As a kid, obviously I loved and related to Daniel, the dorky outsider from New Jersey. Now that I’m An Old™, I find the Miyagi character so much more interesting — especially in this sequel. Miyagi returns to Okinowa to see his ailing father, and must grapple with a decision he made long ago to leave his home after falling in love with the woman arranged to marry his best friend.
The whole set-up and subplot are perfectly engineered to test Miyagi’s fight-only-as-a-last-resort philosophy of martial arts, and Pat Morita is really good in the role. If The Karate Kid Part II was, say, The Karate Kid Presents: Miyagi and it was fully a spinoff movie without Daniel, made by…