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Avildsen shot hours of footage of the tournament from multiple angles
Story
Decades after their fight at the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, a middle-aged Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence meet again as martial arts rivals. During the original filming of The Karate Kid, the late director John G. The team behind Cobra Kai dug through the studio vault and found a ton of never-before-seen clips, which they were able to introduce into the series via flashbacks.
Ralph Macchio told Uproxx that there are three new angles of the famous crane kick
One of them includes Zabka’s real-life mother, who was in the stands from different angles that weren’t seen until 2018. Many people believe that Miyagi’s name on his tombstone is a continuity error, as in Karate Kid 4 (1994) his name is stated as Keisuke, but it was actually previously shown on a plaque being held for him by Chozen in Karate Kid 2 (1986) as Nariyoshi. This means that it was The Next Karate Kid that changed his name, while Cobra Kai kept the name previously given to him.
There are a lot of things to like about this series
Another interesting fact, however, is that the name given in The Karate Kid Part II was not the original first name given to Miyagi. In Karate Kid (1984), it can be briefly seen on Miyagi’s dog tags, attached to the keys of the 1948 Ford given to Daniel for his birthday, that Miyagi’s first name is Hideo. Featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Anthony Mackie/Ralph Macchio/Kiry Shabazz (2018).
Johnny Lawrence’s reaction is priceless
Probably the best thing about it for me is its rejection of political correctness and victimhood culture. Admittedly, rejection is a strong word, and this is not a protest piece by any means, but there’s definitely a theme of taking responsibility for one’s own fate and confronting adversity with resilience and even some aggression. (The show is smart enough to portray overt aggression or anger as counterproductive.) There’s a great scene during a karate tournament where a competitor starts pretentiously virtue signaling to the crowd.
I hope Hollywood realizes that virtue signaling is not a prerequisite for great entertainment
It’s great to see a show that’s smart with messages to tell, but doesn’t take itself too seriously. No need to waste time scrolling endlessly — here’s the full lineup of new movies and TV shows streaming on Netflix this month.