Review by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita, Elisabeth Shue, Martin Kove, Randee Heller,
William Zabka, Ron Thomas, Rob Garrison, Chad McQueen | Written by Robert Mark Kamen
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 127 minutes | Directed by John Avildsen
Hollywood is busy mining the 80s right now, remaking some of the classic films from the period (look out for a new version of The Breakfast Club soon) and turning some if its cheesiest TV shows into feature films – The A-Team anyone?
The Karate Kid remake is already out in the US, and hits UK cinemas in a couple of weeks, but watching the 1984 original on Blu-ray just reinforces how pointless most modern remakes are. The Karate Kid stands the test of time very well – yes, the clothes and hairstyles a laughable now, but the story is a classic. Daniel (Macchio) and his mother move to Los Angeles, a move young Dan is not happy with. He's soon being picked on by a bunch of karate-loving bullies, and so pleads with his apartment building handyman Mr Miyagi (Morita) to teach him the martial art.
It's a simple, magic film. The beauty of it is that Mr Miyagi teaches Daniel karate without Daniel even realising., What seems like a series of mindless tasks – washing and waxing Miyagi's cars, painting Miyagi's house, painting Miyagi's fence – is actually building up Daniel's muscle memory and teaching him the defence moves he will need for his karate. It's clever stuff. Acting-wise, this is really Morita's film all the way (he was nominated for, but didn't win, a Best Supporting Actor Oscar). Macchio is fine as the cocky young Daniel-san, but Morita – best known for comedy before this – brings a quiet wisdom, strength and calm to the role of Miyagi. It's one of the great modern film characters, fondly remembered in particular for the classic (and oft repeteated) "Wax on, wax off" line. But there's so much more to him than that. Miyagi may appear a gruff old man on the outside, but deep down he's warm and wise, and believes that karate should be used for defence only. He and Daniel strike up an unlikely friendhip – what starts out as a teacher-pupil relationship soon becomes father-son. Forget the remake, and watch this version instead. It's still far and away one of the best films from the 1980s.
EXTRAS ★★★? A very noisy and ramshackle, but fun, audio commentary with writer Kamen, director Avildsen and cast members Morita and Macchio (one of the things we learn is that Machio now owns the canary yellow 1950 Chevrolet Convertible from the film); the two-part, 45-minute featurette from 2004, called The Way of The Karate Kid, in which cast and crew take a look back at the film; the 13-minute featurette Beyond the Form, in which film fight coreographer Pat Johnson talks about karate; the eight-minute featurette East meets West: A Composers Notebook, which talks with Bill Conti about the film's music score; the 10-minute featurette Life of Bonsai, which looks at this ancient Japanese art of tree shaping.