13 Things to Think About While Watching the Karate Kid

[Edgy MD]

We've talked about this film plenty. I'm not sure these factors have come up, but I was cooking an elaborate dinner and watched this again and they piqued my interest.

1. Standard cheap remote location shot as the film opens in Newark and uses broad shots and voiceovers of the actors so doubles can play them as the car pulls away. Ralph Macchio and Randee Heller are also not there as the green station wagon drives through a symbolic Iowa. Cheap but effective.
   
   
   
2. Less effective is the stereotype-laden first line: "Tony, don't forget to tell Uncle Louie that I left the red wine and the parmesan in the refrigerator."
   
   
   
3. Daniel makes a friend in Act One. Freddy Fernandez, I think his name was. Helps Daniel with his stuff, and invites him to the party. This kid briefly talks with Daniel at soccer tryouts the next day and then disappears. He's like the gun in the first act that never goes off. This movie is a near masterpiece of dramatic arc, but they blow that one. Or it was genius misdirection, I'm not sure.
   
   
   
4. Imitation Beach Boys song that plays at the party to establish that "this is California and this is the beach" is called "(Bop Bop) on the Beach." The composer credit on the soundtrack album goes to Mike Love. Not lyrics credit, but the whole song. I've been reviewing the Beach Boys catalog and I'm up to the Friends album of December 1968 (their 15th non-"Greatest Hits" album) and I haven't discovered Mike credited as music composer for anything. The artists credited with performing it are The Flirts ("(Don't Put Another Dime in the) Juke Box") and Jan and Dean ("Surf City").
   
   
   
5. In a second nod to the budget, when Daniel arrives at school, there is an extended shot of the dedication plaque. This shot has no contextual purpose, and is clearly included as part of the payment for the school allowing the production to shoot on campus.
   
   [fimg=600]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6mltTIqaRjs/VAaD1sLHhBI/AAAAAAAAFtk/YtGvV1LOTyg/s1600/KarateKid3.JPG[/fimg]
   
   
   
6. An artist self-help book can be written about Mr. Miyagi's technique of bonsai sculpting. Close your eyes, see the tree in it's entirety, completed, and only then will you know what you have to do. The artist's way.
   
   
   
7. Ever give somebody a bonsai as a gift? They always die, and everybody feels bad.
   
   
   
8. Teenagers are stupid, and I was no exception. I'm going back and forth with whether I would have been stupid enough to have pulled the hose-from-the-slopsink-pouring-water-onto-Johnny/Zabka's-head maneuver. I tend to think that, as poor as a teenage male's judgment is, he remembers pain, and this move might have been, like, fifth-grade dumb. But yeah, maybe I might have done this stupid thing, especially after a slow dance with a pretty girl, which has a way of killing brain cells. But I like to think I might have removed the shower costume apparatus.
   
   
   
9. Never realized it because Daniel is such an ungrateful and ungracious whiner, but he's right when he says that Miyagi has to get involved because he already is involved. Cobra Kai is going to come down on him so much harder because of the beating that Miyagi handed out. GO THE DISTANCE, MIYAGI.
   
   
   
10. Chad McQueen's hair dye is hilarious. He looks like a college grad and was actually 24 at the time of the film's release. I figured he was Ali McGraw's son. I in fact thought maybe that was kind of a production in-joke, the female lead explicitly spelling her name in tribute to the supporting player's famous mother, but he was in fact the product of Steve McQueen's prior marriage with Filipina actress Neile Adams.
    
    [fimg=300]http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m723iw3GnP1r1r7rjo1_1280.jpg[/fimg]
    
    That shot was taken in 1960, the same year Chad was born, so there's a good chance that she's carrying legendary bully sidekick Dutch the Cobra Kai at that moment.
    
    
    
11. The two middle-aged fools at the beach who harass Mr. Miyagi by drinking on his car and refusing to move. One of them � and this will shock you � is a visitor from the future wearing what we didn't recognize in 1983 was... a Washington Nationals hat.
    
    
    
    
    
12. Black Cobra Kai kid is so doomed. So doomed. The subtle/not-so-subtle racism of eighties movies, man.
    
    
    
13. When Daniel is getting his gee with the Miyagi patch sewn on the back, it's sort of reflected in the scene behind Mr. Miyagi, where a golden paper lantern is shining behind one his bonsai trees. This was either a very nice touch or some strange luck.

I'm sure it's been done and done better than I could, but I think I'd like to write a book-length shot-by-shot exegesis on this film. (How did we never notice the cap before?)

[Edgy MD]

Karate Kid in the archives:

• The Karate Kid (ranked). (I also puzzle over the dousing-Zabka scene here. It's interesting that he's dressed as a shower and he showers water on his enemy.)
  
  
  
• Karate Kid Villain Deathmatch.
  
  
  
• Karate-Kid-ettes.
  
  
  
• WSo8M: (2) The Karate Kid v. (6) The Terminator (This ended in a tie!)
  
  
  
• The Karate Kid, Part II (ranked)

[Guest themetfairy]

I graduated high school with Ralph Macchio.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: [*]The two middle-aged fools at the beach who harass Mr. Miyagi by drinking on his car and refusing to move. One of them � and this will shock you � is a visitor from the future wearing what we didn't recognize in 1983 was... a Washington Nationals hat. (How did we never notice the cap before?)

Or maybe the guy was just a big fan of Walgreens Pharmacy.

[Edgy MD]

The simplest solution is always the most likely. And the simplest solution is that he's a time-traveler from the future.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I was going to remark on wearing the all-white outfit on the very same day he wears a plate of spaghetti sauce but realize I did that in the first linked thread too.

Good point about the disappearance of Freddy Fernandez. IRL, you're a new kid from out of town, you meet a guy like Freddy Fernandez on your first day, you're gonna be his friend for a long time. Poor guy dumped for Ali and Miyagi.

[Edgy MD]

Freddy kinda dug his own grave though. He had a chance to show some heart during Daniel's fight at the beach and then at soccer tryouts. His crew gave him this "That guy's a loser, just leave him there to bleed" attitude, and Freddy turned away with them. Peer pressure.

Still, one might expect an official closing of that circle, either through a reconciliation or a "You weren't THERE for me, Freddy!" outburst from Daniel.

[dgwphotography]

Edgy MD wrote:

One of those yahoos grew up to be a law clerk at McKenzie - Brackman.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I guess that is Arnie.

Still, though, those mooks have little growing to do. Neither looks like he's particularly worried about being drafted.

[Vic Sage]

you forgot the 14th thing to think about: "Why am I watching this mediocre movie again?"

[Edgy MD]

Balance is the key.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I saw Ralph Macchio clothes shopping at the main Macy's, Herald Square. This hadda be 1985 or 1986, after Karate Kid had come out. He was with a woman who I presumed was Ralph's mother. And he looked like a teen-ager, about seven or eight years younger than he really was.

[dgwphotography]

Edgy MD wrote: Yeah, I guess that is Arnie.

This is Benny. Arnie went on to play 3rd for the Indians.

[Edgy MD]

That's my second memory fart of today. Earlier today I called the Bellamy Brothers "The Statler Brothers."

I have to put my neurologist on speed dial.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

[youtube:373h4lt1]XJwsAJ9Apko[/youtube:373h4lt1]

[ashie62]

Although shot in Newark Macchio introduces himself as "from Parsippany."

[Elster88]

Edgy MD wrote: Freddy kinda dug his own grave though. He had a chance to show some heart during Daniel's fight at the beach and then at soccer tryouts. His crew gave him this "That guy's a loser, just leave him there to bleed" attitude, and Freddy turned away with them. Peer pressure. Still, one might expect an official closing of that circle, either through a reconciliation or a "You weren't THERE for me, Freddy!" outburst from Daniel.

Freddy was there rubbing Daniel san's head and high fiving him after the tourney. Bandwagoners

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Elster88 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Freddy kinda dug his own grave though. He had a chance to show some heart during Daniel's fight at the beach and then at soccer tryouts. His crew gave him this "That guy's a loser, just leave him there to bleed" attitude, and Freddy turned away with them. Peer pressure. Still, one might expect an official closing of that circle, either through a reconciliation or a "You weren't THERE for me, Freddy!" outburst from Daniel. Freddy was there rubbing Daniel san's head and high fiving him after the tourney. Bandwagoners

Quality return from your lengthy steroid suspension, Elster.