kumiko if Daniel does not step up to fight him to the death. Daniel agrees, in spite of Mr. Miyagi's warning that this time is no tournament, but instead very real. Chozen has turned from a cowardly bully to a hate-filled enemy who indeed wants to kill Daniel.

Daniel fights valiantly, but Daniel gets overwhelmed by Chozen and Chozen proves to be a much more formidable opponent than any other that Daniel has faced before; he even deflects the crane kick Daniel used to win in the tournament. A little while later, Mr. Miyagi brings out his hand drum and beats it. The other villagers follow suit with their own drums, which allows Daniel to realize how he can win. As the puzzled Chozen closes in to attack, the brutally beaten-up Daniel successfully utilizes the drum technique to deflect Chozen's attacks and land a series of devastating counter-attacks. Soon after the final attack, Chozen falls down. Daniel, realizing for the first time in his life that his karate skills are potentially capable of enabling him to kill another person, grabs the vanquished Chozen by his hair and cocks his hand back for the fatal blow, demanding of Chozen, "Live or die, man!" When Chozen responds with "die", Daniel counters this and responds the same way Mr. Miyagi did against Kreese; "honking" his nose and dropping him to the ground, unwilling to kill him. Following his defeat of Chozen, Daniel embraces Kumiko, and as Daniel looks up, he sees Mr. Miyagi looking on proudly.

Cast[]

Trivia[]

  • Although set in Okinawa, the film was actually shot in Oahu, Hawaii. The island was chosen because of its similar climate to Japan, its large Okinawan population and the convenience of shooting on US soil.
    • Principal photography took place in Oahu, Hawaii, in the northeastern area of the island known as the "windward side". The local countryside in modern-day Okinawa had been drastically changed due to the presence of military bases, so other locations in both Japan and Hawaii were scouted as alternative filming locations. Filmmakers selected a property in Oahu that was privately owned by a retired local physician who agreed to allow a portion of the land to be used in the film. To form the Okinawan village portrayed in the film, seven authentic replicas of Okinawan houses were constructed along with more than three acres of planted crops. Fifty Okinawa-born Hawaii residents were also recruited as film extras.
  • Work on The Karate Kid Part II started ten days after the release of The Karate Kid in 1984.
  • The opening scenes (Daniel in the shower, and the confrontation in the parking lot with Kreese) were in the script for The Karate Kid (1984) but contrary to urban legend never filmed. They were shot specifically for The Karate Kid Part II.
  • According to Martin Kove, the blood on his hands when he broke the windows was real and was an accident on-set. The footage was left in the Final Cut.
  • During the scene where Kreese is strangling Johnny following their argument about Johnny's loss at the tournament, Johnny can be seen using his hand to tap his own shoulder a couple of times. In martial arts training, specifically for grappling (e.g. choking or locking techniques), tapping is used as a signal of surrender when the practitioner's technique is taking effect.
  • When Miyagi introduces Daniel to the Miyagi family dojo, he shows him a picture of the founder of Miyagi Karate, Miyagi Shimpo Sensei. The person in the picture is extremely similar to the founder of the modern Japanese martial art Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba or O' Sensei.
    • Or 18th century martial arts master, Sakugawa Kanga. Also known as "Tode Sakugawa", he was a teacher of to-de, the precursor to modern Karate.
  • In addition to being an expert in karate and owning a construction company in Okinawa, it seems that Sato also owns and runs an escort service. When Daniel and Miyagi are getting off the plane in Okinawa, they see a sign on the wall advertising Sato's Karate Dojo. Above that sign to the left is another sign for Sato's construction company, and above the karate sign to the right is a 3rd sign advertising Sato's Escort Service.
  • Some scenes cut from the original script include a scene introducing a mysterious character named Webster Miyagi who waits for Miyagi outside the tournament building, to whom Miyagi reacts in an uncomfortable manner, and also a scene of Daniel and Ali breaking up because of Ali leaving for Europe for the summer.

Goofs[]

  • When Miyagi gives Daniel his last will and testament, the candles of the family shrine are not lit. In the next shot, as Miyagi turns to enter the shrine, the candles are lit.
  • After Daniel races Kumiko to the castle ruins, he points at her with his right hand to tell her that she cheated. In the very next shot, he is pointing at her with his left hand.
  • After they left the air base, it was daytime. They drove over a small bridge, and in the next shot, they were on the other side of the same bridge but it was then much darker out as if they had been driving for a while.
  • When Daniel and Kumiko are in the hut having the tea ceremony, we see Kumiko unclip her barrette and her hair falls and is blown about by the heavy winds. In the next shot, as she goes to kiss Daniel, both her and Daniel's hair and clothing are motionless.
  • At the cannery, Mr. Miyagi releases a hook from the tower and dodges it, and the sharp point slams into the wood behind him. Daniel asks him if he can try, and Mr. Miyagi climbs to the tower to reset the hook. However, when he is raising the hook, there is a large piece of wood covering the hook (as a safety). When the hook gets to the top, the hook is bare, and Mr. Miyagi places the same wood on the hook.
  • The stolen money recovered from Chozen shifts between Daniel's left and right hand during the chase scene.
  • When Daniel first tries to dodge the hook at the dock, he gets knocked into the water and the platform he was standing on was bone dry. Daniel then climbs up a ladder out of the water seconds later and remounts the platform, only now the platform is already wet. This would indicate that a previous unused take was made.
  • During the final fight between Daniel and Chozen, in some scenes, Yukie is watching the fight and seems to be crying, but in other shots only a few seconds apart, her expression is totally different and she appears to be watching something else other than what's going on.
  • During the bar scene, Daniel claims that a man is "standing wrong" to perform an ice breaking technique, so he could only break through 2 pieces. The man then challenges Daniel to do better -- break at least 3 pieces. When Chozen offers 3:1 odds against Daniel breaking the ice, several patrons excitedly place a bet in favor of Daniel. Then, the man seeks to clarify the bet asking "Hey, he's gotta break all 3 right?" Chozen responds "Wrong, all 6." Afterwards, the crowd gets more excited and places more bets. This does not make sense. Any bets already made became worse upon knowledge that Daniel had to break all 6 pieces to win instead of 3. If anything, the crowd should have been withdrawing their bets instead of excitedly making more bets.
  • In the beginning of the movie John Kreese goes to punch Mr Miyagi in the face however, he breaks the car window instead. The car window is much lower than Mr Miyagi's face. Kreese would have had to be aiming at Mr Miyagi's stomach.
  • When Daniel accidentally knocks over Chozen's scale, one of the weights breaks, revealing it is fake and prompting the farmers to yell, "So you cheat people!" This would mean a cheat in the farmers' favor. However, Sato owns the land and may charge a fee to the farmers for how much they produce. If it appeared they produced more than they actually did, the fee to Sato would be greater.
  • After Mr Miyagi's first confrontation with Sato, Daniel and Mr Miyagi walk away and Daniel can be heard saying when referring to Yuki "Why didn't you just marry her and move to Alaska?" It is established earlier in the film that the feud between Miyagi and Sato goes back 45 years which within the time line of this film would put that date as either 1939 or 1940. Alaska did not become a US state until 1959. The region of Alaska would have been known as "Russian-America" prior to 1959. While this is true, Daniel may not have know this in the 1980s. So, Daniel refers to Alaska by its 1980s name, which is reasonable for a high school graduate in the 1980s to do.
  • Just after Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel the drum technique on the fishing dock, Daniel foolishly releases one of the hooks without the protective cork on it and it rips a circular hole in his button-down shirt. In actuality, this would be impossible since the hook is not a projectile, but rather swung on ropes. Instead, the hook would have either caught in Daniel's shirt and yanked him off the dock or ripped clean through it.
  • After Miyagi fights Chozen and his friends, he runs by a concrete statue to see if Daniel is okay. The statue moves a bit. The next scene shows Chozen kicking this statue and supposedly breaking it.
  • When Mr. Miyagi is boarding the plane to Okinawa, the air hostess tells him that he's on seat 32 B, but when he turns to speak with Daniel, his boarding card says 32 A as his seat.
  • At the cannery, Mr. Miyagi releases a hook from the tower (while standing on a mount at the equilibrium of the hooks travel), dodges it, and the hook slams into the wood behind him. Daniel asks him if he can try and climbs onto the mount. Mr Miyagi reels in the hook but for this to happen the hook would have been pulled out of its resting place, which would result in it swinging back through the equilibrium, hitting Daniel from behind as he had his back to it.
  • When Miyagi and Daniel go to free Sato from the fallen ceiling beam of his home during the storm, you can see the break and sealed split in the beam when the camera's POV is over Miyagi's shoulder.
  • The village of Miyagi had been transformed into a busy metropolitan area long before the time in which the film was set. The story could have also taken place in nearby Miyagi Island which more closely resembles the cinematic version of the village, but it's equally anachronistic. Essentially, at the time the film is set, Okinawa looks nothing like the version depicted in the film; its a busy, bustling, first-world city not a rural region.
  • When Miyagi and Daniel are in the bar betting on the ice slabs, Miyagi says, "Miyagi take care of everything." In the next shot, he says "What odds?", but his mouth never moves.
  • Kadena Airbase (where Tomi Village is next to) is North of Naha, not South as Mr. Miyagi keeps insisting.
  • The situation where a typhoon suddenly appears near the end is unbelievable. Even in the 1980s, weather satellites would have detected and warned the population of Okinawa of the approaching storm days in advance, especially since the island is home to such an important US military base.
  • When the young Air Force man is giving Mr Miyagi and Daniel directions to his village in Okinawa, he asks the "Sarge" where it is. The sergeant then replies, "You are standing on it corporal." There are no corporals in the Air Force, and his rank was actually an Airman First Class (E-3) with two stripes. The correct response from the sergeant should have been, "You are standing on it airman."
  • When Daniel helps the villager with the wheelbarrow to the produce scales, he accidentally reveals that Chozen is cheating people with fake weights when he breaks one. However, it's fake in that it appears to be made of foam, this would make them light, making Chozen have to use more weights, making the produce appear heavier and thus more valuable. Chozen's scam would lead to overpaying the villagers, not under as is portrayed.
  • When Mr. Miyagi goes to put his glasses on when he receives the letter at the beginning of the film, he sticks one of the arms of his glasses in his eye by accident before putting them on properly.

Reception[]

Box office[]

The Karate Kid Part II opened in 1,323 theaters across North America on June 20, 1986. In its opening weekend, the film ranked first in its domestic box office grossing $12,652,336 with an average of $9,563 per theater. The film earned $20,014,510 in its opening week and ended its run earning a total of $115,103,979 domestically, which is surprisingly even more than Part I. [1] The film grossed a total of $130 million worldwide, matching the box office total of the original film.[2]

Critical response[]

Alex Stewart reviewed The Karate Kid Part II for White Dwarf #81, and stated that "The Karate Kid Part II is highly enjoyable. Positive and upbeat, without descending to mawkishness, this too is one to catch."

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 45% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 5.02/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Like countless sequels, The Karate Kid Part II tries upping the stakes without straying too far from formula -- and suffers diminishing returns as a result."[3] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average score of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[5]

Movie-gazette.com gave the film a positive review, stating the film was a "worthy follow-up to the first Karate Kid film, with added interest provided by its exotic locations and characters."[6] The Los Angeles Times also gave the film a positive review, particularly praising Pat Morita's performance as Miyagi and calling the actor "the heart of the movie".[7] Film historian Leonard Maltin agreed with the strength of the performances, but called the film "Purposeless... corny in the extreme — all that's missing from the climax is hounds and ice floes — but made palatable by winning performances. Best for kids."[8] At the Movies gave the film a mixed review, with both critics praising the character Miyagi but criticizing the villains and action scenes. Roger Ebert recommended the movie overall but Gene Siskel did not.[9][10]Like the original film, the sequel was a success, surprisingly even earning a higher box office than its predecessor. Part 1 earned $90 million while Part 2 earned $115.1 million.

References[]

  1. ↑ https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3395126785/weekend/
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190326043118/www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1989-07-03-8902190049-story.html
  3. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/karate_kid_part_2
  4. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-karate-kid-part-ii
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/
  6. ↑ https://movie-gazette.com/200/the-karate-kid-part-ii
  7. ↑ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-06-20-ca-11555-story.html
  8. ↑ https://www.worldcat.org/title/leonard-maltins-2009-movie-guide/oclc/18326811
  9. ↑ https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-06-20-8602140032-story.html
  10. ↑ siskelandebert.org/video/U4BA836KK5UW/The-Karate-Kid-Part-II--Running-Scared--Legal-Eagles--American-Anthem-1986

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