Comments on: Reclaiming Miyagi: The most unjustly hated man in movies

By: sean

sean — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:26:34 +0000

Great article, thought-provoking and analyzed within the spirit of its time.

And then there was the three minutes of my life lost to a cat on a treadmill, waiting for it to do something vaguely KK-like.

By: Karate Kid Remake Will Be Refreshingly Karate-Free | Overthinking It

Karate Kid Remake Will Be Refreshingly Karate-Free | Overthinking It — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:52:40 +0000

[...] had some spirited debate on the site this week about the racial implications of a character like Mr. Miyagi who, for [...]

By: fenzel

fenzel — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:07:23 +0000

@J – Point taken. Well overthought.

@Lee – Oh, that’s right. You weren’t a big hit with the ladies until you _joined_ marching band. That is how it always works :-)

By: Gab

Gab — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:53:54 +0000

Yay orchestra and nerdy extracurriculars!

By: lee

lee — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:53:27 +0000

@fenzel: I actually wasn’t in marching band in high school! I was doing all of the things cool guys that got the girls were supposed to be doing. You know, quiz bowl, math team, AP Physics, orchestra. I stand by my original point. I blame Mr. Miyagi.

By: J

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:08:45 +0000

Mr Miyagi didn’t fight the Japanese, he was part of the 442nd Regimental combat team, and fought the Italians and Germans in Italy.

By: Remixing Miyagi: Apply the Wax, Remove The Wax | Overthinking It

Remixing Miyagi: Apply the Wax, Remove The Wax | Overthinking It — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:57:05 +0000

[...] American writer at OTI, and I’m one of those Asian Americans referred to in the previous post Reclaiming Miyagi that has beef with this character. Specifically, mine is with that (in)famous phrase, “Wax [...]

By: fenzel

fenzel — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:43:22 +0000

Also, Mark, if you’re blaming Mr. Miyagi for not getting any girls in high school, you might be ignoring the fact that you were in marching band ;-)

And besides, you did fine in college and after!

By: fenzel

fenzel — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:29:06 +0000

Yes, it is definitely saying that. Although I’d replace “top secret karate knowledge” with “magical karate powers,” as I did in my article.

It’s not progressive as we would like, certainly, but we forget that 1986 was a really long time ago, and that Japanese people were being beat up on the streets of Detroit for their country making auto workers lose their jobs (as opposed to everyone else, who was being beat up on the streets of Detroit for no reason).

The Karate Kid, Part II doesn’t do what it does by being progressive. It does what it does by being positive and by being beautiful. It shows Asians as strong, passionate and brave. It shows how startlingly huge the cultural gap can be for immigrants who try to move from one culture to another. The movie is about people of very different ways of thinking connecting with one another, even if the people’s lifestyles are pretty heavily fictionalized.

It also has one of the only scenes in mainstream American movies that depicts the Japanese tea ceremony with appropriate grace and reverence.

And performed by an actual Japanese person, which is more than what _Memoirs of a Geisha_ did.

By: Matthew Belinkie

Matthew Belinkie — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:26:27 +0000

Okay, I haven’t seen Karate Kid II in a while, but I don’t remember it as being a particularly progressive portrayal of Japanese society. Doesn’t it end with a karate fight to the death? And every single person in Okinawa just sits there watching it, as if that’s the way things are done in 1986 Japan? And they all carry around their secret drums at all times. Seems to me like the movie is saying “every single person in Japan has top secret karate knowledge.”