Available on YouTube
The Karate Kid is one of those classic teen movies of the 80s that while not especially good, pretty much everyone who watched it loved it. For those of you who miraculously haven’t seen it, it starred Ralph Macchio as Daniel “Danny” LaRusso, a kid from New Jersey who moves to California with his single mum. Unfortunately, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and some other bullying students from the nasty ‘Cobra Kai’ karate dojo set upon him, and although he’s had some karate classes himself, he takes a beating.Fortunately, his apartment block handyman, Mr Myagi (Pat Morita), comes from Okinawa and is a true karate champion, so is able to come to Macchio’s aid, after which Morita takes him under his wing and trains him in the martial art of his home island so he can defend himself against Zabka – and learn the true spirit of karate.
The movie was hugely successful and spawned two sequels (parts II and III) with Macchio and Morita, a follow-up movie with Morita and a young Hilary Swank (The Next Karate Kid) and a remake with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, in which Smith bizarrely enough given the title learns kung fu from Chan. Less official remakes, such as Never Back Down (basically The Karate Kid with MMA instead of karate), also followed.
However, the original’s influence permeates pop culture in far more indirect ways, through catchphrases (“Sweep the leg”, “Wax on, wax off”) and even stances (‘the Crane’) that pretty much everyone knows.
Sweep the leg
Small surprise then, given the current fad for all things 80s among both those old enough to remember them and those young enough to regard the original as a ‘period drama’, that we now have a follow-up series, Cobra Kai, from nascent online TV service YouTube Red. It sees both Zabka and Macchio still living in their old home town, 30 years after (spoiler alert) (spoiler alert) Macchio defeated Zabka in the All Valley Karate Championship.Since then, their fortunes have differed. Macchio is now rich thanks to his success with a luxury car dealership. He’s happily married and has kids, including a teenage daughter. He still capitalises on the events of his teenage years, however, and often references them, too.
Meanwhile, Zabka is down on his luck. A general handyman, he lives in a crappy flat, he’s divorced, and has a teenage son whom he never sees and thinks he’s a dick. He remembers his teenage years somewhat differently, however.
Then one night Zabka defends a nerdy kid (Xolo Maridueña) who lives in his apartment block from a bunch of bullies, and before you know it, he’s taking on Mr Mijagi’s mantle to set up a new Cobra Kai dojo and train Maridueña – and anyone else willing to accept him as their sensei.
It’s not long before Macchio finds out about the reborn Cobra Kai. I wonder what will happen next…
