brilliant actors, brilliant editing

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

(Flash Review)Rewatched after 20+ years. This is a no nonsense root for the underdog movie. Mr. Miyagi is subtly smooth as he helps a bullied kid, Daniel, learn self-defense. Daniel catches the eye of a humble rich girl and bad blood is formed from the other envious rich boys. Mr. Miyagi begins to teach Daniel karate in highly unorthodox methods. So much so Daniel almost quits until Mr. Miyagi reveals how much he has actually learned. Of course the rich kids are really good at karate so it's a no-brainer they'll be a showdown at the karate tournament so the audience can cheer for the underdog and the obstacles he must overcome. Will he win and teach the bad boys about morals at the same time? The several memorable scenes still hold up today. In between are standard 80s movie lackluster cinematography. Fun to relive Daniel's journey.

What made the original terrific was good vs evil. In the Hollyweird of 2018, there is no good or bad. There is only moral relativity. Without the reality of good vs evil, this show falls flat.What if Karate Kid were lame? What if we can't pick good guys or bad guys because we've been brainwashed to think up is down and right is wrong? This show answers those questions.

More than thirty years later the original Karate Kid still holds up pretty well and inspires people to defend themselves from bullies, trust unorthodox tactics and respect someone of different race origin and ideas. The story follows our senior-high school students , Daniel-san (sorry I couldn't resist) as he is bullied and then he meet an older karate teacher Mr. Miyagi who agrees to train him in both karate and in life lessons at the same time. Their friendship evolves over the duration of the film and it feels natural as due to their experiences they have both suffered loses of loved ones and they found what was missing from their lives in each other.As for the fight scenes they are fine and nicely capture by the camera but nothing else and compared with modern-day martial arts films or even the martial arts film of Hong-Kong through the years they are quit lacking. However is the story and emotional investment to the characters that really stick you in the fighting. Also the training montages are expertly made and the music is iconic beyond any doubt. Over all a general assessment of the film would be "Dated, but still enjoyable and in the end iconic " and to say the truth they shouldn't have been a series of films what-so-ever.

The Karate Kid is one of the better teen films of the 1980's. While some of the teen films idealized Gen-Xer life, the Karate Kid tells the story of the new kid in town who can't find his place. At the beginning of the film, Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and his single mother have moved from New Jersey to the San Fernando Valley in the Los Angeles area. He finds love with a schoolmate, Ali (Elizabeth Shue) but his nemesis becomes the girl's ex-boyfriend and his buddies. Turns out ex-boyfriend and company are a gang of teen bullies who are taught martial arts, "karate" in Japanese, by an amoral teacher who likens martial arts to military combat. He tells his students "no mercy". The gang misuses their abilities particularly against Daniel who is unable to defend himself because he knows nothing of martial arts combat.Luckily, the manager of the small apartment house is Mr Miyagi (Pat Morita). When he learns of the boys misfortunes, particularly after he has a first-hand encounter with the ruffians, Miyagi agrees to teach the young Daniel about martial arts, "karate". They strike a deal with the militant karate teacher, who is opposite in philosophy to Miyagi, that Daniel will enter a karate tournament, and until then, the "gang" must leave him alone. Miyagi points out that there are no bad students, just "bad teachers". He also says that karate is the last resort, not the first.Daniel is then put to work in which he has to wash cars, paint fences, and sand floors. It seems that Daniel is just being an indentured servant to Miyagi, but as the scenes unfold we learn that the point was not to paint the fence and wash the cars. In probably the most memorable scene of the film, Miyagi says "Show me sand the floor." We find out the real point behind Daniel's chores.This is an incredibly uplifting film and has an exceptional story arc. The film is called the Karate Kid which of course refers to the title character. However, for nearly half the film, Daniel knows nothing of karate. He must learn at the feet of Miyagi and that he becomes first a novice then an adept in the world of karate. Part of the story is the universal narrative device of teacher and pupil. The relationship between Miyagi and Daniel evolve from one of uncertainty to mentor-student which for me is the strongest aspect of the film. Filmmakers often forget that while we the audience desire the protagonist to succeed, there should be lots of obstacles in his or her way. If the conquest is too easy, then there's not a lot to root for. Daniel has to climb some very steep mountains before he becomes the "karate kid". Definitely a film which has more or less withstood from the 1980's and is far less dated than other offerings of the period. Personally, this is a far stronger film than "The Breakfast Club".