Back in 1984 The Karate Kid came out and quickly became one of my favorite movies at the time. Sure I was only seven years old back then, but the story, action and overall sense of triumph sucked me in enough that I actually took up karate lessons because of my interest in it. I suppose it was kind of silly to be that inspired by a movie, but hey I was seven, what can you expect?

In the coming years the film received multiple sequels and like many other movies, the follow-ups were never as good as the original. The one that comes closest to the hitting the mark though was the direct follow up, The Karate Kid II. While the first film focused primarily on Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and his training, this one takes a profound look into the life of Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) and really fleshes out his character. In fact, I'd go as far to say that in this movie Macchio is the supporting actor instead of Morita.

Karate Kid II picks up exactly where the first left off, in fact it starts right after the tournament that Daniel wins at the end of the first one. After an event takes place the story fast forwards to six months later at a point in time that Daniel is going to have to move to Fresno with his mom. Miyagi offers Daniel a place to stay, but gets a letter from Okinawa regarding his father's poor health and has to go home to Japan.

This wouldn't be much of a Karate Kid movie if Daniel didn't tag along, so the two head off to the incredibly scenic Okinawa. We learn that the whole reason Miyagi left Japan was because of a girl he fell madly in love with who was betrothed to his best friend, Sato (Danny Kamekona). Well, needless to say there is some bad blood between Sato and Miyagi and things aren't going exactly peachy on the home front.

Miyagi falls for his old love again and Daniel falls for her niece, but they both incur the wrath of Sato and his star pupil Chozen (Yuji Okumoto). We learn a lot about his character and what makes him tick and Morita does a fantastic job portraying him. When he's not cracking a joke or dispensing Yoda-like advice, Miyagi goes through a range of emotions as he's faced with past demons, an old love and a dying father.

As I mentioned earlier Daniel seems like a supporting character in this film and honestly looks out of place. He gets caught up in his tutor's problems and finds himself in more than a few jams, but even still feels like he's just "there". The underlying love plot for Daniel feels very shallow and doesn't have the passion that the Miyagi scenes, but I suppose you need a love interest for our young hero.

John Avildsen reprises his position in the director's chair for the sequel and for the most part he brings his vision into the film wonderfully. Having previously directed the original Karate Kid and Rocky prior to working on this movie and later on going on to work on Lean on Me, he knows how to create an inspiring and touching film. The pacing for Karate Kid II is perfectly fine and the only problems it has involve some weak scripting, not really the directing or acting.

The cinematography in this movie is something that's worth mention since there are some very beautifully shot scenes. The shooting location was very scenic and it certainly translates well to film, although sometimes you can blatantly tell in a couple parts that there was a backdrop used.

While there are a lot of decisive battles, both physical and personal, none of them seem to have the same impact that the conflicts in the original Karate Kid did. The fighting choreography feels a little too forced and they don't really have any spontaneity about them. The last fight scene in the film is a perfect example of what I'm talking about and it comes off looking kind of cheesy.

Karate Kid II is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and for the most part looks good considering the film is nearly twenty years old. There was a lot of cleanup for this transfer, but even so there are still quite a few bits of noticeable grain and edge enhancement. At times the picture is crisp and clear, but at others it will go soft for almost no reason.

Like the first Karate Kid, the sequel is a very bright colorful film and there are a lot of deep reds used here between the setting sun and costuming. As I mentioned earlier about the cinematography there are a lot of points where the environment around the characters is used to elevate the emotion of the scene. All in all, the remastered transfer looks great, though the quality does drop off at times.

Karate Kid II has a slew of available language tracks and subtitles to choose from. You can listen to it in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and watch subtitles with those languages as well as Korean, Thai and Chinese. The Dolby 2.0 audio is decent enough, though I did notice that it came across as very soft, even though the volume was at a good level. The sound is very sharp and clean though so aside from the softness and lack of 5.1 audio the quality here is very good.

There are only a few "features" packed on to this disc if you really want to call them that. There are trailers for Karate Kid, Karate Kid II, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles and Godzilla 2,000. There is also a list with filmography credits for Morita, Macchio and Avildsen, but a quick search on the internet could turn up that information, so I don't really consider that a special feature.

There is also a featurette that essentially is self serving propaganda with clips from the film and a few snippets of dialogue from some of the crew. All they do is talk about the first and second movie, but there really is no relevant or interesting information presented here. Some insight into the characters, bloopers or a look at Okinawa could have been cool, but sadly that's not the case here. If you have already purchased the trilogy box set, don't worry about double dipping, because this release is basically the one you already have.

The Karate Kid II is a very competent sequel to a fantastic and touching film, although it doesn't quite capture the same magic the original had. Morita shines again in the shoes of Mr. Miyagi and we really learn a lot about the character such as where he comes from, what drives him and the kind of man that he is. Macchio is supposed to be the "star" of the film, but truly Daniel feels lightly pushed to the side, though there are a few moments that he takes the spot light.

Picking up right where the first one left off, part two just doesn't have the same dramatic feeling or spontaneity as the original. Karate Kid II is still a good film, but it feels almost like fan service more than an attempt at telling a rich story. It's worth checking out if you don't want to shell out for the box set and are interested in seeing what happens to Daniel and Miyagi after the tournament at the end of the first film. Recommended.

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