There isn’t a person out there over 25 who doesn’t immediately know what movie I’m talking about when I say “Wax on, wax off”. Oh yes Daniel San… I’m talking about The Karate Kid.
The original 1984 film wasn’t just another puffy 80’s teen flick. It wasn’t exactly a comedy either, or an action film for that matter. Underneath the kicks and fights and trying to get the girl from the right side of the tracks, there are elegant and deeper themes. Perhaps these themes weren’t explored the best possible way… but they are there, and they worked.
Now, a DVD collection of all 4 (yes, there are 4) Karate Kid films is being released. How many of you actually remembered that in the 4th film, “The Next Karate Kid“, an unknown actress named Hilary Swank became Mr. Miyagi’s new student? The folks over at CNN have a great little interview with Ralph Macchio about the DVD’s, the films and some of his favorite memories from the series:
“Pat Morita has this wonderful scene [where Miyagi] gets drunk and you learn about his ex-wife and you learn about his character and it’s at the point that Daniel puts him to bed, lays him down and then finds out that his wife and son died due to complications from birth,” he says. “It’s just a real dramatic moment.”
As the DVD reveals, studio execs thought the scene slowed the pace of the film and wanted it gone. But Avildsen fought for it, the scene stayed in, and Morita likely got his Oscar nomination because of it.
You should really go read the whole interview.
Like most people, I didn’t much care for parts 3 or 4, but I still have great memories of 1 and 2. I’ll be grabbing this one.
