Karate Kid Film Studies

 The Karate Kid is a film about a boy named Daniel Larusso who moves to Southern California all the way from New Jersey with his mum. On Daniel's first day at his new apartment he meets and befriends a boy named Freddy Fernandez and is invited to a beach party that same day. Daniel enters his apartment when his mom tells him that the faucet is broken and to go and see the maintenance man, Mr Miyagi. Mr Miyagi tells him that he will fix the faucet soon, not giving an exact time, Daniel leaves to attend the party. At the party Daniel meets a girl named Ali and takes an interest in her.  When Ali's jealous ex boyfriend suddenly shows up with his crew. He and Daniel end up exchanging fists with one another which leaves Daniel with a black eye. Since that night Daniel has been the target of a group of bullies who happen to study karate at the local Cobra Kai dojo. Everyday Daniel finds himself getting into altercations with Johnny and his crew everyday but is always outnumbered and unable to stand up and fight for himself. One night at the school dance Daniel provokes a fight between the Cobra Kai's and himself by pranking Johnny in the bathroom stalls. Outside the school Miyagi spots Daniel defenseless whilst being beaten up by the angry group of boys. Miyagi quietly approaches the crew and takes them all down. After the fight Miyagi takes Daniel to his home and aids Daniel. Daniel then asks Miyagi if he would be able to teach and help him master karate . Miyagi takes the idea into consideration and finally agrees to take Daniel under his wing, training him in a more compassionate form of karate and preparing him to compete against the brutal Cobra Kai. The next day Miyagi takes Daniel to the Cobra Kais Dojo to confront the sensei about the recent fight between Johnny and Daniel which ends with the two agreeing on battling against each other at the upcoming Karate Competition . Everyday Daniel went to Miyagi's house learning new karate skills and different defense tactics that would benefit him in the competition. Soon enough the day of the Karate Competition had arrived. Miyagi takes Daniel and Ali to the event and signs Daniel up for his first match. He was very nervous because he was going up against students that had more experience than him, though he succeeded and fought his way to the finals. Daniel now faces Bobby from the Cobra Kai in the semi finals. Before the two opponents begin Bobby’s sensei instructs him to kick Daniel in the knee ( which is illegal ) but Bobby tries to argue with his sensei as he didn't want to be eliminated from the competition. He reluctantly obeyed his sensei's orders and prepared himself for the match. The two opponents both enter the ring and greet one another then get into their stances. Bobby takes the first opportunity to strike Daniel in his left knee leaving him badly injured. Bobby was immediately disqualified . Meanwhile in the medic room Mr Miyagi uses his healing power known as the “Reiki” to ease Daniel's pain as he wishes to continue the fight. Daniel returns back out to the ring with a positive mindset to win his final match against Johnny. Coming towards the end of the match Daniel uses the “Crane kick”  tactic to finally defeat Johnny. Mr Miyagi, Ali and his mom congratulate Daniel as he has now won the Karate Competition.

My favourite character is Mr Miyagi because he is a very wise and humble person. Mr Miyagi is a very respectful and well mannered individual. Mr Miyagi is also a great role model to Daniel and others and is never really negative towards anyone or anything.  He is a very calm and collected man and knows how to react to unpleasant situations. Also he has a great sense of humour.

An event that surprised me was when Mr Miyagi jumped the boys that were beating Daniel up because well I didn’t really expect that. I was shocked at the scene where Ali punched Johnny. I was definitely horrified when Bobby struck Daniel in the knee as his injury seemed really sore. A scene that made me laugh was at the beginning of the competition where Ali and Daniel told a staff member that Mr Miyagi could not speak fluent English therefore Ali was his translator, but she didn’t understand what he was saying in Japanese at all.

I would recommend this text to other teenagers because it is a thrilling movie with some sort of romantic details in it which teenagers these days are really engaged in watching. Plus it has a really good motive behind it. Similar scenes in this movie really show how serious bullying is and how kids feel when they are looked down on. It also shows that someone being there and supporting a victim of bullying can help them grow confidence and build up courage to face their bullies. A message from this movie is “you cannot give up, you need to get back up”. Our failures and downfalls only teach us valuable lessons which make us a stronger person.