the best thing cobra kai (tv show) did was remind everyone how actually Good the Karate Kid Movie was, in a way that karate kid 2010 didnât quite manage (mostly bc the 2010 movie was just bad). like, talk about a simple, airtight story thatâs just so sweet and heartfelt and sort of makes you want to cry if you think too much about it, like when you think too hard about a beach boys song.
itâs just a story about a lonely kid who instinctively grabs a bowl of water for a dog on a hot day without being asked to and who will pick up a girlâs radio after someone else throws it in the sand (and then when Ali is like âmaybe you shouldâve just given him the radioâ he says âwhy? it wasnât his radio.â like him and Ali literally fall for each other bc of their Principles, thatâs just a fact).
and this lonely kid meets a lonely man who, before even thinking of teaching him karate, starts teaching this kid how to respond to the worldâs unfair violence, via tree-grooming and bike-fixing, etc.
and then as the story progresses we learn that this lonely man has experienced the worst kinds of violence on offer and suddenly weâre not watching the karate version of Rocky anymore but instead an actual critique of americaâs âno mercyâ foreign and domestic wartime policy, further exemplified by the fact that the cobra kais are led by a vietnam vet who literally has a picture of himself in uniform and an american flag in his âkarateâ dojo versus the fact that mr. miyagi keeps his medal of honor in a box along with a letter telling him about his wife and childâs death in an internment camp.
and then before we have to think too much about that, it turns back into a sports movie, which is nice. bc when daniel larusso looks up at mr. miyagi and says âyouâre the best friend iâve ever hadâ it hurts a little and honestly we need a karate-tournament montage to make it not.Â
like, i think itâs so genuinely hilarious that the cobra kai writers decided to try to re-boot and re-vamp this movie of all movies. yes, itâs a great show, great acting, decent writing, but the whole âbullies come from somewhereâ conceit is sometimes less clever than it appears. sometimes an asshole is an assholeâ like, johnny lawrence didnât necessarily need a backstory about an emotionally abusive stepdad or a history of poverty in order to justify his actions in the movie. sometimes when you have the power to be violent, you are.Â
i feel like if the showrunners had more confidence in their writing they couldâve given johnny lawrence the sort of privileged life he so appeared to have in the movie and still written a sympathetic character. but i guess itâs easier to squeeze full seasons of plot out of character mostly motivated by a sense of bitterness. it really is the most basic move to get us on his side. especially when we were already on his side by the time he handed the trophy to his victorious opponent himself.Â
anyway, that scene where daniel comes to thank mr. miyagi for fixing his bike, and then tells him mr. miyagiâs bonsai trees are beautiful, and then mr. miyagi very gently helps daniel in grooming his own bonsai tree is so understated and lovely, they say so little and say so much, â like whereâs the reboot of that sort of writing?
2087
titsay
prguitarman
turnnoffyourmind
