[Karate Kid Week continues with another–more lighthearted–look at Mr. Miyagi, this one from guest writer Trevor Seigler. Let us know what you think in the comments; our guest writers are perpetually entered in the All-Valley Blogging Tournament of your approval (and your favorites might attain the Elizabeth Shue of membership in the elite cadre of OTI staff writers.) –Ed.]
A lot of Asian-Americans have issues with Pat Morita’s portrayal of Mr. Miyagi in the “Karate Kid” series. He’s a crude stereotype who conforms to the idea of the noble savage in that he’s steeped in a foreign and alien culture but able to help out the white man and thus become a “credit” to his race.
All that is true, but I think Mr. Miyagi is guilty of another crime altogether: He’s Yoda in blackface.
The funny sayings, the repetitive lessons, the sudden revelations that dude knows what he’s talking about, and the ability to instruct a white protagonist in the ancient ways of a bizarre subculture are shared traits between the two. Hell, Miyagi was probably supposed to retrieve Daniel’s X-wing from a swampy grave before the screenwriters realized that they might give away their source of inspiration.
It feels like the makers of The Karate Kid saw The Empire Strikes Back and said to themselves, “yeah, the whole plot where Luke battles Vader, Han and Leia fall in love, and the Empire almost crushes the rebellion is nice. But what’s all this about a diminutive alien teaching Luke in the Jedi arts? That could be a whole movie! Think how much money we could make, and in turn how much cocaine we could buy to fuel our sequel scriptwriting sessions afterwards!”
Perhaps they even paid for plastic surgery to make Morita’s ears more pointy; I can’t verify this, but if I write it in the film’s synopsis on Wikipedia someone is bound to believe me. It’s the “Cheers/Frasier Continuum” in full effect: take a minor character who really plays off the main characters and give him his own format in which to be a snobby, insufferable and latently homosexual asshole. And keep plugging away at it until people have had enough.
George Lucas, get your lawyers working on this right away. After three sequels, plus residuals from God knows how many endorsements back in the day (“Cobra Kai Cereal: Sweep the legs off your breakfast table!”), the producers have got to be rolling in the cash. Yoda and Miyagi are one in the same, it’s only a matter of time before the world believes me on this one.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m hard at work on proving that Superman and Clark Kent might be the same person. My evidence? Take away the glasses and Clark isn’t near-sighted at all.
Email Trevor at tlseigler at yahoo dot com.
So is he being racist or specieist?
Awesome.
the all-valley oti membership trophy should be awarded on this post alone.
yep, member-worthy post, Trevor. And here’s a little more irony… George Lucas didn’t come up with the plot at all, he ripped it from Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and just replaced samurai swords with light sabres.
Kirowsawa never cried “copyright infringement!” as far as I know.
John- Sue, maybe he ripped the plot, but the dude *invented lightsabers*.
Were I senor Kurosawa, I would be far too ashamed to cry copyright infringement.
This is an amazing site and a great post!
The problem with your analysis is that the one comes before the other. In other words, YODA was based on the noble savage, and therein lies the similarity NOT that Miyagi is similar to YODA.
I think Lucas borrowed much of the first Star Wars from “The Hidden Fortress,” but also from Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with a Thousand Faces.” George Lucas admits that Campbell’s work was the main inspiration for the rest of the Star Wars movies, and he even had Campbell go down to Skywalker Ranch to watch them. Perhaps looking at it through the eyes of Campbell, we see that even Yoda is just a rehashed version of Chiron or any of the other mentor figures: wise (typically ancient), something other than human, a warrior with strong values and a gentle soul, lives hidden away (isolated), and has some exclusive, mystical art to teach.
“Perhaps they even paid for plastic surgery to make Morita’s ears more pointy..” That just crossed the line, buddy!
Mr. Miyagi is way more interesting than Yoda.
I think the creators of star wars film made yoda look similar to the actor that played myagi on purpose though, both had one thing in common : they were both full of it