09-05-2020, 03:16 PM
Karate Kid Part III
I've been working on this piece on Cobra Kai for the Den and what a feckin rabbit hole it is. Beyond the four films in the franchise, there's a lot of homages and such. I remembered all the films fairly well, even The Next Karate Kid, but I drew a complete blank for this one. Like WTH happened? Hey ED, Mr. Miyagi fanboy, do you even remember?
I realize why I forgot it. It's bad, really bad, for dumb reasons too. It also picks up right after Part II, with Daniel and Miyagi leaving the airport after returning from Okinawa. The villains are the main fail - it descends into caricature villainy. One of the things that I like about Kreese is despite his psychosis, he's beleiveable. It's an early depiction of the ravages of PTSD. The III villain is his 'Nam comrade, but he's super rich and he's just silly, with full-on bwahahahas and such. However, he's a genuine martial artist so this film has the best fight scenes - not enough to redeem it tho.
I'm glad I watched it tho. It has the most callbacks from Cobra Kai, apart from the original. I think the only callback of note from II was Miyagi's first name (which is only revealed in Japanese and changed twice in later installments) and the den den daiko, which I think I saw somewhere in Cobra Kai but I can't remember exactly where. I reveal all of those easter eggs in the Den piece, but it came out long for Den (like I said - rabbit hole) so I imagine they will cut out a lot.
I'm on my final polish for that piece. It's been a fun ride. I still plan to finish Cobra Kai too.
I've been working on this piece on Cobra Kai for the Den and what a feckin rabbit hole it is. Beyond the four films in the franchise, there's a lot of homages and such. I remembered all the films fairly well, even The Next Karate Kid, but I drew a complete blank for this one. Like WTH happened? Hey ED, Mr. Miyagi fanboy, do you even remember?
I realize why I forgot it. It's bad, really bad, for dumb reasons too. It also picks up right after Part II, with Daniel and Miyagi leaving the airport after returning from Okinawa. The villains are the main fail - it descends into caricature villainy. One of the things that I like about Kreese is despite his psychosis, he's beleiveable. It's an early depiction of the ravages of PTSD. The III villain is his 'Nam comrade, but he's super rich and he's just silly, with full-on bwahahahas and such. However, he's a genuine martial artist so this film has the best fight scenes - not enough to redeem it tho.
I'm glad I watched it tho. It has the most callbacks from Cobra Kai, apart from the original. I think the only callback of note from II was Miyagi's first name (which is only revealed in Japanese and changed twice in later installments) and the den den daiko, which I think I saw somewhere in Cobra Kai but I can't remember exactly where. I reveal all of those easter eggs in the Den piece, but it came out long for Den (like I said - rabbit hole) so I imagine they will cut out a lot.
I'm on my final polish for that piece. It's been a fun ride. I still plan to finish Cobra Kai too.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse