today's episode is sponsored by skillshare [Music] [Applause] tony don't forget to tell uncle louie that i left the red wine in the refrigerator you know it's the 80s when the red wine needs to be cold one of my favorite parts of this movie is the score and yet before we meet mr miyagi bill conti gave us the most generic 80s adventure music ever which sort of works towards making us feel like the movie doesn't really start until miyagi shows up okay okay fun fact that is neither ralph macchio nor randy heller even though we feel
like we've been with them this is actually the first time daniel is even in the movie i never noticed frankie's shirt hey we're having a beachbody soda you want to come yeah sure that's cool that is some friendliness neighborliness it was a rule in the 80s that the eventual mentor had to be a little scary or intimidating at first but even pat morita's worst mad dog still makes you like him when are you gonna fix the faucet after after what after after and this is why casting arnold from happy days was the right call for
the wise master come out to the coast we'll get together beaches are amazing love at first sight and who could blame well daniel right in the face and he just keeps going so were karate headbands just all the rage in 80s california this is actually some of the most realistic flirting of all time slightly awkward feels natural man who's for warming here you go no i passed this see johnny really is the hero of the story abstaining like that the poor kid just wanted to have the best senior year ever she just deliberately drop kicked
your ball away and you still think it's all good he treats him like a bull never noticed that before come on it's better you know sometimes that is true especially since he got the wind knocked out of him and can't talk they moved into this new place and two mornings later mrs larusso already has a bunch of garbage stuck to the fridge just pictures of cake hey karate kid given that the title feels like a last minute scramble before the posters were printed and fun fact it basically was the karate kid project was just robert
caiman's working title so he just removed project ali picks up juggling almost as fast as daniel picks up karate so it's like in universe continuity i'll see you later definitely yep what else matters when you've got young love tight back handspring something that might be lost on people who don't care about soccer or have never played is that it's clear ralph macchio can actually play well so getting kicked off the team would actually be a big deal to him he helped me i sat out of here oh i fell off my bike okay ah miyagi
not only a karate master but also a master detective i have some pie i made it myself yeah either elizabeth shu is an amazing actress or that joke got her off guard i mean it can be both remember that guy had trouble with on the beach oh yeah king karate see what i mean if they had been rushing with the series it wouldn't have been called cobra kai kris is somehow a mustache twirly psycho with a freaking cardboard cut out of himself in his dojo but also always feels threatening in a very real way i
can't hear you this background scene with the cobra kai kids noticing and planning their attack unfolds the entire time daniel is talking to his mom careful how you ride home huh i don't know i she's beaut i say she's beautiful i think she's beautiful normalize actors mumbling nonsense to themselves in movies again she's hot definitely hot look people like to say this is attempted murder but that's actually a grassy hill just because daniel doesn't know how to take a fall or something they were specifically trying to teach him here's your first lesson and something you
do need to learn in all martial arts doesn't make them attempted murderers i'm mostly joking my point is that they pushed him down a hill not off a cliff and it's absolutely something a bunch of bullies would have done in the 80s why can't we just go home oh man i love the miyagi comes out to nod knowingly for the audience and then just goes back inside but more importantly hints it is japanese pan flute japanese recorder theme are finally here camo pants how do i know if my picture's the right one if come from
inside you always right on mihagi has already started teaching daniel life lessons and he's just barely had his life threatened yet what a guy he fixed your bike oh no it's so humble old miyagi to correct daniel's pronunciation of the baby tree before bothering with his own name bonsai tree bonsai bonsai are you champ ah mrs larusso always believed in her boy some visual storytelling throwing johnny between daniel with an l and ally with an eye to make honey young bee need young flower not old prune gross maybe keep some wise words inside i don't
have a costume anyway you have costume you go hey the shower ring and curtain are behind him i don't know what she sees in him she must be into fungus nah i get it because mold grows and showers she's she's he's a quick one but also daniel really is the villain here johnny was trying to turn his life around and daniel drove him to drugs the new in thing to do was for everyone to blame daniel for antagonizing the cobra kai kids but you've got to remember he was just trying to grant ali's wish love
to see him get a dose of his own medicine well you know it goes around comes around what's wrong it's coming around after ali trips them you hear bones hitting the ground it's all happening fast but i love that keen eyed viewers might have recognized miyagi's green door from earlier hey you can't break signs about not breaking stuff so this is the first time that i realized that morita didn't do some of the fighting since he doesn't have any martial arts background but fumio dimura the real life miyagi is such a perfect stand-in i never
noticed to the point that even his slightly slowed actions fit with miyagi's character it would spider-man go it was more likely in his unconscious state that the random kid he saw in the bathroom was the real spider-man and saved him then little old miyagi ancestor called karate empty and while we are learning about the origins of karate from miyagi take notice of the talent between these two actors in another ridiculously long five and a half minute warner offense mr miyagi i don't think you understand my problem it's not until he saves his life that miyagi
decides to correct daniel's pronunciation no such thing a bad student only bad teacher it's an amazing scene either way because miyagi realizing there's a crappy teacher out there is a main reason he decides to train daniel in the first place because i get killed if i show up there get killed anyway canter no get involved oh but you already are involved i mean there are so many iconic things in this movie even miyagi's little nonsense rebukes hey what kind of belt do you have canvas you like jc penney 398. and even when he's being a
jokester he can't help but give daniel another karate lesson karate here karate here karate never i never noticed that the kid looked back before which yeah chris is still a psychopath but it wasn't exactly the unprovoked bullying i assumed it was slightly provoked bullying since the kid wasn't giving the punch the air practice his full attention are you calling mr lawrence a liar no call noah nothing morita's fake esl accent is only weird once you hear him speak not as miyagi so i recommend not doing that or watching sanford in suns but every line is
so quotable stinks man what is this smell bad heal good it's a matter the boy can't take care of his own problems five to one problem too much ask anyone i like that he implies that it was even too much for him even though he did it you're a pushy little bastard ain't you but i like that i like that best villain delivery ever does miyaki think crease might attack them from behind yeah and that checks out it actually plays perfectly into his fighting as a last resort motto he's not so arrogant as to invite
an attack it's also a sign of respect to not turn your back on someone then nobody bother hell they'll bury me where i fall either way problem solved problem solving advice win lose no matter also that's the ethos of this movie and i love it walk on the road walk right side safe walk left side safe walk middle sooner or later get the squeeze road walking lessons also discount yoda but it's even better because you don't even need the force for the parable to work either you karate do yes hey where these cars come from
detroit see kids in the late 20th century things used to be made in the united states off and a million parents all at once realized they could teach their kids karate by protecting their paint jobs must be take a worm for a walk week no doubt johnny beat tommy senseless later that evening golfing stuff i guess we're going to office yeah that's about right painfully disturbingly ptsd lee right a first date with a hockey go-karts golf trampoline and photo booth montage is the fastest way to get zip code shamed three times in one night where
do you live i'm out like uh it's funny because as a kid the training disguised as chores was one of the most memorable parts of the movie but the filmmakers clearly thought it needed to be broken up since daniel's band-aid disappears on his date with ali and then reappears when he reports for duty i'll admit not much happens between sanding waxing painting and more painting but i don't think i'm alone at having a special place in my memory rather than just montage it all together we feel daniel's pain and growing annoyance all the floor all
the things or say yeah i'm not saying i was amazing at the nes karate kid bonus fly catching minigame but i was amazing at it this is actually an example of the demystification of miyagi there's no lesson from catching flies maybe patience but really it's just something he likes trying and daniel isn't the chosen one because he gets it on his first try these are real people hey the most impressive part of daniel's painting is that he has not a drop of paint on him well fence paint what are you doing ow how did you
do that again i know there's the whole magical asian thing here but as a kid i honestly just thought he was warming his hands so they weren't cold on daniel's skin and then he just like cracked his shoulder to release some tension after all daniel's the magical one hey wax on wax off [Music] [Applause] 25 minutes of training for daniel to do anything even remotely resembling karate but the payoff is so super satisfying in a whoa that worked kind of way hey there's just so much build up to this scene but daniel is still a
kid and miyagi is still his goofy human teacher it's so honest i don't know fighting the ocean seemed like a losing battle from the get-go that hard cut from the let's do stuff upbeat pan flute classical to the way more contemplative piece with hints of the main theme slightly remystifying miyagi but in a grounded way fun fact about the racists they're credited as yahoo number one and yahoo number two also alcohol abuse yeah but you know karate someone always know more again just a human doling out life lessons that is a fact of life no
matter who you are or what you do but so many hero stories ignore it in white train so i won't have to fight yep may i have a hope for you okay so the timing isn't perfect but we can see johnny asking ali's mom to dance in the background and then they're dancing behind ali and her dad come up instant zapka claimed elizabeth's shoe punched him for real on every take haha i know i just ruined her night but it was worth it for the humiliation we all love radicals i keep coming back to his
humanity we loved miyagi because we are miyagi this man's performance on november 2nd 1948 men's and our relocation center your wife and newborn son died and just in case this went over your adolescent head as it did mine while miyagi was fighting for america during world war ii and earning the medal of honor his wife was put into an internment camp and died during childbirth because no doctors came to save her [Music] man oh man the studio wanted to cut this scene because it stalled the progress of the story this scene realizes miyagi he's quiet
because he carries pain from loss that most of us can't imagine he hates fighting because he fought a war with the 442nd a few racists on the beach don't even dampen his comedic timing because his wife and son died in a japanese internment camp because of the racism of the country for which he was risking his life miyagi would be a mystical man from the east without this scene but there's a reason for who he is and daniel learns about it while also seeing that miyagi isn't magic he's just a man [Music] another score transition
but this time from calm and peaceful as daniel honors miyagi to his independent training in a more determined piece of music bill conti is telling us daniel knows what he needs to do and even more importantly knows how to do it now but uh am i going crazy or does this piece use a really similar melody to box jesus joy of man's desiring i just don't know if i knew enough karate you know feeling correct honesty you're the best friend i ever had are you pretty okay too more honesty and compliments also generosity and if
you ever thought it was a little strange that miyagi was just giving away cars after a few weeks keep in mind that he lost his son and even though late in his life he's gotten a second chance at being a father more on that later thank you so many 80s bangers written for this movie well except for the one that was written for rocky iii you are a jerk yeah i can't believe you knocked that waiter over and ruined that beautiful white outfit there is a scene that was cut where ali tries to explain and
daniel blows her off multiple times and then says he just wants them all to leave him alone so that's what this is about yeah one second thought maybe he's a jerk either way but still hugging this scene is so frantic i can feel the terror beyond just having to fight the terror of your first tournament not knowing the rules that's the part that would [ __ ] me and part of the reason it works so well is because of this warner that starts with ally holding the belt travels alongside them for some faux handheld and
then cranes up above the stands showing us the entire arena and it only took 36 stakes he says you're very kind thank you welcome hey honey and shark's gonna grow up i mean i'd like to say sometime in 2019 but yeah who knew ali inspired the song like the song is actually playing in daniel's head he's just hearing her say it over and over i'd take best over a tiger eye any day of the week and the real hero johnny lawrence still showing us true karate i can't i can't up my mind poor kid needs
to learn how to block those front kicks right because the only actual martial artist competing on film he's not good he's phenomenal super fast turnaround placard making i want to be great if i want to make you survive survive what do you mean survive okay start now hey what do you mean survive what are you talking even more honesty and more mumbling from the mumble king fun fact the referee is pat e johnson an actual karate champion who also did all the choreography for the movie there really is no one that high odds quite like
johnny lawrence and i think zabka has only gotten better with age class and then send it to the internet i don't want him but i'll be disqualified but i was going into toshi station to pick up some power converters right right you've been thinking he looks like mark hall movie [Applause] dave's mom was gonna take bobby out can't pretend like that gong hit sink to the clap doesn't give me chills hey that's one he learned by osmosis from miyagi sweep the leg look i'm not saying kris isn't an insane villain and there isn't a certain
level of sportsmanship but like daniel is fighting there's no avoid the injury rule in sports boxers try to open those cuts above the eye mma fighters kick the bruised leg heck the striker is going to take the ball at the slowest defender if you step on the mat ring field pitch whatever you can't expect your opponent to not exploit your weaknesses to win which is why johnny gets a point he was the one questioning the ethicality of sweeping the injured leg maybe he's not the hero but he's always been more than the villain just a
reminder that barney stinson was right about some things johnny and really william zabka is just a naturally gifted martial artist he went into this movie with only a wrestling background and i would have bet money that he had at least some karate training most people don't train for a few weeks and learn to do a nip up that well granted that's more gymnastics but look at this guy [Applause] yeah i mean no no no no [Music] yes i'm not about ranking stuff but that kick is up there not just because of the spectacle but miyagi
may not even know that daniel had been practicing the crane technique since he was doing it all alone it's like the fulfillment of daniel taking miyagi's training seriously and putting it into practice and how about this score [Music] [Applause] and some redemption can't blame you if anyone makes you ride like this on the floor they probably deserve your respect and more fun facts originally the opening scene from two with crease choking johnny was supposed to be the ending here but this was clearly the way to end the movie i'm sure a lot of millennials have
the same feeling about the karate kid as i do a lot of memorable movies came out of the 80s and oddly the auras around some of those movies are often better than the movies themselves don't get me wrong i love the karate kid as a movie even diving into it like this it's still great fun but nothing will ever compare to the feelings i have about it it's more than nostalgia though that's a big part of it there's like a haze around it or a vogue that just makes it even better than it really is
like i pointed out most of the actual karate is tame at best if you've been following me long enough you've heard me talk about no retreat no surrender the vhs that i destroyed watching over and over as a kid as an adult i realize it's legit a karate kid clone but way way way worse the acting is the story somehow messes up some of the simple stuff that makes the karate kid great but in one specific way it's leagues better than the karate kid and that's the actual karate that's why i loved it so much
also who knows what bad acting is when you're seven [Applause] [Music] but it was directed by corey yoon a seasoned hong kong director who knows how to choreograph block and shoot engaging fight scenes the edge i'll give the karate kid is realism i'm not saying ralph macchio would have had a real chance against billy's abc in the mid-80s but they were way more closely matched than 58-185 van damme vs 510 160 probably kurt mckinney the fight scenes in karate kid aren't flashy at all and they feel much closer to real-life fights i didn't care either
way as a kid and pretty much thought both were perfect but now i believe daniel could have scored enough points to beat johnny in large part because he wasn't angry and had control which is one of the biggest parts of tournaments like these whether that full force face kick was legal will have to be decided another day interestingly though there has to be a universe where john aldson didn't direct rocky and daniel loses the final match because it was never about winning but rocky did happen and this was an 80s coming of age story so
daniel had to win i do think miyagi may have protested a little more daniel's speech was cute but if you need to risk permanent injury in a completely meaningless high school karate tournament to achieve balance with your girlfriend who bails six months after attaining said balance maybe what you were trying to get wasn't so much balance as a sweet victory smooch and a big trophy easy daniel i'm being a jerk here none of this changes how much i love this movie and if miyagi looked at daniel and realized finishing the tournament was the thing he
needed he'd give it to him i'm not so sure mrs larusso would have let it happen but hey it's the 80s but relationships are what really sell this movie i touched on it briefly but the more i think about this film the more i confirmed for myself that karate was like the byproduct of what miyagi was actually teaching daniel for that matter karate might be the byproduct of karate if i were to title a video essay about this movie it would be parents santa karate kid or something way snappier and less thought up in 60
seconds just now fathering but also mothering the karate kid and all karate kids even the mean ones with pretty hair yeah that's better miyagi continually speaks about his father he taught him to fish how to trim bonsai he taught him karate miyagi never got a chance to be a father to his son and therefore could never pass on what his father taught him then we have daniel who has a rockstar mother holding it down alone because his father died when he was young there is some contention here and there but i love that mrs larusso
is just doing it because you know great single parents exist and raise amazing people daniel didn't so much lack a father figure as he was available to have one if that makes sense but back to miyagi the part that goes unsaid is that the concrete or tangible things that miyagi's father taught him were always less about the actual skill and more about what you learned through the process miyagi never comes out and says that but it's clear he understood it and you'll look revenge that way start by digging to grieve daniel learned to wax cars
sand decks paint fences and houses and balance in precarious places while obviously also learning essential defensive karate techniques and even those are their own lessons about life balance patience trust persistence humility level-headedness and in the next movie compassion and mercy this movie is as much daniel's coming-of-age story as it is mr miyagi's second chance at passing on his father's wisdom even letting daniel fight in the final match to achieve life balance could be considered fatherly empathy a lesson not just karate only listen for whole life whole life have a balance i won't belabor it i
know it's extremely obvious once you say it aloud but next time you watch this movie realize that you're watching a father and son story it even applies to johnny and crease as well the cobra kai series explores that quite a bit more it's worth checking out miyagi was impossibly old to me when i watched this movie as a kid now that my own father is almost a decade older than the character was and i keep inching closer to miyagi further from daniel i have a new appreciation for who miyagi was and the decisions that he
made to land where he did a war hero who lost everything a karate master who hates fighting i guess i'm starting to connect more with the father side of the story now and it's like watching a whole new film but also this movie is hilarious and dolan anyone ever let you forget that not even me weeks one week five weeks how many weeks is weeks no no but i'm not very good at it me neither well i really don't have a license me neither well they agreed not to beat up on me and i promise
not to get my blood on it close how did you do that no no first time you all went behind here so we won't all be lucky enough to meet our own mr miyagi and banking on that would be silly especially when for a limited time the first 1 000 of my fans can get skillshare for free if you join using my link at the top of the description and just like daniel started right with karate basics you can start with an introductory dslr photography class from justin bridges his class begins with exactly how to
use your camera by giving easy to follow explanations of aperture shutter speed and iso to more advanced techniques like controlling the amount of bokeh and editing tips and tricks or if watching daniel work out and get his life in order has got you itching to up your productivity game there are tons of classes for that or if you're more into writing illustration or business skillshare has a class for you in their online learning community they have thousands of classes designed to help you create new skills or expand ones you already have and an annual subscription
is less than ten dollars with the first 1 000 of my fans to click the link at the top of the description and join will get a free trial skillshare premium membership so that they can try some different classes so check it out there's always a new class or topic i know you'll get a lot out of it and it's a massive help to the channel link is in the description [Music] i like that
