Karate Kid (El momento de la verdad)

"The Karate Kid" is the tale of Daniel Laruso (Ralph Macchio), a young man who, on the heels of his mother's finding a new job, is uprooted from Newark, New Jersey, to the sunny shores of California. Daniel's mother has visions of a new start, a new life with the sky as the limit. Daniel, however, quickly finds that, for him, the West Coast holds nothing but hard times.

With the comforts of his rough, middle-class neighborhood thousands of miles away, Daniel tries to make friends and blend with the well-to-do, upper-class kids in his new home. At first, Daniel seems to do alright but, before long, he crosses paths with Johnny (William Zabka), the tough, rich leader of a group of karate students who attends Daniel's new school. To make matters worse, Johnny is the ex-boyfriend of Ali (Elisabeth Shue), a girl Daniel is pursuing.

Enter Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita), an aging handy-man who works at Daniel's apartment building. Struggling for friends and failing to fit in, Daniel finds support in Miyagi. After enduring several beatings at the hands of Johnny and his gang, Daniel comes to learn that Miyagi, in fact, knows karate. Following a vain attempt to speak with Johnny's karate teacher (Martin Kove) about being left alone, Daniel is suddenly entered into the All-Valley Karate Tournament, where he will attempt to win the respect that Johnny and his gang have taken.

As he trains for the karate tournament with Miyagi, Daniel learns invaluable lessons about life and love. And brought to the foreground of this karate story is Daniel's pursuit of Ali, who truly is the single person who gave the new kid a chance.

On many levels, "The Karate Kid" is an uplifting movie. It illustrates how a lonely, out-of-place kid triumphs against the odds, and the movie doesn't need computer-animation or special effects to get its story across. But, for me and anyone who loves '80s movies, the "The Karate Kid" has to be appreciated for its nostalgia trip back to "better times." For that reason alone, this movie is a classic.

I've enjoyed few movies, if any, more than "The Karate Kid." I highly recommend this flick to anyone who loves a touching, uplifting story, or to anyone who simply can't get out of the '80s!!!

Done by the same director as Rocky, this unusual "feel good" movie became a hit in 1984 and generated two sequels before the mania died and the franchise imploded.

I remember the phenomenon from the 80s yet as a "prolific reviewer" for the IMDb now (which, for buffs, is not the same thing as a "Voracious Eater" from the Claymore series) I now see the film differently.

I see a very competently done film that is literally lifted off the ground and carried to the finish line by the extraordinary one-of-a-kind performance from a (then) 50 year old Pat Morita, an actor who essentially spent his entire career doing "asian walkons" and offers us only this one role as a chance to see what he actually could do. Given half a chance.

Macchio and Shue were competent (the former had some momentum from Happy Days/Laverne and Shirley and the latter was beginning a short career as a type of "brat pack" teenage star) but it was Morita who owned the film and kept your interest.

Unfortunately the historical record even on the IMDb does not reflect any of this. Shue actually won an award for a completely forgettable part and Morita not only did not win anything for this film but the only nominations he received were in the "supporting role" category. This is clear "color blindness" on the part of Hollywood. He has almost as much screen time as Macchio (I counted) but because his career was merely bit parts before (and after) this was the prevailing mindset. The film would have failed without him.

As a footnote, I was not able to identify precisely why he was cast in the role, but historically Okinawa has indeed been associated with its own unique brand of martial arts and, in the martial arts world, short stocky older men have long been acknowledged as champions even though in the films of our present era someone of Morita's age or body-type would never even be considered for such a part.

The two sequels were much weaker but the demand for them was great and, when there is money on the table, Hollywood will always oblige.

It's tough for Daniel, a teenager, who's moved with his mother from New Jersey to California, unable to fit in, Daniel is bullied and beaten by a group of boys from a local karate school. Daniel is rescued, mentored and trained by Mr Miyagi, Daniel gets a shot at taking on the bullies at their own game.

This one one of my favourite films growing up, it really is a triumph over adversity story, with Daniel taking it straight to those that bullied him, and turning the tables.

If you're a fan of those feel good 80's movies, then I'm convinced that you'll enjoy this, it really is an easy going, uplifting experience. It's loaded with iconic scenes, such as wax on, wax off and the ultimate kick scene. This film is definitely worth your time.

This film helped bring a martial arts story to the masses, prior to that, you could argue that many of the martial arts themed films had something of a niche appeal,

It always saddened me that Ralph Macchio didn't have a great career after this film, you would have thought that this would have set him up, it didn't, fortunately Cobra Kai had helped to redress the balance.

The follow up films and the remake are all below average, and perhaps better off avoided, if you've not seen Cobra Kai, I would recommend it, it truly is the great follow up that this film deserved.

Worth seeing.

8/10.

I being a child of the 80's have a soft spot for this movie. Yes it is predictable,but what makes it a great movie is the performances by the 2 main characters. Ralph Macchio is great as a teenager that is bullied at his new school. But the movie belongs to Pat Morita as Mr. Myagi. He plays an old apartment maintenance man that befriends Macchio. He becomes his karate teacher, but they develop a great friendship that makes the movie all the more enjoyable. The great thing is that the movie shows that the old man comes to need the kid as much as the kid needs him, it is a touching relationship. All the rest is standard Rocky film stuff, but what Rocky and this film have in common is that the characters are people we care for, so all the climactic scene stuff works.

While John Hughs' films may be the standard for teen flicks in the 1980s, Hughs' films were just a few of the great and unique teen films to be released in that decade. Coupled with Back to the Future, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the 80s was a rather unique time for teen movies. The Karate Kid just happened to be another one of those films. With the immortal Pat Morita leading the way, this film was not only touching, but put a whole new spin on the `zero-to-hero' story line which we have all seen too often. Ralph Macchio may have had no career after these film, but at least he proved to be comparable as Daniel (san). Sure, the ending and outcome proved to be a little predictable, but the film was still a winner.