The Karate Kid 2 was a great sequel, especially with the deleted ending of the original making such an awesome opening. Daniel travels to Okinawa with Mr Miyagi and continues his training in Magic Karate (don’t laugh, a lot of us thought it was possible at the time). The paternalistic relationship between the two grows and Mr Miyagi’s encouragement and training helps Daniel develop into a good man. Note the shot of Mr Miyagi grinning proudly after Daniels’ victory at the end of both films; that ‘I knew you could do it’ joy.
The sequel presents Daniel with a new love interest (Kumiko) and, more importantly for the film, a new and more dangerous antagonist. Chozen is even more fanatical than Johnny was and relishes his rivalry with the American. Chozen is also trained in Magic Karate and will be a much more formidable opponent. The stakes have been raised.
For that extra special spicy hit Chozen goes full psycho before the final confrontation and threatens to kill Kumiko unless Daniel agrees to fight him to the death. Shit just got real! Daniel must also remove the small bridge that would provide a path for assistance from Mr Miyagi or anyone else. Chozen does not want to be interrupted while he beats this American ‘coward’ to death.
A great moment in the fight is when Daniel tries the signature swan kick/attack or whatever that is. Chozen deflects it with ease. However, I seem to recall Mr Miyagi saying something along the lines of “if done properly, impossible to defend”. Does that mean Chozen shouldn’t be able to defend against it even if he knows it too? Or maybe Daniel just fucked it up because he was shitting himself.
Anyway, Daniel wins and we get the hilarious callback to the opening scene and that warm glowing face of the proud mentor. Great!
Well, they must have made a nice chunk of money, cause the third instalment wasn’t far off. A great story idea revolving around a devastated John Creese, a shell of his former self, unable to deal with his defeat. An old Vietnam War buddy (Terry Silver) who was very wealthy and owed Creese his life arrives and is determined to revive his saviour and mentor.
They come up with a plot to psychologically destroy Daniel. They didn’t really have the cajónes to take Mr Miyagi on directly, so they decided to get him through his student. I must say I suspected that Terry Silver was going to be some kind of Karate badass, so I was doubly surprised when Mr Miyagi made short work of him and Creese at the same time.
The antagonist this time around? Mike Barnes, Karate bad boy; basically, a new level of Johnny from the original. More aggressive, more skilled. Herein lies the problem for me. This guy is clearly more dangerous than Johhny, but Chozen?
Not only that, but Daniel will be fighting Barnes in a tournament much like the one he won in the first film. Chozen was a fucken death match! It feels like they got the sequels mixed up here.
It’s kind of like Rocky beats Appollo in the 2nd film and in Rocky 3 he faces Ivan Drago. Rocky 4 feels like a step down. Yeah, Clubber Lang was a “wrecking machine”, but Drago?
“Whatever he hits he destroys”
“If he dies, he dies”
Fighting in Cold War Russia!
I get that Terry Silver messes with Daniels’ head and pulls the rug out from under him and that would have destabilized him. I just don’t buy that he would be that frightened of fighting a nasty opponent at a tournament after all the challenges he had already overcome.
On top of that in a bid to turn Daniel against Mr Miyagi Terry teaches a very brutal and ruthless style of Karate. The kind of stuff a character like Barnes would study. Was this supposed to be some kind of reverse psychology? I’ll teach this kid with good Karate skills the tricks of the bad boy trade and when he finds out I’m actually mates with his nemesis he will crumble. Nah.
Unless…
What if Daniel was so traumatized by having to fight a death match in Okinawa against an accomplished nutter that…
Nah.
MINDLESS MUSINGS 
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