Although the original The Karate Kid trilogy and the Jaden Smith remake are fun movies, my favorite entry in the franchise has to be The Next Karate Kid. I first saw the movie on HBO as a kid. I loved that the titular character is a young woman. This was in 1994, shortly before Buffy and Xena came along, so it was cool to see a woman kick butt. And who knew that Hilary Swank would turn out to be so famous one day?
The other day, I got the urge to revisit The Next Karate Kid. Nostalgia and all that. Even though we still have the 30-year-old VHS version of the movie, I borrowed the DVD from the library so I didn’t have to bother with hooking up the VCR. It has held up amazingly well. Since I enjoyed myself so much, it seemed like a good time to spread the word about this awesome yet overlooked installment.
Here’s the summary from the official Sony Pictures website:
Noriyuki “Pat” Morita and Academy Award winner Hilary Swank co-star in this story of a rebellious teen, Julie, who blossoms with a little help from her friends–in this case, the wise Mr. Miyagi and a trio of Buddhist monks!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
CONTENT WARNING: Brief mentions of rape.
The Memorial Service
The movie begins at a dedication ceremony for a special white/Japanese WWII unit. Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) spots a white woman admiring an old photo of him with a white soldier, his friend Jack Pierce. She turns out to be Louisa Pierce (Constance Towers), Jack’s widow. Mr. Miyagi and Jack receive awards for their work in the war, with Louisa accepting on her husband’s behalf.
This scene adds depth to Mr. Miyagi. In many ways, he comes off like an Asian stereotype: a short, elderly Japanese man who knows karate; speaks in heavily accented, broken English; and mentors wayward white kids. He’s more than that. These background details are an attempt to cancel out those racist impressions. As the senator who speaks at the ceremony reminds everyone, Mr. Miyagi bravely served his country at a time when being a Japanese man in America was difficult (to say the least) and he likely endured many horrors doing so. He deserves respect.
After the ceremony, Louisa invites Mr. Miyagi back to her house for dinner. Louisa’s granddaughter Julie (Hilary Swank) storms into the house during the meal. Julie barely acknowledges her grandmother, let alone Mr. Miyagi, when Louisa tries to introduce her to him. She’s only there to collect food from the fridge. We later learn that Julie’s secretly caring for an injured hawk named Angel that lives on her high school’s roof.
Louisa gets so frustrated with Julie, who is positively dripping with teenaged angst, that she accidentally calls Julie “Susan.” Susan is Julie’s deceased mother. Louisa’s outburst prompts one from Julie. She yells back that she is not Susan because her mother and father died in a car crash when she was a kid. This bit of exposition is mostly for the audience’s benefit, and possibly for Mr. Miyagi’s since he watches the exchange in sad silence. Then Julie storms out.
I don’t want to belittle Julie’s trauma. Losing one parent, let alone both at the same time, would be devastating in ways that I don’t even want to think about. But Julie is an ungrateful brat. She lives in an expensive house with a loving grandmother. She doesn’t appreciate how blessed she is. I get that she needs a target for her anger, but Louisa doesn’t deserve the hits.
The Arrangement
Mr. Miyagi and Louisa discuss the situation after Julie leaves. Louisa is at her wits end. She tearfully describes Julie’s rude behavior and their constant fighting. Mr. Miyagi suggests that Louisa take a breather at his house in California while he stays behind to look after Julie. Louisa agrees.
The opening scene makes sense again. Mr. Miyagi and Julie have grief in common. She lost her parents; he lost his wife, child, parents, and who knows how many friends during the war. He says that Julie is acting out because “Grief trapped in the heart become big anger.” Maybe Mr. Miyagi feels that he can get through to Julie because he knows what she’s going through. That shared grief is his way in.
I have issues with this turn of events, though. First off, who would leave their troubled teenaged granddaughter alone with some random guy while they go halfway across the country for a vacation? Mr. Miyagi is a complete gentleman, but he’s still a grown man who’s a total stranger to Julie. No matter how well Louisa’s husband knew him or how much Louisa herself trusts him, it seems irresponsible.
Second, this creates an unresolved plot point. Once Mr. Miyagi and Julie drop Louisa off at the airport, we don’t see her again. She doesn’t come back from California, she never calls to check on Julie, and Julie never calls her. They never reconcile onscreen. I thought the whole point was for Julie to get herself together so they can be a family again. It’s disappointing.
School Dayz
Julie’s high school is run by a group of guys called the Alpha Elite. They’re like corrupt hall monitors crossed with ROTC cadets. Everyone wears a lot of black. They answer to this douche named Colonel Dugan (Michael Ironside), who treats them like his personal soldiers in exchange for clout and career help.
Ned (Michael Cavalieri) is the Alpha Elite leader and Dugan’s right hand. He’s an attractive guy (personality notwithstanding) who wields a decent amount of power. He’s the big man on campus, the most eligible bachelor in school. So, it’s a huge blow to his ego that Julie refuses to date him. It has become his mission to conquer her, one way or another. He even tells the other guys that Julie is off limits.
As obsessed stalkers do, Ned immediately sees Julie when she gets to school. He follows her to a sitting area in the greenhouse and starts to harass her. He gets up in her face, slams his hands down on the table to intimidate her, and rips out her earbuds. When she tries to leave, he tightly grips her arms and gives her an ultimatum: go on a date with him or he’ll stick her with a false charge.
The scene looks awfully like the beginnings of a sexual assault. Ned literally manhandles Julie as she struggles against him, demanding that he release her. The whole time he alternates between insulting her (“You’ve been to the docks, haven’t you, Julie? Pretty girl like you.”); threatening her (“I could take you down to the principal’s office and get you into a little trouble”); and manipulating her (“Most girls in this school invite me…”). Yeah, things are headed down a dark road.
Dugan interrupts things. He saw Ned follow Julie, and his expression suggests that he knows exactly what Ned’s up to. He’s likely there to protect Ned from catching a rape charge. Dugan definitely dislikes Julie, though. She’s a troublemaker who won’t fall in line. Worse, he thinks she’s that kind of girl—a slut, a tease who’s distracting his top soldier with her mid-drift-baring, chest-emphasizing crop tops, skin-tight jeans, and micro jean shorts. He can’t have that.
Caught red-handed, Ned makes good on his promise to frame Julie for something. He produces a pack of cigarettes and tells Dugan that he caught Julie smoking them. Dugan happily goes along with the lie and carts her off to the principal’s office.
Love is in the Air
Julie is forced to listen as Dugan pressures Mr. Wilkes, the principal, to issue her a final warning. He says that she will be suspended the next time she gets in trouble. Wilkes complies, too intimidated by Dugan to argue with the BS story.
While Julie’s sitting in the office, she locks eyes with a handsome fellow named Eric McGowen (Chris Conrad) through the window. He’s making copies while not-so-subtly eavesdropping on the proceedings. Although Eric is a member of the Alpha Elite, he’s a decent guy. He doesn’t idolize Dugan like the others.
Sparks fly! Julie and Eric can’t stop staring at each other. It’s very cute…and extremely dangerous. Once again, the inconveniently observant Dugan notices the interaction. He suddenly orders Eric to escort Julie to class. It’s not long before Ned comes by and warns Eric that Julie’s his.
Dugan is purposely setting up a conflict between Eric and Ned. I think Dugan knows that Eric isn’t loyal to him, so he wants to punish him for it. He decides to use this love triangle to put Eric in his place—or more specifically, he’ll let Ned put Eric in his place. This won’t end well.
Mr. Miyagi Meets Dugan
Mr. Miyagi takes his guardian role very seriously. He comes to pick Julie up from school just like he promised he would when he dropped her off that morning. To no one’s surprise, she’s not there.
As he waits for Julie to show, Mr. Miyagi watches Dugan train his soldiers. Dugan invites the boys to attack him so he can show off his fighting skills. All of the boys eagerly line up except for Eric, who finds the whole exercise pointless. This infuriates Dugan. He picks at Eric until Eric loses his temper. It’s all fun and games until Eric actually hits Dugan when Dugan turns his back to gloat.
Before Dugan can do more than grab Eric by the throat, Mr. Miyagi steps in. He pretends like he’s seeking info about Julie’s whereabouts. Dugan’s hackles go up. He threatens to call the cops on Mr. Miyagi for trespassing. Mr. Miyagi ignores him and checks on Eric. To preserve his dignity in the face of such insubordination, Dugan starts insulting Mr. Miyagi, cracking on his “rickety” body and questioning his ability to hear. Mr. Miyagi still doesn’t rise to the bait.
Thus, another rivalry is born. Mr. Miyagi doesn’t like how roughly Dugan handles the gang. They’re just boys. Meanwhile Dugan hates Mr. Miyagi because he doesn’t like anyone who questions or ignores his authority. There’s probably a healthy dose of racism mixed in there too. The Alpha Elite is fairly monochromatic, if you know what I mean.
Julie Runs Off With Eric
Unbeknownst to Mr. Miyagi, Julie witnesses the whole scene between him, Dugan, and Eric. She remains hidden, however, because she’s waiting to confront Eric. When Eric goes to his car, she jumps in with him.
You see, Julie escaped from Eric’s custody earlier by going into the girls’ bathroom. Eric eventually realized that she had crawled through the window, so he followed her and discovered Angel. Despite having a kernel of a crush on Eric, Julie doesn’t trust that he won’t snitch to Dugan. She swears not to leave Eric’s side until he promises to keep her secret.
They end up at the train station where Eric works as a security guard to support himself and his single mom. They pass the time sitting on top of a train, trading stories about their lives and dreams. Eric reveals that he only joined the Alpha Elite because Dugan promised him a recommendation to an Air Force academy so he can become a fighter pilot.
The two are vibing like crazy. Julie is smitten with Eric. No matter how much she aims her nasty attitude at him, his corny sense of humor deflects it. He even gets her to smile a few times. You can see her slowly lowering her shields. By the end of the conversation, Eric gives his word that he won’t tell anyone about Angel.
A Shocking Discovery
When Julie gets home from the train yard, she and Mr. Miyagi get into it. First, he accidentally walks into Julie’s room while she’s undressing. He apologizes and explains—for the first but not the last time—that he’s not used to dealing with girls. Then he confronts her about not being at the school and her unsatisfactory class performances.
Julie responds with her usual level of venom. She doesn’t appreciate Mr. Miyagi telling her what to do. He calmly clarifies that he’s making requests, not giving orders, and that he’s trying to teach her stuff. Her response? “Teach me? Look at you! You can’t even speak English.”
It’s a well-aimed low blow. Julie’s racist words imply that Mr. Miyagi isn’t smart because his English isn’t great. It’s hardly the first time he’s heard this insult. Many people sadly make the same assumption. But he probably never expected to hear it from Julie. The disappointment and hurt is plain on his face. Knowing that she’s just lashing out in anger doesn’t erase the sting, especially when he has nothing but her best interests at heart.
In the wake of those ugly words, Julie runs out of the house and directly into the road, where a pizza delivery guy is zooming down the street. Before the car hits her, she assumes a defensive karate crouch, jumps onto the car’s hood, and rolls safely to the ground.
Mr. Miyagi sees the whole thing. He’s shocked. Where did Julie learn the “tiger position”? She explains that her father taught her some karate before he died. Mr. Miyagi then reveals that he taught Jack those moves, which he then passed down to Julie’s father. You can see the wheels turning in Mr. Miyagi’s head. Forget the grief angle—this is what he’ll use to turn Julie around.
When Julie asks him for karate lessons, he asks for payment in the form of homework assignments. Then, much like in the other movies, Mr. Miyagi gives Julie ostensibly mundane tasks to covertly train her. He gets her a job babysitting the neighbor’s unruly sons and, of course, she gets a round of wax-on, wax-off for Mr. Miyagi’s car. They’re off to a good start.
Busted!
Julie sneaks out in the middle of the night to feed Angel. Little does she know that the Alpha Elite are already waiting for her. Ned guesses that she’s the one who almost got caught by the police for breaking into the school at the beginning of the movie.
The minute she climbs through a window, the guys surround her and sling smarmy comments at her. She smacks a couple of them and takes off. A chase commences. Julie finds herself running for all she’s worth through the dark, abandoned hallways as the five men follow her. She manages to break a fire alarm along the way, which she knows will alert law enforcement.
We’ve seen versions of this in the other The Karate Kid movies. The protagonist is cornered and beaten up by a group of guys. It has always been intense. But here, with a female protagonist, it’s terrifying. What will they do to Julie if they catch her? Rape, maybe even a gang rape, is a definite possibility again. My blood runs cold.
Ultimately, Julie outruns the guys and locks them inside the school gates. She’s relieved to see the police and emergency vehicles pulling up. Just as she flags them down, ready to ask for help, Dugan gets out of a police car. Julie knows she’s cooked. Dugan will use his sway with the cops to twist the story to the Alpha Elite’s advantage. And that’s exactly what happens—Julie is arrested and suspended.
Mr. Miyagi decides that he and Julie will visit his monk friends for the two weeks. Before they leave, Julie stops by the train station to ask Eric to look after Angel. Poor Mr. Miyagi is forced to sit in the car and listen to their thinly veiled flirting. His expression is full of suffering and boredom. He might actually die if he has to endure another moment of Eric trying to make Julie admit that she’ll miss him. It’s a very normal paternal reaction that shows how close he and Julie have grown.
The Gas Station Fight
On the way to the temple, Mr. Miyagi stops at a gas station to fill up the tank and grab some snacks. Oddly, he tells Julie to go in the store for him.
Given the gas station’s middle-of-nowhere location, Mr. Miyagi is obviously trying to avoid a potential “situation.” The owners will likely be rednecks, so he figures that the all-American Julie will draw less attention than a Japanese man.
Sadly, the four men turn out to be racist and sexist. A dog that belongs to one of them barks loudly at Julie and blocks her from leaving the store. Julie freezes in fear as the men laugh at her. Mr. Miyagi hears the commotion and has to intervene. He steps into the store and calms the dog with techniques straight from Caesar Milan’s playbook. This infuriates the dog’s owner, who accuses Mr. Miyagi of breaking his dog.
The final straw comes when one guy grabs Julie’s arm. Despite Mr. Miyagi repeatedly stating that he does not want to fight, he ends up having to beat the crap out of the men when they won’t back off.
He and Julie then get back in the car to continue their journey. Julie is excited to have seen Mr. Miyagi’s moves. Mr. Miyagi isn’t as gleeful. He betrayed his pacifist beliefs. He tells Julie, “Miyagi always look for way not to fight. Miyagi hate fighting.” Having been through an actual war, it’s not hard to understand his reasoning for that.
The rest of his mood might be due to fear. Although Julie was just in a similar situation, she doesn’t understand how badly things could have gone for him. What if the men had called the cops? The authorities wouldn’t have believed his self-defense plea, even with Julie backing him up. What if the men had decided to retaliate on their own? This isn’t a game.
Temple Life
The monks (Arsenio Trinidad, Rodney Kageyama, Jim Ishida, Seth Sakai) turn out to be nice guys. However, Julie quickly realizes that living with them is going to be very complicated. She doesn’t know their ways, and Mr. Miyagi doesn’t offer any tips. I suspect that he’s teaching her how to adapt to different cultures as punishment for her racist statement.
Things go well enough until Julie attempts to kill a roach that’s crawling on the dinner table. The monks are highly offended. It’s against their code to kill any living thing within the temple walls, including bugs. Julie scoffs at the notion, calling it “stupid.” Mr. Miyagi angrily tells her, “Is stupid when neighborhood gangs kill each other with no reason. Is stupid when countries fight wars. Not stupid to respect all living things.”
Julie continues to dig the hole deeper. Just as she tried to make Mr. Miyagi admit that he enjoyed fighting the guys at the gas station, she tries to make him admit that he’s killed roaches before. But it’s like, read the room, girl! She’s being purposely ignorant and intolerant.
For the next few days, the monks and Mr. Miyagi ignore Julie. She might as well be invisible. They don’t return her greetings or eat meals with her. She passes the time by practicing a karate move that Mr. Miyagi was teaching her when they first got to the temple.
While wandering through the lavender fields one afternoon, Julie spots a praying mantis in the grass. Mr. Miyagi’s words finally click. She runs back to the temple with it in her hands. The head monk accepts the insect and her apology for the roach with a single word: “Good.”
Julie has just learned about balance. In the natural order of things, an insect like the praying mantis would eat the roach. She wanted to kill the roach out of discomfort. The roach’s death wouldn’t mean anything to her, but to an insect that depends on roaches for food, it would mean everything. If she kills every roach she sees, she’s effectively destroying something’s food source. Therefore, bringing a praying mantis onto the temple grounds is a thoughtful way to cull the roaches while still respecting nature.
Afterwards, Julie decides to try the karate move one more time. For the second time, Mr. Miyagi tells her to pray on it. She does and nails it! Mr. Miyagi is very proud, despite the fact that Julie thinks she deserves a belt for her troubles.
More Trouble
Julie and Mr. Miyagi head back home after celebrating Julie’s birthday. Julie has a whole new attitude when she returns to school. She’s much happier and lighter. Even Wilkes notices the changes when she runs into him in the hallway.
Her first order of business is to reconnect with Eric. They grab food in the cafeteria as Eric fills her in on what happened during her absence. The biggest news is that he’s no longer in the Alpha Elite. Dugan kicked him out for leaving practice to take a call from his mom (that was actually from Julie). He doesn’t seem too broken up about it.
The whole time Ned stares daggers at them from his table during lunch. When Julie and Eric leave to go up to the roof, he follows them unnoticed. Ned takes great joy in their reaction when he tells them that he called Animal Control on Angel. This naturally leads to a shoving contest between Eric and Ned. At one point, Ned has Eric’s head dangling over the ledge. Julie stands between them to stop the fight. Before they part, Ned ominously says, “One way or another, we’re gonna finish this thing.”
Later, Julie calls Mr. Miyagi and they retrieve Angel from the animal shelter. Mr. Miyagi informs Julie that Angel is fully healed and should be released back into the wild. Julie disagrees. So does Angel, who immediately flies back when they try to launch her from a cliff. Mr. Miyagi tells Julie to have faith in Angel so that Angel will have faith in herself.
In the end, Angel flies off for real. This is symbolic. Julie releases the hawk and with it, the last of the anger that has plagued her. Everyone is healed.
Prom Night
It’s time for the prom. Julie accepts Eric’s invitation to go with him.
Mr. Miyagi decides to reward Julie with a dress. His trip to a fancy dress shop is one of the funniest scenes in the movie. He doesn’t know Julie’s size, so he gives vague measurements with his hands to indicate her height in relation to his own and describes her as “slender, not fat.” I hope he tipped that poor saleswoman well because he ends up with a stunning white halter dress that fits Julie perfectly. He also teaches Julie how to dance by presenting the waltz steps as karate moves.
This is further proof of Mr. Miyagi and Julie’s growing father-daughter bond. It’s very paternal of him to embarrass himself at the dress shop for her benefit, like a dad buying tampons for his daughter. In a way, Mr. Miyagi is also like the Fairy Godfather to Julie’s Cinderella. She’s worked so hard, but she doesn’t have what she needs to go to the ball. So he provides what she’s lacking.
Surprise, surprise! The monks show up for a visit on prom night. It’s the cutest thing ever, watching them and Mr. Miyagi fret over Julie as she gets ready. Mr. Miyagi even makes sure to properly threaten Eric by aggressively chopping up cucumbers as they go over the night’s rules. There’s no confusion about what else Mr. Miyagi will chop up if Eric tries any funny business with Julie.
Of course, the prom goes completely left. Julie and Eric barely get in a dance before Ned and his crew bungie jump from the gym’s rafters. The stunt goes awry when one guy crashes into a gazebo and breaks his arm. Eric helps untangle the guy while cursing out Ned. Ned, who is already pissed about Julie going to prom with Eric, takes Eric’s words as a challenge to his authority. Dugan agrees with him. Here we go!
Those Alpha Elite guys are such losers! If they’re supposed to be the school’s top dogs, then why do none of them have dates? Why would they rather spend the night pulling stupid pranks instead of enjoying the party? Lo-sers!
Mr. Miyagi’s Side Adventure
Since Julie and Eric are at the prom, Mr. Miyagi and the monks go bowling. Their outing doesn’t go smoothly either. One of the monks gets into it with a racist dudebro because he accidentally picks up the man’s bowling ball. The monk doesn’t have the English to apologize, which only fires up the dudebro more.
Mr. Miyagi steps in. He suggests that they have a friendly bowling competition to settle things, the dudebro versus the monks. The dudebro takes the bet. He probably thinks it will be an easy win because most of the monks bowl by tossing the ball from their cupped hands with their eyes closed. Yet the monks hit strike after strike. After the dudebro loses and pays up, they teach him how to bowl like them. They part as friends.
This scene has several layers. For one thing, it’s another instance of Mr. Miyagi having to deescalate a racist situation. The dudebro goes in so hard on the monks because they’re different. They’re not white, they’re dressed in robes, and they don’t speak English well. The very existence of these “foreigners” in “his” space infuriates him.
Unlike the gas station scene, however, Mr. Miyagi is able to flip things before the situation turns violent. Mr. Miyagi gives the dudebro the chance to prove his prowess in the lanes, and thus, his “superiority” over the monks. When the dudebro loses, he learns that there’s more than one way to do things, which in turn teaches him that there’s room for different kinds of people in the world. Perhaps he isn’t that different from the monks after all, especially if they like bowling too.
It sounds corny and naive, but I’d like to think that those monks changed that man’s outlook on some things.
Eric Versus Ned
Eric and Julie leave the prom rather than deal with Ned’s foolishness. Ned isn’t content to let them walk away from him, though. He follows them home and spies on them as they park in front of Julie’s house. He completely loses his junk when they kiss. In the next breath, he busts the windows out of Eric’s car with a baseball bat. He retreats to his jeep, challenging Eric to meet him at the docks as he drives off.
A freaked out Julie runs towards Mr. Miyagi and the monks, who witnessed the entire altercation from the windows. Eric, on the other hand, jumps into his car and speeds off to settle the score. He’s had enough. I get it. That car, which he identifies as an Oldsmobile 442, means a lot to Eric. He talked about how he rebuilt the former junker from the ground up at the train yard. But it’s about more than just that. He and Julie will never be able to date in peace until Eric shows Ned that he’s not afraid of him.
And yes, it’s a trap. Dugan and all of the Alpha Elite members are present. The second Eric gets out of his car, they set it on fire. Then they recreate the fighting ring exercise by surrounding Eric and taking shots at him. Eric doesn’t stand a chance. He’s outnumbered five to one.
Although the Alpha Elite have followed all of Dugan’s orders this night, there’s an interesting turn of events when Dugan tells them to beat Eric more. They all hesitate, even Ned. To them, Eric’s clearly already defeated. Seeing the growing dissent of his soldiers, Dugan yells at them to “Finish him off!” and adds, “What do you think I’ve been training you for?”
What the hell is Dugan’s deal? What has he been training them for? Murder? He’s a whole-ass adult instructing a group of teenagers to kill another teenager because he couldn’t bend the latter to his will. It’s insane.
Then Julie and Mr. Miyagi pull up. They take in Eric, bloody and lying on the ground, in horror. Mr. Miyagi wants to call the police, to which Dugan says, “McGowen was speeding around in his car. Obviously he had a car accident.” You know, I can totally see them putting Eric’s body in his burning car to cover up his murder. The fact that Dugan has the lie ready to roll makes me think that he’s been planning that very scenario for a while.
Julie versus Ned
As Julie, Eric, and Mr. Miyagi start to leave, Ned grabs for Julie’s arm. Julie involuntarily falls into a karate stance. The Alpha Elites crack up. They think she’s playing.
The lightbulb goes off for Julie. She announces that she wants to fight Ned, saying, “If I’m ever going to respect myself, I have to do this.” Like Eric, she needs to show Ned that she’s not afraid of him. By fighting Ned herself, instead of having Eric defend her honor, she sends the message that no one owns her. She’s a strong, independent woman.
The idea of fighting Julie makes Dugan and Ned laugh more. She’s just a girl. It’s funny—Ned was okay with terrorizing Julie when she was a defenseless girl, but he’s not okay with fighting Julie now that she’s trained in karate. He had the advantage then, but now he has to treat her as an equal. The problem is that Ned doesn’t see Julie as someone on his level or worthy of his respect. Why should he fight her?
Julie also has to convince Mr. Miyagi to “let” her fight. Mr. Miyagi doesn’t approve of the violence, but I think he’s more afraid that Ned will pull some shenanigans. We’ve already established that he doesn’t fight fair. Nevertheless, Mr. Miyagi has to follow his own advice: if Julie believes that she can beat Ned, then he has to believe in her ability to do that. He gives his “consent.”
Ned finally agrees to the fight too. He has to. The more he refuses, the more it looks like he’s scared of Julie. The Alpha Elite leader can’t look weak or cowardly. Dugan co-signs the fight, telling Ned to “put her away.” Lord, now he wants to kill Julie too?
Ned again looks shaken by Dugan’s casual kill order. Murder appears to be where he draws the line. I guess he was serious about not killing Eric either. Color me surprised. I didn’t think Ned had a line.
The fight itself is short and sweet. Ned predictably cheats, especially when he realizes he’s losing. He throws mud in Julie’s eyes and attacks her while she’s blinded. Mr. Miyagi tells her to focus. Suddenly, Julie knows exactly what to do. She closes her eyes, assumes the praying mantis position, and takes a deep breath. When Ned lifts his foot to kick her again, Julie shoves his knee down and uses the momentum to launch herself into the air where she perfectly executes a high kick. She knocks Ned flat on his ass!
We now see the full connection between the karate move and the praying mantis. It’s about duality. Mr. Miyagi said earlier in the movie, “Praying mantis always drops to one knee before strike.” On the surface, the stance simply resembles the insect. Beneath the surface, however, the praying mantis is viscous, especially the female who eats her own mate, just like the strength of force with which the move is executed.
Julie must embody this duality. She must appear to be harmless until it’s time to not be. Ned only sees vulnerability as she gets on her knees to pray, so he never expects that kick to the face. Duality.
Mr. Miyagi Versus Dugan
That amazing K-O should have settled things. No such luck. Dugan tries to force the other Alpha Elite members to fight Julie next. When they all refuse, he literally picks Ned off the ground and orders him to continue the fight. Ned simply says, “No more.”
Well, Ned’s not the only one who’s done. Mr. Miyagi, tired of watching Dugan abuse the boys, challenges Dugan to a match and makes quick work of him. He ends the fight by pretending to do his signature finishing move that we’ve seen in the other movies. When he puffs air in Dugan’s face instead of striking him, Dugan drops like a stone. The colonel’s so ready to kill people yet so afraid to die himself. Typical.
All of the Alpha Elite members, including Eric, surround Dugan on the ground. Eric refrains from delivering the swift kick to the older man that he’s clearing thinking about. The rest of the guys, however, look down at and on their defeated former leader. One says, “You said you had all the answers, Colonel.” Ned shakes his head, agreeing with his comrade. Julie, Eric, and Mr. Miyagi walk away.
The movie is attempting to redeem the Alpha Elite by painting them as Dugan’s brainwashed victims. Nope! I agree that Dugan manipulated them, and I will give them credit for not murdering anyone, but that doesn’t absolve them of their other wrong-doings. Dugan planted and watered the seeds, but they often cut down the trees on their own. I mean, Ned couldn’t have been that pressed about killing people when he was two steps away from throwing Eric off the roof that time.
Unlike the bowling alley dudebro, I doubt that any of them change or learn anything after this. None of them apologize for their actions either. When Eric walks by Ned on the way out, Ned doesn’t offer a single look, gesture, or word of remorse. The Alpha Elite members turn on Dugan because his methods fail. If he loses to an old man and their leader loses to a girl, his teachings must be garbage. Their reluctance has nothing to do with a killing order. They’re just bad eggs.
The End
On the way back to their car, Julie tries to get Mr. Miyagi to admit that they “kicked some butt” in their respective fights. Here we go again! She still doesn’t get it.
At first, Mr. Miyagi sticks to his usual shtick about fighting being bad. The most Julie can get him to say is that “if must fight, win.” Then he winks at her! This one time he was more than happy to beat up a bully. I don’t blame him.
Conclusion
The Next Karate Kid may not be as action-packed as the other movies, but it will always be a fave. There are plenty of lessons to take from it and lots of nuanced race commentary to examine. Now that I’m older, I understand a lot of things better. Mr. Miyagi was dropping some serious truth bombs.
Be sure to check out the movie’s soundtrack. It introduced me to The Cranberries and their song “Dreams.” You know “Dreams” was cool because even the monks had to dance to it in the movie. And of course, there’s Des’ree’s iconic inspirational song “You Gotta Be,” which plays over the ending credits. I would rewind the tape over and over again just to hear that song. Ah, sweet memories!
*The Next Karate Kid DVD cover and summary © Sony Pictures*
References:
“Mantid.” (James E. Lloyd, The World Book Encyclopedia).