the karate kid 1984 christian movie review

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The Karate Kid: Movie Review

Hannah Goodwyn

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No, you haven't traveled back to 1984, and no, you will not see Mr. Miyagi or Daniel-san "wax on, wax off". In fact, the "remake" should be called The Kung Fu Kid , since that's what the little hero learns, not karate (a martial art revered in Japan). All that in mind, this new film is actually quite good.

Starring power couple Will and Jada Pinkett Smith's son, Jaden, The Karate Kid is an updated version of an '80s classic. It doesn't offer groundbreaking storytelling, which isn't a big surprise, since it's a remake, but it is a fun coming of age film the family will enjoy seeing together this summer.

THE MOVIE IN A MINUTE

Dre and his mother Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) leave their home in the US. to start a new life on the other side of the world. Trying to accept China as his new home, Dre begins to fall for his classmate Mei Ying. The trouble starts when bully Cheng and his friends use their Kung Fu training to beat up Dre. Secretly a Kung Fu Master, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) stops the local boys from seriously hurting Dre. To gain his new young friend a reprieve from the bullyiing, Mr. Han agrees to enter Dre in a Kung Fu tournament, for which he trains him.

WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN'T

Though this remake is slow in its beginning, it's strong at the finish. One major plus audiences will key in on is how well the soundtrack follows the plot of the film. With a well-selected song list backing the story, our focus is centered on lil' Dre. The transplanted 12-year-old starts off as a complaining, frustrated kid. Similar to the original, he soon discovers a martial art that will help him stand up for himself. By the end, Dre has the Kung Fu Tournament audience and those of us in the movie theater cheering.

In the lead role of Dre, Jaden Smith shows us just how much he is his father’s son. Like dad, A-list movie star Will Smith, Jaden has got the acting gene, the dance moves, and even shows off his rap skills in the movie’s theme song with popstar Justin Bieber. You may remember Jaden from The Pursuit of Happyness , in which he played his father's onscreen son, Christopher. Don't be surprised if you catch Jaden showing some Will Smith mannerisms in The Karate Kid . This big break role is definitely just the beginning for the little star in the making.

Jackie Chan takes on the Mr. Miyagi-esque role as maintenance man Mr. Han. A much more serious part than the action and comedy star is known for, Chan expresses the right amount of emotion, giving this troubled Kung Fu Master the edge needed to keep the story interesting.

A few remarks about questionable content: The film refers to ancient Chinese remedies, magic Kung Fu water from the Dragon Well, and the concept of yin and yang. Mr. Han also teaches young Dre about qi, the flow of internal energy, the essence of life in each of us -- as he says.

Rated PG for bullying, martial arts action violence and some mild language, The Karate Kid is not for the little ones. Parents of young children, buy movie tickets with caution; our young hero, Dre, is the perpetrator of some of the obscenities used in the film.

If you go to the film understanding that this remake can't touch the classic, then The Karate Kid will not disappoint. Actually, it has the potential to be one of the best movies available to younger audiences this summer.

About The Author

the karate kid 1984 christian movie review

Hannah Goodwyn served as a Senior Producer for CBN.com, managing and writing for the award-winning website. After her undergraduate studies at Christopher Newport University, Hannah went on to study Journalism at the graduate level. In 2005, she graduated summa cum laude with her Master's from Regent University and was honored with an Outstanding Student Award. From there, Hannah began work as a content producer for CBN.com. For ten years, she acted as the managing producer for the website's Family and Entertainment sections. A movie buff, Hannah felt right at home working as CBN.com's More

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The Karate Kid (1984)

The Karate Kid is perhaps the best of the Rocky clones, formulaic, manipulative, hokey — and thoroughly rousing. Directed by John G. Avildsen (who directed Stallone in the original Rocky ), the film’s sincerity and emotional poignance have a way of steamrolling over gaps in plausibility and logic.

Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/spiritual value, age appropriateness, mpaa rating, caveat spectator.

Ralph Macchio stars in what is still his signature role as Daniel LaRusso, a sensitive lad reared in the nurturing enclaves of Newark, New Jersey, who finds the harsh realities of life in southern California a bit overwhelming after he move across country with his single mother (Randee Heller), who’s just taken a new job.

On the one hand, there’s Ali (Elisabeth Shue), a bright, sweet California blonde from the other side of the tracks who takes a shine to Daniel. On the other hand, there’s Johnny (William Zabka), Ali’s swaggering, karate-fighting ex-boyfriend, who travels with a menacing coterie of fellow bullies and doesn’t deal well with rejection — or competition.

The heart of the film, though, is Daniel’s relationship with an unexpected mentor and father figure, inscrutable handyman Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). Miyagi plays Yoda to Daniel’s petulant Luke Skywalker, wise, humorous, crusty, with unexpected skills and methods.

Miyagi’s self-defense oriented martial-arts philosophy mirrors Yoda’s teaching that a Jedi uses the Force “for knowledge and defense, never for attack”; and, if The Karate Kid film itself embraces the two-fisted cliché that the way to win a bully’s respect is by licking him good, the idea of violence as a last resort still comes across with tolerable cogency.

As with the Rocky films, the Karate Kid sequels increasingly went off the rails, and are thoroughly disposable; the original, though, is a keeper.

The Karate Kid (2010)

This Karate Kid may not be competing at the same level as the original, but it respects the tradition, and if it doesn’t really have anything new to say, it still says it in a reasonably engaging way.

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Movies With a Message: The Karate Kid (1984)

The Karate Kid (1984) UK Certificate: 15 US Certificate: PG Intended audience: Older children and adults.

Herewith a tribute to director John G Avildsen, who passed away recently.

These days it is easy to dismiss The Karate Kid as 1980s nostalgia. However, although it now looks somewhat dated, it retains an essential innocent charm as well as a few interesting spiritual lessons. And yes, those of a certain age (including me) can’t help but get a wistful pang for more innocent times whenever viewing it.

The plot concerns young Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio), a boy who moves from New York to California with his mother. Fatherless, friendless, and decidedly unimpressed with his new surroundings, he finds himself targeted by a gang of bullying karate students at high school. Consequently, he is taken under the wing of the kindly maintenance man in his apartment block, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), who just happens to be a karate expert.

Winning performances, a fine script, and unfussy direction from Avildsen (who also helmed the original Rocky ) all result in a satisfying triumph of the underdog tale. But what makes The Karate Kid special for me (besides the delight of having my all-time-favourite Bananarama song Cruel Summer on the soundtrack) are the spiritual allegories.

For a start, there’s the quietly understated way Miyagi slowly but surely becomes a mentor to Daniel, a boy in desperate need of a father figure. Initially fixing his bike after an attack by bullies, Miyagi subsequently teaches Daniel to tend bonsai trees before eventually agreeing to karate lessons. But Miyagi’s take on karate is radically different from that of local dojo teacher Kreese (Martin Kove), who instructs Johnny (William Zabka) leader of the gang that torments Daniel.

The clash between Kreese and Miyagi forms a fascinating good-versus-evil spiritual backdrop, as each essentially fights for possession of Daniel’s soul. Miyagi teaches Daniel the reason to learn karate is so he won’t have to fight, whereas Kreese’s no-mercy indoctrination could not be more different.

Along the way, Daniel grows considerably, including in his relationship with love interest Ali (Elizabeth Shue), who also happens to be Johnny’s ex-girlfriend. Ali’s rich, snobby, country club type background contrasts with that of Daniel, but her kindness to him proves pivotal. Also, Miyagi provides amusing advice to Daniel regarding Ali, especially when he encourages him to hang out with her instead of him on his birthday (“To make honey young bee need young flower, not old prune”).

However, the most important lesson in The Karate Kid is that of discipleship. Nowhere is this more evident than the justly famous “wax on, wax off” sequence whereby Daniel cannot understand what Miyagi’s instructions to polish his cars have to do with karate. It is very easy to relate on a spiritual level because sometimes being a disciple of Jesus involves doing difficult things that we cannot immediately see the reason for. However, just as Daniel reaps the rewards of his perseverance and trust, so we can reap the rewards of placing our trust in God and following his directions.

The success of The Karate Kid led to a couple of sequels, a spin-off, and a remake, but none of them match the charm and satisfaction of 1984 original which, despite being very much a product of its time, still holds up very well today. Rocky may have won John G Avildsen his Oscar, but to be honest I have always preferred The Karate Kid .

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Simon Dillon

Simon Dillon was born the year Steven Spielberg made moviegoers terrified of sharks. He enjoys talking about his favourite films far too much, and if you cut him he bleeds celluloid. However, he also finds God speaks to him through films (amongst other things). He also fancies himself as a bit of a storyteller, and his novels include Children of the Folded Valley, The Birds Began to Sing, Love vs Honour and Uncle Flynn. He lives in Plymouth in the UK, with his wife and children, and enjoys brainwashing the latter with the movies and novels he loved as a child.

The Karate Kid

I didn’t want to see this movie. I took one look at the title and figured it was either (a) a sequel to Toenails of Vengeance, or (b) an adventure pitting Ricky Schroder against the Megaloth Man. I was completely wrong. “The Karate Kid” was one of the nice surprises of 1984 — an exciting, sweet-tempered, heart-warming story with one of the most interesting friendships in a long time. The friends come from different worlds. A kid named Daniel ( Ralph Macchio ) is a New Jersey teenager who moves with his mother to Los Angeles. An old guy named Miyagi ( Pat Morita ) is the Japanese janitor in their apartment building. When Daniel starts to date the former girlfriend of the toughest kid in the senior class, the kid starts pounding on Daniel’s head on a regular basis. Daniel tries to fight back, but this is a Southern California kid, and so of course he has a black belt in karate. Enter Mr. Miyagi, who seems to be a harmless old eccentric with a curious hobby: He tries to catch flies with chopsticks. It turns out that Miyagi is a karate master, a student not only of karate fighting but of the total philosophy of the martial arts. He agrees to take Daniel as his student.

And then begins the wonderful center section of “The Karate Kid,” as the old man and the kid from Jersey become friends. Miyagi’s system of karate instruction is offbeat, to say the least. He puts Daniel to work shining cars, painting fences, scrubbing the bottoms of pools. Daniel complains that he isn’t learning karate, he’s acting as free labor. But there is a system to Mr. Miyagi’s training.

“The Karate Kid” was directed by John G. Avildsen , who made “ Rocky .” It ends with the same sort of climactic fight scene; Daniel faces his enemies in a championship karate tournament. But the heart of this movie isn’t in the fight sequences, it’s in the relationships. And in addition to Daniel’s friendship with Miyagi, there’s also a sweet romantic liaison with Ali ( Elisabeth Shue ), who is your standard girl from the right side of town and has the usual snobbish parents.

Macchio is an unusual, interesting choice for Daniel. He’s not the basic handsome Hollywood teenager but a thin, tall, intense kid with a way of seeming to talk to himself. His delivery always sounds natural, even offhand; he never seems to be reading a line. He’s a good, sound, interesting lead, but the movie really belongs to Pat Morita, an actor who has been around a long time (he was Arnold on “Happy Days”) without ever having a role anywhere near this good. Morita makes Miyagi into an example of applied serenity. In a couple of scenes where he has to face down a hostile karate coach, Miyagi’s words are so carefully chosen they don’t give the other guy any excuse to get violent; Miyagi uses the language as carefully as his hands or arms to ward off blows and gain an advantage. It’s refreshing to see a completely original character like this old man. “The Karate Kid” is a sleeper with a title that gives you the wrong idea: It’s one of 1984’s best movies.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Karate Kid (1984)

(Second viewing, On TV, March 2017) I remember seeing The Karate Kid as a kid, being entertained for most of it but mystified at some sequences such as the spaghetti-spill. Seeing the film in middle age makes for a different experience—the theme of surrogate fatherhood seems more obvious now, and the spaghetti spilling now makes perfect sense in a “when everything goes wrong…” sense. Surprisingly enough, my middle-age jadedness also leads to a better appreciation of the formula at the heart of the script. There is little that’s new or revolutionary about The Karate Kid (although the interracial component of the main relationship still remains almost unusual today), but it is exceptionally well-executed, with numerous telling details that help ground the film in reality … and still make for cultural references even thirty years later. Noriyuki “Pat” Morita is terrific as the older man taking our teenage protagonist under his care (the script even allowing him a few moments of ornery frustration), while Ralph Macchio is unpolished but likable in the lead role. The Karate Kid isn’t a perfect film—it ends far too soon without the luxury of a coda in which to enjoy its triumph, occasionally zigs and zags without control and often veers into overplayed on-the-nose moments. But it’s well-balanced, and strong enough in its assets to overcome its imperfections. No wonder it’s still relatively popular even today.

The Karate Kid

Review by brian eggert june 10, 2010.

From the depths of the height of 1980s pop culture comes The Karate Kid , a motion picture that, despite being stamped by its decade of origin, still works on a basic dramatic level today. Saying nothing of the three sequels and modern remake that followed, the simplicity of Rocky director John Avildsen’s film comes from established formulas: the coming-of-age tale, the teenager overcoming adversity, and the Little Guy winning the Big Fight against all odds. Teeming with these clichés, the film surmounts any downfalls that might hinder it by also presenting admirable and tangible relationships at the core, and that’s what still works in viewings today.

Ralph Macchio plays wimpy pipsqueak Daniel LaRusso, who’s uprooted from his New Jersey home and relocated to Los Angeles thanks to a career change by his single mother (Randee Heller). He has trouble adjusting after he falls for the dreamiest girl in his class, Ali Mills (standard ‘80s heartthrob Elizabeth Shue). She’s the ex-girlfriend of the high school’s snobby bully, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), a black belt in the local karate dojo, Cobra Kai. Aryan by design, the elitist blond-haired, blue-eyed Johnny aggressively pursues Ali after the breakup and proceeds to batter the weakling Daniel for making eyes at his former girl. Here, all components of your standard melodrama fall into place, with the underdog new kid from the wrong side of town positioned against the elitist bully. He’s paired in an unlikely romance with the rich girl, and he’s forced to defend both his and her honor.

Befriending his apartment complex’s humble old maintenance man from Okinawa, Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita), Daniel finds himself a valuable mentor. Together they groom bonsai trees and speak of Daniel’s YMCA experience with karate. One night, Daniel is rescued by Miyagi from a savage beating exacted by Johnny’s gang of hooligans. Miyagi turns out to be an unlikely karate master and resolves to teach Daniel; he even asks Johnny’s karate sensei, the dogmatic Vietnam Vet John Kreese (Martin Kove), to let the boys resolve their differences in an upcoming tournament. And opposed to a quick training montage and a swift resolution, the film swells and deepens in the training scenes, building upon the friendship between student and teacher. Daniel questions his lessons, why Miyagi has him doing manual labor—waxing cars, painting fences, sanding wooden floors—as opposed to teaching punches and kicks. And the reveal of Miyagi’s technique remains as fascinating as ever.

Of course, there’s no denying the cultural signifiers evident in the picture, which leave a “made in the 1980s” stamp all over the production. Just as Avildsen forever associated Rocky and its sequels with the inclusion of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” on the soundtrack, The Karate Kid seems irredeemably connected to the corny fighting ballad “You’re the Best” by rocker Joe Esposito. This song plays over the montage of karate matches in the tournament finale, echoing as the hundred-pound Daniel makes quick work of his opponents. That, along with the undeniable period hairdos and clothing, make the film more difficult to watch in a manner other than as a product of its time .

What’s even more distracting is the presentation of the villains, the karate students of Cobra Kai dojo, led by their Hitler, John Kreese, and his Goebbels, Johnny Lawrence. The film portrays Kreese as a senselessly violent man who believes in a “no mercy” brand of karate, which doesn’t seem like karate at all. Kreese’s minions, driven by his sense of irrational hatred for all things viewed as weak, haunt the temperate Daniel. Consider the Halloween scene where Cobra Kai’s SS troops all dress in skeleton costumes; it’s disturbing stuff. Like good little drones, they wittingly follow Kreese’s instruction to use illegal moves on Daniel during the tournament. They’re shown in such a sympathy-less light that, despite Daniel’s victory, we still hunger for Kreese to receive a harsh thrashing in retribution. Alas, that’s what sequels are for.

In terms of acting, Macchio’s vulnerability is impressive, and he does wonders with the role. But this is Morita’s film. It would be easy for screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen to limit Miyagi to your typical Yoda-type station, playing the other-worldly trainer who introduces his student to a new realm of thought. But thanks both to Morita’s Oscar-nominated performance and Kamen’s adept writing, the role proves to be so much more. Miyagi serves as both teacher and father figure to Daniel, but he’s also his own three-dimensional character. There’s an affecting scene where Daniel finds Miyagi drunk; the old man proceeds to confess the horrible tragedy of his past, the death of his wife and child. It’s an unbelievably sad moment that serves to humanize the character more than the audience expects. Morita, best known under the nickname “Pat” from his time on Happy Days , insisted upon the inclusion of his true name, Noriyuki, in the credits. Perhaps to seem less Americanized, given the nature of the role; perhaps because he wanted his true name to appear on this fine performance.

Opening in the summer of 1984, one of cinema’s most memorable periods where titles like Ghostbusters , Gremlins , and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were released, The Karate Kid stands out as a film that embraces the clichés of its genre and does so with a surprising amount of class. Without relying too much on its own karate gimmick, it stands as an affecting drama about relationships. Morita and Macchio offer incredible performances in a film that started an increasingly worsening franchise, as the subsequent sequels tried and failed to achieve the same sense of emotional clarity as this first entry. And even though it contains a dated quality and the conflict has been grossly exaggerated by inhuman antagonists, on its own and separate from what came after it, The Karate Kid still works on a very basic level today.

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Karate Kid (1984) Film Review

The Karate Kid

Reviewed by: Stephen Carty

Many cherished, cult-classic Eighties movies stand the test of time, many don’t. So what about the Karate Kid? Well, if you can get past the dated first half-hour which sets the scene and features a host of naff retro tunes music fans forgot to listen to, thankfully you're still in for some magic.

Arriving in California with his single-mother, gangly teen Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio) soon finds himself being targeted by the local karate-practicing bullies. However, hope arrives when it turns out that friendly handyman Mr Miyagi (Pat Morita) is also a master martial artist and he agrees to train Daniel for the upcoming local karate tournament.

Given that we've got another Italian-American underdog tale directed by John G Avildsen and scored by Bill Conti, comparisons with Rocky are inevitable. Of course, skinny Daniel is clearly no beef-pounding Italian Stallion, so here's it's more about wish-fulfilment as the alienated wimp builds up the courage and skills to face his bullies in a conveniently-timed tournament. Sure, the high-school teen-romance angle is often cheesy, but crucially, as with his Philadephia-set boxing classic, Avildsen ensures that we root for our hero in a way that 99 per cent of modern movies just don't.

Of course, credit for this also lies with Macchio, the weedy 23 year-old bringing tonnes of likeability to the stroppy 15-year-old “Daniel San”. Then there’s the wonderful Noriyuki ‘Pat’ Morita, who virtually came out of nowhere (he was a support player in Happy Days) to craft one of the most iconic screen characters with his endlessly-impersonatable Mr Miyagi (the mere mention of his name ensures someone in the room will mention “wax on, wax off”). Individually they’re good, but the movie really takes off when they come together, the pair forging a true friendship, which is occasionally heartfelt (“you’re the best friend I ever had”…“you pretty okay too”) and often heartwarming.

Okay, so the love-story in between isn’t nearly as engaging, but Elisabeth Shue is adorable and the naffness is, well, a bit charming. Plus, for every dodgy pop ‘classic’, there’s a memorable moment. The aforementioned wax-on, wax-off. Daniel realising why he’s been doing painstaking chores. The silhouetted training sequence where he’s getting the hang of it to Conti’s rousing pan-pipage. Miyagi treating a wounded leg (CLAP!). The infamous crane kick climax. It’s all wonderful stuff. And then there’s Martin Kove’s cult, love-to-hate-him sensei (“No mercy!”) and William Zabka’s hateable blond bully… true movie baddies.

When it’s a high school romance-come-bully yarn, it’s a three-star retro-fest. When it focuses on Daniel and Miyagi, it’s a five-star teacher and pupil classic..

Director: John G. Avildsen

Writer: Robert Mark Kamen

Starring: Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue, Martin Kove, Randee Heller, William Zabka, Ron Thomas, Rob Garrison, Chad McQueen, Tony O'Dell, Israel Juarbe, William Bassett, Larry B. Scott, Juli Fields, Dana Andersen

Runtime: 126 minutes

Country: US

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The Karate Kid

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Featuring	(Mr. Han) (Mom) Tess Liu (History Teacher) Harry Van Gorkum (Music Teacher—uncredited)
Director	” (2009), “ ” (2003)
Producer	, Han San Ping, , Solon So, Ken Stovitz, Jerry Weintraub, Dany Wolf
Distributor	, a division of Sony Pictures

Remake of “The Karate Kid” (1984)

S chool’s out and summer brings us to what movie goers deem: Blockbuster Summer. Many films have already gotten us off the ground including a couple of terrific sequels and re-makes like Shrek 3 and “Robin Hood.” The Karate Kid comes close at their heels, but making comparisons to the 1984 Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita classic may blind you to the virtues of the new, extremely pleasing version of the archetypal tale of mentor and protégé, emotionally scared man and bullied boy story, in this 2010 version played by Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith.

Director Harold Zwart and Producer Will Smith coupled with writer Christopher Murphy have given us not just a sequel but a new story based on the familiar theme. 2010’s Karate Kid has the excitement, humor, warmth, and themes of friendship, maturity, and overcoming adversity, I was relieved to find, left intact from the original. Better still, there’s no sense that any of it has been cheapened or simplified for the sake of appealing to a mass audience.

12 year old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith), leaves Detroit for China a few years after the death of his father. His Mom, Sherry ( Taraji P. Henson ) who works for a car manufacturing company, has been transferred and wants to make a new life for them. She tries hard to inspire Dre with how exciting living in a new country will be and how much the experience will teach them. But from the very beginning Dre becomes more and more aware of just how much he does not fit into his new surroundings. Not just blending with a new home and a new school, but the language and deeply embedded customs. Although most people are very helpful and he makes a new friend in his apartment building, there are other kids and even grown ups who are not so obliging.

This is where the story line is similar to the original as Dre meets a shy girl named Mei Ying (Wenwen Han) with a sweet smile and who plays violin that Dre wants so much to impress. Dre also has to find a way to defend himself from Cheng (Zhenwei Wang) and his band of Kung Fu fisted bullies who don’t like him, simply because he is different. The bullies chase him down relentlessly, until one day after school Dre is trapped in an alley unable to defend himself against their Kung Fu skills, and the quiet loner of a maintenance man from Dre’s apartment building, Mr. Han ( Jackie Chan ), appears and defends him using his own fantastic Kung Fu skills. At this point, Dre asks for Mr. Han’s help to defend himself against the bullies who are making his life miserable.

Han, although hesitant, decides to help Dre, but not in the way Dre had expected. Han first has to instill a sense of control, direction and honor within Dre before he can teach him the actual skills of true Kung Fu. The story finally comes full circle as we watch Dre be molded from a skinny, wimpy kid into a confident, respectful and well toned athlete. Dre learns that Kung Fu is a way of life, not just a martial art. That being still and doing nothing are two very different things. There is a time to act and a time to step away. He learns it is not enough just to know the moves and beat an adversary, one must know it is not a matter of win or lose, it is to live respectfully, control oneself and not others, and to treat others with the honor and decency you would expect back from them.

“The Karate Kid” is rated PG for realistic depictions of bullying, martial arts action which translates into violence and some mild language that are: a couple references to kicking a**, and the phrase ‘damn it.’ There is a running joke about some foods giving you ‘gas’ also and, of course, kids will love that. There is no sex at all. The two sweethearts of this film are after all 12 years old, but love’s first kiss is depicted as Dre and Mei Ying innocently kiss behind a screen at the SheShe Festival.

The violence factor here is strong, as this is a film based around the act of martial arts. The Red Dragons, a Kung Fu group lead by the evil Master Li (Rongguang Yu), are shown kicking, crunching, punching, and breaking the bones of their victims. Almost every martial art sequence in this film is very realistic, no doubt to show that martial arts are serious business and must be respected, but on that note, parents may want to consider the violence meter before taking young kids below the age of 10 to this film. The one scene where Mr. Han defends Dre from the bullies is done in a none abusive, almost comical way, to prove the point that martial arts can be used to defend without going for the kill. Respect of your assailant at all times. Never lose focus and control is the true essence of Kung Fu.

The finale where Dre is pitted against his adversary, Cheng, is very brutal at points and I felt it unrealistic for Sherry Parker, Dre’s Mom, NOT to stop the whole thing. What Mom would sit in the bleachers at an event and watch her 12 year old son’s leg be near broke, his face punched in and a Doctor say he must not continue on, and NOT say “enough”? Dre wins in the end, as we all know from the original film, but as this Karate Kid is more realistic in tone, I felt the way some of the characters interacted a little off the mark.

The spiritual aspect of this film, obviously is not Christian. It is based around the Chi and the belief that we all have a power from within. This includes a combination of of Confucianism and Taoism and of Buddhism, all practiced in China. Mr Han and Dre go on many journeys during his training. To the Great Wall, The Forbidden City, mystic Temples and to Mr Han’s childhood training place, the Great Well where a fountain is housed with water believed if drank, will make it so nothing can defeat you. Mr. Han teaches Dre that Kung Fu lives in how we treat others. Kung Fu is everything in life, and in how we do everything.

The values embraced within the film’s theme are not bad ones, they for the most part are in line with the principles we as Christians strive to teach our children, values and morals even Jesus teaches us, like love they neighbor, respect those in authority, honor your parents, truth in friendships, personal integrity, but it must be said that the spiritual aspect of this film is definitely Eastern in nature. If that is a concern to parents taking their families to see The Karate Kid, please be sure to sit down with them before you attend this movie, and make sure they know and can discern the difference between Eastern mysticism and Christianity.

Jackie Chan delivers one of his best performances ever as he not just reprises the role of mentor and father figure, originally played by Pat Morita, but brings it to a new level of sensibility. “The Karate Kid” (2010) is a realistic often physically brutal tale of what friendships, respect, courage and determination can accomplish. Although a more apt title would be “The Kung Fu Kid,” as the real martial art used in this story was not Karate, I commend the writers and director along with the beautifully talented Jaden Smith for making an old story new again while keeping the lessons and final moral of the original story.

Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Minor / Sex/Nudity: Minor

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

Young people

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DVD & Streaming

The Karate Kid

Action/Adventure , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

June 11, 2010
Jaden Smith as Dre Parker; Jackie Chan as Mr. Han; Taraji P. Henson as Sherry Parker; Wenwen Han as Meiying; Zhenwei Wang as Cheng; Rongguang Yu as Master Li; Luke Carberry as Harry

Home Release Date

October 5, 2010
Harald Zwart

Distributor

Columbia Pictures

Movie Review

Twelve-year-old Dre Parker and his mother, Sherry, are the newest residents at the swank-sounding Beverly Hills Luxury Apartments. But this abode is anything but swank. And they’re a long way from California. The mother-and-son duo now calls Beijing, China, home, after Mom’s automobile-manufacturing job gets transferred there.

For Sherry, it’s an exotic new start. For Dre? Well, the pintsized African-American expat has a different perspective. “I hate it here!” he soon screams at his mother.

Things had begun with promise for Dre. A new friend named Harry seemed eager to show him the ropes. And an intriguing young violin player—who speaks English!—had caught his eye. Maybe China wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Or maybe it would.

Dre’s chemistry with Meiying instantly attracts the unwanted attention of a young thug named Cheng. No problem , the headstrong Detroit native thinks. I’ll show him who’s boss.

Dre does find out who’s boss—at just about the same time he finds out what asphalt tastes like.

Enter Mr. Han, an aloof-but-kind maintenance man who takes notice of Dre’s trials … and who bails him out of a lopsided, six-on-one beatdown. With Han’s help, Dre negotiates a truce with Cheng’s kung fu teacher, Master Li. There’s only one condition: Dre must face his tormentor in an upcoming kung fu tournament. (Yes, it’s kung fu , not karate in this Karate Kid remake.)

And so Dre’s training commences.

Positive Elements

Dre’s mother is conscientious, and she wants the best for him. She tries to understand why being in China is hard for him, even if Dre isn’t always interested in talking.

But Dre’s relationship with Mr. Han, of course, is the movie’s emotional focal point. The older man is a recluse—until he takes Dre under his wing. Stepping into those mentor shoes brings new life to Mr. Han. Near the finale, he tells his protégé, “You have taught me a very important lesson, Dre. Life will knock us down, but we can choose whether or not to get back up.” Dre responds, “You’re the best friend I ever had, Mr. Han.”

Some of Mr. Han’s teachings about kung fu involve spiritual elements (noted in more detail below). But Dre’s teacher also sees the marital art as a philosophical framework for a certain way of living:

Because Dre often fails to hang up his coat, Mr. Han initiates a training exercise for him that involves the boy dropping his coat, picking it up, hanging it up, then repeating the process. Those movements, of course, become a template for defensive maneuvers in a fight. But in explaining his training rationale to Dre, Mr. Han says, “Kung fu lives in everything we do. It lives in how we treat people. Everything is kung fu.” Mr. Han also teaches his pupil to see that “kung fu is not about fighting. It’s about making peace with your enemies.” We also hear Mr. Han’s belief that “there are no bad students, only bad teachers.”

Regarding Dre’s conflict with Cheng, Mr. Han believes that standing up to him is what matters, not victory. “Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. Fight hard, earn respect, boys leave you alone.”

Dre and Meiying’s relationship is complicated by cultural divides. Meiying’s parents forbid her to see Dre after he accidentally embarrasses their family, for example. But Dre takes the initiative to apologize to her father for offending him. Meiying’s father softens and allows his daughter to keep her promise to go to the tournament.

Spiritual Elements

Mr. Han teaches Dre that kung fu depends upon tapping into the concept of chi , which he calls “eternal energy and the essence of life.” He says that chi “moves inside of us … inside our bodies” and “gives us power from within.” Dre translates: “I get it! It’s like the Force from Star Wars .” Some of Mr. Han’s teaching also includes telling Dre to “empty your mind” to connect with these internal energies.

Mr. Han leads Dre up a mountainside staircase to a place he calls the dragon well. There, we see a water basin bearing the yin and yang symbol. Mr. Han calls the basin’s contents “magic kung fu water,” and he says that after you drink it, “nothing can defeat you.” The well is located in a temple of sorts, where people practice martial arts. One woman stares down a cobra while balancing on an ornate stone outcropping.

Twice, Mr. Han sets what looks like a cotton ball on fire, then uses this “magical” fire in some mysterious way to heal Dre of injuries he’s received. He calls it “ancient Chinese healing.”

Sexual Content

At a festival that celebrates love (Mr. Han calls it the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day), Dre and Meiying lean in for a kiss in the middle of a puppet show about a lovelorn goddess who’s separated from her lover.

On a date, Dre and Meiying play a dance video game that blares portions of two songs with sexual lyrics: Flo Rida’s “Low” (which is about strippers sliding down a pole) and Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” (which merges gambling metaphors with sexual suggestiveness). Meiying, who looks as if she’s barely entered adolescence, does a suggestive dance to the later song, complete with sexualized hip movements and seductive facial expressions.

Violent Content

In Dre’s first showdown with Cheng, he lands one punch … which, of course, sets Cheng off. Dre then absorbs about 10 punches and kicks before being flipped hard onto the ground. Later, Dre unwisely picks another fight with Cheng by throwing a jug of water on him. As Dre flees, he makes a mess of a marketplace. Cheng and his posse catch Dre, and they administers five or six severe blows with fists and feet. Mr. Han arrives to save the day, initiating a lengthy kung fu battle in which he mostly tricks his assailants into repeatedly hitting one another.

Several matches in the kung fu championship are surprisingly savage, with opponents trading nasty blows. Dre gets pretty beaten up en route to the final match with Cheng. And in the semifinal, Master Li instructs one of Cheng’s lackeys to take Dre out by hurting him. “I don’t want him beaten,” Li says. “I want him broken.” The student obliges by delivering wince-inducing strikes to Dre’s knee.

[ Spoiler Warning ] But Dre perseveres and meets Cheng in the final. A heavy hit early in the match forces Dre off the raised combat platform. When things go badly for Cheng, Li instructs him, “I want you to break the leg. No mercy.” The resulting kicks to Dre’s wounded leg send him tumbling—in agony—to the ground. Then, using the “cobra technique” he’s been practicing, Dre delivers a backflip kick to Cheng’s head to win.

Elsewhere, Cheng flips Dre’s food tray up in the air at school in an attempt to provoke a fight; later he and his lieutenants menacingly empty Dre’s backpack. Master Li wickedly slaps a timid student who refuses to finish off an opponent. Li’s philosophy: “No mercy. … Our enemies deserve pain.”

In an intense scene, Mr. Han takes a sledgehammer to the Volkswagen Scirocco he’s been restoring. Every year, it seems, Mr. Han restores the car (in which his wife and 10-year-old son were killed), then mangles it again in a violent explosion of unresolved grief.

Crude or Profane Language

One use of “d‑‑mit.” Twice, Dre complains about not wanting to get his “a‑‑” kicked, after which Mr. Han tells him, “Don’t say a‑‑.” Later, Dre says the word again, then remembers he’s been told not to. God’s name is improperly interjected two or three times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Han gets drunk on the anniversary of his wife’s and son’s deaths. The camera gives us a close-up of an empty liquor bottle.

Other Negative Elements

Dre ignores a text message from his mother to come home, and he often displays a bit of a resistant attitude when it comes to obeying her.

For anyone who grew up in the ’80s, the thought of remaking a film that introduced an appreciative generation to the catchphrase “wax on, wax off” seems risky at best. Why tamper with something that’s so iconic to so many? The cynical answer, of course, is that Hollywood seems short on good stories. But that’s exactly the point: This is a pretty good story, and Columbia Pictures knows it. That’s why it’s back, 26 years later.

As far as how the new film stands up against the 1984 version, my rose-colored view of the original renders me incapable of providing a completely unbiased answer. But I can say that the narrative trajectory and the moral messages are similar, remaining solid and inspirational. The emphatic emphasis on perseverance, friendship, discipline and mentoring is still impossible to miss.

The biggest difference between the two films, apart from the shift in setting from California to China, has to do with the age of the characters. Whereas Daniel LaRusso was a senior in high school (as were his girlfriend, Ali, and his blond-haired arch nemesis, Johnny Lawrence), Jaden Smith’s Dre Parker is supposed to be 12—though he looks like he could be as young as 9 or 10. Instead of adolescents on the verge of adulthood, then, we see children on the verge of adolescence. That changes the feel of things, even if the feelings the film eventually elicits are similar.

Before writing this review I watched the original again—mainly to try to give new perspective to my emotional reference points. And I suspect most parents will think the new version feels more family friendly, largely because there’s less profanity and no drug abuse. (The original had a couple of s-words and uses of “g‑‑d‑‑n.” It also included a scene in which Johnny rolls a joint in a school bathroom stall.)

That said, this new Karate Kid’ s kung fu scenes are in fact amped up. And the same can be said of the story’s spiritual content, which is both more specific and more frequent. In 1984, Mr. Miyagi made one joking reference to Buddha. In 2010, Mr. Han waxes eloquent about chi and dabbles in some very mystical-feeling rituals. And then there’s Meiying’s maddeningly unnecessary sensual dance scene—easily the most disappointing moment of the film for me because of the way it projects grown-up sexuality onto a character who’s still mostly a little girl.

A postscript: The Karate Kid deals with the issue of bullying, a subject that’s been in the news a lot lately. For generations, the conventional wisdom has been this: Stand up to a bully, and he’ll learn to leave you alone. That’s the message in the original film, and that’s the message this time around. In today’s world, though, standing up to bullies may be riskier than it used to be. Most might indeed back down, just as the films suggest. But, sadly, an increasing number of teens or even tweens might be just as likely to bring a gun to school and shoot someone who stands up to them. Whether the so-called conventional wisdom still applies, then, should be carefully dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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The karate kid.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 28 Reviews
Kids Say 90 Reviews

Based on 90 kid reviews

Kid Reviews

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models

Report this review

Awesome if it didnt have the gd word, really good movie, i love this movie.

Too much violence
Too much swearing

The Karate Kid(1984).

Educational value

This movie is very, very interesting.

Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Not perfect, but still a classic.

Some cussing not mentioned above.

I loved how the movie has positive role models and a beautiful message about karate.

What to Watch Next

The Karate Kid (2010)

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Martial arts movies for kids, movies with incredible role models for boys, related topics.

Perseverance
Self-control
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The Karate Kid Parent Guide

This film presents a feel-good underdog story that demonstrates the value of hard work, the tenacity of the human spirit and the mutual benefits found in friendships between the young and old..

New Jersey native Daniel (Ralph Macchio) has trouble fitting when he moves to California. As bullying problems escalate, the teen turns to an unlikely friend, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), who mentors him in martial arts for self-defense.

Release date June 22, 1984

Run Time: 127 minutes

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by donna gustafson.

With dreams of a better future, Lucille Larusso (Randee Heller) moves her son Daniel (Ralph Macchio) from cold New Jersey to the sunny state of California. But what she sees as paradise quickly turns into hell for the transplanted teenager as he tries to put down roots in the foreign environment.

The biggest challenge is his peers. First introductions seem to go okay until Daniel catches the eye of a pretty blonde named Ali (Elisabeth Shue). Unfortunately she comes with strings attached to a jealous ex-boyfriend. When Johnny (William Zabka) sees them together, he and his motorcycle buddies tangle with the stranger, beating the boy until he is bruised and black eyed.

Daniel’s worst fears are realized one night when an angry Johnny and his aggressive gang corner him and start hitting, punching and kicking until the youth is barely conscious. Then a miracle happens. The elderly Japanese maintenance man from Daniel’s apartment complex suddenly appears and within minutes subdues the assailants. Realizing Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita) has some serious martial arts skills, the teen asks for lessons so he can stop being a punching bag.

It takes some lengthy persuasion to get the quiet gentleman to consent to his request, mostly because he wants to make sure Daniel understands karate is not about fighting and vengeance, but about self-defense and earning respect. Taking the problem back to the karate school, Mr. Miyagi arranges to have Daniel challenge Kreese’s students at an upcoming tournament and has them agree to a truce until the competition. In the meantime the master promises to train the boy.

The Karate Kid debuted in 1984 and quickly became a classic in its genre. Still, parents should be aware that despite pacifist professions, the movie spends a lot of time portraying martial arts violence and battles where bullying turns into assault. (A little blood and a few injuries are shown). Other content concerns include depictions of a minor drinking, a teen rolling a joint, and several uses of mild and moderate profanities.

Fortunately the film also presents a feel-good underdog story that demonstrates the value of hard work, the tenacity of the human spirit and the mutual benefits found in friendships between the young and old.

About author

Donna Gustafson

Watch the trailer for the karate kid.

The Karate Kid Rating & Content Info

Why is The Karate Kid rated PG? The Karate Kid is rated PG by the MPAA

Martial arts violence pervades this film about a picked on boy who learns karate for self-defense. Altercations include hand-to-hand combat, kicks and punches. Along with verbal taunting, the bullying turns into assault when the victim is outnumbered and beaten into unconsciousness. The scraps eventually move into a showdown at a karate tournament where an aggressive teacher encourages his students to use illegal means to take out their opponents. Black eyes, bloody noses, scrapes, bruises and an injured leg are shown. Frequent mild and moderate profanities are used, along with terms of deity. An adult character smokes, while an adolescent only pretends to. A teen is shown rolling a joint. A role model character consumes alcohol to the point of drunkenness and persuades a minor to drink too. An unlicensed youth drives a car, with an adult’s consent. Teen girls are shown dressed in swimwear, and males are seen with bare chests. A teen couple holds hands and kisses.

Page last updated April 25, 2020

The Karate Kid Parents' Guide

Mr. Miyagi agrees to teach Daniel karate, but instead has him doing household chores. How does the elderly man respond when the boy questions his methods? What skills and character traits does Daniel learn because of his labor?

Kreese has his students recite: "Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy." How does this statement of philosophy differ from Mr. Miyagi’s view of karate? Still, both of these teachers gain the loyalty of their pupils. Why? What motivates the obedience in each group?

According to the movie, Daniel leaves New Jersey in September, has his major altercation with Johnny on Halloween night (October 31) and then competes in the karate tournament in December. Is this a realistic timeline for someone to develop the level of martial arts skill depicted in this film?

The bullying Daniel endures is very serious. How should such abuse really be handled? Do you think it is realistic to assume the aggression will stop if the boys take their grievances into a competition environment? Ignoring what the script suggests, what would likely happen to Daniel if he won such a tournament? What would happen if he lost?

Loved this movie? Try these books…

Remade as a picture book for all ages, "The Karate Kid: The Classic Illustrated Story Book" brings Daniel's story to a younger audience.

Related news about The Karate Kid

Nine Movies and Their Remakes that are Worth a Second Look

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TheMarckoguy

"themarckoguy" is the alternate name for markus. markus is a human who reviews stuff., movie review: the karate kid (1984).

Your suspicions are correct, I only saw this classic for the first time today. I know, shame on me for being late to the party, yada yada yada. Now, for those who haven’t left me over this horrific revelation… let’s talk about the movie.

Ladies and gents… “The Karate Kid”.

Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) has just moved to California with his mom (Randee Heller). However, things aren’t just sunshine and palm trees for poor Daniel, as he soon starts getting bullied by a group of karate-proficient bullies. This soon leads him to befriending an older Japanese man (Pat Morita) that may or may not be able to teach Daniel how to defend himself. So you get yourself a bit of an underdog story, a bit of a coming of age story, and a bit of martial arts (and even a few drops of philosophy). It’s a narrative that encompasses a lot of things, and handles most of them with a surprising amount of grace and nuance. This does add a little bit to my main criticism with the film, which is that the runtime really could be felt at times. I wasn’t necessarily bored per se, but let’s just say that those 2+ hours do feelt like 2+ hours. Overall it is a fun story that I found myself pretty engaged with, even if it felt like it dragged at points.

The characters in this are colorful, entertaining, and surprisingly layered. Ralph Macchio plays Daniel LaRusso, the Jersey kid forced over to California. At first he can come off as that typical angsty teen, but soon shows that he is more than that. He’s charming, he’s funny, and he’s a good dude who just wants to live his life. And to see that personality get tested through Daniel’s various trials and tribulations is quite interesting, with Macchio giving a great performance. Next we have Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, the older man that Daniel befriends and (as you all know) agrees to train. He’s a bit of an eccentric man, which makes him a really entertaining character, with Morita being really good in the role. And I have to say, the chemistry between Macchio and Morita is stellar, and is arguably the best part of the entire movie. We also get supporting work from people like Randee Heller, Elisabeth Shue, Martin Kove, William Zabka, and more, all doing very well in their respective roles.

The score for the movie was composed by Bill Conti, and it was a lot of fun. It has a lot of familiar 1980s cheese to it with big, inspirational brass and what I’d like to call “montage synths”. You know, those kinds of synths that only show up in old underdog stories to serve as some sort of personal growth/montage thing for the character (you’ll know ’em when you hear ’em). Either way, I think his score is a lot of fun and works well for the movie. There’s also a bunch of licensed songs used through, and they work pretty well in their respective scenes.

“The Karate Kid” was directed by John G. Avildsen, and I think he did a good job. Shots have a nice flow to them, and his direction has a certain type of energy that really helps bring you into the scene. He also makes the story feel a bit more grandiose than it is. Because if you think about it, the story itself is relatively small scale, but Avildsen has a way of making it feel quite substantial. I will also say that I enjoy the way he shoots martial arts. It doesn’t show up that much in the film, all things considered, but when it does it’s nicely shot and gets properly shown off.

This movie has been pretty well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 89% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 60/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7.3/10. The movie was also nominated for 1 Oscar in the category of Best supporting actor (Morita) .

My review of “The Karate Kid” is now completed.

You’re the best around, nothing’s gonna ever keep you down…

Martial Journal

Advancing martial arts, one word at a time., the karate kid (1984): movie review.

March 31, 2019 Ron Amram Reviews 3

This review will be Spoiler Free! But then again, if you don’t know the story of the Karate Kid, then you have no place reading a martial arts magazine…

Where to watch: DVD, iTunes, Netflix

Run time: 2 hours 6 minutes

Language: English

Director: John G. Avildsen

W riter: Robert Mark Kamen

Release date: August 31, 1984

Style: Action, Drama, Family, Sport

For more movie details, you can find them on IMDB

A Generation of Karatekas

The Karate Kid came out a year after I was born. My two older brothers have therefore watched it a heap of times, and by the time I was four-years-old I was already being taught how to “wax on, wax off”. In fact, one of my earliest childhood memories is my older brother teaching me and my sister how to do the crane kick in the kitchen.

The same goes for literally every single person I know who is around my age.

And that is also why I started training in Karate when I was about 7 years old—again, the same as many other people my age.

I must have watched this movie a dozen times over the years. Interestingly enough, as my experience in the martial arts grew, so did my understanding of much of the wisdom in the movie—and there is a lot of it, all coming from Mr. Miyagi.

I recently sat down to watch it again in order to write this review.

Sometimes, when you re-watch a movie from your childhood as an adult, you realize that it was, in reality, pretty poor.

Is this the case here? Does this movie stack up with some of the greatest martial arts films ever made? Let’s find out.

Movie Review: 10/10

Yes, a perfect 10. Director John Avildsen, who also directed Rocky a few years earlier, obviously knew how to put together a more family-oriented version of Rocky . While it’s more kid-friendly, it still has the same elements that made Rocky an iconic movie. This is a great “underdog gets the win” movie that is full of wisdom and inspiration. It’s well written and well directed. The movie moves at a good pace and keeps you hooked to see what’s coming. Sprinkled throughout the movie are some of the greatest catchphrases and one-liners ever. I still laughingly use “wax on, wax off” in classes on occasion when teaching outside blocks. While the entire acting ensemble delivers, Pat Morita shines in the role of Mr. Miyagi. He even earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

Overall, regardless of whether you like martial arts movies or not, this is a great family-friendly, feel-good, coming-of-age drama that’s still fun to watch and feels relevant 35 years later. And it’s even more fun to watch with the continuation of the story in the awesome 2018 YouTube Originals web series Cobra Kai .

Try though I might, I can’t really think of anything that is really bad about this movie. Sure, there are some bad haircuts and cheesy music, but that’s just the ’80s… The one bad thing about the movie, at least indirectly, are the 3 sequels and 2010 reboot, all of which are, to this writer’s mind, pretty terrible, so I guess there’s that.

Martial Arts Review: 8/10

I struggled hard with this one. Why? You’ll see…

The actual martial arts in the movie, in my opinion, suck, especially compared to other amazing movies that came out around the same time. Watching it as a kid, I remember thinking how cool the fight scenes were. Watching it now as an experienced martial artist, I cringe quite a bit. The choreography is not amazing, to say the least, which is confirmed by how often the angles change and the camera cuts during the fight scenes. One big difference between this and many other martial arts movies is that in the ’80s, actors were often chosen for their martial arts prowess first and acting ability second. This is not the case here—none of the actors had any real martial arts experience. (OK, William Zabka had some wrestling experience, but it’s not relevant to this movie.)

It’s worth remembering that this movie is not classified as a martial arts movie on IMDB or any other source. It’s a drama, and the martial arts are used to tell a story. The fight scenes are not really the focus as much as they are plot points or catalysts in the story. In other words, Daniel getting beat up by Johnny was more about the point that he got beat up than how he got beat up. This is vastly different from other movies in the martial arts genre, where the action is often the focus and the story feels like it’s there to support the action. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, but still. I reckon that, overall, the choreography in this movie is not amazing. If I was rating this just based on the choreography and action, the score would probably be a 5.

While the choreography was not amazing, the movie did an amazing job of capturing the spirit and values of martial arts. And in a much more sincere, vulnerable, and human way than most of the fast-action, big-muscle martial arts flicks. The writers did an excellent job of understanding the message behind Karate and martial arts. Many of the discussions between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi are about Zen wisdom, control, humility, determination, and other great values of the martial arts. Because the story is more realistic than many martial arts films—a high school kid who’s taking karate lessons to stop being bullied—it’s also much easier to relate to.

But wait… Why am I making this point in the martial arts review section?

Because that relatability is what inspired a generation of kids to learn Karate. Daniel wasn’t like Bruce Lee or Van Damme—ripped, athletic, and insanely talented. No, he was one of us. (And if he can be a Karate champion, then so can I!) That counts for a lot when you’re a kid who’s interested in learning a martial art because of a movie. So, while the choreography gets a 5, in terms of understanding of the martial arts, promoting them as a tool for self-empowerment, and inspiring people to want to train, it gets a 10. So, let’s settle on an 8.

Overall Review: 9/10

Simply put, this is a great movie. It’s fun and full of inspiration, wisdom, and laughs. Time has done nothing to reduce the quality of this movie. It’s still relatable, still fun, still inspiring.

And by being that, it’s different from a lot of the martial arts movies that are amazing, fun action movies but often suck in terms of writing or story.

In terms of action, this movie is pretty average if you’re past the age of 15. But in terms of wanting to get out there and learn Karate or making us feel like we can stand up to those things that make life hard at times, this movie is one of the greatest.

Also, if you haven’t watched Cobra Kai yet, then do yourself a favor and go do it right now. (Then check out our episode-by-episode analysis, starting here .)

What do you think? Leave your comments below.

The Karate Kid

Martial arts.

A fun, engaging and moving film
Inspirational and makes you want to train!
Great understanding of the spirit of martial arts
The choreography is pretty poor
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RETRO REVIEW: The Karate Kid (1984) Is a Simple Yet Spectacular Sports Movie Classic

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The summer of 1984 was a golden period for blockbuster cinema. Many successful and well-loved franchises began this year, among them being The Karate Kid, which kicked off one of the greatest summer movie seasons on June 22nd, 1984. Pitched and billed as Rocky for kids, The Karate Kid was a classic "zero to hero narrative," steeped in the ancient tradition of the classical, Campbell-coined "hero's journey." Starring Ralph Macchio, fresh from his role in The Outsiders, William Zabka, Elizabeth Shue, Martin Kove and Pat Morita, The Karate Kid actually had a mixed opening. It was criticized for its predictablity, derivative narrative and lack of innovation. However, its energy and presentation was so infectious and the cast so well-loved that it smashed the box office to become a sleeper hit. More impressively, it became one of the most unlikely franchises in Hollywood.

Today, The Karate Kid is a compelling piece of nostalgia, albeit one with a lasting impact and impressive staying power. This may not seem like much, but when compared to the fates of its fellow '80s contemporaries, The Karate Kid's permanent place in the zeitgeist is an impressive achievement. The film received three sequels and a 2010 remake. As of 2024, it appears to be slated to get another. The film famously gained a worthy legacy through the belated TV drama sequel Cobra Kai, with Zabka proving he retained his chops well into adulthood. It's also worth noting that Cobra Kai arguably heralded the wave of '80s nostalgia that's been dominating pop culture for the better part of a decade now.

A better testament to the movie's enduring legacy is how Pat Morita's role as Mr. Miyagi became a pop culture staple. The Karate Kid is frequently quoted ("Sweep the leg!") and referenced, and in the 80s, helped to popularize karate in the United States. It is nothing less than a cultural phenomenon, albeit on a smaller scale than some of its contemporaries. A generation later, it's still a bare-bones and immediately recognizable narrative. However, The Karate Kid shows that sometimes, for the best impression, the simplest approach is all that's needed.

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The premise of The Karate Kid is simple. New kid Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) moves with his mom to Los Angeles. Getting friendly with the cheerleader Ali Mills (Shue) incurs the wrath of her ex-boyfriend and resident delinquent, Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) and his gang. Worse, Johnny and his boys are all black belt students of the infamous Cobra Kai dojo. Intense beatdowns ensue – until the seemingly mild-mannered and quirky apartment maintenance person, Mr. Myagi, steps in. Thus begins the proud tradition of student-teacher bonding, one of growing respect, mutual vulnerability, misunderstandings, life lessons and a lot of training montages. The lessons and hardships all culminate in the climactic Under-18 All Valley championship.

It's a tale as old as time. Beat for beat, it's the typical underdog story, a coming-of-age sports parable tailor-made for its young target audience. This was the basis for much of the film's criticism back in 1984. The movie's story was so recognizable that even the least movie-savvy viewer would have an intuitive idea of exactly where the story was going. This didn't mean that audiences in the '80s were unsophisticated. The '80s was a return to mainstream, crowd-pleasing form for Hollywood after the independent film explosion of the '70s and the introduction of the rating system. The '70s were an era of unconventional narratives and skewered expectations.

Movies of this time were often filled with dark, twisted or perverse elements. Conversely, the economic boom of the '80s, coupled with the threat of nuclear escalation and patriotic fervor, encouraged a more back-to-basics approach to storytelling. Movies of this decade focused on the more familiar hero's journeys, especially after the success of Star Wars and the aforementioned Rocky, over the self-serious and nihilistic screeds that defined the '70s. The increasing number of kids and teens who watched films by themselves and paid with their own money also played a part in cinema's cultural shift during the '80s.

The comparisons between The Karate Kid and 1976's Rocky are apt. Both are character-driven underdog tales that put equal emphasis on the spiritual, emotional side of martial arts and the physical and often vicious side of the sport. Boxing is swapped for karate, an art rich in discipline and inextricably linked to philosophy. For a coming-of-age tale, especially one that cautions against violence for violence's sake, this was a wise move. Even by today's standards, despite its childlike approach and unsurprising writing, The Karate Kid is a refreshing take on the action and sports genre. Although the writing, characterizations and cinematography read as a little naive, the film uses many recognizable tropes and narrative tools to create a deceptively simple but effective story – a story with ties closer to truth than fiction.

The Karate Kid Struck a Relatable Chord With Its Young Target Audience

The movie's inspiration grounded the story, but it still shows its age.

Ralph Macchio in full karate gi kneeling in a dojo in Cobra Kai

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The Karate Kid came to be thanks to the uncannily similar life experience of its screenwriter, Robert Mark Kamen. After his own violent run-in and losing battle with bullies, Kamen was inspired to learn martial arts. To his dismay, his first instructor encouraged him to use and view martial arts as a weapon of brutality and vengeance, emphasizing anger and dominance. As luck would have it, Kamen found a better teacher, a Japanese instructor in the Okinawan form of karate, Goju-ryu. This second and better teacher demonstrated a disciplined but gentler approach. Despite their language barrier, their student-teacher dynamic had a lasting influence on Kamen and led him to re-interpret his story into a new narrative. This basis in a real-life event is probably why The Karate Kid aged as well as it has, and why it resonated so well with audiences.

Despite teetering on some very well-established and unfortunate stereotypes and stock characters, The Karate Kid remained nuanced, especially in the depiction of the Okinawan immigrant Mr. Miyagi as the archetypal "wise old mentor" figure to the American protagonist. The Karate Kid is a coming of age story centered around a student and a teacher who hails from a foreign culture and philosophy, but isn't too heavy-handed or preachy. The delivery isn't perfect – there are some embarrassing gaffes in the dialogue, and the humor does lean heavily into obvious cultural dissonance. However, the message is so sincere and resonant, and the characters were portrayed with such vigor. As such, these bruises and bumps don't stop the movie from sticking its landing.

Another secret to the movie's success was how The Karate Kid knew its target audience and acted accordingly. It has all the hallmarks of the now-infamous '80s teen flick, with all its blessings and curses intact. On the plus side, it features a fabulously period-appropriate soundtrack. It had a plethora of pop songs and rock anthems led by Bananarama's "Cruel Summer," which is now synonymous with this film. It has the sunny SoCal setting of Reseda, the classic high school setting and the quirky apartment in which Mr. Miyagi works, and in which Daniel and his mother, Lucille, move into.

That said, it shows its age thanks to the shoehorned teen drama and romance. There is nothing wrong with Shue's performance. However, Ali is painfully one-dimensional when compared to the rest of the cast. She really had no other purpose in the movie than just being Daniel's potential girlfriend. Lucille, played by Randee Heller, similarly had little characterization outside the then-prominent role of the busy, stressed and mostly absent mother. A few of Heller's scenes showed a spark of a more interesting character that, unfortunately, never coalesced into something better. These were, unfortunately, symptoms of the casual sexism that was prevalent in '80s cinema which is, thankfully, mostly gone today.

The Karate Kid is the Best Kind of Filmmaking Time Capsule

The movie's training montages and fights are iconic for a reason.

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The Karate Kid also boasts respectable cinematography. While the camera work itself is nothing extraordinary, it certainly worked well to demonstrate the gorgeous SoCal setting. The famous "Crane Stance" scene on the beach is one of the most memorable and beloved screencaps in history. The camera work has the age of the technology of the time, but this unintentional layer of grit adds to this film's earthy appeal. It adds a mystical, fairy tale haze to what's shown on screen. Most important is the fight choreography, of which there is a lot.

Bonfire brawls, crashed bicycles, motorcycle chases and, of course, the dozens of karate battles and training montages are all portrayed with the adernaline-pumping grandeur of the '80s. Martial arts and action are this film's bread and butter – the teen drama comes across as almost superfluous in comparison. The characters are most themselves when they are channeling their inner philosophical selves or fighting. In modern cinema, there is a pervasive trend towards mounting angst for the sake of emotional pathos and ensuring the viewer's investment. The Karate Kid isn't without angst or conflict, especially given Miyagi's aforementioned tragic backstory, and the heavily implied mental and emotional abuse by Kreese of the Cobra Kai students – an angle that would be touched on more explicitly in the sequel and Cobra Kai later. However, The Karate Kid isn't an overly heady or emotionally-charged film.

Like Mr. Miyagi, it acknowledges suffering and pain, but doesn't emphasize or dwell on it. It's honestly refreshing to see a film of this type without extraneous outbursts of passion. It helps that the characters aren't more complicated than they absolutely need to be. In classic hero's journey style, the cast of The Karate Kid consists of immediately recognizable archetypes, who all play foil to one another. It's precisely because the archetypes are so straightforward and familiar that The Karate Kid works as well as it does in the same way that the space opera Star Wars did.

The Karate Kid Made Effective & Poignant Use of Its Archetypes

Mr. miyagi and john kreese's characterizations perfectly embodied the movie's themes.

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Much of the film focuses on the contrast, comparison and bond between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. Daniel and Miyagi aren't just foils to each other – a young, impetuous American student versus an experienced, older Japanese-American master – but opposites of those in Cobra Kai as well. Respectively, Johnny and Kreese. The rivalry between Daniel and Johnny is obvious, played up with the grandiosity that '80s films are so famous for. Macchio and Zabka hold their own as young stars portraying this iconic rivalry, but special mention goes to the splendid performances – and narrative subtext – of Pat Morita and Martin Kove. The two act out the film's underlying message of compassion versus rage, and the personification of the dueling philosophies of martial arts.

Thematically, Miyagi and Kreese exemplify the film's underlying morals by how much they contrast one another. They are both war veterans who suffered untold horrors. These two mentors both had close experiences with war, but have both chosen opposite ways of coping. Miyagi's devastating internment in an American POW camp despite serving the US Army in World War II and the deaths of his wife and child is one of the most heartbreaking backstories in Hollywood. It's also an especially poignant bit of history for a fictional character, which is something rarely – if ever – done today. Mr. Miyagi left war behind while stillretaining the will and ability to fight without succumbing to easy, yet understandable, anger and revenge.

Conversely, Kreese, an ex-Special Forces Vietnam vet, never left the war. As such, he ran his dojo like a brutal boot camp. But rather than teach discipline and inner strength, he channeled his own inner rage by instilling it into his students and lashing out on them. Kreese is undeniably the movie's antagonist. He fills his villainous part very well, though more astute viewers can sense an element of tragedy to his brutality and corruption of martial arts. Interestingly, this also applies to his students, who all have subtle hints of discipline and compassion buried beneath their juvenile rage and macho posturing.

This contrast, helped by the performances of both Morita and Kove, is what makes The Karate Kid so beloved. Everyone has had, or will have, someone like Kreese in their life. However, everyone wants, needs, or luckily may have even had a Mr. Miyagi as well. The wise old mentor is a cliché, but as Morita's reserved, stern, subtly heartfelt and endearingly quirky Mr. Miyagi shows, some traditions are worth upholding. Of all the elements in this now 40-year-old film, the characterization of Daniel's now iconic mentor is perhaps the one that holds the most depth and pathos.

The Karate Kid’s Simplicity Stood the Test of Time Better Than Anyone Expected

The movie proudly wears its heart on its sleeve.

A lot of credit must be given to this cast, considering so many of the movie's prominent players were quite young. Later generations need no introduction to Zabka's Johnny, depicted in later years as a more complex adult. As a young man, he went all-in on the motorcyle-riding and arrogant stock bully . True to form, he smashed every stereo in sight and dished out beatdown after beatdown with a deliciously smug grin. While Johnny may be something of a walking cliche by today's standards, he was a necesarry evil in the movie. Without this deceptively simple bully, Cobra Kai wouldn't have the emotional resonance it boasts today.

Macchio's career-making role as Daniel proves why his character endured as one of Hollywood's great icons. Daniel is a respectable blend of likable traits – friendly, open-minded and determined – with real, human flaws, such as impulsivity, rashness, and relatable insecurity. Macchio's heartfelt delivery, with all its youthful missteps and awkwardness, makes the movie's otherwise foregone conclusion of an ending so satisfying. It's also good to see that four decades later, Macchio retains his love for his character and his legacy in Cobra Kai .

Although criticized for its simplicity in 1984 and still scrutinized today, there is something to be said for a straightforward tale of right versus wrong, especially in today's more complicated Hollywood. While The Karate Kid is simplistic, moralizing, and even a bit naive and unsophisitcated in its approach, there isn't a mean bone in its body. The cast and crew treated this youthful hero's journey with as much reverence, respect and fondness as any big-budget blockbuster. Time will tell if the 2025 iteration will achieve such success, but it goes to show that some of the best stories don't need excessive complexity or emotional pretenses to strike a chord. There's a value to simplicity and earnestness, and The Karate Kid proves it.

The Karate Kid is now available to watch and own physically and digitally.

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The Karate Kid (1984): Film Review

Posted by Larryn LeFaye | Mar 9, 2018 | Movies

Fun facts to know:

Directed by John G. Avildsen and Christopher Cain.
Created by Robert Mark Kamen
Pat E. Johnson was the choreographer of The Karate Kid’ s fight scenes, and appeared in Enter the Dragon as a gangster in John Saxon’s flashback scene. Also a former student of Chuck Norris.
Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn both turned down the role of Daniel LaRusso. Kyle Eastwood, Clint Eastwood’s son, was turned down for the role. Clint Eastwood retaliated by banning all Coca-Cola products from his movie sets, since Columbia Studios, who made The Karate Kid, was owned by Coca-Cola at the time.
Believe it or not, Pat Morita was initially turned down for the role of Mr. Miyagi because apparently there was a policy that prohibited comedians from being hired for the role. He was later given the role because he did the best reading during the auditions.
During filming in late 1983, Ralph Macchio was discovered to be age 22. Not even the cast believed him when he revealed his true age.
There was a character named “Karate Kid” in DC Comic’s “Legion Of Superheroes.” who was a member of the Legion. DC Comics owned the name, and gave special permission for the title to be used in the film. At the end of the credits, there is a thank you to DC Comics for use of the name.

photo source: thekaratekid.wikia.com

After watching this film, I noticed one thing that may have been overlooked by others…Daniel LaRusso (played by Ralph Macchio) has got some serious anger issues. He’s also quite a jerk. He even admits it, as a form of an apology none the less, which is unacceptable people. If anyone were to tell you “Hey, I’m a jerk” (his exact words), instead of apologizing by saying “I’m sorry, I was a jerk”, is not being sincere in my book. Sounds like a lame excuse to be a douchebag.

photo source: decider.com

Now I get that moving to a new city, where you’re literally the outsider in every way shape and form, is stressful and hard to adjust to. But that’s no excuse to react the way Daniel did. Especially to his love interest, Ali Mills (played by Elisabeth Shue), who only wanted the best for him and was treated unfairly for it. Apparently, she felt she was at fault for him avoiding her after his attitude escalated. Ladies, listen to me, don’t ever blame yourself for a guy becoming angry with you after voicing your concern on his well-being. Only pride is to blame. Unfortunately, it can get the best of anyone.

The whole movie is just Daniel being schooled for karate, but really he’s given an “attitude adjustment” by the one and only, Pat Morita aka Mr. Kesuke Miyagi. A kick in the right direction when they crossed paths. The best friend that each other needed, but neither expected. Karate being the common ground that united them both, but really it was the life lessons that needed to be taught more than the physical aspects of karate. After all, with great power comes great responsibility. Mr. Miyagi even makes a comment to Daniel, “Fighting always last answer to problem.”

photo source: weheartit.com

Had Daniel listened to him, he wouldn’t have gotten himself into the mess that he did. Of course, by flirting with the wrong girl, he had automatically made enemies with her ex-boyfriend and his colleagues. But he made matters much worse by pulling a water prank in the school bathroom during a dance to his nemesis, Johnny Lawrence (played by William Zabka). To his misfortune, Johnny happens to be the best in his karate class, and corners him on the street. However, he is saved in the nick of time from a major beat down.

Spiderman? No, it’s just Mr. Miyagi in action! BONZAI!!! Due to Mr. Miyagi’s wise words, he convinces Daniel to face his troubles head-on by showing his lack of fear to his enemies. Which eventually leads to a karate tournament to settle the disputes. At the dojo that Johnny attends, his sensei, John Kreese (Martin Kove), teaches his students to be merciless. Perhaps, it is not Daniel’s attitude that is the real problem. Perhaps it is the lack of respect that these boys are taught to have towards others that is the reason for these quarrels. According to Miyagi, ” No such thing as a bad student – only bad teacher.”

source: giphy.com

Growing up, I always figured that Daniel was thee Karate Kid. But an episode of How I Met Your Mother made me rethink who the true karate kid was. The character Barney, (Neil Patrick Harris), claims that Johnny was the true karate kid. I do see how Daniel is the bigger bully of the two, but I’m not quite sure how Johnny is the hero according to some.

Overall, the movie is a delight to watch full of knowledge and good advice that everyone should know in life. Now, I finally understand the reference of “Wax on, wax off” that Michelangelo (orange clad ninja) makes in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II . With dedication and perseverance, you learn you can achieve much even if the odds are against you. A classic that lives up to its reputation. To be honest, I think the best part about this film is that no matter how many times you watch it, it never seems to get dull. I give this movie 8.5 out of 10 stars!

source: corvetteforum.com

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About The Author

Larryn LeFaye

Am a profound lover of magick, wonder, and imagination... Anything that piques my curiosity is something I strive to explore each day, one thing a day, everyday. Makes life fascinating, for there's so much to learn - and learn I shall...

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Macchio was not a “barely known” actor, he had just done the movie Outsiders based on the novel be S.E. Hinton, both the book and movie were hugely popular. His face was all over teen magazines and that role, his audition, and his believability as an Italian kid from New Jersey were what got him the part. Also, i think you missed some important parts of the plot when it came to character development in his part. He was supposed to be a jerk because he had so much anger bottled up inside him and didn’t know how to deal with it. It wasn’t because of moving from NJ to California, it stemmed from the loss of his father which is what led to the move. It’s why Miyagi’s role as a surrogate father figure was so important to his development. More than the karate, it was the interaction and life lessons Daniel received from Miyagi that he couldn’t get from his father that were what helped him the most. Though that anger never completely disappears from his character it does improve. Likewise, Miyagi has a lot of unresolved pain from the loss of his family and Daniel helps him through it by acting as a surrogate son.

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The karate kid.

Directed by John G. Avildsen

He taught him the secret to karate lies in the mind and heart. Not in the hands.

Daniel moves to Los Angeles with his mother, Lucille, and soon strikes up a relationship with Ali. He quickly finds himself the target of bullying by a group of high school students, led by Ali's ex-boyfriend Johnny, who study karate at the Cobra Kai dojo under ruthless sensei, John Kreese. Fortunately, Daniel befriends Mr. Miyagi, an unassuming repairman who just happens to be a martial arts master himself. Miyagi takes Daniel under his wing, training him in a more compassionate form of karate for self-defense and later, preparing him to compete against the brutal Cobra Kai.

Ralph Macchio Pat Morita Elisabeth Shue William Zabka Martin Kove Randee Heller Ron Thomas Rob Garrison Chad McQueen Tony O'Dell Israel Juarbe William Bassett Larry B. Scott Juli Fields Dana Andersen Frank Burt Avalon Jeff Fishman Ken Daly Tom Fridley Pat E. Johnson Bruce Malmuth Darryl Vidal Frances Bay Christopher Kriesa Bernie Kuby Joan Lemmo Helen Siff Larry Drake David Abbott Show All… Molly Basler Brian Davis David De Lange Erik Felix Peter Jason Todd Lookinland Clarence McGee Jr. William Norren Sam Scarber Scott Strader Shannon Wilcox Sharon Spelman Andrew Shue Donald DeNoyer David LeBell Stan Rodarte Monty O'Grady Milanka Stevens Nick Stevens Robert Strong Chris Casamassa Charles Gallant Katheryn Gallant Kelly Gallant Duff Tallahassee Ann Oshita

Director Director

John G. Avildsen

Producers Producers

Jerry Weintraub Bud S. Smith

Writer Writer

Robert Mark Kamen

Casting Casting

Pennie DuPont Caro Jones Bonnie Timmermann

Editors Editors

John G. Avildsen Walt Mulconery Bud S. Smith

Cinematography Cinematography

James Crabe

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Clifford C. Coleman Hope R. Goodwin

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Lighting lighting.

Ross A. Maehl

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Jonathan West Stephen St. John

Production Design Production Design

William J. Cassidy

Set Decoration Set Decoration

John H. Anderson William F. Matthews

Special Effects Special Effects

Stunts stunts.

Alan Oliney Ronnie Rondell Jr. Scott Wilder Pat Romano Buck McDancer Spike Silver Luke LaFontaine Douglas Ivan Pat Green Fumio Demura Joanne Atkinson Clarke Coleman

Choreography Choreography

Pat E. Johnson

Composer Composer

Songs songs, sound sound.

Dean Hodges Robert Knudson Robert Glass Don Digirolamo Norval D. Crutcher Samuel C. Crutcher

Costume Design Costume Design

Richard Bruno Aida Swinson

Makeup Makeup

E. Thomas Case

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Columbia Pictures Delphi II Productions Jerry Weintraub Productions

Releases by Date

22 jun 1984, 05 jul 1984, 31 aug 1984, 26 sep 1984, 27 sep 1984, 04 oct 1984, 11 oct 1984, 19 oct 1984, 25 oct 1984, 01 nov 1984, 09 nov 1984, 16 nov 1984, 16 feb 1985, 30 jan 2012, 10 dec 2016, 01 apr 2021, 31 dec 1985, 12 sep 2001, 25 oct 2001, 28 jul 2010, 06 may 2019, 12 aug 1990, releases by country.

Theatrical PG
Theatrical 10
Theatrical U
Physical DVD
Digital VOD
Digital Netflix
Theatrical 12
Theatrical T
Theatrical G
Theatrical A

Netherlands

Theatrical M/12
Theatrical APTA
Theatrical 11
Physical 11 DVD
Physical 11 Blu-ray
Physical 11 4K Ultra HD
Physical PG VHS

126 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by thiccthanos idk ★★★★ 16

Johnny Lawrence was the Logan Paul of the 1980s.

Review by matt lynch ★★★★

"Just remember, license never replace eye, ear, and brain."

my favorite thing about this is the kid is friendly, polite, and respectful to begin with. martial arts just focuses him. though it's comparable as a purely inspirational story, this isn't ROCKY; fighting and winning aren't as intrinsically meaningful here. knowing how to fight can't teach you when to do it or why. only empathy and attention can.

Review by adambolt ★★★★½

look at mr. miyagi getting all dressed up in a fancy suit for Daniel's tournament nawww

Review by Matt Singer ★★★★

Really regret not learning karate as a kid because now I’m old and I have to paint fences and sand floors myself instead of having a teenager do it for me in the name of “training.”

Seriously though, the moment Miyagi shows Daniel he’s been training him all along through his chores is one of those great movie magic tricks. I also really like how much of a shrimp Ralph Macchio is. He’s tiny! Even as he’s winning this tournament he looks absolutely terrified. One thing I completely forgot: Mr. Miyagi has... magical healing powers?

Review by 𝙺𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚎 🐞 ★★★★½ 3

I too would slow dance with Ralph Macchio in his shower curtain costume 💖

Review by gray ★★★★½ 3

it still shocks me to this day that ralph macchio was in his early 20s during the production of this film

Review by Timcop ★★★★½ 6

Ali: "You want me to drive?" Daniel: "Hey, it's the 80's!"

I can't tell if this quote is an overall positive statement about their generation like, "Hey, it's the 80's and we can do whatever we want to do!" Or, if it's a far more sinister connotation like, "Hey it's the 80's and men can let women drive their cars sometimes." In which case, goddammit Daniel-san. Either way, it's still hard not to tear up a little when he goes into crane mode and Johnny's leg-sweeping days are over.

Review by Peyton ★★★★

mr. miyagi is such a kind man he deserves the world 💕

Review by liv🦢💌 ★★★★ 6

you don’t understand i need him so bad.

Review by Jessie ★★★★ 1

Just goes to show, with the right teacher it only takes two months of training to win a karate tournament

Review by ty ★★★½ 4

I’m envious of Mr. Miyagi’s bonsai tree collection 😩

Review by Pablo Honey ★★★½ 6

Yo, imagine being able to pick between Ralph Macchio and William Zabka? That girl was goddamn lucky.

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The Karate Kid

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Utterly predictable and wholly of its time, but warm, sincere, and difficult to resist, due in large part to Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio's relaxed chemistry.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

John G. Avildsen

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Daniel LaRusso

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John G. Avildsen

Reviews (4)

A family classic about a bullied young kid learning to protect himself and others. Has some still genuinely wonderful moments, despite its age.

The Karate Kid is a classic that should always stand the test of time. A nice peek into the 80s to see why it become such a pop culture icon. Don't think Daniel LaRusso is that innocent in this one as it may seem. Love Pat Morita though. What a wonderful guy and wonderful actor. Iconic through and through.

While it took some time to get around to watching, I do think this movie holds up incredibly well. It's just a wonderful feel-good movie to relax to, it treads familiar ground walked by the likes of Rocky, but the beautiful relationships are what bring you back. Seeing Daniel and Mr. Miyagi grow closer and challenge Cobra Kai is a wonderful time, and despite for the most pat being antagonistic bullies, there's still some nuance offered to Johnny and Kreese's other students, showing their mentor had a heavy hand in their poor growth, something that would thankfully be capitalised on many years later. It's a feel-good movie that stands the test of time.

The Karate Kid is a classic, feel-good movie with fantastic acting, wonderful character development, and some important messages about life and the human experience.

Cobra Kai: Tommy's Death (& True Story Connections) Explained

Rob Garrison, one of the original Cobra Kai from The Karate Kid, passed away in 2019 soon after his character, Tommy, died in Cobra Kai season 2.

Articles (268)

William zabka & ralph macchio rewatch the karate kid's tournament ending together (& it brings lots of nostalgia).

Cobra Kai stars William Zabka and Ralph Macchio get nostalgic while rewatching the original Karate Kid's stirring tournament ending match together.

The Karate Kid: Mr. Miyagi's 30 Most Wise & Inspiring Quotes

Mr. Miyagi was the heart and soul of The Karate Kid films and the father everyone wishes they had. He was patient and full of wise words and advice.

40 Years Later, The Karate Kid Is Now Bigger Than I Ever Thought It Would Be

The first movie in The Karate Kid saga has just turned 40 years old, and I think now is the perfect time to look back on the franchise's legacy.

Karate Kid: Daniel Is The REAL Villain Theory Explained

A popular theory regarding The Karate Kid postulates that Ralph Macchio's Daniel is the movie's real villain — could that really be true?

10 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching The Karate Kid, 40 Years Later

Looking back on the beloved classic The Karate Kid after 40 years since it was first released, there were a few harsh realities that must be faced.

Pat Morita's Final Mr. Miyagi Performance Wasn't Karate Kid 4 (It's Not Even Close)

Many believe Pat Morita stopped playing Mr. Miyagi after 1994's The Next Karate Kid, but the actor carried on portraying the cinematic sensei.

Cobra Kai Season 6 Will Include Another Karate Kid Movie Character, Confirms Creator

Cobra Kai creator Jon Hurwitz confirms that season 6 will include another character from the Karate Kid movies, but he won't confirm who.

Where To Buy The Karate Kid Bandana

The Karate Kid bandana is an iconic piece of movie clothing, both for its look and what it represents, and it's available to buy online.

Cobra Kai Season 6 Delay Trolled By Creator After Netflix Tells Him To Watch His Own Show

Cobra Kai co-creator Jon Hurwitz has a great response to an e-mail from Netflix, bringing it back to the delay of the show’s final episodes.

How Old Mr. Miyagi Was In Karate Kid (& When He Died)

Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi served as the old and wise mentor figure in Daniel's life, but exactly how old was he in the Karate Kid movies?

Cobra Kai Season 6 BTS Video: The Whole Cast Gets Together For One Last Fight

A new behind-the-scenes video from Cobra Kai season 6 shows the cast of the Netflix series reuniting ahead of their final run of episodes.

Karate Kid Is A Movie In Cobra Kai's Universe? Why The Theory Actually Works

Cobra Kai continues Daniel LaRusso’s life, yet there's a theory The Karate Kid reboot movie exists in Cobra Kai’s universe - so how does it work?

Karate Kid Made The Same Movie Mistake Twice - And It's Happening Again

The Karate Kid's expected 2024 remake is repeating the same mistakes the franchise had caved to in The Next Karate Kid and The Karate Kid (2010).

Cobra Kai Season 6 Will End Karate Kid Better Than The Movies Ever Did

Cobra Kai is ending with season 6, and the legacy series can be the proper Karate Kid saga conclusion that the original movies never had.

5 Reasons That Rocky & Karate Kid Crossover Was A Terrible Idea

The Rocky and The Karate Kid franchises almost had a crossover movie, but the film would have been a complete disaster for these five major reasons.

How Many Fights Daniel LaRusso Has Won In Cobra Kai & Karate Kid

As the main star of the franchise, there is an impressive number for how many fights Daniel LaRusso has won in Cobra Kai and the Karate Kid movies.

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How to watch the ‘Karate Kid’ movies in order

The Karate Kid franchise began in 1984 with the eponymous The Karate Kid and has expanded to comprise four more movies (with another on the way), a canon live-action television series, and a non-canon animated show.

Netflix’s Cobra Kai is in the middle of its sixth and final season , with spin-offs expected in the future (but not confirmed). The show’s hype and popularity, coupled with the upcoming new film, have seen the franchise undergo a renaissance in recent years.

But if you’re new to the franchise and want to watch everything from scratch, you might wonder where to begin. We’re here to help with that, as this is how to watch the Karate Kid movies (and TV shows) in order.

1. The Karate Kid (1984)

The brilliant first movie in the franchise, which made Ralph Macchio a star, is the one to watch first. In the film, Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso moves with his mother from Newark, New Jersey, to Reseda, Los Angeles. After encountering trouble with the students from the local Cobra Kai martial arts dojo, he learns karate from the enigmatic Mr. Miyagi, played by an Oscar-nominated Pat Morita. He defeats Johnny Lawrence to win the All-Valley Karate Championship. The rest is history.

2. The Karate Kid Part II (1986)

Six months after the original movie, in The Karate Kid Part II, Daniel LaRusso accompanies Mr. Miyagi to his home village on Okinawa Island, Japan, after Miyagi discovers his father is dying. While there, Miyagi’s past catches up with him, putting LaRusso in the line of fire and facing a ruthless local young fighter named Chozen Toguchi (who becomes an important figure later in the franchise), whom he ultimately defeats. This movie marks a notable decline in quality but maintains the original film’s heart.

3. The Karate Kid Part III (1989)

Around a year after the original film’s events, Daniel LaRusso faces a new threat and a dangerous rival in his bid to retain his All-Valley title: The “Bad Boy of Karate,” Mike Barnes. Of course, LaRusso prevails, augmenting his rivalry with John Kreese and gaining a new enemy in Terry Silver — both of whom reappear in his life later in the franchise. Truthfully, this movie is trash, but in the best way. The cheesy B-movie acting is made up for with explosive, exaggerated action.

4. The Next Karate Kid (1994)

In this one, set in 1994, Mr. Miyagi (the only familiar character to appear) travels to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend a memorial for the Japanese-American soldiers who fought in World War II’s 442nd Infantry Regiment. There, he reacquaints with an old friend whose rebellious teenage granddaughter, Julie Pearce, played well by future Oscar-winner Hilary Swank, he takes under his wing. He assists her against Ned, a bully and the leader of her school’s shady security fraternity. It isn’t great and has no impact on the broader franchise, but Morita and Swank make it worth watching.

5. The Karate Kid (2010)

Many initially believed that 2010’s The Karate Kid was a mere remake of the original film of the same name. However, given that a crossover movie is imminent, it’s confirmed to occur in the same universe as its predecessors. This one, set in the year of its release, follows Jaden Smith’s Dre Parker from Detroit, Michigan, to Beijing, China, where his mother is moving for work. There, he befriends a young girl and gains the ire of a young kung-fu prodigy, Cheng. He meets Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han, a humble handyman, who teaches him kung-fu, enabling him to defeat Cheng in a competition. It’s nowhere near as good as the original but offers a satisfyingly fresh take.

6. Cobra Kai (2018-present)

Beginning 34 years after the 1984 All Valley tournament, Cobra Kai reunites audiences with Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence as they lead opposing lives. LaRusso owns a successful chain of car dealerships, and Lawrence is down on his luck, but the latter’s reforming of the Cobra Kai dojo reunites them — sometimes as friends, other times as rivals. The show reintroduces many old characters and introduces countless great new ones. Beginning on YouTube, it’s now on Netflix, and all six seasons are well worth watching (despite its often implausible plots).

7. Karate Kid (2025)

Releasing on May 30, 2025, Karate Kid will somehow bring Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso and Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han together, confirming 2010’s The Karate Kid as a canon part of the more expansive franchise. It’s unknown how that will happen or how plausible the events surrounding the meeting will be, but it’s exciting nonetheless. Other cast members include Ben Wang as the movie’s young prodigy, Joshua Jackson, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Aramis Knight, Wyatt Oleff, and Jennifer-Lyn Christie. Presumably, it will take place after the events of the final season of Cobra Kai .

Not canon: The Karate Kid (1989)

While it’s not canonically part of the more expansive Karate Kid franchise, the 1989 animated series The Karate Kid does feature familiar characters Daniel LaRusso (voiced by Joey Dedio) and Mr. Miyagi (voiced by Robert Ito). It doesn’t specifically fit in anywhere chronologically, so if you wish to watch it, do so whenever you feel like it. There are no tournaments, as it’s more of an adventure series with quests and whatnot. Honestly, it’s not great — in fact, it’s wildly goofy at times — but if you want the whole experience of the franchise, we won’t stop you from finding that out for yourself.

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Trivia On November 21, 2023, Sony released a video featuring Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan announcing they were both returning for the new movie as well as a global casting search for the new titular "Karate Kid."
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COMMENTS

The Karate Kid Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 28 ): Kids say ( 91 ): This movie isn't a slick, angsty coming-of-age drama, but there's so much to just enjoy about it. Shue's Ali is sweet -- especially because she doesn't mind Daniel's working-class background -- but the teens' romance is filler for the central relationship in the movie: that of Daniel and Mr. Miyagi.
The Karate Kid: Christian Movie Review
All that in mind, this new film is actually quite good. Starring power couple Will and Jada Pinkett Smith's son, Jaden, The Karate Kid is an updated version of an '80s classic. It doesn't offer groundbreaking storytelling, which isn't a big surprise, since it's a remake, but it is a fun coming of age film the family will enjoy seeing together ...
The Karate Kid (1984)
The Karate Kid (1984) B+ SDG Original source: National Catholic Register The Karate Kid is perhaps the best of the Rocky clones, formulaic, manipulative, hokey — and thoroughly rousing. Directed by John G. Avildsen (who directed Stallone in the original Rocky), the film's sincerity and emotional poignance have a way of steamrolling over gaps in plausibility and logic.
The Karate Kid
Directed By. Harald Zwart. Run Time. 2 hours 20 minutes. Cast. Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith, Taraji P. Henson. Theatre Release. June 11, 2010 by Columbia Pictures. If you were alive and out of diapers ...
Movies With a Message: The Karate Kid (1984)
The Karate Kid (1984) UK Certificate: 15 US Certificate: PG Intended audience: Older children and adults. Herewith a tribute to director John G Avildsen, who passed away recently. These days it is easy to dismiss The Karate Kid as 1980s nostalgia. However, although it now looks somewhat dated, it retains an essential innocent charm as well as a ...
The Karate Kid movie review & film summary (1984)
The Karate Kid (1984) I didn't want to see this movie. I took one look at the title and figured it was either (a) a sequel to Toenails of Vengeance, or (b) an adventure pitting Ricky Schroder against the Megaloth Man. I was completely wrong. "The Karate Kid" was one of the nice surprises of 1984 -- an exciting, sweet-tempered, heart-warming ...
The Karate Kid (1984)
The Karate Kid (1984) By Christian Sauvé 2017-03-10 2017-08-29 Movie Review (Second viewing, On TV, March 2017) I remember seeing The Karate Kid as a kid, being entertained for most of it but mystified at some sequences such as the spaghetti-spill.
The Karate Kid
Harald Zwart directs this remake of the popular 1984 film starring Ralph Macchio and Noriyuki "Pat" Morita. Jaden Smith reveals a wide range of acting skills as Tre, creating a believable and incredibly sympathetic character. Jackie Chan as Mr. Han plays the role of the quiet, humble kung fu teacher with just the right balance of martial arts ...
The Karate Kid
12-year-old Dre Parker could've been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother's latest career move has landed him in China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying—and the feeling is mutual—but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows only a little karate ...
The Karate Kid
Cast. Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, Elisabeth Shue, Martin Kove. Rated. PG. Runtime. 126 min. Release Date. 06/01/1984. From the depths of the height of 1980s pop culture comes The Karate Kid, a motion picture that, despite being stamped by its decade of origin, still works on a basic dramatic level today.
The Karate Kid (1984) Movie Review from Eye for Film
Arriving in California with his single-mother, gangly teen Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio) soon finds himself being targeted by the local karate-practicing bullies. However, hope arrives when it turns out that friendly handyman Mr Miyagi (Pat Morita) is also a master martial artist and he agrees to train Daniel for the upcoming local karate ...
The Karate Kid (2010)
S chool's out and summer brings us to what movie goers deem: Blockbuster Summer. Many films have already gotten us off the ground including a couple of terrific sequels and re-makes like Shrek 3 and "Robin Hood." The Karate Kid comes close at their heels, but making comparisons to the 1984 Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita classic may blind you to the virtues of the new, extremely pleasing ...
The Karate Kid
That said, this new Karate Kid's kung fu scenes are in fact amped up. And the same can be said of the story's spiritual content, which is both more specific and more frequent. In 1984, Mr. Miyagi made one joking reference to Buddha. In 2010, Mr. Han waxes eloquent about chi and dabbles in some very mystical-feeling rituals.
User Reviews
i love this movie! first of all, LAUNGUEGE! alot of bad languege. but either than that its amazing. the movie is about a kid that gets bullied, and then he meets mr. mayagi (rip, mister mayagi, he died), and then he gets teacher karate by doing chores. hillarious movie, you should watch it! 1 person found this helpful.
The Karate Kid Movie Review for Parents
In the meantime the master promises to train the boy. The Karate Kid debuted in 1984 and quickly became a classic in its genre. Still, parents should be aware that despite pacifist professions, the movie spends a lot of time portraying martial arts violence and battles where bullying turns into assault. (A little blood and a few injuries are ...
Movie Review: The Karate Kid (1984)
So while it does have some mild pacing issues, "The Karate Kid" is still a highly entertaining coming of age story that I really enjoyed. It has a good story, good characters, great performances, really good music, and great directing. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for "The Karate Kid" is an 8.60/10.
The Karate Kid (1984): Movie Review
Release date: August 31, 1984. Style: Action, Drama, Family, Sport. For more movie details, you can find them on IMDB . A Generation of Karatekas. The Karate Kid came out a year after I was born. My two older brothers have therefore watched it a heap of times, and by the time I was four-years-old I was already being taught how to "wax on, wax ...
The Karate Kid (1984) Is a Simple Yet Spectacular Sports Movie ...
The summer of 1984 was a golden period for blockbuster cinema. Many successful and well-loved franchises began this year, among them being The Karate Kid, which kicked off one of the greatest summer movie seasons on June 22nd, 1984. Pitched and billed as Rocky for kids, The Karate Kid was a classic "zero to hero narrative," steeped in the ancient tradition of the classical, Campbell-coined ...
The Karate Kid (1984): Film Review
The Karate Kid (1984): Film Review. Directed by John G. Avildsen and Christopher Cain. Pat E. Johnson was the choreographer of The Karate Kid' s fight scenes, and appeared in Enter the Dragon as a gangster in John Saxon's flashback scene. Also a former student of Chuck Norris. Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn both turned down the role of Daniel ...
‎The Karate Kid (1984) directed by John G. Avildsen • Reviews, film
Synopsis. He taught him the secret to karate lies in the mind and heart. Not in the hands. Daniel moves to Los Angeles with his mother, Lucille, and soon strikes up a relationship with Ali. He quickly finds himself the target of bullying by a group of high school students, led by Ali's ex-boyfriend Johnny, who study karate at the Cobra Kai ...
The Karate Kid (1984)
7/10. Classic martial arts movie with the intimate Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio. ma-cortes 28 December 2007. A teenage named Daniel (Ralph Macchio) aware that Karate is his salvation, he battles an evil nemesis, facing a violent young group trained by a Karate expert (Martin Kove) .
The Karate Kid
NEW. Daniel (Ralph Macchio) moves to Southern California with his mother, Lucille (Randee Heller), but quickly finds himself the target of a group of bullies who study karate at the Cobra Kai dojo ...
The Karate Kid (1984)
My review of the classic 80's sports drama, The Karate Kid(1984) starring Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, William Zabka, Elisabeth Shue, Martin Kove, Randee Helle...
The Karate Kid Latest News, Interviews, and More
Released in 1984, The Karate Kid follows the story of Daniel LaRusso on his unexpected journey to becoming a Karate expert under the tutelage of a martial arts master. Recently relocated from New Jersey to Los Angeles, Daniel and his mother are trying to adapt to their new home. Unfortunately, Daniel becomes the target of a gang of Cobra Kai dojo students. When his handyman, Mr. Miyagi, saves ...
How to Watch the 'Karate Kid' Movies in Order
1. The Karate Kid (1984) Image via Columbia Pictures. The brilliant first movie in the franchise, which made Ralph Macchio a star, is the one to watch first. In the film, Macchio's Daniel ...
Untitled Karate Kid Movie (2025)
Untitled Karate Kid Movie: Directed by Jonathan Entwistle. With Joshua Jackson, Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ming-Na Wen.
Karate Kid (2025 film)
The Karate Kid (1984), starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso, was followed by three sequels: The Karate Kid Part II (1986), The Karate Kid Part III (1989), and The Next Karate Kid (1994), although Macchio did not return for the fourth film. A remake of the first film was released in 2010, with a similar storyline but with a different set of characters, including Jackie Chan as Mr. Han.

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