Finish him!
If you’ve lived under a rock or your parents have simply, cruelly, kept you from violent 80s films then you need to see The Karate Kid. It’s a story about a kid named Daniel Larusso and his struggle to fit into an unforgiving, cruel high school world where rich bullies will randomly kick his ass.
Daniel is a poor kid moving to a rich part of California. When he meets up with a new girl and gets in the way of a fight between her and her ex-boyfriend, he soon finds out his place. Not willing to back down, Daniel continues to play cat and mouse with the Johnny (the ex-boyfriend) until Daniel really gets a beat down from the short fuse. When that happens, an older Japanese man named Mr. Miyagi makes a deal with Johnny and his Sensai that they won’t bother Daniel until the big karate tournament. Miyagi in-turn teaches Daniel karate and how to survive/deal with life.
Such a great story! Sure it’s predictable. Sure the movie takes a scrawny kid that doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell and turns him into a winner. What makes this movie special isn’t all of these predictable things; rather it’s the relationship that is built between Miyagi and Daniel. Ralph Macchio’s performance as that kid that gets sand kicked in his face is remarkable. He’s dead-on what an out of place kid in a new city would be like (if you’ve been in that situation you certainly would understand). His lack of a father figure in the movie opens up a need for guidance. Pat Morita’s Mr. Miyagi provides that guidance perfectly. He treats Daniel like a son and shows him different, better ways to deal with life’s situations. From strangers to a father/son relationship, it’s an amazingly smooth transition; it’s why people love the film so much. Of course, it also helped that it’s an underdog story.
Anyway, this film is great and it’s still good after 26 years. Kids today will be able to relate and enjoy it, which is vital for its movie survival.
As for the Blu-ray portion, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment really made this work and work well. While they certainly could have printed a par Blu-ray of a famous movie, they really seemed to spend some time on the transfer (which looks gorgeous) and especially the audio. You will be rocking to all the great 80s tunes and you’ll be singing the drunk Japanese song that Miyagi murmurs before he sadly passes out. The audio comes in 5.1 DTS-HD and it sounds every bit gorgeous.
Now, the big push for this Blu-ray was the ‘pop-up’ video that they included with it. It’s darn cool if you’re a movie fact-loving individual (like yours truly). I was impressed with what they did with it and it’s a great add-on to the Blu-ray. Now, as a reviewer I have to be completely honest with you. I’m not completely sure if the features on here are rehashed. I’m assuming with the passing of Pat Morita 2005, and who is in the features, that this is a rehash from earlier features. This reviewer has never seen the featurettes that were included on the Blu-ray. Regardless, they were enjoyable and informative. The commentary was darn good as wel, but again I think this is just a rehash.
Here’s the full list:
– Blu-Pop — very cool stuff
– Commentary with John G. Avildsen, Robert Mark Kamen, Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita
– The Way of the Karate Kid — Multi-part featurette
– Beyond the Form
– East Meets West: A Composer’s Notebook
– Life of Bonsai Featurette