The Karate Kid 2 [1986] [DVD]

After his success at the Karate tornament eight months previous, Daniel decides to accompany his friend and teacher Mr Miyagi to his home town of Okinawa, in Japan, where his father is very ill. There Mr Miyagi faces some old ghosts, namely Sato, his old friend who turned against him when Mr Miyagi fell in love with the woman who was 'promised' to him. Daniel is also drawn into the situation when Sato's top student challanges him to a fight to the death to save his honour, something that is taken very seriously in Okinawa.

They could really have gone anywhere with this film and put Daniel and Mr Miyagi on any number of adventures however as the first film concentrated mainly on Daniel getting bullied and then facing upto them through the teachings of mr Miyagi, it was important now to focus more on Miyagi himself and explore his character a little more. It definately worked, as 'The Karate Kid: Part II' grossed over $115,000,000 at the box office in the USA alone, which is $25,000,000 more than the original movie!

As i have already said it was important to keep the same actors playing the same parts for the two main characters, and they have, with Ralph Macchio returning to play Daniel LaRusso, and of course Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita returns to play Mr Miyagi. Tamlyn Tomita does a good job in playing Daniel's news girlfriend Kumiko. Danny Kamekona also does a good job as the nasty Sato, Mr Miyagi's old friend who challanges him to a fight to the death.

In terms of the DVD itself, the extras include a very short featurette with interviews with the producer Jerry Weintraub, the director John G. Avildsen, and several of the actors. There is also a theatrical trailer for the original 'Karate Kid' movie, and filmographies for several actors and the director.

Overall, this second installment in the karate kid series while most concider not to be as good as the original is still a good movie and i think, a good sequel. With a great soundtrack that was actually nominated for an Oscar, if you are a fan of martial arts films or you have seen and enjoyed the original, this film is for you.

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The story continues straight on from where the first Karate Kid finished, and even includes some of the unused footage from the first film as an introduction into this film. Daniel is still baby-faced, skinny and smart mouthed and Mr Miyagi is still dishing out the wisdom in Japanese philosophy. Add now the beautiful backdrop of Mr Miyagi's home village in Japan and a cast of locals with their own wonderful interpretation of speaking English, one of the nastiest looking baddies ever, one of the most gorgeous female interest characters, a huge chunk of father-son buddy relationship parp and mix it all up to get a extremely worth sequel to the first brilliant film.

Yes it is cheesy but, in this one of the three films especially, it is made with real class and the sentimental side of the storyline is carried off very well. Scenes like the tea ceremony between Daniel and Kumiko (ahh fuel of a million teenage fantasies!) are genuinely touching and you can forgive the film its one or two OTT sickly sweet moments.

The action side of things are nicely choreographed and because of their almost amateur like execution they are much more accessible to the man in the street karate fan than some of the expert all action routines of Bruce Lee or Van Damme.

Don't forget also the brilliant 80's soundtrack featuring the Oscar nominated "The Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera.

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