THE KARATE KID PART II — Movie Review
By John Argote Rodriguez
ROAD TO COBRA KAI
“The Karate Kid Part II” was released on June 20, 1986 and picks up immediately after the ending of the original film, but then we fast forward to six months later and we see Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Mortia) traveling to Mr. Miyagi’s home country to see his ill father and confront his past.
I’m gonna start off by saying that this movie is nowhere near as good as the first movie, and neither are the following movies for that matter. This film isn’t bad by any means it just doesn’t have that special element that made the first film a classic.
“The Karate Kid Part II” takes place mainly on Okinawa, Japan Mr. Miyagi’s home country where he immediately gets into trouble because of past events with a former friend, Sato (Danny Kamekona) who is out to fight him and revenge. Due to this Sato starts to terrorize Mr. Miyagi’s village unless he agrees to fight him.
Hands down, the best thing about this film is the performance and chemistry between Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio, they are what brings light to the film, but Pat Morita it particular stole this movie, he showed deph and emotion to his character that I was intrigued about the character’s motive and backstory, Morita gave such a power house performance.
On a different note, one if the more weaker story arc’s that didn’t improve the movie it just made it okay is we have another love interest for Daniel since Ali fell in love with some guy at UCLA and Elizabeth Shue wanted to focus on school so that contributed, but this time around the love interest is Kumiko played by Tamlyn Tomita and she was “meh”, I didn’t feel any chemistry between her and Macchio and I wasn’t invested in the romance that I didn’t care. I’d say it was the weakest element of “The Karate Kid Part II”.
The final show down was fun, not as entertaining as LaRusso going up against Cobra Kai, but it wasn’t boring just little fun fight scene.
“The Karate Kid Part II” isn’t a bad movie by any means, but it ain’t great, it’s filled with great performances from Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio, gave more heart and depth to Mr. Miyagi, fun karate fights, but the romance was dull, the villain wasn’t anywhere near as entertaining as John Kreese and Johnny Lawrence and the Cobra Kai, and it’s not even close as good as the far superior original film. At the end it’s a fun movie with it’s flaws, but is easily overshadowed by it’s predecessor.
Grade: C
