The Karate Kid 1984

A true '80s classic that pits the plucky, sincere new kid and his zen martial arts/life instructor against a troupe of gruff, aggressive bullies and their own emotionally abusive sensei. Yin versus yang in every respect, to be concise. It's an extremely basic storyline, narrow and by-the-books, but the music is great, it's got tons of heart and all the crucial performances are absolutely perfect.

Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio are the cornerstones, an earnest and relatable pairing that falls together almost by accident and then patiently develops a tight, resonant bond. They're both dynamite; Macchio as the babyfaced boy-next-door (he was twenty-two at the time, but looked all of fourteen) and Morita as the sage, reclusive font of wisdom and worldly experience. The film really takes its time with that relationship, allowing the audience to learn and grow right alongside the stars and drawing us in via simple, reflective character moments. Why give in to the temptation of a cheesy montage when that would skim over all the important stuff?

It doesn't nail every spot - a brisk romance with Elizabeth Shue constantly wavers between sweetness and melodrama, while the hard-earned climax at a big karate tournament is strangely abrupt - but the good far outweighs the bad. Admirably slow and careful without overstaying its welcome, it represents a lost style of mainstream storytelling. I don't think the big studios would have enough restraint to make a movie like this today.

Awful, another overrated pop culture artifact from the 80s. Sometimes I appreciate simplicity in movies, but this is so watered down and basic that I can’t imagine getting a lot out this even if I were the target demographic. Honestly, how did this leave such a long lasting cultural mark? It’s predictable fluff without any visual creativity or genuine artistry. I grew up with some of Pixar’s best stuff, the 90s Disney renaissance and Harry Potter, next to those this feels like it was written by a child. There’s zero complexity allowed with the story or characters (literally everyone is written like a stereotype), which to me feels phony and makes it impossible to connect in any significant way (though I understand why someone else might find it pure instead). The cheesy 80s production style certainly doesn’t help either, for example the AOR soundtrack does this movie no favors as the genre has fallen out of favor over the years. Nevertheless, I enjoyed some of the charming interactions between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, and it’s certainly impressive that Ralph Macchio continuously holds his own as an actor throughout. It’s just not enough to make me ever want to see this again, because everything this tries to do is done more interestingly by other 80s films. Give me John Hughes over this any day of the week.

3/10

"Get him a body bag! Yeah!"

Yeah, this was a decent film. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, it was decent, but I didn't know what to expect. In a way, I guess that may have backfired on me a bit. It subtly slithered in expectations to where I got thrown off balance. It was all good in the end, though.

I went in with some things at the back of my head: the moment in HIMYM with Barney Stinson believing Johnny Lawrence's the real Karate Kid, bits and pieces from Cobra Kai that I've seen where Johnny's shown in a different light, and how some people think or ended up thinking, more recently, that Daniel wasn't so innocent, either.

That made me think Johnny would have more depth, as well as being super cruel, and Daniel would be similar, to a lesser extent: or that he would be a typical bully-victim, super scared and taking it, defenseless, making Johnny more "evil." And I guess that was true, somewhat. But not in the way I was expecting. Johnny wasn't that horrible, just your average bully. But the writer didn't seem to do much with his character, depth-wise. And Daniel wasn't this weak person who garnered even more sympathy when evil Johnny got into the picture; he was headstrong/revengeful and happened to encounter trouble with no proper means to defend himself.

The focus didn't seem to be on highlighting Johnny as this evil guy nor Daniel as this good guy you should undoubtedly be cheering on; you end up doing that yourself without any push towards it by the writer, or that's how it seemed. If anything, it seemed like the writer subtly painted John Kreese (through himself, but especially his teachings) as the "evil guy." But even that came across as a back-burner focus. The real focus/message was the relationship between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi and the latter's life lessons/wisdom, or at least that's what I think.

This film was undoubtedly a film from/of its time, that's for sure. Everything about it was screaming that out. That wasn't necessarily a problem in and of itself. It's just that it was somewhat average. The story was simple, maybe too simple, but that could've been more on the direction and pacing; not much did seem to happen. The other aspects didn't seem as "vibrant" as I thought they would be, which is probably on me for having certain expectations. But maybe that's the case with loads of films back then. The soundtrack, as well as the score composed by Bill Conti, was decent, though. And the fight choreography, while 80's-esque, was done well.

Don't get me wrong: that was fine. I feel like the "disconnect," in a sense, is the nostalgia factor attached to this film. I think that elevated it higher than it was when people refer to it. Because, when peeling that back, what's left is a fairly average (not bad, just average) film.

At the same time, there's something about it. That could come from three elements: sincerity, genuinity, and a general sense of heartfeltness; they seemed prominent. Despite being an average film, it seemed to have more of an effect than it realistically "should've." That almost feels like a proper explanation of most films from this film's time, even though I wouldn't know anything about that. And it's not nostalgia, as this is my first time watching it. It just seems to have succeeded against all odds, like an underdog, like Daniel LaRusso.