The Karate Kid, Part II

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The Karate Kid, Part II

Directed by	John G. Avildsen
Produced by	Jerry Weintraub William J. Cassidy (associate producer) Susan Ekins (associate producer) Karen Trudy Rosenfelt (associate producer)
Written by	Robert Mark Kamen
Starring	Ralph Macchio Pat Morita Danny Kamekona Yuji Okumoto Tamlyn Tomita Nobu McCarthy
Music by	Bill Conti
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 19th, 1986
Running time	113 min.
Language	English
Budget	N/A
Preceded by	The Karate Kid
Followed by	The Karate Kid, Part III
IMDb profile

The Karate Kid, Part II (1986) is a Hollywood adventure-drama movie and is a sequel to The Karate Kid. Both Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, formerly of Happy Days fame, respectively reprise their roles of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi.

Filming locations include the island of Oahu, in Hawaii, USA.

At the 1987 ASCAP Awards, Bill Conti won Top Box Office Films for the original music,which was released on United Artists Records.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Part II begins where the first movie ends off, when Mr. Miyagi confronts evil martial arts teacher John Kreese (Martin Kove), who is loudly berating his student (and Daniel's former nemesis) Johnny for finishing second in the All Valley tournament. When Kreese breaks Johnny's second place trophy, Miyagi has seen enough. After a short brawl that mostly involves Miyagi dodging blows and Kreese punching the car behind him, Miyagi defeats Kreese, humiliates him (by eschewing a fatal strike in favor of honking Kreese's nose) and then watches as all of Kreese's students, including Johnny, dump their dojo uniforms and belts and walk away, departing from Kreese's dojo and his sadistic form of martial arts. Miyagi then explains to his protégé that living with humiliation is a fate worse than death itself.

Six months later, Miyagi and Daniel travel to Okinawa to visit Miyagi's dying father and martial arts teacher. They are confronted by his old nemesis Sato (Danny Kamekona), whom Miyagi fled Okinawa years ago in order to avoid a fight to the death with, Sato's rebellious nephew Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), Miyagi's ex-girlfriend Yukie (Nobu McCarthy) and her niece Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita).

As Miyagi and Yukie re-kindle their old bonds (after fleeing to the USA Miyagi had thought that Yukie had married Sato, but she actually preferred to remain single the rest of her life than doing so), Daniel learns more about Japanese culture with Kumiko's help and falls for her. Later, he has to protect Miyagi's honor and the life of Kumiko and a little farmer girl in a fight to the death with an humiliated Chozen, who has been disowned by Sato after he and Miyagi made amends thanks to Daniel.

Daniel and Chozen fight in a water-surrounded center, and Chozen seems to be getting the upper hand and even Daniel's Crane Kick is no match for him. However, Daniel defeats Chozen with multiple Tiger Palm strikes to the face.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

Conforming to the title change of the first Karate Kid film for its release in Japan, Part II was renamed Best Kid 2 (Besuto kiddo 2).
The opening scenes for this movie take place immediately after the finale of the first movie and appear to seamlessly tie the two together. This is because these scenes were actually filmed during the production of the first film, and were initially intended to be part of that film.
When Daniel and Miyagi are being driven by Chozen and his friend after they arrive in Okinawa, Chozen tunes in the radio of the car until he finally stays on a song that was the exact same song the Ali and Johnny were slow dancing to in the country club; when Daniel sees Johnny kiss Ali then while attempting to leave, Daniel runs into a waiter, causing spaghetti and sauce to spill all over him and the waiter.
Clarence Gilyard appears in the famous ice-breaking scene, and B.D. Wong has a cameo shortly before, as an Okinawan kid who runs up to Daniel and Kumiko.
The film's signature tune was Peter Cetera's song "Glory of Love", which was a #1 hit in the U.S.