With a piece of film that was one time meant to be the ending for Karate Kid, The
Karate Kid II shows a small aftermath of the tournament where Pat Morita has a
reckoning with Martin Kove.
After that Morita hears that his father is dying and he returns to his village in
Okinawa and Ralph Macchio comes with him. They hold grudges these Okinawans. Danny Kamekona an old romantic rival keeps calling out Morita for
leaving Okinawa decades ago over a woman. And Kamekona's nephew Yuji Okumoto keeps trying to pick a fight with Ralph Macchio. Our karate kid is
attracted to Okinawa teen Tamlyn Tomita, a girl steeped in her traditional ways
and quite hip to modern culture too.
A lot of the same plot elements are in this film as the original except that Pat
Morita is quite involved and not an outsider. Hawaii stand in quite nicely for
Okinawa. I like the fact that the film makers were most respectable of the
Asian traditions here.
As for the plot let us say that Kamekona shows in the end he has the right stuff
unlike Martin Kove. As for dealing Okumoto, Macchio copies a technique that
he sees and learns from Morita.
Karate Kid II got an Oscar nomination for a very nice song Glory Of Love. This
keeps up the same high standard as the first.
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