Picking up right where the first movie left off, The Karate Kid: Part II shows what happened in the immediate aftermath of Daniel Larusso’s (Ralph Macchio, My Cousin Vinny) impressive victory in the Los Angeles Valley Karate Championships, and brings both him and his mentor, Mr Miyagi (Pat Morita, Happy Days), back for another lesson in both life, and martial arts, as the pair take an emotional journey to Miyagi’s home town in Okinawa.
The main story begins six months after the tournament, when Mr Miyagi receives a letter from Okinawa; informing him that his father is deathly ill, and won’t be alive for much longer; prompting him to book an immediate flight out to once again see, and finally say goodbye to, the man who raised him, trained him in the way of karate, and taught him about life in general.
Daniel accompanies Miyagi, so that he can make sure is best friend is not alone during his time of need, but soon finds that being there may not be enough, as the pair are quickly drawn in to a decades old conflict with the most powerful man in Okinawa; Sato (Danny Kamekona, Honeymoon in Vegas); a man who used to be the best friend of Mr Miyagi, until Miyagi fell in love with his fiancee, and was forced to leave the island in disgrace, before Sato could kill him.
Despite the decades that have passed, Sato is still determined to reclaim his honour by fighting Miyagi to the death, and as Daniel soon develops his own issues with Sato’s nephew (a bully whom Daniel exposes as cheating Miyagi’s whole village) it becomes obvious that, despite their wishes, the pair will inevitably end up fighting to defend their own honour, and Miyagi’s home village.
It’s a solid effort at producing a sequel to the brilliant first film, and manages to provide a real reason for following the lives of Daniel and Mr Miyagi once again, by transporting them into another country and culture, in order to once again give them a reason to fight, give the audience a deeper understanding of Daniel’s mentor (by exploring his background in detail), and further develop the relationship between the teenager and his teacher, all whilst learning about the culture where Miyagi grew up, and watching the two leads develop their own relationships with two local women; as The Karate Kid: Part II is much more of a film about relationships (and the problems that the wrong connection can make in a different culture) than about fighting.
Ralph Macchio delivers a performance that shows no real difference in terms of style or talent to his showing in the first movie; still being very believable as the fairly weak kid who’s just cocky enough to make him endearing, and has a deep desire to learn everything he can from his mentor; and Pat Moria once again plays the role of Mr Miyagi (who is by far his most memorable character, and one of the most memorable original characters in cinema history) to perfection; never once faltering, and delivering a performance that is every bit as good as his first (despite the script slightly sagging in quality).
The only problems acting-wise come from Sato, and some of the lesser Okinawa inhabitants, as they (especially Sato) are complete cinematic cliches; Sato is the typical foreign, martial-arts, movie bad guy, right down to being a high flying business mogul who’s always stepping on the little man, and having an impossibly gruff voice; although a good deal of those problems are down to the script itself.
The script does have it’s issues, as does the film as a whole, and if it weren’t the sequel to such a brilliantly made, near perfect, family film as the Karate Kid, it may have been forgotten along with so many other similar 80’s movies, although that isn’t to say that The Karate Kid: Part II is a bad movie, because if definitely isn’t, it simply fails to live up to it’s predecessor is just about every way (except for the lead actors performances); it’s less engaging, less tense, harder to care about, and never feels like as big an underdog story as it should have been; a solid effort, and a film that’s well worth a watch as it carries the story on in a fairly plausible way, and does have some very interesting elements, but a film that pales in comparison to the first.
Picture:
The 1080p, 1.85:1 framed, picture for The Karate Kid: Part II is very similar to the picture found on the Blu-ray edition of the first Karate Kid; it has a fairly consistent medium level of grain, a decent level of detail that is more than acceptable for a film of its age (but not quite up to the stellar standard of some more modern releases), and some good colours and contrast levels that always remain stable.
Clarity is excellent given the movies age, and despite appearing a little weak now and then, the black levels are generally pretty deep and bold. There’s a whole range of Okinawan landscapes that look simply fantastic, and as the fleshtones are always natural looking, and the number of scratches and print errors are extremely minimal, it;s obvious that this is the best that The Karate Kid: Part II has ever looked (by a long way); a solid transfer that’s guaranteed to please any fan of the franchise.
Audio:
The 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that accompanies the Blu-ray edition of The Karate Kid: Part II is also very similar to that on the the first film; being an overall crisp and stable mix that is rather front heavy, yet does contain enough ambient effects to keep it lively and engrossing, nicely complimenting the perfectly crisp and clear dialogue that is always intelligible and never drops out.
There’s not a lot of bass included in the mix, and even in a couple of scenes where it is used it may have benefitted from being a bit more weighty (the bulldozer and storm scenes spring to mind), however the dynamics are both wide and satisfactory, and as the dialogue sounds as clean as ever, the ambience is acceptable, and the film’s music is excellently reproduced, this is another mix that won’t tax anybody’s system, but proves to be an inviting and entertaining mix that does a great job of reproducing all of it’s key sounds, and is sure to please its fans.
Extras:
Unlike the first film’s Blu-ray release however, this release is severely lacking in the way of special features, and only includes a shot EPK feature entitled The Sequel; which features some behind the scenes footage and interviews discussing the film, but is a fairly standard short that isn’t actually all that interesting or original; a similar Blu-pop option as the one on the first movie; a text-based pop-up trivia track that does contain quite a few interesting little factoids and tidbits regarding the film, but unfortunately lacks the video commentaries that were added to the Blu-pop feature for the original Karate Kid; access to Sony’s BD-Live portal, and the same trailer that comes bundled on its predecessor (a trailer for Ice Castles).
A collection that not only pales in comparison to the first movie, but also to many other films made in the same time period; the features that are here are interesting enough, and fairly informative, but lack the thought and passion that went into creating the extras for the original; a let down in terms of both quality and quantity (but mainly the latter).
The Bottom Line:
The Karate Kid: Part II isn’t a bad film at all; true the script is a little cliched (but most things were back then), and it lacks the tension and warmth of its predecessor, but it feels like a realistic way of continuing the story of Daniel and Mr Miyagi, and keeping things fresh by moving them to a different country, rather than just replaying what happened in the first film; it further develops the relationship between Miyagi and his ward, and gives the audience another lesson in both life, and karate, and proves to be a very successful sequel.
As a Blu-ray release it’s also shines, because despite the special features not matching up to the immensely high quality of those include on Part I, the features that are included are interesting and informative, and make for a truly great disc when coupled with the high quality picture and audio that has been awarded to this transfer.
The Karate Kid: Part II definitely isn’t the place to begin viewing the series; because the first is not only the logical but best place to start; but for anyone who has already watched and enjoyed the first film, The Karate Kid: part II is a great sequel that does a good job of continuing the story, and as the Blu-ray is of such a high standard (making the movie look and sound better than it ever has before) it’s an obvious must by for any fan of series, and still a sound investment for most other people.
