‎The Karate Kid, Part II (1986) directed by John G. Avildsen • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

The Karate Kid, Part II

1986 Directed by John G. Avildsen

This time, the combat is real.

Mr. Miyagi and Daniel take a trip to Okinawa to visit Mr. Miyagi's dying father. After arriving Mr. Miyagi finds he still has feelings for an old love. This stirs up trouble with an old rival who he originally left Okinawa to avoid. In the mean time, Daniel encounters a new love and also makes some enemies.

Ralph Macchio Pat Morita Nobu McCarthy Tamlyn Tomita Yuji Okumoto Joey Miyashima Marc Hayashi Danny Kamekona Martin Kove William Zabka Tony O'Dell Chad McQueen Rob Garrison Ron Thomas Pat E. Johnson Arsenio 'Sonny' Trinidad Charlie Tanimoto Sarah Kendall BD Wong Clarence Gilyard Jr. George O'Hanlon Jr.

113 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Matt Gourley ★★★★★ 3

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Man, the motion filter on my sweet 65" TV made this film look sooooooooooo smooth. I pulled this standard def DVD off my sun-kissed shelves and sat down for a no slow film-rate bullshit, smooth ride through a favorite flick. Life is good when you're livin' free!

Dig in!
Review by geoffreyjar 6

2 KARATE 2 KID: OKINAWA DRIFT

Other than the new setting there isn’t too much to recommend here. They tease that Mr. Miyagi is going to have an even bigger role here but then he doesn’t and it yet again follows Daniel-San trying to score and getting bullied. This time he also learns about Okinawa and gets to be a weeaboo/anime fan surrogate! Right down to a dull, submissive waifu! The characterization of the Okinawan citizens is well intentioned but hasn’t aged all that well to boot.

But at the end a bully goes full cartoon bad guy and is even able to counter Daniel-san’s unstoppable Crane-kick from the climax of the first one! I laughed at loud at that part. So I can be at least a little forgiven.
Review by Steve Robinson ★★★★ 1

I know a lot of people who look at this review and see the number of stars will scoff at the rating but please, stop and think first. I just rewatched this for the first time in probably fifteen years. I grew up as a child of the eighties and the Karate Kid was one of my first cinema heroes. I didn't realise how I would feel about it when i revisited it as an adult...but here I sit, quietly impressed. It reminded me of the Temple of Doom in terms of prowess of a sequel.

Yes, the basic key events are there from the first one but this does so much more. This is a character study about friendship,…
Review by Matt Singer ★★½ 1

I probably haven't seen this movie in 20 years. Bur when I watched one scene from this (surprisingly not terrible) sequel in particular -- a tea ceremony between Daniel and Kumiko -- I was hit with this rush of memories, as if I'd just watched it 2 months ago.

Movies are cool.
Review by drmorbius79 ★★★★

"Honk!" When that Peter Cetera power ballad kicks in at the end, I feel like I'm magically transported back to 1986. There's something about these cheesy 80's flicks that can somehow cut deep into real human feelings and emotions that modern films can't touch. No joke, there are certain scenes here that make me tear up.

The strong friendship between Daniel and Miyagi is central again, and the father/son stuff hits me right where I live.

Yeah, this checks a lot of the same plot points as the original: Daniel-san is an outsider fighting bullies and finding love in a strange new environment. Mr. Miyagi teaches him a secret finishing manuever to vanquish his foes- the Crane Kick in the…
Review by Dave Jackson ★★ 14

The Karate Kid, Part II takes an enormous dive in quality after the very fun and heartwarming original. Daniel-san and Mr. Miyagi visit Okinawa to say goodbye to Miyagi's (probably 100+ year old) dying dad. And when I say Okinawa, I mean Hawaii. I know that this is a film for kids, but damn it, I couldn't handle the fake locations and the way Japanese characters spoke English to each other. Just throw some subtitles on the screen for the scenes where Daniel isn't around and there's no reason for them to be speaking English! Stupid pet peeves aside, even though the stakes are higher in this (a childhood frenemy wants to fight Miyagi to the death and tear down…

Recent reviews

Review by Jeremy Calcara ★★★★

I know this is a cheesy imitation of the original, but damnit if John Avildsen doesn't know how to make me feel all the feels. It's been at least 20 years since the last time I watched this and I can tell you that pretty much everything I know about Japanese culture comes from Karate Kid 2. I think that's probably a problem.
Review by Meltha ★★★½

I liked this look at Miyagisan's homeland; he was an interesting character, and I'm glad he got some background here.
Review by geoffreyjar 6

2 KARATE 2 KID: OKINAWA DRIFT

Other than the new setting there isn’t too much to recommend here. They tease that Mr. Miyagi is going to have an even bigger role here but then he doesn’t and it yet again follows Daniel-San trying to score and getting bullied. This time he also learns about Okinawa and gets to be a weeaboo/anime fan surrogate! Right down to a dull, submissive waifu! The characterization of the Okinawan citizens is well intentioned but hasn’t aged all that well to boot.

But at the end a bully goes full cartoon bad guy and is even able to counter Daniel-san’s unstoppable Crane-kick from the climax of the first one! I laughed at loud at that part. So I can be at least a little forgiven.
Review by Willie Krischke ★★★½

I remember this being better than the first one. Is that just my kid brain?
Review by Joonas ★★★★★

The acting and the writing are really good. The atmosphere is really captivating. The directing is not half bad at all. The characters are very well done. The plot and the movie itself feels really large in scale compared to the first film. You can feel how high the stakes are. And this movie is much more emotional than the first movie and it has very memorable moments.

As a whole this movie is great. The first film was just okay but this second one is much much better. So i can highly recommend this movie, but do watch the first one first :)
Review by C. Henry Hammer III ★★★★½

Superior sequel. Bigger stakes. Better backstory. More epic and grandiose. What's not to love?

(3 1/2 Bones)
Review by Austin Rabideau Rabideau ★★½

To convoluted for a movie about karate
Review by Victor Finne ★★★

Mr. Miyagi is one of the coolest movie characters period.
Review by BrodiesFilmkritiken ★★★

Die Handlung hätte auch für jeden x-beliebigen drittklassigen Karatefilm getaugt, der Vorteil hierbei besteht aber eben darin, dass das ganze mit vertrauten Figuren erzählt wird. Maccio und Morita spielen ihre Rollen logisch und exakt weiter. Dadurch merkt man kaum, dass der Film eigentlich keine Handlung hat, sondern immer nur dasselbe passiert: Daniel geht irgendwohin und schaut sich um, dann taucht der fiese Chozen auf und macht Ärger. Zwischenzeitig wird’s beim Tod von Miyagis Vater ein wenig traurig, aber wirklichen Tiefgang kann man dem Streifen nicht nachsagen. Es ist einfach ein Kontrast zum ersten Teil, man sieht das gezeigte Okinawa als totalen Gegensatz zu Amerika durch Daniels Augen. Dafür gibt’s mehr Action als im ersten Teil und die ist handwerklich und ordentlich gemacht – also wenn man den ersten Film mochte, wird man auch mit dem zufrieden sein können.Fazit Dünne Handlung mit liebgewonnenen, sympathischen Figuren – eine ein wenig schleppende, aber trotzdem ganz vergnügliche Geschichte.