The Karate Kid Part II

The Karate Kid, Part II
The Karate Kid, Part II movie poster
Directed by	John G. Avildsen
Written by	Robert Mark Kamen
Produced by	Jerry Weintraub William J. Cassidy (associate producer) Susan Ekins (associate producer) Karen Trudy Rosenfelt (associate producer)
Starring	Ralph Macchio Pat Morita Danny Kamekona Yuji Okumoto Tamlyn Tomita Nobu McCarthy
Cinematography	James Crabe
Edited by	John G. Avildsen David Garfield Jane Kurson
Music by	Bill Conti
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	United States/Canada June 20, 1986 Australia July 31, 1986 Japan October 25, 1986
Running time	113 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Box office	$115,103,979 (USA)

The Karate Kid, Part II is a 1986 American martial arts film and is a sequel to 1984's The Karate Kid. Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita reprise their roles as Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi, respectively. The original music score was composed by Bill Conti. Like the original film, the sequel was also a success, and earned even more at the box office than its predecessor, although it received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

The film picks up almost directly after the end of The Karate Kid; John Kreese (Martin Kove), furious over his star pupil Johnny Lawrence's (William Zabka) second place finish in the All Valley Karate Tournament, viciously berates and humiliates Johnny in the parking lot. Miyagi, who is leaving the venue with Daniel, rescues Johnny, passively immobilizes Kreese, then comically tweaks Kreese's nose instead of dealing him a fatal blow. As Johnny and his friends quit the Cobra Kai dojo en masse, Miyagi explains his actions to Daniel: "For person with no forgiveness in heart, living even worse punishment than death."

Six months afterwards in 1985, Daniel now lives in a guest room at Miyagi's house; his mother had moved to Fresno for work, and had arranged for him to live with Miyagi. It is also revealed that Ali dumped him and fell for a football player. Miyagi soon receives a letter telling him his father is dying. He intends to return to Okinawa alone, but Daniel decides to accompany him. When Daniel asks Miyagi why he left Okinawa in the first place, Miyagi answers that he loved a woman named Yukie, who was arranged to be married to Sato, son of the richest man in town, and Miyagi's best friend. Sato and Miyagi studied karate together under Miyagi's father, in defiance of tradition. One day, Miyagi announced before the whole town that he wanted to marry Yukie. Sato was insulted and challenged Miyagi to a fight to the death. Rather than fight his best friend, Miyagi fled Okinawa.

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

Miyagi and Daniel are welcomed to Tome village by Yukie (Nobu McCarthy) and her niece Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita), to whom Daniel is immediately attracted. They learn that Sato is now 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, the villagers all rent their property from Sato, who now actually owns the entire village. Yukie also reveals that because she truly loved Miyagi and carried a torch for him, she never married Sato.

Despite Miyagi's father's dying wish for his son and student to make peace with each other, Sato still insists on fighting Miyagi, though after his sensei's passing, he gives Miyagi a customary period to mourn. Miyagi teaches 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 Miyagi calls it, represents the block-and-defense that Daniel begins to practice diligently. Miyagi warns him that the powerful technique should only be used as a last resort. Later, Yukie and Miyagi perform the tea ceremony together, which, Kumiko explains to Daniel, is a sign that they are renewing their love.

Daniel angers Chozen and his cronies, Taro and Toshio, by inadvertently revealing that their grocery business has been defrauding the villagers. Because of this, Chozen and his gang begin to harass Daniel and Kumiko almost constantly, with Chozen accusing Daniel of being a coward like his sensei. Meanwhile, the mutual attraction between Daniel and Kumiko continues to grow and they, like Yukie and Miyagi, perform the ancient tea ceremony together,also sharing a kiss.

When Sato threatens to destroy and redevelop the village if Miyagi continues to refuse to fight, Miyagi reluctantly gives in, but only on the condition that no matter who wins, Sato must relinquish the titles to the villagers' homes to them. But on the day the fight is to take place, the village is hit by a typhoon. When Sato's dojo is destroyed by the storm with Sato trapped inside, Miyagi and Daniel rush to free him from the wreckage and bring him to safety at the local storm shelter. In a critical moment, Sato believes that Miyagi is going to strike with a killing blow, but he instead only breaks a large piece of wooden rubble that had been pinning Sato in place. After the three return to safety, Daniel goes out to rescue a child trapped in the bell tower, and Sato orders Chozen to help him. Chozen refuses, fearful of getting hurt, so Sato goes to assist Daniel. Afterwards, in a moment of anger, Sato renounces Chozen, who runs off.

The next morning, Sato and his workers are ready to help rebuild the village. Not only does Sato hand over the titles to the villagers' homes, he also humbly asks Miyagi for forgiveness. Though Miyagi insists that there is nothing to forgive, he accepts his old friend's apology. Daniel decides to ask Sato if the village may hold their upcoming O-bon festival on the castle grounds. Sato agrees, asking Daniel to join him and the other villagers in the celebration.

At the O-bon festival, Kumiko is on stage performing a traditional dance when a now-deranged and vengeful Chozen interrupts, taking her hostage at knifepoint. Sato tells Chozen that he was wrong to hate Miyagi and implores Chozen to similarly let go of his hatred for Daniel. Chozen refuses, threatening to kill Kumiko if Daniel does not step up to fight him. Daniel agrees, in spite of Miyagi's warning that now this is no tournament--this time, the fight is very much real, and possibly to the death.

Chozen proves to be a much more formidable opponent than any other that Daniel has faced before, and the tide of the battle begins to turn in Chozen's favor. Miyagi then brings out his hand drum and beats it. The other villagers follow suit, which allows Daniel to realize how he can win. As Chozen closes in for the kill, Daniel successfully utilizes the drum technique to deflect Chozen's attacks and land his own devastating counter-attacks. Daniel, realizing for the first time in his life that his karate skills are sufficient to kill another person, grabs the vanquished Chozen by his hair and cocks his hand back for the fatal blow, asking Chozen if he wishes to live or die. When Chozen responds with "die," Daniel responds the same way Miyagi did against Kreese; he fakes out Chozen before tweaking his nose and dropping him to the ground. Daniel embraces Kumiko, while Miyagi looks on proudly.

Cast

• Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso
• Pat Morita as Mr. Kesuke Miyagi
• Martin Kove as John Kreese
• Nobu McCarthy as Yukie
• Tamlyn Tomita as Kumiko
• Yuji Okumoto as Chozen
• Joey Miyashima as Toshio
• Marc Hayashi as Taro
• Danny Kamekona as Sato
• Tony O'Dell as Jimmy

Clarence Gilyard appears in the famous ice-breaking scene, and B. D. Wong shortly before, as an Okinawan child who runs up to Daniel and Kumiko.

Production

Filming locations were shot on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, USA. The Hawaii location was chosen due to the similar climate and the island's large Okinawan population as well as the convenience of shooting in the U.S.

The opening scenes for this movie take place immediately after the finale of the first movie and appear to seamlessly tie the two together. Although the opening scene of Part II was the originally planned ending of the first film, the parking lot confrontation scene was shot during the Part II schedule.

Soundtrack

The film's signature tune was Peter Cetera's song "Glory of Love", which was a #1 hit in the U.S. and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song.

When Daniel and Miyagi are being driven by Chozen and his friend after they arrive in Okinawa, Chozen tunes in the radio of the car until he reaches a station playing "Fascination", the same song to which Ali and Johnny were slow dancing at the high-end country club in the original movie.

The soundtrack is also noted as being the final release on United Artists Records.

1. Glory of Love (Peter Cetera) 4:18
2. Rock N Roll Over You (The Moody Blues) 4:45
3. Fish for Life (Mancrab) 3:58
4. Rock Around the Clock (Paul Rodgers) 2:18
5. Let Me At 'Em (Southside Johnny) 3:54
6. This Is the Time (Dennis DeYoung) 3:54
7. Earth Angel (New Edition) 4:03
8. Love Theme from Karate Kid II (Bill Conti) 2:56
9. Two Looking at One (Carly Simon) 3:38
10. The Storm (Bill Conti) 3:26

In popular culture

The character Ellie Bartowski on the television series Chuck claims that a love-struck recital of "Glory of Love" for her by Morgan Grimes ruined The Karate Kid, Part II for her. In an episode of Yes, Dear Greg Warner remembers getting into a fight with Kim's Ex boyfriend and losing. Every time he keeps trying to fight him, he hears the song "Glory of Love" to give himself confidence. Pat Morita guest starred near the end of the episode to teach Greg karate for a rematch; however, as in The Karate Kid, Part II, even the crane kick did not work.

Also in the "Clum Babies" episode of the animated series Drawn Together, when Ling-Ling and Ni-Pul battle, "Glory of Love" plays in the background.

Reception

Movie-gazette.com writer, Scott Tanski, gave the film a positive review, stating the film to be a 'Worthy follow-up to the first 'Karate Kid’ film, with added interest provided by its exotic locations and characters.' The film has a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie did get a moderate review from the Los Angeles Times.

Box Office

The movie made $98 million dollars.

Awards and nominations

At the 1987 ASCAP Awards, Bill Conti won Top Box Office Films for the original music, which was released on United Artists Records. It also received a different Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Glory of Love".

External links

• The Karate Kid, Part II at IMDb
• The Karate Kid, Part II at AllMovie