SPEAKER_02 0:09

Hello and welcome to Light Camera Aggro, the podcast with two friends, one film, and very little agreement. I'm Phil Bonzi and I'm Nikki.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

I might smell bad, but I heal good. This week it's Phil's turn to share a movie he loves, and today he's bought the 1984 film The Karate Kid. Please drop us a like and subscribe and share your comments below.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

And all that will come soon enough for first, how's your week been?

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Oh, kind of semi-productive because I'm at a kind of crossroads with the book, the new book. Everybody's giving me the feedback now. It's all up to me now to make changes. I've pretty much done that. It's pretty much done. Now I've just got to do some technical bits and a publishing date needs to be announced.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Ooh, exciting.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

It feels really close. It's still not close, it's still not ready, but it is in all the ways I feel like is.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

So you have a book cover and things like that?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

That's what I'm waiting. I'm waiting for the book cover. But uh it's it's on its way. So when that uh happens, I can then share the title and the cover and the date and all that. But it's so close I can taste it. So I feel quite like excited about it. Oh, that is exciting news.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

That's exciting news. Yeah, it's good. Not as exciting for me. Uh watched a few films, uh Predator Badlands, watched that. I did put up a little I saw your short about it. A little short about it. Yes, work's been quite busy. I've been getting moved around in my job to different locations, had some strange things happen this week in work, which I won't go into too much. I'll tell you about it later on. Oh, that's a teaser for people, isn't it? Yeah, it's a kind of so okay, I'll I'll put one thing. Got threatened while yeah, while while trying to do my job.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

You mean by a member of the public?

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Yeah, uh, that was quite uh but strange. Okay. But but yeah, um I also got transferred to a different place in a slightly rougher area. Um, some of the strangest things, I bummed into two people who were basically sniffing gas when I was coming out of the flat. It's as I went back to my own office, so it was like going back to Disneyland, just put it that way. So, yeah, it's been quite an eventful week.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Um, okay, well, we'll move on uh on that uh bombshell. Before we start, remember this is going to be full of spoilers. If you haven't seen the Karate Kid, now is the time to pause the pod and come back when you're done. We'll be waiting. So, Phil, why did you choose the Karate Kid?

SPEAKER_02 2:48

This is a film that's quite close to my heart. When I was younger, it reminds me of my first ever girlfriend. Oh, uh, Katrina, she won't mind being mentioned by name on the podcast. Uh, if ever bump into she always goes, Oh, you always remind me of the karate kid. Not that I look like the karate kid. Not in any way, or I could do karate in any way, but it's just that was the area of dating. We went out for about a year, and I think it's more the second film that was kind of when we were at I think I was about 12 or 13.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

I was gonna ask how old this would be.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

12 or 13, first year of high school. Okay, so what's that now? Year seven. Year seven, yeah. So to us, it's old timers, it's first year high school, yeah, first year seniors. Yeah, I love the period this is set in, I love the 80s, I love the soundtrack, and it's it's just like a nice 80s feel-good movie to me.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Fair enough, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

I I also remember the first time, and this is typical Phil Kid fashion. The first time I watched this, I got really excited at the end and ran out into the kitchen, and as I'm running, I did a kung fu kick into the air, and it was on tiles, and I slipped and banged my head on the floor. Yeah, very, very much how I was back in the day. Yeah, just just really, really excited.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Okay, um, so I'd never properly seen this before. I think I mentioned at the end of the last pod, my partner suddenly decided he wanted to watch it a few months ago. Um, I had never seen it, I wasn't at all interested, I just stayed on my laptop cracking on with whatever I was doing while he had it on in the lounge. So I kind of saw bits of it and I got the gist overall, but I didn't pay much attention. But it was one of those films, like many of the ones you bring, they're from your childhood, which means they're almost from my childhood, and I've never felt the need to watch before. You know, I've just it's it's never appealed. It's a classic, though, it is a classic. I'm not arguing with that, but yeah, it's personally never just been my thing. Again, like the films you bring that I've never seen, I can't ignore them though. There's lots of cultural references, so I've obviously heard of Mr. Miyagi.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yeah, obviously. Well, while while we're on the subject of Mr. Miyagi, Pat Marita.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

He was actually nominated for an Oscar for this.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Oh, yeah, best supporting actor.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Didn't he win? I'm not sure if he won. Okay, I don't know. Yeah, fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

So he was only Oscar nominated then. It must have been a pretty weak year for support and roles. I mean, I I think he's decent in the role, but would it be Oscar worthy? Not 100% sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Well, so he was the I'd heard of Mr. Miyagi, so that's one of my cultural references I had. I also knew at high school, uh, for me, there was a boy in my year who looked like Ralph Macho, so he was just called the Kratty Kid. The Kratty. And I still know him, although I'm not s I I last saw him at a wedding a couple of years ago. And yeah, he still looks like he did and looks a bit like Ralph Macho now, you know, there's no getting away from it. And also um Arteta.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Mikel Arteta.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

So that's another thing that I just knew all through school. The other thing that I remembered when I was watching it was you know Phoenix Knights?

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

In series two, the local youth group are doing Karate Kid the Musical and Haptory Hearse. In the Phoenix Club, and so there were loads of bits of like wax on, wax off. I've obviously I've heard of, but I've seen them kind of do sort of jokey piss taky stuff about it. So all these things have built up a kind of image of this film that before I'd even watched it. But having said that, I was kind of going in with fairly low expectations because like it once once again with your films, I've never felt the need to watch it in 40 odd years, so why you know there's been a reason for that, whatever it is, subliminal, subconscious, whatever. Um, but yeah, I was I was as open-minded as I could be.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Well, it's a whole whole franchise. This it I one thing I will say, William Zeb Zebka, who is the buddy in this Johnny, they they did make a TV series called Cobra Kai, which was on Netflix. Well I think it actually started on YouTube and then it it went to Netflix, but it focuses on Johnny as an older person facing the aftermath of the humiliation of losing the fight. And every time he bumps into, oh, you're the guy who lost that fight and back in the day and stuff, and it's really good. Ralph Macchio's in it, but he's a smaller part in the beginning as the series progresses, he becomes more major and stuff, but it's all about the next generation of the kids coming up. It's a really fun TV series, and that William Zapka is really really good in it. They these guys do the the rounds on Comic Con, they've been to Liverpool Comic Con, they all have it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

It's a nice host film uh merch life, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

So, shall we get on with the story? Let's do it. So the first starts off with a montage of travelling across America. And do you know what this reminds me of? And I did write this in my show notes National Lampoons Vacation. The car's very, very similar, it's alright, different colours and things, but yeah, it's a little bit of a montage of going from one side of the country to the other. That's what I imagined because it was a fairly long journey.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

So, what I really liked about this is I don't care, you always notice the cars. I don't give a shite about the cars, right? Whatever, it would just so it felt like it was just of its era. I didn't question it beyond that, it didn't sort of stand out. But this was beautifully shot, it was gorgeous because it's sort of it locates you really clearly. It starts off in um Newark, I think in New Jersey, so that's obviously East Coast area or east area, and then you saw various stops along the way, clearly desert, there was cactus, cacto? Yeah, um you saw canyon. You saw you saw these stops along the way before they get to um California, and what I loved about it is they filmed it like that. This is not like a CGI background like you would have now where they you know There's no such thing as CGI it's just a C it's just like a montagey thing to show that they've moved from you know one side of the country to the other, which is important, I guess, to show how it's such a new start and such a different place and such you know, it's opposites a complete opposite where they've come from to where they've ended up. But I just like the fact they put the effort in and actually filmed it in the real locations.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Yeah, it's really good. Like, and as we find out later in the movie, sh it's it like it made me laugh through through watching this this time to talk about the film and stuff. Basically, the mum moved across the country to be a waitress in a bit of a small restaurant kind of like made me laugh a little bit because I'd never really thought about it before.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, I didn't really understand that either because it was giving me you know vibes of footloose, you know, when Kevin Baker moved with his single mum to a new town. Yeah, but she moves to family there, she moved to I think it's her sister in the hotel. There's some relations you moved to, um, and it was giving me that kind of you know, starting a fresh, single mum, teenage kid, but yeah, that's where the similarities ended, really.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

It was as if like she landed some top job, and then late later in, and you know, we'll be referenced a bit further on. Um Daniel goes to eating his mum's the restaurant where she's working, and then she starts talking about I might get managerial propositions here, so it just felt a bit of a strange one to move across.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Is this kind of like the American dream? You know, on various levels, the mum is wanting a better life, wanting to kind of make this move. Pever one was going west originally to kind of find gold. It just feels is that like an echo of that, or am I being a bit reading too much into it? It feels like California was always the promised land in terms of climate and in terms of you know going as far west as you could to push the frontier. Is it just a little homage to that?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Could be, could be. But they eventually arrive at the apartments. Yes, and they're not very nice, are they? I mean, it's in the sun. So you can see you can see Daniel, Ralph Macchio, is a little bit uh unhappy that he's had to move. He takes his bike off the roof of the car and then performs a karate kick on a gate, yes, and it hits another boy, yes, and then they they go, Oh, he's I'm really sorry, really sorry. They sort of become friends as they walk through the apartment complex, you see the pool, and it's like green and uh it's horrible. So you you get the immediate impression of they're not well to do.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

No, they're not, but what I liked is that they felt like the neighbours like so you make he makes a friend pretty easily. Yeah. And that friend isn't all you know, he kind of turns out later on to be one of on the beach, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_02 11:31

So we don't No, he is he's a friend, but he's not one of the bad guys.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

No, but he doesn't really stick up, it's not like he's got his back.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Um and the elderly woman sitting by the pool who's from you know who thinks that she knows the same people from Rosina?

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Yeah, no, the Releasers? No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

It's just I just liked it's it felt like a sense of community very quickly, even though quite nice.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Yeah. So when they get in the apartment, Daniel oh turns the tap on, and if anyone in America faucet. Force it. Or force it. Uh and it's it's malfunction, water's going everywhere. So as mum says, go and find the maintenance mum. He goes downstairs, gets directed, and we're first introduced. We're not introduced as the name yet, but we see Mr. Miyagi for the first time, and he's trying to catch fly with chopsticks.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Okay, fine, whatever you want to do with your time.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yeah. So they later that night they go to the beach with his new friends. In fact, no, sorry, it's in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Well, it's it feels like it's early evening, it feels like it's starting to be a bit dark. I wrote down fires on the beach at night time are my fave. Right. And then I put oh to be a teen in a beach town, which is something I never was.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

But but he's playing football and to our American friends soccer. And and one thing I do like about this film is it didn't revert to just playing American football, they were playing proper English football or soccer to America, which wasn't big back in the 80s in America.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

I have no idea. All I just I just really liked that scene where it was just chilled vibes, everyone sort of get you know you'd on the beach having fun, in the same way that I like that exactly that same scene in the beginning of Jaws. But like with Jaws, it always then means something bad's gonna happen when you've got a nice beach scene with a fire.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

So he he he he spots Elizabeth Shu Allie across the way, and they he gives some weird stare at her, he kicks the ball and he just stands there and stares at it. It's it's one of the most odd things ever. He's just stood there looking at her.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Well, you know, women were very much objectified in 1984. Let's not mean so words.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

So they have little flirtatious eyes at each other. He when he goes off to the back to the campfire, she's looking at him, he's looking at her, that kind of thing. And then one of the friends, his friend the actual mate, when he moved into the apartment, says she really likes you, you should go and speak to her. And then he throw the ball over, so she gets the ball and walks over, and he walks over and they start to speak.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

But motorbikes come, it's like Greece with the T birds, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

And this is where we're first introduced to Johnny and his friends, yeah, who are from the dojo Cobra Kai.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Okay, now that was not explicit at this point, so you're jumping ahead. Yeah, but but you know, it wasn't, you know, these were just a gang of yudes at this point.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Yeah, he comes, he sees Ali talking to a new boy and he goes down to speak to her, and he's he's not overly aggressive, he switches the radio off at first and goes, Look, we need to talk, we need to talk. But as the conversation goes on, he starts to big up his aggression a little bit, and Daniel goes over. Daniel goes over and he pushes him onto the floor with the radio, and then I don't know what Daniel's actually doing at this point because he runs at him and basically Johnny just keeps sticking his leg out, and Daniel keeps falling over at this point. What sort what sorts of fight is that? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

The whole point is that Johnny, we find out Johnny is a is I I've put Elizabeth in my notes because I couldn't I'd no idea what her name was. Is it Allie? Did you say? Yeah, Ali. Okay, well it's Elizabeth or Shu because it was easier to write.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

Miss Shu.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah, Miss Shu. Um he's her exercise and he therefore thinks he has some sort of right to have a conversation about what she's doing and everything. I hated him immediately.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Oh yeah, no, you you're not supposed to like this guy.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah, no, and that's fair enough, but I just he was he wasn't nice and he was creepy and weird about um not Elizabeth's shoe, but about Ali. And I didn't care for him one bit. So yeah, I kind of you see that Daniel's sort of doing something to show that his behaviour isn't acceptable, but obviously he's not got the the moves. Yeah, but he's you know he's standing up with someone.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

He basically ends up getting beat up on the beach. It's all a bit sharks and jams. And Johnny runs over Ali's radio or back in the day, ghetto blaster, yeah and breaks it. I mean, I just thought, what the it's crap, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 16:04

It's horrible behaviour.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

I know she's from a well-to-do family, and they've probably got lots of money to replace it and stuff, but that just seemed really, really bizarre. So the boys go back to the campfire and Daniel's just left on the floor in the side. So you cut to the next morning and he gets up and he's got his sunglasses on, and his mum is like, Come on, take your glasses off, want to see those baby browns, and he's like, No, no, mum, no, mum. I just want to go, I just want to go, and she goes, What's up? He takes his glass off, he's got a major black eye.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yeah, on his first day of school.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Oh, yeah, on his first day of school. So, then on the way to the school, one of my pivotal moments of this film I absolutely love Banana Rama Cruel Summer.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

I have made a note now I love this song. Okay, hang that, hold that thought. You said to me last week, I can't remember whether it was when we were finishing our pod or whether we were talking afterwards, you said the music in The Karate Kid is amazing. Oh it is. Okay, this was the first bit of music I I this is the first bit where I thought, oh, there's music. I've I'm not saying there'd been no music until this point, I just hadn't paid attention to it. And I love Banana Rama Great, they're one of my favourite bands from when I was a youth, so great. But I didn't I I think you just over yeah, I think you built up my expectations, that's what I needed, because I it was fine.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

And this is a good song. So there's a few songs I like in this. Okay, okay. But he's going to school and he spots the bad guys, and he kind of, you know, walks out of the way to make sure he's not there, and then he bumps into Ali on the sports field while he's wants to play soccer and wants to get on a football team. So they they have a little bit more flirting, and he's showing her how to do keep ups and things like that. And as they he's talking to her, some of the we'll just call them bad guys, the c the Cobra Kais. Yeah, but we don't know that at this point. Yeah, but they are the Cobra Kais.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

It doesn't matter. We're taking this film as it happened, okay?

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Right. Spot him and decide to hoodwink him, and as he's on his soccer trials, football trials, they intentionally trip him up and kick him, and Daniel's immediate reaction is to jump up and punch one of them, which I thought was a bit you know, well because I'm watching it as reviewing it and talking about the movie, I thought, God, he's aggressive, isn't he, Daniel? The way he just jumps up and punches him after a bad tackle.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

I mean, I don't know where and okay. Here's we probably should already point out that neither of us have a clue about karate. And I say karate kid, but then I've just said karate, and I'm never entirely sure how you pronounce it.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Well, on the way driving up here, I was like, is it karate kid or karate? But I'll just call it the karate kid because that's just.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

But I also think that's quite scouse because it's karate.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

A karate. But if I'm talking about the sport now I'm thinking karate, but I also know that in Happiest Season, Mary Steenberger's character calls it karate.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Karate, and so I have that in my head. The karate.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

He goes, I always wanted to do karate, but you said it would be inelegant. Anyway, my point is we know nothing about karate, karate, whatever it is. We know nothing, yeah? Yeah, I'm not just speaking for myself here, you definitely don't. Right, okay. So we should just point that out straight away. Because I am once Mr. Mayagi comes and teaches us everything he knows, I understand that it's meant to be about defence rather than offence.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

And all that's fine. And I'm not arguing with any of that. However, like Rocky, when you made me watch a boxing film, this does feel like you're making me watch a film where there's just a lot of scrap in. Now, I'm not I'm not saying in the the rule-based karate scenes that it's it's not kind of you know, not that. But the general vibe of the film is this is full of aggression, which is I think is what turns me off or potentially turned me off for so long.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Fair play.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

So it does feel quite aggressive. This is his second day in the in the neighbourhood and he's been beaten up twice.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Yeah, it's a rough neighbourhood. But he's also been beaten off by the posh kids as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

I don't think I was aware they were posh at this point.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

But what we do need to point out, which I really liked this exchange, it was just when he was talking to um to Shu to Ally on the beach. I'll stop doing that now, but in my notes, it's Shu. Um Ally on the Beach and the chatting, or at school rather, they're chatting, sorry, it's at school, um, and they're talking about her ghetto blaster, and she said, I guess you should have just given given it to him. And he said, Why? It wasn't his. And that's that moral right and wrong code which makes me like Daniel and show that as much as he's kind of you know for a bit of a scrap quite quickly, and maybe we don't want him to be like that, he understands you know, yeah, the guy was trying to knit your thing, I'm not, you know, that's wrong. I liked that.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

So moving on, Daniel's back at his apartment and he's got a book open and he's practicing karate kicks. And in works, Mr. Miyagi to fix the tap faucet.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

You don't need to keep trans. Can I just put out I don't we probably don't have any American listeners, but you don't need to keep translating. I don't think this is gonna get massive in the future. Even if it does, American people can understand English words.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

We will have to release a book just for translation. Mr. Miyagi noticed him doing karate and just carries on. Back at school, Ali comes over to talk to Daniel at lunch and talk about her ex Johnny.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Yeah, Johnny the wrong.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Yeah, and just says he's my ex-partner and he's not gone and stuff. So after school, Daniel heads over to the local karate dojo, which is the Cobra Kai.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Okay, now again, at this point I didn't spot Cobra Kai, but I recognised it was a dojo, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Uh as he's watching the karate instructor is very aggressive.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Well, I've written this. This teacher is a bit of a meat head. Are we supposed to like him? Question mark. Because at this point he just seemed to be the guy running the local class.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

He is he's also he's off Cagney and Lacey. Oh, is he? Yeah, he's one of the guys off Cagney and Lacey. And he was in Rambo First Blood Part 2. It won't surprise you to know I've never watched that. If you will do it one day.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

But there was a absolutely not. There was a photo of him posing with a gun, so that made me go, oh yeah, we're not supposed to like this guy. That's pathetic.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Yeah. So he sees he sees Johnny is taking the class under the instructions of the Sensei.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Did he ever have a name? The horrible sensei guy, we just took it.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

He will have a name, but I can't remember. John Creese.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Is that the character's name?

SPEAKER_02 22:43

That's the character's name, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

I don't think that ever came up.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

He actually appears in the TV series Cobra Kai, and he's still a bad guy.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah, he wasn't very nice in the end.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

So he leaves he leaves the dojo and he goes for dinner at his mum's restaurant where she's working, which overlooks the dojo. As he's eating his dinner, his mum's talking about managerial opportunities. The bad guys, the cobra caies, which we'll now refer them to as rather than bad guys, because you know they're from the cobra cai dojo. Well, she says they spot Daniel having food in the restaurant, and you can tell they're gonna plot to do something because they jump and then run off.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

So this scene with his mum, it's really interesting to think about this.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Can I just say his mum is like ultra lovely the whole way first?

SPEAKER_00 23:29

I really like his mum, but you know, so I don't have kids, and one of my pet peeves, uh which I have no right to have as a pet peeve because I don't have kids, is when parents overparent their kids, right? Drives me mad. I just think let your kids just find their own way and be independent and make mistakes. Let your kids make mistakes and then they'll learn. Um, but it's easy to say that as someone who doesn't have them. She is, like I think stereotypically a lot of parents were in the 80s for Gen X people like you and me, quite hands-off, yeah, quite laid back. He's getting beaten up on the daily.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

He's getting beaten up daily, because mum doesn't seem to be there a lot, maybe she's just some work.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

And that's fine, and that's not she's not a bad mum. This is what I like. He is he's got a problem, and he's now going to have to work out what to do about it. Now, I'm not saying that we all let all the children in the world have to deal with bullies themselves, because that's sometimes too much. What I'm saying is, I find this the 80s type of films, for example, all the films I like from the 80s, pretty in pink. Andy's got a bedroom a phone in a bedroom, she deals with her mates, she does you know, she comes and goes and says hello to a dad, but her dad is not a great parent. He tries, but he's got stuff going on. She's bringing herself up. Gen X people brought themselves up. This is what I think the stereotype is of Gen X, and it doesn't mean everything was perfect, and it's certainly, you know, I'm not saying that parents should all just you know let kids dangle in the wind, but I do like I find it refreshing watching this stuff now because now I feel like with parents having you know iPhone trackers on every little thing their kid does and being able to contact them, it it wouldn't have suited me, put it that way, right as a child.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

So you you you'd like to be Daniel's mum's daughter, just get beat up on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

And I can deal with my own stuff, I think that's it, that would suit my personality. But it's interesting, I just feel like it's very much of this era, and she seemed to epitomise it. There's 1980s, hands off. Your kids sort of deal your own deal with their own stuff while you're you're there in the background.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Yeah. So later that evening, Daniel's cycling home, and the Cobra guys on their motorbikes come alongside them, start heckling them, and then force them down an embankment where he goes down and injures himself. Yeah, he's done off the road. Yeah, his bike's damaged, he picks his bike up, he he's very angry, he throws his bike in the bin, trash.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

To be fair, his mum does freak out at this point. And his mum freaks out, going, What's going on?

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Tell me what's going on, you can't do nothing. He's going, You can't do nothing. And just as they go upstairs, you see Mr. Miyagi just tilts his head out the window and goes, hmm.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Because he says, I have to take karate.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Yeah, I have to take karate.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Karate, karate.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Yeah. So back at school the next day, Daniel talks to Allie again, and she invites him to the arcade. He sees Johnny and he immediately turns around, goes a different way, stops talking to Allie, and you can see he's really awkward.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

The other thing at this point, and I've uh it's not an original point, I'm sure everyone said this at the time. I am I really struggled with how old Daniel was supposed to be. It became more obvious later on when he passes his driving test. But at this point, he could have been 17, he could have been 13. He I know Ralph Machel looks young, he still does. Um but I couldn't get a handle on his age.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Is he supposed so what what age are you supposed to pass your drive on?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

I'm assuming it was like 60, I think America's 16.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Yeah, 16, 17.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Something like that. But he's you know, I think he's an older teenager rather than like 13, 14. But I I couldn't get a handle on that at this point.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

So he arrives back home and he sees his bike's fixed, and the maintenance guy has done it, Mr. Miyagi. Yeah. So he goes down to see him to thank him for doing that, and he sees Mr. Miyagi cutting some bonsai trees. Bonsai trees. Which he doesn't know what they are at the time, he's just little tiny pruning, and he says to Daniel, he said, Would you like a go? And Daniel's very excited, goes, Yeah, and he goes, Okay, quiet in your mind, makes him close his eyes for like 30 seconds, and it says, just feel where the tree needs to be. Yeah. So it's a little bit of a bonding session.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Oh, it's very much, yeah. Uh yeah, and I I I kind of liked that he was teaching him focus and teaching him almost manifestation.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Quietness, quietness, yeah, the stillness because one of the things with Daniel, and as I've touched upon this as you know, where he gets tackled in the football game, he's immediate to jump up and just defend himself and fight and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Where this has just shown a slow calmness about it. Uh as as they're trimming the bonsai trees. Bonsai? Bonsai bonsai, yeah. As they're trimming the bons.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

It's bonsai later, and it's bonsai trees.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

And as they're slowly trimming the small trees, uh Daniel's mum comes in and she goes, Oh, this is where you are. And he goes, he Daniel introduces his mum to Mr. Miyagi, and Mr. Miyagi immediately gives her a small tree, which I thought was quite amusing. I'd never really noticed it before. And then as Daniel's leaving, he gives him a small tree as well. Small trees for everyone, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

But his mum likes him. I think it's important to sort of take away any doubt that Mr. Miyagi might be a bit of a wrong.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Because you don't want that for Daniel.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

No, wasn't I mean Mr. Miyagi in this looks, would you say about 60, but it wasn't about like 38 or something like that?

SPEAKER_00 28:50

I did Google it, he's 52 in this, but that's like your age, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 28:54

Yeah. Pretty much. I don't look like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Um, but yeah, it's definitely it's the idea that he's this ancient, mystical, wise. Um I'm gonna come on to that talking about that later on, how realistic that is, or how like you know, culturally insensitive that is. We'll talk about that towards the end. But he is supposed to be like this sort of very wise old man in this film, it seems. A fader figure, though, for Daniel, in some ways, which isn't that bad.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

So we cut back to going to school the next day, and basically he's avoiding seeing Ali because of Johnny. He just doesn't want any more hassle, he wants the easy life. So he sees her walking down the corridor, he walks a different way, and you can see the schools gearing up for a Halloween party at this point.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Before we get into the Halloween party, I made a point here in my notes to say it all feels so far quite one note. He's getting bullied, he's gonna learn karate, and then he's gonna be a tough guy who presumably gets the girl. So that's what I've written at this point. Okay, fair play. I felt I could see where it was going, and that doesn't necessarily mean a criticism, you know, because it doesn't have to be some hugely complex tale, but it was just at this point I'm like, okay, fine, yeah, I get it, I get where we're going. Just let us crack on.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Okay. Okay. So we then go to later that day, and it's it's I think it's dark at this point, and Daniel's helping Mr. Miyagi with pumpkins. So I think Mr. Miyagi is like a do good there where he put pumpkins around the complex to make a feel of it.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

It's part of his role as maintenance guy, caretaker.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Would maintenance guy be putting pumpkins?

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Don't know, but that's what he used to do. Well, I used to live in a flat, there was always a pumpkin outside our front door that was nothing to do with anyone who lived there, it was just what the steering committee used to put out.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Well, fair play.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

So in my head, he's like that.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

So he's explaining to Mr. Miyagi that it's a Halloween party, but he's not going because well, basically he's a bit frightened of the Cobra eyes. And Mr. Miyagi goes, I'll help you make a costume, and he makes a shower, which is hysterical. It always I mean I mean it's it it's it always reminds me of Cratty Kid, the shower scene where he's just dressed in this not what you might think a shower scene is, yeah. A red curtain all around him and stuff, and then cut to the party, and then Ali immediately spots and goes, There's Daniel, and everyone goes, Where? And she knows because he's hiding.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

But I thought it was really good because it's this would be a great costume to have a little bit of a snog in and a dance in because no one can see what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Okay, if you want to purv in the discos with teenagers, yeah, you wear your shower.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

Well, so then Ali starts to talk about Johnny and say, you know, he's just not nice, he deserves his come up and you know, we just wish I was around to see it. So Daniel spots the co he go, in fact, sorry, there's a chicken that's running around the party and throwing eggs at people, and one of the eggs, and they these are laughing, and one of the eggs hits Daniel on the head and he goes, Oh, it's a real egg.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

So Daniel decides to go to the toilet just to rinse his hair before he goes somewhere with Ali, and he spots that Johnny is in the toilet smoking. He decides to get a hose pipe and put it over the cubicle where Johnny is and soak him.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

So again, he's been quite proactively antagonistic, really. I mean, in some ways, yeah, I don't hate him for it because he's been treated like shit by Johnny so far. But yeah, he's not innocent. Well no, because this is not self-defence, and this is not um, you know, sort of thinking on your feet in the heat of a moment of being um pursued.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

He's yeah, he's planning this without so he switches the tap on. Yeah, and then he runs past Ali going, You're gonna see your moment, and then Johnny runs out, slip, slips a little bit because he's wet, and they all go chasing after Daniel, and Ali trips them up, so Daniel's got a bit of a head start, he runs home.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Because there's a human pile-up.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Yeah, yeah. He runs home and he gets to the fence just outside Mr. Miyagi's abode, residence, house, house. Well it's not a house, is it? It's just a little tiny apartment, and they start to really beat him up at this point. Yeah, to the point where one of the cobra cars go, Johnny's had enough.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Yeah, it's not a nice scene.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Yeah. Next thing, a shadowy figure jumps over the fence, it's Mr. Miyagi to his rescue. He's got moves, yeah. He defeated is he four or five of them? Face basically disables four or five of them. They're they're all kicked to the ground and they're all in pain, and Daniel passes out. I mean, I will point out I didn't think Daniel took that much of a beating to pass out. I mean, they were hitting him in the stomach and stuff, but they didn't knock him out.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Johnny had no problem just continually going for it. So he is kind of unhinged.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

The other lads, not that I'm trying to um, you know, take away any blame on them, but they are they're the hangers-on or the followers, they're not the instigators, yeah. And they're the ones that were trying to stop Johnny. So it is all just Johnny being pretty horrible, really.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

So Mr. Miyagi takes Daniel back into his apartment and puts a wet towel on his head, and he's he he starts talking to Daniel, saying these boys have bad attitudes, and the attitude doesn't come from the boys, it comes from the teacher above.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

So this is laying the foundations for the scene a bit later on. Um Daniel asks Mr. Miyagi if he will teach him karate, and Mr. Miyagi says he doesn't want to teach anyone karate. And Mr. Miyagi eventually agrees to help him sort his problem. So, how he helps him agree to sort the problem is he takes him to the dojo to speak to the sensei to stop these guys beating on Daniel. While we're at the dojo, we see a couple of karate fights where once the opponent is on the floor, the sensei, who's horrible Mr. Crease, carry gets the student to carry on hitting the opponent on the floor, saying finish him.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

So that passed me by. I just didn't.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

So you can see this is more than just a normal karate dojo, it's not the rules. He's aggressive and he's saying there's no weakness within Cobra Kai.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Because what we've had in the previous little scene where Daniel's asking about uh Mr. Miyagi teaching him, he says it's it's for defence only, it means empty hands. Yes, so then you see that the next scene completely not like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Yeah, the scene the scene leading up just before the dojo made me laugh a little bit because he allows Daniel to drive the truck, and Daniel goes, I haven't got a licence, and Mr. Miyagi goes, Neither are I. Yeah, he just lets him drive. I thought that was quite amusing.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

I also liked I don't know if this is the first time we see it, but Mr. Miyagi makes a joke about his belt, right? Yeah, and he just laughs at his own joke, and he's kind of goofy, yeah. He's kind of silly and makes staff jokes, and I kind of that sort of personality comes out more from this point, I think.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Yeah, I mean he starts to expand as a character from now on, doesn't he? Um so while they're in the dojo, Mr. Johnny notices Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, and he says to his sensei, that's the guy who gave me a black eye. So the sensei Mr. Creese goes over to speak to him because I believe you gave a beating to some of my students last night, and he they have a bit of a two and four saying your students are hitting on this guy. He said, You need to stop them from hitting this guy. He said, and they they basically come to a compromise. Daniel will fight them, but at the karate competition, which is two months which is two months away. So Daniel's laying all this karate in two months, eight weeks. Yes, because that's what will happen. And he and he's and he basically gets an agreement where none of the Cobra guys can lay a finger on Daniel until the tournament.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

This scene as well stood out to me when you see all of the different guys on the mats. I don't know if there are mats there, but now I'm remembering it, doing their different what moves. There is not a girl or a woman to be seen. No, it is. This is toxic masculinity. This is not lovely masculinity where we're channelling you know our strength in in a sort of way to defend ourselves. This is toxic aggression. And you saw I think you semi-quoted it before where the guy says, Um no mercy, mercy is for the weak, which is just not true. The opposite is true, but it's just a horrible vibe in that that place.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

Yeah, it's just it's just it's toxic, it's basically toxic masculinity.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

And I think Mr. Miyagi probably thought this would be the way forward, and then he sees alright, these are all wrongans, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

So that he caught the compromise of the the karate tournament. When they're leaving, Daniel's not happy. He said, I think this has just got worse for me. He's and Mr. Miyagi says, I'll give you two months of get not getting beat up, and he's kind of like smiling as he's doing it. So they go to Mr. Miyagi's home where Mr. Miyagi has a massive collection of old vintage cars.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

I mean, yeah, did that ever get explained? No. He just likes his cars.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Yeah, but why would he have these cars?

SPEAKER_00 38:24

You know, it's I mean, I guess if he's like Mr. Fixit around the building, then he fixes cars as well, and maybe get some cheap. Um I'm building up a whole backstory here from him. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

But but also it's like it's like his like home, his proper home where he lives, not the place he works, not the place where he works. This lovely little Chinese style house, oriental style house.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Hang on, hang on, hang on, he's not Chinese. Stop it.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

He's from Kanawa.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

He is, which is part of Japan, although he says it's not in the Japanese.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

But a lovely Oriental style house. Yeah. In the middle of the house. It's like a scrapyard that they go through to get to this. I don't think the other side is beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

It's the other side of the tracks, isn't it? It's the whole it's like a class division. It may be it's because he's Japanese, I don't know. What I found really interesting about him as a character, and we'll it they expand on it slightly more later, but not loads, it's like he's so he fought in the war, he's Japanese American, and that means after Pearl Harbor he was rounded up with all the Japanese Americans and put into an internment camp. He's had a nightmare sort of set of times there, as well as personal stuff that's gone on, as we find out later, which we'll I'll we'll wait for that. Um so this is a place where he has made a beautiful home. And it is beautiful, but it's very much in an area of town that's not great.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

And it reminded me again for the second reference this time of Pretty in Pink, where you see at the beginning the train line, and then I think you see Ducky on his um his oh what you call it, what you call it. I got this out now. I actually think it might have been, but that's not the point. You see the train line, and you literally are crossing the tracks to where Andy lives, and Ducky goes by on his bike, and you know, everything is just a little bit scruffier and a little bit kind of more poverty there. Um but yeah, inside she's designing her own clothes, she's creating you know beautiful things. You know, it's it's I like that whole idea that it's very it feels very 80s American film, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

And this is the same era as then, really. So when they get there, Daniel admires the cars straight away. He goes, Oh, they're beautiful cars. And Mr. Miyagi goes, right, wax on, wax off.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

Which I knew from Phoenix.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Circular motion, wax on, circular motion to wax off. And I don't know why I'm doing the hand movements now because you won't be able to see them.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

No one can see them, I'm not even looking.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

So he has Daniel clean all the cars, wax them on, wax them off. Now it is daylight and it's night time when it's finished. Now, in the shots, I'm sure you see about four cars, but it's like he spent basically about 14 hours doing these cars, and then Mr. Miyagi sends him home.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Well, he sees him sleeping, Daniel sees him sleeping or meditate. I'm not sure it's meditating and then sleeping in front of a shrine.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Yeah, and then he sends him home, tells him to come back for the next day. The next day, he cut to the school and he sees Allie, and Allie's chatting to him, and Johnny, and that's this, she goes, Let's go nowhere. He goes, No, no, it's okay, it's okay. And he goes and taunts the Cobra Kai guys a little bit, and he says, We've got a deal where we can't touch me and stuff, but they get a little bit wound up, they come to face him, and a teacher comes past and he says to the teacher, Oh, these guys are really interested in some of the I think it was geometry or something like that, and they go, Oh no, no, no, and then just walk on.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

I don't think it was that, uh, yeah, but he's still it still it sort of backfires because then he has to then listen to the because they get out of it and he has to listen to the boring teacher.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Yeah, so then it cuts to that evening where his mum takes him for his first date with Ali. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

So this is the bit where I then realised, okay. So Ali and the other guys are posh.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

I hadn't appreciated that at this point.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

So they pull up outside the house and it's a massive house, lots of steps and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

And Ali that's not how we know they're posh.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

No, but Ali, oh no, the posh because when the parents arrived, they've been playing tennis and they've got towels. And they and they have they have towels round their necks.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

They have got matching leisure wear, so that means posh.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

But what what I do like about this is Ali doesn't care about where Daniel's from, so she just really likes him. Yeah. And that does come across as well.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

She doesn't seem to yeah, she doesn't have any issue with anything.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

Yeah, she introduces him to her parents and they ask about where he's from, and he says, Is it Rosita? And they they kind of look down.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

They don't have specific California knowledge, do they?

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Yeah, they do look down at him straight away, and then his mum hangs out the car and goes, Hi! Like the car's a bit of an older car, and then they get in the car to drive off, and the car breaks down, and they have the push at Daniel's mortified, and the mum's shouting to the the Ali's parents, Oh, don't worry, this happens all the time.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

See, I grew up in a family where that happened all the time as well. I absolutely that felt like it was from my autobiography. Yeah. So many times my dad's put me and my friends up, and then we promed up. Um, yeah, it did make me laugh actually.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

So I've put I've put in the show notes the date goes well. There's an arcade and mini golf, and you can see the getting closer, and it's a montage to American pop music. And this is another nice song, but I don't know the name of it.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Oh, okay. I thought that was the name of the song. I don't know what it was. It the date montage felt. I don't know. This is not a date I would ever, ever want to go on when I was twelve or when I'm forty seven.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

I d when I was twelve, this was my dream date.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

I asked Yeah, because that's because you were. Grown up.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

No, but I had the hots for Elizabeth Shoe back in the day. Like when she was Ali, I was like, Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

But Dodgham's Crazy Golf trampolines, all of that reinforced to me, these are kids, not like teenager children. It made me just see them as being like 12-year-olds. And actually, they're not. I think they're meant to be like 17 or something. Yeah, but that's 17.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

If that's only what's available to them for those types of dates, then that's what they do, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 44:29

This was not a date I would ever have appreciated at any point, even when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

So the date goes really well.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Yeah, they do get on. It's nice.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Then we go to the next day. And I've put in the notes sanda floor. Not sanda floor, sanda floor. Because that's why he said sanda floor.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Please say we're not doing impressions of people with no, it's just how he says it.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

It's just how he says it. Sanderflow. And anybody who's listened to the podcast and anyone who knows the crazy kid will know it as sanda floor.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Okay, well, we're not doing any impressions of anybody from the floor.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Um he basically it takes a long time to do.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

And I have sanded a spare bedroom floor once, and it was hell.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

Did you do it in a circular motion?

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Yeah, well, I can't remember. We had a machine and it still took bloody ages, it's a nightmare.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

And then at the end of sanding the floor, which Mr. Miyagi's well impressive, he tells Daniel to go home. Home and rest his shoulders. And Daniel's a bit pissed off at this moment. The next day, he comes in and Mr. Miyagi's trying to catch a fly. With chopsticks. With chopsticks.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Do you remember that interview where Obama catches a fly in the middle of it? It's when he was president, I think.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 45:41

It was his big interview, and he's sitting down and there's a fly in the studio. And it's sort of he he's speaking all the time and answering the question, and then he just kind of catches it. He says something like he doesn't say I don't think he swears, but he says something like got you bastard or something. He doesn't say that. It's really cool. It's like the coolest thing I've ever seen. So I was reminded of that. I might have to Google and see if we can find that for the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

And it's it's it's so this is Mr. Miyagi, he's trying to catch it, and then Daniel has to go and he catches, and Mr. Miyagi's well pissed off, and he just goes, beginner look.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

Yeah, because I can't even begin to imagine how hard that was.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

Yeah, uh, so next thing's paint Fence.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

We're not doing uh impressions, can I remind you?

SPEAKER_02 46:23

And it's brush strokes of up and down, long brush strokes up and down. And for for for our listeners, I am actually doing the motion in front of Diggy to show exactly what they are.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

So at this point, though, I wrote down here's my exact thought. So, are all these sanding, painting, and waxing movements useful because they replicate karate moves, or is it to do with patience, focus, and inner calm? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be learning from my Aggie at this point.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

I remember as a kid just thinking that was like cheap labour.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

I didn't understand.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Is that what we're supposed to think that he's being used? Yeah. Okay. Um, no, I didn't think he was being used, I just wasn't sure what the actual teaching of that was.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

Yeah, so that day ends. That day ends, started the next day. So this is like is it four days of manual labour now that Daniel's been subject to? Um it's paint the house. Yes. And this is brush strokes sideways. Yes. And then long strokes.

SPEAKER_00 47:20

Daniel's really annoyed at this point.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Because Mr. Miyagi isn't there, he's gone. Yeah, he's disappearing, it's just thing, so he kicks, he kicks the dust sheets and stuff, but he's but fair play to Daniel, he just does it. Yeah, he does it. And then as Daniel, as Mr. Miyagi gets home from fishing, Daniel's really pissed off. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, you know, I'm doing all this for you. When you're going to teach me karate, and he goes, aye aye aye aye aye, just do sand the wax on, wax off. So Daniel goes to Ben Daniel and goes, No, no, no, and he does it repeats his aye aye aye and he goes, No, wax on, wax off.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

So he's don't do the impression.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

So he shows him how to do it, and then he throws a punch and he wax off and he blocks and blocks and he goes, sand the floor, and then Daniel goes down to the floor and he goes, no, no, stand up.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

Please don't do the impression. No, it's my favourite bit of the film. Honestly, you cannot get away with it, you're a white man.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

Um he basically basically everything he's been teaching him is defensive moves.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

Yeah, I understood at this point why I yeah, it all came together at this point.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

And then it starts to get a little bit happier music, then from them with the training. The next day they go to a lake.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Yeah, in the boat balance, yeah. It is, he has to balance as the waves come.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Yeah, and he stood on the front of the boat, is it the stern? Oh hello, I have no idea. But actually on the edges, and he's performing the wax on, wax off, the paint fence moves in on the boat as Mr. Miyagi fishes, and and then Mr. Miyagi thinks it's extremely hysterical to rock the boat, and Daniel falls in and he laughs his head off. Yeah, but if you watch that must have been freezing, you actually see the reaction on Ralph Macchio's face, like it was that cold. I don't think he expected it to be that cold.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

So, next training scene is down the beach. Teach him more balance, where he's kicking the waves.

SPEAKER_00 49:25

Yes, that's right. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

And in the notes, these are big waves, these are taller than Daniel.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

Yeah. Is this when Mr. Margie stood on the wooden post balancing?

SPEAKER_02 49:36

Yeah, and I thought that's a beautiful shot where it's like in in the sunset and he's doing I think it's a crane kick, I think it's called. I don't, I just think it's a crane kick, but that's what we refer to.

SPEAKER_00 49:49

No, we're not things up and say it's tomorrow, no way.

SPEAKER_02 49:54

We can't be putting out misinformation, but yeah, that's it's beautifully shot that soon. Yeah, it looks yeah. And one of the things for for a uh basically a teen romantic movie, there is, as you said, there's some beautiful shots in this film. It's really well filmed. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

There's also a horrible bit where there's like a guy doing racist slurs on the beach, so we'll gloss over that horribleness. But did you recognise who the actor was? Or who I don't know the actor's name actually, but it no, you don't know.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

I did recognise him, yeah, I did. He was where Mr. Miyagi chops the tops off the bottle and goes, How'd you that he's done no first time?

SPEAKER_00 50:28

He was in LA Law, he was Benny from LA Law. Did you ever watch that? No, oh yeah, so it was just immediately I think I've seen him in anything else.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

Just a little cameo.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

Yeah, it's a tiny little bit. I suppose LA Law would be what late 80s, so it would be after this. Anyway, it was just nice to see a face that I recognised.

SPEAKER_02 50:44

So that evening, uh Ali's parents make Ali danced the hideous country club. They they basically, Ali and Daniel have made set up a date, but she says it'll be a bit later because I've got to go for lunch with my parents.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

So they're at a country club, and the parents say, you know, why aren't you dancing with Johnny? You make up and force them to dance together. That's horrible. Yeah. Daniel's outside, and she's about 15-20 minutes late. He gets a bit impatient, so he decides to go through the kitchen to see what's going on. As he goes to the kitchen, he looks through the door, through the little window in the door, um, sees Allie and Johnny dancing together. Johnny spots him and forces a kiss on Elizabeth. Because I've called her Ali the whole podcast. And next thing, Daniel gets hit with a lot of food from one of the waiters and covered in pasta and spaghetti and runs off. Allie smacks Johnny.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Yeah, which is good. Johnny was completely and utterly out of line here, and he's horrible. And that I think this scene cements to me. No, it's there's other scenes that have cemented it before this, but he's just absolutely wrong, and there's no redeemable features.

SPEAKER_01 51:57

No.

SPEAKER_00 51:57

Um and I'm surprised, and I'm never gonna watch Cobra Kai, but I'm surprised that they've is it that one you said it's he's the main character? Because I don't care. I don't want to know.

SPEAKER_02 52:06

I know, but it it is funny because when Cobra Kai started, I was like, how are they gonna do this? But the way they changed Johnny and that as an older guy, it he he's really like is he redeemed?

SPEAKER_03 52:18

He's redeemed, okay, but he's a bit stupid as well at the same time and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

So it's not like they've they've turned him into suddenly he's he's immediately the good guy. It just works, honestly. I'd I'd highly recommend it as a teen series.

SPEAKER_00 52:33

So meanwhile, Miyagi is getting drunk in front of his wife's photo.

SPEAKER_02 52:38

Yeah. I found this scene really moving, and I think I think if there was why he would he was nominated for an Oscar, this would be it because it is it is like the tonal change of this where he's really upset, and he's explaining that while he was shooting the Jerry's, he he k basically says he killed a lot of Germans during the war. He got a telegram, his wife, who was pregnant at the time, died during childbirth and so did the baby.

SPEAKER_00 53:08

In a camp. In a camp, and he's fighting against like the forces that bombed Pearl Harbor, not Germans, but I was like, yeah, he's fighting against that, so it's just so unfair, and it feels really poignant. Um he's playing drunk as well, he's playing drunk really well. So we're just getting out these garbage. Um and Daniel finds like the information in front of him, he's reading the news old newspapers and stuff. And if I felt it was a really sweet scene where Daniel took care of him, yeah. He kind of looks after him just for a short little bit, you know.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

Yeah, and then he looks and he can see his medal, he's a war hero.

SPEAKER_00 53:44

Yeah, exactly. Mr.

SPEAKER_02 53:45

Miyagi is a war hero.

SPEAKER_00 53:47

It's it it feels like a really the these um references in Die Hard as well. Remember Mr. Tigaki?

SPEAKER_01 53:55

Yeah, Tagagi.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

Oh sorry, okay. No, I found it's not a character I know well, but I remember when Hans Gruber is trying to find out who he is, he reads out like his little bio, you know, kind of you graduated here, you were married here, but again he says the years he was in an internment camp. And like Japanese Americans have that in their history, and it's it just comes so the 19 this is 84, diehard was what, 86? Was it? I can't remember now. But it's it's only 40 odd years. Yeah, it's within live, it's very much within living memory that these kind of this history is still there in a way that maybe it's not quite so much now.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

Yeah. So we cut to the next day, and Daniel's at the beach alone, and he's trying to do the karate kick that Mr. Miyagi was doing on the wooden pole.

SPEAKER_00 54:45

Is this the bit where Mr. Miaggi says, Well, are you some kind of girl or something? Because then he lost all his brandy points.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

Yeah, this this is a little bit that's that is it that's a couple of scenes later.

SPEAKER_00 54:54

Yeah, well, I wasn't happy with that.

SPEAKER_02 54:56

Um so he's trying to do the karate kick that Mr. Miyagi was doing on the pole, but his balance isn't good enough. And then we cut to a scene where they're overlooking the beach, uh, Mr. Miyagi's got like some kind of baseball outfit on where it's padded in the a padded face, and he's asking Daniel to hit him. And Daniel gives him a little bit of hit and he goes, What are you, some kind of girl? to get him to hit him. Daniel wishes. Daniel wishes he was and have the strength of women. Mr. Miyagi shows him how to punch using his full body, and they're and Daniel then thinks he's great and starts bouncing around like Rocky, and then Mr. Miyagi just trips him up and takes him down. He says to concentrate and take things serious.

SPEAKER_00 55:37

Lee.

SPEAKER_02 55:38

Yeah. So we cut later that evening, and it's Daniel's birthday.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:44

Now, for some reason he's not with his mum, he's with Mr. Miyagi.

SPEAKER_00 55:47

No, I like this. I like be bringing he's bringing himself up with the help of the local guy working in the book.

SPEAKER_02 55:52

Well, you think about it, maybe his mum's working in a restaurant, so he goes to Mr. Miyagi's, and Mr. Miyagi gives him a karate outfit. That was his. That was his.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

Yeah, I found that sweet.

SPEAKER_02 56:02

And Daniel says, I will give you it back once I've used it for the tournament. And he says, That's present number one.

unknown 56:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

And then he's present number two. He says, Take which car you want, it's yours. Ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 56:15

In real life, people would be asking questions about this. I know.

SPEAKER_02 56:19

Well, one of the questions I thought, he gave them the car, and then Daniel drives off. And he does pick the best car, he picks the yellow convertible.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

But you'd like to just drive off with no insurance, you've got to get on the online and get your insurance somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 56:31

But but is that a thing in America?

SPEAKER_02 56:32

Does insurance come with your licence?

SPEAKER_00 56:34

And but also, this is someone who drove without a licence already, so maybe the rules aren't that you know important. I think we're overthinking that.

SPEAKER_02 56:42

Yeah. So he drives to the arcade to see if he can find Ali. Now Allie's annoyed at him, and I can't even after all these years, I don't know why she's annoyed him, because he's seen her get kissed by Johnny, he got embarrassed and he ran off.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

But she's annoyed at him. Because he ran off. I don't know what well I don't understand that.

SPEAKER_00 57:02

Because he Well, he's been ignoring her because he thinks that she's with Johnny, because he saw them kiss and then just legged it.

SPEAKER_02 57:08

But I just presume that was the next day. Because this is very, very quickly the way all this happens. Um so yeah, she's annoyed with him. He she's at playing a little a gun game and he jumps in front, pretends to die, and then she just walks off, and then they go to something else, and she walks off again, and he says to one of her friends, What what's up with her? What's what's her problem? He said, You know, she was snugging the face off Johnny and she said, Oh, you didn't stay around for the epic, the epic conclusion where she right hooked him, and that's how she sprained her wrist. And he goes, All right. So he then goes to find her, she's by herself by the water slides. I don't know why she's gone outside the arcade and left her friends.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

It's like a big fairground on the beach, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 57:51

So he then apologises and he says, you know, can we be okay? And then they give each other a hug, and then he goes, Look what I got, takes her to the car, and she's like she's impressed by the car, and then he allows her to drive. And I did like that. They had a snog, yeah. A horrible snog. I think I wanted to um pass that by because he just he like puts his whole mouth over their face, basically. Like, in terms of a snog, it's like a movie, but this is just like and if you don't believe me, rewatch it back and his mouth was like covering a whole chin and up to a nose, and I was justn't stand out to me, but it did make me think at this so he's passed his test, he's got a car, he's kissing a girl.

SPEAKER_00 58:36

We're not looking at 12 at this point, and also she looks like age appropriate, she looks like she's 18, 19. I think in real life, Elizabeth, she was like 20 at this point. Yeah, so she looks the right age, and I really we kept getting thrown off by Ralph Macchio's looks and the age he was supposed to be. But I think I I know in real life um he's two years older than her.

SPEAKER_02 58:55

He also asks her to come to the tournament because he needs somebody in their corner, day of the tournament. As they register, you go, What belt is Daniel? And then they lie because he's isn't a belt, he's a black belt, and they steal the guys who who's the registrar to the tournament, they steal his belt. Daniel's then confronted in the dressing room by all the Cobra guys, and the referees break them up and say, Save it for the floor.

SPEAKER_00 59:24

Yeah, which is not really what you want. You want don't want pent up aggression. No, I would have thought if it's all about defence and focus.

SPEAKER_02 59:32

So the first fight, Daniel's very, very nervous. Yeah, he backs off, yeah, he he he leaves the ring twice, and he said, if you do it again, you'll get a point disqualify the next year. So he ends up winning the fight.

SPEAKER_00 59:46

Well, my Aggie reminds him of balance. You've got to remember your balance and he manages to turn it round.

SPEAKER_02 59:52

And then we get to the fight montages. Now, this is the song, another song, You're the best around. Yeah, love that song.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:00

Okay, here's the problem. So I have never seen this film that I remember, but what I have seen is James Corden doing Smithy, doing sport relief, where he pretends to be a coach, and there's all these comedy bits he films with Jensen Button and Freddie Flint off, and can't remember anyone else, but there's a whole bunch of them, and they do it to this song.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:20

So I see this song as being highly comedic, right? I did not know it was from this film. So when it comes on, I'm immediately going, Oh my god, that's hilarious. That's like cheesy and whatever. I didn't know it was from here.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:33

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

So you do need to watch Smithy doing it, you will have done it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

I'm sure I've seen that.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

In fact, I'll put it in the show notes so everybody can enjoy. But yeah, it's it's so it took it, it took me out of it, which is a shame because if this is the first time I was watching it and I hadn't heard that, then maybe not so.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:49

So we have a montage of fights, the cobra cycle are getting through. Johnny's being really aggressive all the way through. You can see he's not like pulling his punches, he's hurting people as he does it. Daniel's getting through the tournament, and then it gets to the semi-finals. So the semi-finals, Daniel's against one of the cobra eyes, Johnny's against somebody else, not Cobra Kai. Um, and so Chris decides to tell the guy who's fighting Daniel to hurt him, hate his leg. And he goes, I can beat him. If I do that, I'll be disqualified. He goes, We want him out of action. Because I think he knows he'll probably beat him. Yes, I think he knows he'll beat him and beat Johnny because his his style of karate karate is karate is slightly different.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:40

And well, presumably, without knowing anything about it, one has been taught by a peaceful, calm, very chill, focused, balance, let's do this way, and the other's been taught by an absolute meathead who loves the violence. No mercy! Yeah, he's the mercies of the week, you know. So I guess it will be different in the Come out of the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Daniel wins a point in the in the first bit of the semi-final, and then this kid kicks Daniel in the leg with Daniel's injury.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:05

He'd already had an injury, yeah, which was grim. He does look proper in pain, you know, it's all horrible to love.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:10

Yeah, yeah. So they say Daniel's got 15 minutes to get back into the ring, or he's disqualified, and Johnny will win the tournament. So he then comes to the dressing room, and you can see Daniel's in a lot of pain, his mum's worried, there's two refs there, and Allie's there, and Mr. Miyagi, and he he asks for a few minutes with Mr. Miyagi, and he says to Mr. Miyagi, Do you think I would have won the fight? He goes, It doesn't matter now. You've shown he goes, No, do you think I would have won the fight? And he goes, Yeah. And he goes, Can you do that thing where he claps on the previous life? I have no idea what that would do, rubbing your hands to get it some like mystical energy.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:54

Well, this is we'll talk about mysticism later.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

So he magically heals him enough to be able to fight. Ali runs out as Johnny's about to be awarded the trophy, and he says he's gonna fight, and the commentator is about to give the trophies go, Oh my god, Daniel Aruso is gonna fight, so it builds it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

He's a masochist, yeah. Like he's he's like hopping, he's not even like limping, he's hopping.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:19

Yeah, so we cut to the fight with Johnny and Daniel. Daniel wins the first point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

At this point, I didn't know if he you know, I didn't know if he was gonna win. I didn't know if that's how this film was gonna end.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:35

That's good, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:37

No, because you know, like Rocky, you're kind of like, oh, you don't need to win. Yeah, you've kind of got what you needed, and it's sort of that made sense, and you kind of had that dawning realisation towards the end of the film, he's not gonna win and it's gonna be okay. I kind of wondered about that, and I didn't know because he's gonna win the girl horrible imagery, win win a girl, but I thought that was gonna be the already won the girl at this point, she's in love with him, and it's not an award to win. No, but she's not no, but but no, no, there are already a couple of things. Yeah, so you know, has he learnt? Has he shown himself to be able to stand up to these meathead guys who are stupid? All this, I just thought maybe that's gonna be enough, and I didn't know where it was gonna go, so that's where we're up to here.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:17

So then Daniel wins the second point, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

And then Chris, I I didn't know any about it. I just like they wash over. Yeah, I couldn't find the point out.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:25

Chris then calls a time out to speak to Johnny because Daniel's hit. I think he's got a little bit of blood on his nose, so he calls a timeout, and he basically says to Johnny, sweep the leg. Yeah, no mercy, and and you can see Johnny's a little bit shocked at this. To his credit, and this is this and this is where there's a slight little bit of redemption for Johnny because he is shocked at this moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:49

It's not his instinct, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:51

It's not his instinct to just go, even though he's beaten the crap out of him earlier on, but but it's I do like the fact that there is a little bit of he sees this isn't a fair fight, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um so Johnny does do the sweep of the leg and hurts him, and you think that's it, you can't get up, and then Daniel decides for the next point he's gonna do what I would call the crane kick.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:17

And you can see the flaving kicks, and you can see Mr.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:20

Miyagi nodding as if that's the right thing to do. So Johnny goes to attack Daniel, Daniel does the kick, hits him in the face, and wins the point and wins the tournament. Music's going swirling music, yeah. It's going, everybody's running over. So, this is the one bit I do like about Johnny. He takes the trophy off the guy who's going to present it to and wants to present it to himself and goes, You're alright, Daniel, you are alright. Did he say that?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:47

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:47

Miss that and then it ends.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:49

It ends on Mr. Miyagi looking proud. Smug completely smug. But I'll I don't mind it from him. He can be smug if he likes at that point.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:00

Now, before we go on to show notes, right, at this moment in the film, like it's great that Daniel's warn and stuff like that, but I do feel like there's been no come up and for the teacher.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:13

Yeah, I agree. You should be struck off.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

Now, what I will say, and this is jumping ahead, in the Karate Kid 2, right, and I'm gonna talk about this for the.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:22

No, if you can't tell a story in one film, don't bother telling it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:25

In the Karate Kid 2, it starts in the car park afterwards, and Chris the teacher's really, really annoyed, and he goes at Mr. Miyagi. And Mr. he goes to throw a punch at Miyagi and he moves out the way and he punches through a car window and hurts his fist. And he does it again, hits both his fists, and he gets us come up and because I did even as a kid, I didn't like the way it just ended at that moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:46

He shouldn't be allowed to be around young people training them, he should not be allowed that.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

He's too aggressive and stuff like that. So, what were your thoughts on the movie?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:56

Okay, um it wasn't a terrible waste of my time. Good. So that's start early, you know, low-level uh positivity. Yeah, I I didn't hate it, I didn't um find it hard work to watch, it was fine to watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:14

Um I know you've got a lot to say on this, so I'm gonna have a few questions.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:20

Did you find it a fun 80s movie? Because I know you like 80s movies like I do.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

So the 80s moviness of what I like is usually high school and it's usually relationships and crushes, it's usually friendships.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

And there's that in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:33

Yeah, there is, but again, I don't want to be gendered about this, but there's very few women in this. There's Elizabeth Shue who's representing, and that's basically it. The mum. For the you know, for the generation of being a young person watching it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:46

Okay, there's the two friends with this.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:48

You fancied Elizabeth Shue. Yeah. You could either want to be Daniel, you might think Johnny's great, you might want to be one of the Kobra Kai gang, you might want to be, you know, I don't know, other people. There's just there's nobody really for me except Elizabeth Shue, and her character is very one-dimensional because she's just there's a love interest and she doesn't have an inner world. So that's why I found it didn't take my boxes in terms of that. But you're right, I like 80s movies, so you know, maybe I just prefer 80s movies where there's someone more relatable to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

Fair play.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:19

I re I some of these things I might have already brought up, so you can always feel free to edit them out. I really did enjoy literally the first 33 minutes where you saw them move from coast to coast. I just thought that was beautiful because it really gave you the sense of location and distance from their old life to their new life. So he's he's literally leaving all behind. I said I've said before that um Ralph Macho looks young. Elizabeth Shu, I don't think she looks old, but she looked older than him, significantly older. Um, when they had their snog, it did feel a bit like she might be someone's big sister or like a cool mum from down the road. Do you know what I mean? It didn't they felt to me mismatched. I've never really noticed she looks like she's 28 and he looks like he's 15.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:03

I've never really noticed her.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:05

And the fact that they're not is fine because then it's not icky. Uh like I say, I think he's two years older than her in real life, the actors are two years apart and he's two years older. I just didn't think they looked age appropriate for a couple that are supposed to be age appropriate.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:18

I that's something that's never cropped up to me. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:21

Okay. So even though I'm not a fan of violence or aggression and I'm not really into martial arts, um, what I found, the my favourite bit of the film tended to be, I think, the last 20 minutes. Because even though it was very focused on the tournament, which again, not my thing, it felt it was sped up. I felt this film took a while to get to what we were waiting for. I said to you early on, okay, so he's gonna learn karate, he's gonna, you know, beat up the guys, he's gonna be, you know, in charge of his own life again, he's gonna get the girl. I felt like I could see it coming, and I wasn't wrong. And that's okay. It's okay that I could see where it was going, it's okay that they've given us these clues to sort of direct us, but it just seemed to take a while to get there. So the last 20 minutes where it's all you know, montage and then a match here, a match there, now up to the semis, now up to the final, there's gonna be an injury, we're gonna come back from it. That really felt like a nicely paced, sped-up momentum.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:17

Yeah, I mean, the tournament it didn't take up a huge portion of it, it's it was just quick, it didn't need to be long. You know, you could see Daniel won a fight, then there's a bit of a montage, and then you just needed to see the semi-final and the final. That was enough. That was enough.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:32

It just felt like that was when some momentum got going, and I was more engaged then. Whereas I was sort of waiting for that momentum all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:38

Well, one bit I did particularly like, and we didn't I didn't cover on this because obviously you can't do every single scene in it, but the bit where they said you can't allow two people to the tournament, she pretends to be his translator, that was quite funny, and then you just and then uh you allow her through it, and Mr. May goes thanks, and then just walks off. You know, there's there's loads of little nice scenes in it. We can't cover every scene in a podcast, but yeah, there was funny moments like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:04

Yeah, it barely passed the Beckdale test. Okay, so it this is when the only time I can remember it happening is when Daniel's mum says to Elizabeth Shue, Can you drive a stick? So that's a conversation between two women who have names, not about a man. That was that's the only time I think it happened, because any other time I don't think anyone else I don't think two women talked at any point.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:27

Well, you go to Elizabeth Shoe with their friends.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:30

About Daniel.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:31

Is it just about Daniel?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:32

It's gotta be about it's when it passes the Beckdale test. If it's two female characters who have proper names and they talk to each other about something other than a man.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:42

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:42

So, I mean a lot of your films don't pass the Beckdale test, I'll tell you that for nothing. Um the music was fine, you said it was great, I was waiting to be wowed, I enjoyed Banana Rama, the the one at the end made me laugh because I recognised it from Smithy. I would really love to know, and I've sort of barely Googled it and I'm not seeing anything, but I didn't do a lot of research. I would love to know if there was a Japanese consultant or a karate consultant. There must have been karate consultants at the very least in the production of the film. I do worry that we were leaning into stereotypes here. Very much so.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:17

So I will add I watched this.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:19

I don't expect to know these answers. No, no, I watched this film this morning.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:22

I watched this film this morning again, just to be fresh for the podcast, and for the first time ever went to some of the extra features. Okay. And there is a karate expert on some of the extra features, and it's footage from the 80s, so there was a technical expert on there.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:39

Was he Japanese? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:40

I'm not asking you to racially profile the guy, but what I'm saying is he was American, but do you need to be Japanese to it's a mo it's not so much just the karate, it's to do with the the character of Mr.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:50

Miyagi that I think we might be leaning into some real kind of clumsy stereotypes. But because I'm not Japanese, I don't know. And I'm worried that a film from this era would be.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:59

I just would like to know if Yeah, there probably was a lot of clumsy stereotypes, I will say that.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:04

We'll come back to that in a minute.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:05

Sandafloor.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:06

And that's why I was very keen for you not to do an impression. Um yeah. I've talked already about the fact that 40 years on from well, Pearl Harbor in 40 years would have been 81, the Japanese American camps. I just find it I just think we should this should it should be referenced more in mainstream films. Occasionally just get a little glimmer of it, like I said about Die Hard, because I feel it's so much from Paco about Mr. Miyagi, and I had so much more I want to know about him, and I kind of like now you're gonna say, Oh well, if you watch the seventh seventh film, this is why I don't like sequels because I don't think you should have to rely on a sequel to tell the story, and I liked that I was intrigued, I want to be left with that could be explored more. Yeah, I love I loved that. There was so much to unpack about his character and his history, but they told us just enough for us to know who he was.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:55

Yeah, in so the sequel the sequel, um they travel to Okinawa 'cause Mr. Miyagi's father's dying. Okay. Right, and you do find more of his backstory out. Okay. Um I don't know whether you and the first two I I really like the Karate Kid 2. Uh another great soundtrack, Glory of Love, uh is on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:16

Peter Satira.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:17

Yep. Lovely. Um and that that does actually more to the first girlfriend I mentioned earlier on because of that song. But it does add to Mr. Miyagi's backstory. There is a third film which wasn't as good, a fourth film, which you lost me at second film to be a good one. Well, one second, it's not Daniel Arusso because he was probably about 52 by then. It's a female karate kid, and then revolutionary. Then they did a another film called The Karate Kid, which was Will Smith's son and Jackie Chan.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:52

Uh quite a lot of that came up when I was Googling trying to find information about this one.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:55

And then they did one called Karate Kid Legends, which I can't remember if it was last year or the year before, and it has Jackie Channing and Ralph Macchio as the teachers of this next generation karate kid.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:08

I do worry that they've milked this dry.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:10

Well, I think the thing was Cobra Kai was a massive success, and I think they just milked the back of that really with Karate Kid Legends. The actual karate kid with Jackie Channing, I'm sure Jackie Chan got nominated for an Oscar and he played the Mr. Miyagi role, but I think he's called Mr. Han in that. And it's actually set in China rather than America. But that's a good film in itself. Different vibe to this.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:37

Um obviously, none of that, I'm not gonna watch any of that, but that's okay. It's okay. Because I just this is the film I watched, and I like that I was left once I I was left, known just enough, just a few details about Mr. Murgie's background for me to kind of warm to him, know him, feel like I've got empathy for all sorts of things that he must have experienced without it being laboured. I don't like things being laboured, okay. So that was that was that. So I can s there's loads of positives in the film. I did enjoy it. Um but I didn't love it. Yeah, I enjoyed it. But it does make me laugh because I've said this, I think I said it after um Star Wars when we did that a couple weeks ago. You do have a proper hard-on for good versus evil. It's all of the films you bring are good versus evil and filmed and made in the 70s or 80s. So your childhood films, good v bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:26

Yeah, but they're always escapism back to the street.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:28

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I'm saying you're very it's clearly your choice. It's someone standing up to the bad guys, it's someone with a good moral code standing up to the bad guys. You've you've done Superman, you've done Rocky, you've done Jules, there's always got to be some big scary threat, whether it's the bad guys at school who like, you know, terrorise everyone on motorbikes, or whether it's a shark, or whether it's Lex Luther, or whether it's whoever the bad people are, Darth Vader, I couldn't I can't even remember the names. The bad people from Star Wars.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:58

The stormtroopers and Darth Vader.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:00

You always turn up with a film where the good guy has to defeat the bad guy. And I'm one day it would be great if you could pick a film. I think that's coming in a few weeks. That's coming in a few weeks. I don't know, I don't know. We'll see. So you've touched on the sequels. I honestly don't think there should be any, and I'd like to go back in time and stop them.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:20

I just don't think you'll be able to craze Karate Kid 2. You don't need to, it's not about Karate Kidd. Karate Kid 2 and this make they bookend each other quite well.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:29

I for my story. They told this story, and it I you're right about the bad sense I not getting his come up ins, and that is, I think, a flaw of this film. I don't think you should be then thinking, oh right, that'll be how we start the sequel. I just I want it all at the ends to be don't have to be tied up neatly, but just the implication that you know, even if it was just a guy at the back with a clipboard looking like we're gonna str we're gonna close this down and he looks like oh god, that that would be enough, that'll be enough, some consequences. I don't think I need to see this again for a while because now I you know now I know where it's going. It was interesting to not know if he was gonna win, it was interesting to have that level of suspense. Like I said, it was on in the lounge a few months ago, and I don't I didn't pay attention, I didn't know if he'd won or not. So it was nice to have that suspense, but I don't think I need to watch it for a long time, and I don't think I need to watch this the sequels, but it was a perfectly enjoyable evening to sit and watch and tick off my list of things that I've never got around to.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:25

It's nice to hear that you enjoyed the movie.

unknown 1:18:28

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:29

With reservations, but yeah, I did, it didn't hate it, it wasn't like a boring evening. Do you want to know what some other people said?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:35

Yes, and there's one there's one there's one bit I'll touch upon in the show notes. I I'm gonna see whether you've come across this or not, so you carry on and I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:44

Okay, so some other people's thoughts. Okay, when I googled the Karate Kid, um, and I had to then obviously go back in and put 1984 because every single version seemed to come up. So many articles, so so many articles were things like 10 life lessons from the Karate Kid, 20 life lessons from the Karate Kid, parental tips from the Karate Kid. It's like all these things that the people can glean and make a list of that you can see.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:06

Just for the sake of doing something.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:08

Absolutely. It's like it fed so many articles like that, so many posts like that. So I've literally just picked one, and this is some uh community.thrive global and it's lessons from the Karate Kid, and there are six. I think I picked one with a small number.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:21

Number one, life can bring you to your knees.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:25

Okay. What's that one about?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:27

I don't know, I didn't copy any of the paragraphs that came after it. I just copied the headlines, okay? Um, I think it just means that you can um get beaten up at school or have to move to the other side of the country and all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:37

No, this is relatable.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:38

Umber two, don't succumb to life's trials and tribulations. Okay, I mean, yeah. Three, you have everything you need to succeed, which is pure like Miyagi, isn't it? Four, life is about the journey, not the destination. I just think this is all just bollers. It's just a lot of people. It feels like um you sort of sew them on a thing and put them on your wall.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:03

Five, revenge is never in your best interest. And six, what matters is what's in your heart. So I just it doesn't show that. I know. But there's so many. This is that was what I literally picked that on because it was a short number. There were so many articles, so many posts where people have expounded at length on all of these life lessons in whatever format they've chosen to do it. I'm not knocking that particular post, it was the same as loads of others, but it does make me laugh how this is this film seems to have been used for like um life planning and parent websites and managerial training at work, and it's just funny the amount's been used. So then there's this other the other part that I keep referring to is I was concerned with the authenticity of cultural representation here, right? Just because if you're gonna use a character who is from Japan, and I believe the actor is Japanese American, Pat Morita, Marita? Morita. We want to make sure we're doing it justice. We want to make sure that if there's some level of authenticity there. So I found a website, uh, a post called uh The Difficult Realities of the Karate Kid: Lessons We Can Learn About East Asian Representation in Mainstream Cinema. So it talks about, and this is a quote, a long there's a long-standing pattern in Western cinema where Eastern characters are reduced to a single dimension of spirituality and otherness, reinforcing cultural binaries that romanticize the East as a remedy for the West's perceived moral failings. So it's that whole idea that there's this sort of spiritual, mystical, kind of magical, you know, he rubs his hands together and heals him, or you know, this sort of wisdom, this wise old man full of ancient secrets, and it it it just feels is this really, really naff and you know, American, white America writing a story? I don't know. It just felt icky to me, and this is what was referenced here. They also go on, and I did read this in a few different articles. They mention that Pat Morita only got the gig for Mr. Miyagi after he reauditioned, and in the second audition, he did a much stronger Japanese accent.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:11

So you think, oh okay, okay. Um well then just you know to kind of sit on the fence a little bit and even hand it. This uh article says, however, uh the karate kid emphasises the importance of non-violence, resilience, and empowerment, particularly through Mr. Miyagi's complex character, his background as a Japanese American who faced systemic discrimination adds depth to his role, transforming him from a mere stereotype into a symbol of strength and perseverance. So there's two angles there. Um but I just I felt slightly, oh, I need to know if we're if this is okay. Because I don't know. I'm not Japanese and I don't know anyone who is.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:50

I do think there's probably a lot of stereotyping used with Mr. Miyagi, but I think ultimately come from a good place and put the character in a good light because of his morals being good and yeah, but it still doesn't mean it's realistic, does it?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:05

Even if it's a a good character, it's it's almost like he's I don't know, a it's like he's some magic elder. I can't think of a better way to describe it. And he's not, he's a guy who's lived through shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:17

Yeah, but he's wise. He can be wise, he can be wise, he can't be a guy, a guy who's lived through shit, he can be wise.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:24

He can be wise, I just feel like, yeah, I would have liked to have known that it was done with um, I don't know, some people on the writing team that had more inkling than guesswork. There was also a post by Dr. David Wong, and it was called How the Karate Kid Ruined the Modern World. And it was just funny. Yeah, no, it's funny, it's the point he makes is is I think valid because he also blames Rocky for this as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:46

So it's how by seeing someone who is bad at something, yeah, have a training montage, and then in the next few scenes is suddenly great at it, it's hugely unrealistic in in life, it sets unrealistic expectations about our own abilities to achieve. So it's quite funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:04

Fair play.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:04

Yeah, he's sort of yeah, a montage is all it takes. Um my final bit is I mean, if you want to book Ralph Machio for a speaking gig, there is a website, A E speakers, and he's got a page, and I didn't find out how much he cost because you have to sort of go through the booking process to get a quote, and I didn't think he'd travelled all the way over again.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:28

That would have been great, wouldn't it? Ralph Machio's part of the podcast, just correcting us the entire time.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:34

I thought that'd be quite funny if you turned up today and oh we've got a guest. It's Ralph.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:39

You've got Ralph for the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:42

But he is you know, he does public speaking, I guess about his experiences on this and in other things, but yeah, I thought that was quite interesting. I've not seen that come up for any of anything else I've Googled before. Doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:54

But yeah, that's me. So across some of your Googling, you've missed out a this is a widely popularised fan theory, and it became popular from How I Met Your Mother.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:07

Oh yeah, have you ever watched that?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:09

Never, oh okay, and the arguments are for Daniel being the villain.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:14

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:15

So he instigates the conflicts, theory suggests that Daniel often instigates situations, you know, when Johnny's trying to sort out his disagreement with Ali at the beach, Daniel come over and antagonise him to get to a fight. Then you've got the soccer scene, the football scene where he gets fouled and he immediately jumps up, right? You could also argue that he steals the girl away from Johnny.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:41

But they were already split up.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:42

No, but just the theory. Well, it does. His impulsiveness is portrayed as a hothead who often um surrenders to his impulses, you know, by fighting and things like that. Also, at the very end, the crane kick. Now it is, I've just I'm on Google here now, so it is called the Crane Kick. I'm so glad you finally did some fact-checking. It's cited as an illegal kick within the world of karate. So there is an argument there. There's a full-blown essay on this about all the things Daniel does that instigates that he could be the bad guy and Johnny is the good guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:17

I don't think Johnny is the good guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:18

I think you can say Daniel's the fact that it's quite a funny thing to read, you know, after watching it. And you know, I will suggest that you know, maybe some people go and have a read of it because it's just a little bit of amusement.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:30

What post is it that you're asking them to read? Because this will go in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:33

Just Google the article.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:35

No, you need to we need to have something to cite. We can't read about it then. So that was the Screen Rant link that I'll add I'll add into the show notes so people can read that.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:44

There's an essay, I don't know if a screen rants has got the link to the essay, but it does talk about the theory on there, and I just think it's a little amusing thing. I only came across it about maybe five or ten years, and it just made me laugh reading it.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:56

So I watched all of How I Met Your Mother, I don't remember that, I have to say. Um, but yeah, yeah. I did see that pop up when I was googling, but I didn't um didn't read it. But we'll add it to the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:08

So, next week it's your turn to choose a film. Do you want to share it now?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:13

Yep, we are doing that this series, aren't we? With with sort of signposting people to the next film.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:18

I think we're a bit more organised these days, aren't we? I think when we uh when we first started, we recorded some as a test piece and then and then we just recorded films we like and didn't really have an order of how it would flow. Where this time, because we've got the previous series behind us, we I think we're a little bit better.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:39

So have you built up anticipation for everyone waiting to hear what it is while you've waffled then? It's gonna be Be Still My Beating Heart before sunrise.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:49

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:50

And I can't wait because it's just feeds my soul.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:54

So, if people want to find more of you, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:58

So I'm at NikkiBond.com or you can look for the Lisa McCauliff stories online. How about you?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:03

I'm at Toffee Zoras on YouTube or Phil Timon on TikTok.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:07

So thanks for listening, and until the next time, bye bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:11

Thank you, see you later.