Review of The Karate Kid Part II (1986) by Dg J — 20 Mar 2011

The film picks up almost directly after the end of The Karate Kid; John Kreese (Martin Kove), furious over his star pupil Johnny Lawrence's (William Zabka) second place finish in the All Valley Karate Tournament, viciously berates and humiliates Johnny in the parking lot. Miyagi, who is leaving the venue with Daniel, rescues Johnny, passively immobilizes Kreese, then comically tweaks Kreese's nose instead of dealing him a fatal blow. As Johnny and his friends quit the Cobra Kai dojo en masse, Miyagi explains his actions to Daniel: "For person with no forgiveness in heart, living even worse punishment than death.".

Six months afterwards, Daniel now lives in a guest room at Miyagi's house; his mother had moved to Fresno for work, and had arranged for him to live with Miyagi. It is also revealed that Ali dumped him for a football player. Miyagi soon receives a letter telling him his father is dying. He intends to return to Okinawa alone, but Daniel decides to accompany him. When Daniel asks Miyagi why he left Okinawa in the first place, Miyagi answers that he loved a woman named Yukie, who was arranged to be married to Sato, son of the richest man in town, and Miyagi's best friend. Sato and Miyagi studied karate together under Miyagi's father, in defiance of tradition. One day, Miyagi announced before the whole town that he wanted to marry Yukie. Sato was insulted and challenged Miyagi to a fight to the death. Rather than fight his best friend, Miyagi fled Okinawa.

When they arrive in Okinawa, Miyagi and Daniel are greeted by a young man, Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), who is Sato's (Danny Kamekona) nephew. Sato has neither forgiven nor forgotten his feud with Miyagi and once again demands to fight Miyagi. Miyagi refuses, so Sato calls him a coward.

Miyagi and Daniel are welcomed to Tome village by Yukie (Nobu McCarthy) and her niece Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita), to whom Daniel is immediately attracted. They learn that Sato is now a rich industrialist, whose supertrawlers have destroyed the local fish population, impoverishing the other villagers, who have turned to small farming to survive. Worse yet, the villagers all rent their property from Sato, who now actually owns the entire village. Yukie also reveals that because she truly loved Miyagi and carried a torch for him, she never married Sato.