Karate Kid: Legends (2025)

[00:00:00] Hmm? Ahh! Hmmmm... Yabuzuki! Punching block, stronger base, windmill block, more dynamic. Hey, everything is a kung fu. Yeah, well, no.

[00:00:30] What happened to two branches, one tree? One branch, stronger than the other. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. I'm Jason. And I'm Richard. And I'm Rima. And this, maybe for the last time, is Cobra KaiCast. Aww!

[00:01:00] This week, we're covering Karate Kid Legends, starring Ralph Macchio, Jackie Chan, and Ben Wang as Lee Fong. In theaters now. In a world where Daniel LaRusso faces off against Jackie Chan. I saw it yesterday. I did too. Yeah, it's been a long time since I was at the theater. We had to sit through 30 minutes of commercials. I know. I know. I know.

[00:01:29] And then, sometimes I'm like, maybe I'll just wait 20 minutes and then go. But occasionally, they start sooner. It's hard to gauge how many trailers you'll get. Sitting there watching, like first off, if you get there even a little early, you're watching commercials. Yeah. Like TV commercials. This is the old person's podcast where we complain. Yeah. Well, I'm not because I love it. I love the trailers. Trailers are good. Commercials are not good.

[00:01:59] Well, I mean, if I'm with, you know, if me and my kiddo go, you know, we just, we love going to the movie. So, if she's there with me and we're just kind of chit-chatting, you know, until the trailers start, I love that part because it's just, I don't know, part of the whole movie experience. But, you know, yeah. I mean, but I don't know. I don't mind it. I just love being at the movies. I'm a movie person. I mean, so like I'll sit, I like trailers too.

[00:02:22] Um, except today when I watched, uh, Karate Kid Legends and the Superman trailer came on, I know I want to see that and I don't want to know anything about it. So I put my hands over my ears and I go, la, la, la, la, la, and hope no one thinks I'm a weirdo. But, um, anyway, I, yeah, you're sitting there watching trailers and you go, cool, cool. All right, cool. And then you're like the eighth trailer in man, how many of these are there going to be? I swear they have like 10 trailers. Sometimes it's a half an hour. I'm so old. I get confused. I'm like, wait, what did we come here to watch?

[00:02:51] Yeah. And my, if I bring my kids, they're tired by the time the movie starts, they're like bored. Yeah. But once the movie started, it was actually great. Uh, the sound was awesome. And then everybody was well behaved. So it was fun. Everybody laughed, you know, it's got that whole group thing going. That was cool. We went, um, the Minecraft movie and apparently whenever they say a line about a chicken jockey or something, uh, cause Nico and Bodie both saw this on YouTube. Kids start throwing popcorn everywhere in the movies. It's just a thing.

[00:03:21] And so, um, Nico's like thinking that might happen. Right. And we go in and there's only one other person there. And then they said the chicken jockey line. He looked back at the other person, but they didn't do anything. I bet that makes the ushers happy. Yeah. Oh boy. All right. Well, uh, I thought just to switch things up, we do the listener feedback first and, uh, we have a message, a written message from Dobblino Bob Grippy. And of course we have a call from Mike Caruso.

[00:03:52] All right. Uh, so. Reema, would you like to read the voicemail? I mean, no, don't read the voicemail. We've got a transcript. How do I do that? I would love to. Uh, so Dobblino Bob Grippy says, you have to, uh, cover enter the dragon back in June, 2022. I went with my cousin to see it re released for its 50th anniversary. And it was the first time she saw it. It was Bruce Lee's final film and it was a breakthrough.

[00:04:21] It featured black, white, and Asian, and even Australian martial artists. Bruce Lee moved so fast. He had to slow down for filming simply because the director and DP didn't think people would believe anyone could move that fast. Wow. An extra challenge. Yeah. An extra challenge Bruce Lee to a fight to see if he really was that good. Lee won the fight and sent the extra back to work. This is the, this is the first Chinese martial arts film produced by a major Hollywood studio.

[00:04:50] Needless to say, it is one of those cultural milestone films that paved the way for all other martial arts movies afterwards. Before it, martial arts films looked very fake with wires and homey effects. And after it, Bruceploitation occurred with films listing Bruce Lee in the credits, but he was nowhere in the actual film. Not to mention the very style was and is emulated by everyone from Jackie Chan, Donna Yen, Jet Li, and Tony Jaa.

[00:05:17] You know, I've never seen, I think I probably said this on the podcast, right? I've never seen a Bruce Lee movie. I need to rectify that for sure. That dude was a force. Yeah. I mean, I've seen clips and he looks amazing. And I think he got the shaft in that, um, Tarantino movie where they made him out like an a-hole. Oh. It's one of the time in Hollywood. Did you see that? Yeah. Yeah. No, I haven't seen it, but I did read about it. It's a great movie. I did not love that part. Yeah. It was weird.

[00:05:43] Like, cause I, I went to a Bruce Lee museum here in San Francisco cause he, you know, he spent time here and, uh, I asked the guy about it and he, he didn't like it either. The guy who's the proprietor of the museum. But, uh, you know, I, I think it's really cool that you want us to do that and it probably wouldn't make sense to do it on this podcast, but this just kind of feels like the end of this unless the Cobra Kai show runners cook up a really good spinoff that we're really interested in.

[00:06:11] Like maybe if they do that Miyagi one or something. Um, otherwise I think it's good sometimes for things to end. Right. Yeah. We pretty much killed this universe. That's right. I mean, every, everything. Karate kicked it in the face. Um, uh, but, uh, you know, we got all kinds of other stuff going on. And Rima, I presume you'll be finishing up stranger things, right? Since they finally announced that last season. We finally have the date. Yes.

[00:06:41] Yeah. It's more than one day. Uh, so, so yeah, we're definitely going to be wrapping that up. Um, November. And then I think it, the last one's on New Year's Eve or something. The finale. Yeah. They're doing it in three volumes. So they're starting, uh, November 26th with the, just like the day before Thanksgiving, uh, releasing, I, I, I think I saw it on IMDB. So take it for what it's worth. Maybe a grain of salt, uh, four episodes on November, the 26th, three episodes on December, the 25th on Christmas.

[00:07:10] And then the final, um, series finale episode on New Year's Eve. Mm hmm. So I told Paik when we've recorded this week, we'll be spending time with our family in Hawkins, Indiana, not our real family. Yeah. I'm glad. I'm glad they, they finally have that. That was the longest in between seasons, the four and five longest time in between. It was three years ago. Yeah. That we had season four. I put, I did on AI.

[00:07:37] I went chat GPT and I had to make this image that said stranger things five. And then there's like these five old people. It needed no other direction because it already knows our jokes at this point that the kids are going to be too old. Uh, so that's coming up. And then I just, of course have a million other things going on. If you go to podcast.com, you can see all about that, but I hope to rope Richard back in for something at some point.

[00:08:03] If something comes up that is in our wheelhouse, you know, sign me up for the next Mandalorian if that ever comes out. Yeah. Well they have the movie coming out next year, so we're going to have to cover that for sure. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Gotta do that. So we have one more message. It's a call from Mike Caruso. Hey, Jason Riemann Richard. It's Mikey C again calling in from Cincinnati this time talking about Karate Kid legends. So sorry.

[00:08:33] I missed your episode last week. To be totally honest. I've had a bit of a crazy previous two months and kind of fell off the podcast bandwagon, but I am back. And just really quickly, I'll say that I don't think Karate Kid 2010 is quite as bad as I feel like everybody made it out to me to be. But full disclosure, I watched that movie for the first time Wednesday night, one day before I watched Karate Kid legends.

[00:09:02] So I had it pretty fresh in my mind. I had never seen it before. And I sought it out just so that I could see Karate Kid legends and have that context. And don't worry, I managed to listen to your podcast the next day at work before going to see legends. So I took my 75 year old dad to go see Karate Kid legends. And if you guys remember, he's the one that's always watched Karate Kid my entire life and been a fan.

[00:09:28] And I kind of rejected it at first because my dad and I have a super stereotypical millennial boomer relationship. More so than I would say, almost cartoonish. I'm not even joking. Like it's comical how stereotypical it is. But anyway, I kind of rejected it and then found it later in life. It's my own fault because I'm an idiot basically. Anyway, he's the guy. He is kind of over Karate Kid right now.

[00:09:53] Like he's kind of like, I think after Cobra Kai and six seasons of that, he's kind of just like, he's kind of had enough of it. I feel like, which is crazy to think. So he didn't go in like super excited, but he was okay. You know, it just nothing. It wasn't the highlight of his day to go see this movie for myself. I tried to go in with mid level expectations, not because I thought it was going to be bad,

[00:10:19] but just because I didn't think it was going to be a 10 out of 10 blow my brains out of my head, kind of awesome film experience. I kind of went in thinking it was going to be a Karate Kid movie at about that level. And that's more or less what we got here. So I would probably rate this movie solidly at a seven out of 10. And I consider that a good rating, a very good rating, maybe not great, but very good. The story was good.

[00:10:46] There were good characters you could really get behind to get you emotionally invested in the fights. It brought a few new ideas and things to the table. And the fight choreography was fantastic. And fortunately, while there was nostalgia, it wasn't the center of focus of the film. Aside from an opening scene, Jackie didn't get involved until more than halfway through and Daniel maybe 15 minutes or so after that.

[00:11:10] Take those ingredients and add in Miyagi-Do and Jackie Chan style fighting from both Jackie and Ben, and you have the recipe for a well above average summer film. However, while you have all of that, and that is a lot, and as I said, it adds up to a very good film, it didn't really break any new ground or do anything that was out of this world mind blowing.

[00:11:32] It was a lot of fun and a really good Karate Kid film, but at the end of the day, it felt like it falls a little short of something that I would categorize as great. I probably wouldn't go to the theater to see this film a second time, but I would definitely watch it again. And personally, probably my biggest takeaway from this film was how impressed I was with Ben Wang. He was not on my radar at all, but his physicality and talent really blew me away.

[00:12:02] Maybe I'm crazy, but I feel like I could see him doing some Bruce Lee type shit if he worked at it and wanted to. He's got the goods, man. Anyway, that's mostly all I got. I did like that little animated Miyagi history opening. I thought that was really cool. And obviously, who didn't shake their fist up in the air enjoy when they saw Johnny in that mid-credits scene? That was awesome. They had to have filmed that completely separately, right?

[00:12:32] Possibly on the Cobra Kai set, maybe? I don't know. But that had to have been filmed separately. It was awesome to see him there, though. Okay, now seriously, that's it. But I will say, I don't think this is going to be the last time that you guys record this podcast. I seriously believe that Karate Kid will be back. I do not believe that we've seen the last of it. There might be that Miyagi backstory show. There might be something else.

[00:13:01] Whatever it is, maybe another movie. I don't know. Starring Ben Wang as Lee. Who knows? But I seriously believe that we'll be back. And this won't be the last time that I listen to your podcast. And this won't be the last time you hear my voice on it. And so, until that time, Jason Riemann Richard, stay badass. Aw, yeah. Thanks, Mike. That was really nice. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, thanks.

[00:13:30] He's really manifesting that. Good review. Well, let's give our review. It's Karate Kid Legends 2025 movie. First, Rich, you want to read the plot summary? Sure. In a flashback, Mr. Miyagi tells Daniel his 16th century ancestor learned Kung Fu in China and brought it home as Miyagi-Do karate.

[00:13:55] In the present, Beijing teen Lee Fong, still traumatized by his brother's death, moves to New York, tangles with school bullies and karate champ Connor and vows never to fight again. When Connor's dojo connected loan shark injures Lee's friend, Victor, Lee relents. Yes, Mr. Han and Daniel Russo arrive, blend Kung Fu and Miyagi-Do and train Lee for the city's five borough tournament.

[00:14:21] Lee conquers his fears, outmaneuvers Connor with a revamped dragon kick and restores peace with his mother, girlfriend and friends. A light epilogue has Daniel rolling his eyes as Johnny Carino pitches a Miyagi-Do dojo pizzeria. Johnny who? Johnny Lawrence. So what'd I say? Johnny Carino. Oh, who's that? That's a restaurant here in Modesto. Oh, you hungry? Pizza. Mmm. Do they have pizza?

[00:14:51] Oops. Yeah. They do? They do have pizza. So what'd you guys think? I agree with Mike. Actually, I like what he said. It's above average. I don't think we can say it was great, but it was above average for me. I base all my reviews on whether I was entertained and I was entertained. Mm-hmm. I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun. Cool. Rima? I agree. I mean, I knew with this being a film from the Cry to Kid franchise, it probably wasn't

[00:15:21] going to be that deep. And I'm kind of the same as Richard. You know, I, most times with movies like this, if I'm entertained, I'm happy, you know? And, and I was, I thought that it had a good energy and great spirit, you know? And I, I thought there were some really great lighthearted moments. I even shed a couple tears. I'm not kidding. There were a couple moments where like the nostalgia got me. Uh, I'm sure we'll talk about it in our points and stuff. And, and then of course, you know, the big thrill with, with, uh, Johnny's cameo at the

[00:15:51] end, which we'll talk about later, but you know, I, I enjoyed it, but there were, there were a couple of those like, you know, lighthearted moment or, you know, like kind of, uh, emotional moments that I was just like, Oh man, I was like finding myself reaching for a tissue. Like I didn't expect this, you know, out of this film, but I, I thought it was good. Cool. I, I'm glad I saw, I watched it twice because I watched it, uh, five or six days ago. And then I watched it again this morning, actually not yesterday.

[00:16:21] And, um, the first time it didn't really land for me. Uh, I had a lot of nitpicks, but then on watch two, I'm going to be a little bit and this happens with me a lot, but I liked it a lot more. And I think I just needed to have it where I didn't have any expectations, you know, what I thought it should be. Instead. I just knew what it was and could appreciate it for that. I thought it wasn't perfect. It wasn't even wholly original or even as original as Cobra Kai, but it was very enjoyable, especially second time through.

[00:16:50] I liked the characters. I liked the quicker cinematic style. That was something new, you know, and the New York vibes and the martial arts may be the best of anything. Karate kid. It was so good. I thought, uh, the acting I thought was pretty good, but could have been a little better. I agree that Ben Wang is awesome, but I think he needs a little bit more. Um, I think he will, he, he has the potential to be a great action star, but I felt he was

[00:17:16] a little like, um, stiff, not stiff, but forced or something. Sometimes pretty damn good though. I don't know. Maybe I'm being too hard on him. He was good. Um, the story I thought was a little ridiculous and that was my main problem with it. But for the, for some reason on the second watch, it was easier to overlook that. And I hate to say it, but I really don't think Daniel needed to be in this movie. He felt kind of shoehorned in. Um, but then again, on second watch, it didn't bother me as much. It felt a little bit like fan fiction though.

[00:17:43] Um, someone on Reddit said, uh, it's certainly one of the Karate Kid films of all time, which I love, but it has a 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is not great, but a 91% popcorn meter, which is their audience score. That's the highest, highest audience score of any Karate Kid movie and even edges out Cobra Kai by one point. Oh, wow. People like it more than critics. They're liking it.

[00:18:13] Well, I was glad to see that. Yeah, totally. And I mean, you can critique anything till you, till it dies, but I mean, you know, you get like, like Rima and Mike, you go to these things and, and it's, uh, it's how well are you entertained? That's how you got to tackle these movies, you know? Yeah. Like you just said, if you keep an open mind and you're not, you know, going to, you're not assuming too much before you get there, it could be, make it even more enjoyable. I mean, my brain, I'm really analytical as you know.

[00:18:39] And I also, I, I've seen a lot of amazing shit at this point. So I can be pretty cynical and hard to please with this kind of stuff, you know? Yeah. That's true. There's something to be said about that. I'm pretty easy to entertain too. I mean, I'd probably rather be like that, but here I am. I can't change. So, so shall we get into our points? Sure. Rima, you want to go first? Sure.

[00:19:08] Well, since, you know, one of the, uh, bigger topics that we've been talking about is, is Ben Wang. I, I want to just start with him because I, I did enjoy his portrayal of, of Lee Fong in this movie. I feel like we've had some ups and downs with some of the characters in some of the, in some of the Karate Kid movies, you know, uh, some, sometimes the, you know, acting is, is really great. Sometimes it's kind of cheesy. Sometimes it's like, eh, it's fine. Uh, others it's really good. I thought he did a pretty good job.

[00:19:37] I, I don't know his history of, and what his acting history is or anything, but I think even his acting was pretty darn good. I found, found him to be charming and sweet. I liked his chemistry with, um, with Mia. I thought they were really cute together, you know, and I just, I found him cute and charming and I thought he brought a, a, a fresh energy. Mm-hmm. I thought, you know, to, to the movie.

[00:20:07] Um, cause again, I, I feel like sometimes, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, performances just kind of fall flat sometimes and, but I actually found myself, you know, uh, with some of his lines, you know, the banter between him and Mia, how they were kind of teasing each other in different scenes, like, especially when they were first getting to know each other and her, uh, he was helping her, um, she was picking up a delivery or picking, running those errands or whatever. And he ran into her, um, I love that banter between them. Um, I just thought it was really sweet.

[00:20:36] I thought he was charming and I thought he did a good job kind of, you know, when he's battling that struggle and kind of having those feelings about, uh, the guilt about his brother and stuff. So I thought he did a really good job. Yeah. Um, I thought he had a warmth and a charm and a likability to him, but his delivery sometimes

[00:20:58] just seemed a little bit like he was an actor rather than a person, I guess is a way to put it. But it was, it's probably just too big of a nitpick. Well, I do think that, um, like I said, he has a lot of potential and I really do hope to see him starring in some great action movie or something coming up. You know, I think that would be cool. Cause I can't believe you just fighter. I can't believe you just said that because you said sometimes it felt like he was more of being an actor than a person.

[00:21:28] Is that what you just said? Yeah. And I said, and I wrote down, sometimes I feel like he's being more of just himself as a person than an actor. How do those two go together? I know. It's like, that's like a Zen cone for you guys to ponder on until the next Cobra Kai cast. Well, that was, uh, that was me too. I'm with you on that a hundred percent.

[00:21:56] I mean, uh, Lee Fong or, uh, Ben Wang was very likable, very charismatic. I was, I was, uh, I really enjoyed his character. In fact, I liked all the characters come to think of it. Uh, I'm, I'm going to stop short of saying that character development was excellent and thorough because I don't think it really was, but there was, there was just enough to give a little bit of depth and, you know, to make everybody likable, which is, which is big time for me because again, it's all about the entertainment factor, right?

[00:22:24] Too much of a deep dive into a character and I tend to get a little bored, but that's just me. What about Connor? Yeah. Not a whole lot on Connor or O'Shea. Yeah. Their characters, because I feel that that would have been number one, made the movie a little too long. Yeah. And they're just there to be the baddies. You know, they perform their functions perfectly. I thought. And we've gotten so much of, oh, the teacher, the student's bad because the teacher's bad, you know? Yeah. And, uh, in this, in Cobra Kai and Karate Kid.

[00:22:53] And when, um, Mia told Lee Fong, yeah, my ex-boyfriend, he wasn't as bad as he is now until he got to this teacher. Yeah. I felt like, okay, that's enough. Cause we've had so much of that. Yeah. We don't even need any more. It's fine. Yeah. That's the trigger we need right there. Boom. Done. Oh yeah. Another thing I thought the writers did well too, was making, uh, obvious the, like, like

[00:23:19] the interconnectedness of all the characters, you know, like everybody had a part to play in this movie, uh, and in the story. Yeah. Like what, you know, like for example, one point, uh, Lee's mom had to save Victor's life because she was working at the hospital, you know, or, or like, uh, uh, Alan, was that his name? The tutor? Yep. Alan, the tutor, you know, found Lee a place to train. Yeah. He was pretty funny too. And he kind of moved things along with him and Mia.

[00:23:46] So everybody seemed to have a purpose and a part in this movie, which I thought the writers did pretty well. Just, just good enough to keep, keep everything rolling and keep the, the entertainment, the entertainment factor high. I agree. I think another thing that threw me off is I thought I read that it was two hours and 20 minutes. So that's what I had in my head. Okay. I'm going to sit here and after a half hour previews, and I'm going to sit here for another two hours and 20 minutes. And then, um, it started coming up towards the end of the tournament. Right.

[00:24:15] And they're on the rooftop and I'm like, how are they going to get another hour out of this? Yeah. It wasn't that long. And then it was, oh, it was only an hour and a half. Yeah. 94 minutes. Yeah. I read somewhere too, that people were complaining. It was too short. I'm like, what? Oh, I didn't think so. Yeah. The first time I watched it, well, then it really, cause of what I just said, it felt like it was cut short. All of a sudden it was over and I was expecting more, although I wasn't like thinking it should be longer.

[00:24:43] But anyway, um, the tournament part did feel a bit rushed to me, I guess, but that's fine. Um, I mean, I think, you know, one thing that, uh, it did different than any of the other karate kid movies. And I think in part that's to accommodate the, um, shortening attention spans of kids today. And everyone is, it was, it was quick paced and Ralph Macho had a good description of the different

[00:25:12] styles between the karate kid movies. He said, this film has more of like an early Jackie Chan movie style, a Hong Kong style. The fight, the cameras are really wide lenses inside the fights. There's humor laced throughout and there was always humor in the karate kid films, but the original film was kind of cinema, cinema magic, very romantic, wide, long takes dialogue scenes that breathe. This is quicker pace for this generation, but laced with humor, excitement, next level

[00:25:40] martial arts and Ben and Ben Wang is a rock star in the movie. And I don't know if you guys have ever seen a Hong Kong movie, but like the departed, you know that, um, who is it? Marky Mark and, uh, Leonardo DiCaprio movie. That's a remake of a Hong Kong movie. And if you watched that Hong Kong, I watched it and it's so quick. You can't even hardly get a sense of what the hell's going on.

[00:26:06] And it's the next scene, you know, and this, uh, wasn't that quick, but when I read Ralph Macho saying it was a Hong Kong style, it made more sense. Cause they don't let a scene like an emotional moment breathe or play out. It's just like punch, punch, punch, which is fine. I mean, that's just a different style. I thought it was kind of cool actually, but it could make, give you the feeling that it's a bit rushed. Maybe that's a good description. Yeah. I'm still stuck on you saying Marky Mark. You can tell what generation we are.

[00:26:34] Mark versus Mark. We'll always be Marky Mark. I can't, I don't know. I kind of feel like since this podcast is about Cobra Kai and Karate Kid, which we've all talked about having seen in the eighties, this is the one where I let my age show the most. Totally. Same here. Fuck it. I'm not even going to hide. Yep. Between this and like stranger things, like living back in the eighties. Yeah.

[00:27:04] I'm like, yeah, I know you should have Peg go. Was it really like that Rima? And you'd punch him in the face. Oh, we've had conversations where I'm like, all right, you're not allowed to talk anymore. I'm feeling like the old person in the room. Yeah. Uh, but I, that's not what I wanted for my point. My point is connecting the 2010 Karate Kid remake to the rest of the Miyagi verse. Yeah. And so we start off with that scene from Karate Kid two, which was the scene in the movie.

[00:27:32] Um, Dan, I don't know how much dialogue was lifted right for the movie or maybe changed a little bit, but, um, I went back and looked at the dialogue from the original movie and Daniel says, who's that looking at the old karate master, uh, art that's Miyagi Shinpo sensei. First Miyagi bring karate to Okinawa. Uh, he goes, the one who went to China. Hi. How did he get there by boat by accident?

[00:27:58] Like all Miyagi Shinpo sensei was fishermen, love fishing, love sake. One day strong wind, strong sun, strong sake, but no fish. Shinpo sensei fall asleep off coast of Okinawa, wake up off coast of China. Ten years later, he come back with Chinese wife and two kids and secret of Miyagi family karate. And so they didn't really talk about Han, you know, he was talking about the secret. He was pointing at here was that drum that Daniel uses for his drum technique to be chosen at the end of that movie.

[00:28:28] But, um, they slipped in the extra dialogue during this animated part in this movie, which I guess maybe it was AI. Cause it really sounded like Miyagi to me. Yeah. It sounded good. But, um, he was saying that the Han family took Shinpo sensei in. And I think the idea is that Miyagi karate either came from or was heavily influenced by what Shinpo sensei learned in China from Han, from Han.

[00:28:54] And, uh, they're talking about two branches in one tree and they're still connected to this day. So then we find out that Miyagi and Han hung out sometimes that Mr. Han had been in Miyagi's house and everything. So, uh, I thought that was a pretty cool way to connect the 2010 karate kid movie and everything else in the Miyagi verse. And then it had Lee Fong as Mr. Han's great nephew, but Mr. Han was like a father to him. And for some reason, when we learned all about this movie and we learned that the kid was

[00:29:23] going to be an Asian kid, it didn't even occur to me that he might be related to Mr. Han, but I thought I liked the way they tied it all together. Yeah. They did a good job. It's pretty cool. I was wondering if like, like a casual viewer who maybe, uh, I don't know, let's say maybe they've only ever seen like the first karate kid or maybe the first two karate kid movies. And that's like it, that's their extended knowledge of the karate kid universe. Do you, do you think they would be convinced?

[00:29:52] Are they convinced with that explanation of how the Han and Miyagi families are connected? Cause it was pretty quick. I don't know. I guess they would have nothing else to go on. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think a lot of the stuff in this movie, you're either going to be like, oh, whatever I'm enjoying this or no, that's kind of dumb. Um, and I was feeling like it was kind of dumb the first time I watched it. And the second time I was enjoying it. Yeah.

[00:30:22] That's, that's how I felt. But, uh, cause like I say, it felt a bit like fan fiction. How are we going to jam these things together? I'm glad we watched the 2010 one recently. Cause that helped me appreciate a lot of little things in this movie more. Yeah. That was a good call. I would have not remembered much of anything. Jacket on, jacket off and all that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad too. It was definitely fresh in my, in my memory.

[00:30:47] I'm like, Hey, Mr. Han was in a much, much better spirits. Yeah. And having his whole school and everything, it was like, okay, good. He's like, like Daniel, you know, he's done good for himself. Found his purpose. Born again into Kung Fu. Kung Fu is everything. Kung Fu is everything. I was going to say the same. All right. Uh, Rima.

[00:31:14] Well, one of my points was also just kind of the connections of the characters and how they were bridging the movies and series between, um, you know, the characters. But I think that you said all of that really well. So I'll just kind of go into my other point. Um, which is a small kind of nitpick that I had. Not that, I mean, like overall, like I said, I did enjoy the movie, but I, I was confused cause I did watch the trailer, uh, uh, for the movie before.

[00:31:42] And so I was really confused, uh, because I didn't know anything about this pizza shop. And I didn't know anything about Joshua Jackson's character, um, at all, which I enjoyed. I, I did like his character. I, I really enjoyed all the characters. I thought, you know, like, you know, Richard said it really well that like everybody had a role to play. You know, everybody, you know, I, I think at least most of the main characters besides the villains who were just bad guys for just to be bad guys.

[00:32:10] I think, you know, we didn't really know much about O'Shea other than he was a villain or just a loan shark villain and nothing really about Connor. And that's fine, whatever. But I was kind of confused because I thought, you know, I knew Jackie Chan was in the movie. I knew Ralph Macchio was in the movie. So, uh, you know, I'm kind of waiting for that, but you know, we, we, we kind of lost, you know, Jackie Chan kind of early and they moved to New York.

[00:32:32] And then all of a sudden he's then starting to help Joshua Jackson's character, uh, you know, train to get back into fighting because he has this debt debt to pay. And I was like, oh, well now I'm kind of confused. Cause this is not where I thought that the movie was going, you know, at all. It seemed kind of different. And I thought it would have actually been a pretty good change to the formula.

[00:32:54] You know, we've had kind of had the same formula in every Karate Kid movie, you know, uh, about, you know, learning to fight and kind of being the underdog. And, you know, you can't really call Lee an underdog. He was very well versed in Kung Fu and had skills. Um, so it wasn't like he didn't really need. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Huge badass. I mean, I, I need to look at, look him up and weighing, um, and check out his history. I did not do that, but I don't like, you know, there was a big audition.

[00:33:24] I really didn't really get into it for who was going to play this part. And I don't know if they just put out the call. We need an Asian kid who's good at, uh, martial arts and, and can act or what, but I don't know if he's acted much before or not. Yeah. I don't know, but dad gone. He is uber talented. Um, but I, I really liked the, the kind of change in the story a little bit. I was like, I'm finding this pretty interesting and a little mix, a little change up to the formula that they've had with their others where, you know, it's like the, the student has become the master.

[00:33:54] You know, uh, and, you know, and kind of passing on his knowledge, uh, here. And then they kind of twisted it and it, and, and I like what you said earlier, Jason, when you were kind of like, you know, didn't even know if Ralph Macchio really needed to be in it. And he felt kind of shoehorned in and it felt just like almost two different movies there for a minute. Like, and I liked the first one better, honestly, especially on first watch. The part I liked the most was the, that what you're saying, like, Oh, this is different. This kid is already a bad-ass and he's training this guy.

[00:34:23] And I thought Joshua Jackson was maybe the best played character in the whole thing. I really enjoyed his performance. So I was really in, in on that part. And then when it went away, I think that was a little jarring to me too. Like, Oh, Oh, what happened? This was going good. What happened? Yeah. It felt like two different movies for a minute. Like they made two different versions and kind of smushed them together. Um, and so I was like, well, I was kind of, I kind of liked what we were doing there. Like I said, I really enjoyed it. I didn't even know Joshua Jackson was in, uh, in the film.

[00:34:53] Um, like I said, nowhere to be mentioned in. I didn't know he was a person. I've never seen him before. I love Joshua Jackson. He was in Dawson's Creek or something. Dawson's Creek. I really like him. He says. He was good. He was channeling George Clooney. I thought he felt very Clooney-esque to me. I thought the same thing. He had some pot moments there where I was like, Oh, he's got the John. He's got the face there. Yeah. Yeah. He's a cutie, but, uh, but I really liked where it was going.

[00:35:20] And then, so it kind of felt kind of jarring to then, okay, no, well, now we're back to, you know, kind of a similar formula where he's, he's getting his training, which turned not that it was bad. I just thought it was kind of weird. And then it also, I had a little issue with the plot because then when, uh, Josh Jackson's his name is Victor, right? I keep referring to the, um, uh, actor's name. Um, but when he, when he, he got taken out in the fight because that opponent clearly

[00:35:50] was like a hit on poor Victor, uh, they, I guess just using this fight to really set him up to, to take him out because he kept using those elbows, you know, to him, I guess to like teach him a lesson, like, Hey, pay up or whatever. Um, I don't know all the rules, but shouldn't he have been paid out for that? I was wondering that. And gotten, and gotten the money. The guy should be disqualified. Yeah. Yeah. Like shouldn't he be, you know, he should have been called, you know, as the winner and

[00:36:16] gotten, but I guess then we wouldn't have had the next part of Lee, you know, training for the fight and, you know, yeah. I was like, Oh, well now it's over. That would have been a, what an ending that would be for a movie. You lose, but you get a payout. Yeah. He's in the hospital. That mission accomplished. They play the soaring music. He's like nurse. Yeah.

[00:36:43] So it was a little jarring to kind of go from, from this, like, Oh, this is kind of cool. And then switch it back to, you know, the kid getting trained again. So it just, I was like, I don't know. That was a little weird to me, but I mean, I was able to kind of see past it, but it that's, that was my initial thoughts. Anyway, I've only, I only got to watch it once. Um, so. Mm-hmm. Everything's, everything's set up so that the end tournament is inevitable. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:11] I guess, I guess that's the, the rule. If you're going to have a karate kid film is like, you just got to have this big, big end all tournament. Have the big fight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Uh, that was one of my points too, is it was an, it was a nice twist with Lee teaching Victor, uh, Kung Fu. Uh, and it came at a really good time because I remember sitting in the theater. Well, this was just yesterday. Duh. But, um, this, you know, he starts, you know, I said, well, train me, teach me. I can go do this boxing thing. Right.

[00:37:41] And then we can pay off the place. I can pay off the money that we're owed. And it happened right when I was about ready to be like, all right, everybody, let's settle in so we can do the whole relationship thing with me. Yeah. Which, you know, I thought I was going to be bored with, but then that took that turn and I was like, Hey, this is nice. You know, it also had a, uh, the side effect of showing, uh, uh, Lee was already a bad ass. He already had a really solid foundation. Yeah. Kung Fu, you know, enough to be formidable and, uh, or even be a teacher for that matter.

[00:38:10] So that helps, you know, that helps a lot later on in the movie too, where it kind of helps answers Daniel question when he, when he shows up out of the blue and is like, uh, can we get this kid ready to fight in a week? And it's like, yeah. You know what they should do for the next one? Since this movie was about combining two characters, you know, me, uh, Mr. Han and Daniel, the next one, he should have a mission somewhere and get Rambo in there with Lee Fong.

[00:38:42] Because he's such a bad-ass. So, you know, he can handle it. Yeah. It also was enough of a distraction. Uh, like Remo, like you were saying today, I kind of lost notice that Daniel and Han weren't even in it there for the first half of the movie. Mm-hmm. So I was like, all right, oh, this is good. And then it's like, they showed up and I was like, oh yeah, they're in it too. Oh yeah. Cool.

[00:39:06] I was like, I saw that it was a 55 at the time on Rotten Tomatoes and I pay attention to that stuff. But as I was walking to the theater, I'm like, I don't care. I'm walking. Even after having seen Cobra Kai, I still felt excited to be going to a movie that's going to show Daniel LaRusso after like what, 26 years, you know? Yeah. That was just a cool feeling. And then I watched it and I'm like, man, he didn't even need to be in it.

[00:39:40] Okay. Is it my turn, Rich? Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Should I do things I especially liked or nitpicks? It's time for some nitpicks, right? Let's nitpick it. Okay. Sure. This is more what I was thinking after the first watch. So the plot I think is kind of ridiculous. This young guy, Lee Fong, is forced to move from his home in China, befriends a girl and her father, a former boxer who owns a pizza parlor, but owes money to this nefarious guy

[00:40:09] who also runs a mixed martial arts gym that trains the city's best martial artist, a bully who also happens to be Mia's ex-boyfriend to help the girl's father who happened to used to be the best boxer in New York or something save his restaurant. Lee agrees to train him in Kung Fu. Somehow that helps with boxing. So he can get back in the ring and use the prize money to pay off the gangster. And then there's also just happens to be this big martial arts tournament coming where the kid can make money.

[00:40:38] And oh yeah, his brother died in a knife fight, which is pretty melodramatic. And then on top of that, his uncle comes all the way from China to help him. And then just quickly flies out to California to bring this guy. He's just heard about to also help. And why does Jackie fucking Chan need to fly to from New York to California to ask someone to help him teach his already well-trained fighter in another style of martial arts? It seemed dumb to confuse the kid with another fighting style one week before this big high

[00:41:07] stakes tournament. And then you just see Daniel and Han arguing the whole time, contradicting each other like Johnny and Daniel did, you know, like Han, you called this guy in and now you're just saying everything he's trying to teach his shit. What the hell? So it was all just really convoluted and crazy and it had a grounded vibe, but the plot was really melodramatic. And you know, like in the original karate kid, you know, Daniel and his mom move. So he's a fish out of water. He ends up at odds with this bully because he's flirting with the bully's girlfriend.

[00:41:36] And so he learns karate to try to beat him. And the only strange thing that are out of the ordinary thing in that movie was he learned it from the maintenance man. It was this mysterious guy. But I think a lot of really great shows and movies are like that. They are kind of in the real world with one crazy thing. Like even walking dead is sort of an example without at its best. In my opinion is the zombies are the one thing that's not real, but then you see how everybody else reacts to it.

[00:42:04] But this movie just had all this crazy coincidences and things that didn't, you know, I don't know. It was like a movie like Scott Pilgrim. I don't know if you guys saw that, but it's got a ton of crazy stuff, but that's kind of what it's about. It's supposed to be like just crazy. Crazy. But this movie, it felt like it just felt like, like I keep saying fan fiction because what if this happened? What if this happened? Just ridiculous.

[00:42:33] Like what if, what if Daniel, what if he, how's Daniel going to, I don't know. He just flies out cause he needs to teach him karate or something. Yeah. I don't know. Like I said, that's how I felt out the first time for the second time. For some reason that stuff didn't bother me as much. I think I was just getting more into the vibe of it and the characters and ignoring the plot. Um, but here's some other random ones, uh, nitpicks. Uh, the loan sharks are the bad guys, but also the dad did default on his loan.

[00:43:02] I mean, come on, it's your fault. Pay your loan. Um, I thought the villain was a bit cartoony, but that's, I guess fine. Um, I, these are small nitpicks, but when the dad said to Lee Fong, most people don't know the moment their life changed forever. And then he looks at picture out of his daughter. I get to see mine every day. And I'm like, isn't that every parent?

[00:43:30] That's like every parent. That's when your life changes forever. When you have a kid. Um, Mia, when Mia was okay. So, uh, Lee Fong sees her kind of getting close to her ex at this fair or whatever party it was. And then, um, the next day he confronts her about it and she starts talking about, well, you know, I, I make dumb mistakes and, and then, you know, last night, but actually last night wasn't one of those nights.

[00:43:59] And I'm like, that's kind of a cruel got you. Cause you were going down one path there. Yeah. For me, I was like, that's a red flag. Yeah. Um, I wondered why Mr. Han viciously attacked Lee Fong with a frying pan in his kitchen. Oh, right. Right. And when he first shows up. Yeah. Like really hardcore. Like, yeah. Uh, with a frying pan. That's a, that's a weapon. Um, that it was silly that hand would need Daniel.

[00:44:27] And why, why did Daniel decide to go to New York? He says, I'm not going. Oh yes, you will. I'll see you there. And then he shows up. I'm like, I mean, Daniel later said, whenever I get a chance to pass on Miyagi's legacy, it's never the wrong choice, but I'm like, really? Like you have a family in this car sales business and you have a dojo where we already teach a bunch of kids who are paying customers, by the way. Right. So he's like, you know, if I had a dime for every time, Mr. Miyagi inspired somebody. Yeah.

[00:44:57] I did think that. Yeah. They kind of glossed over that. That was one of mine too. I have very few nitpicks, but that was one. The other one was when, uh, uh, Victor got his ass beat and he's laying in the hospital bed. I think this is when he said it, he said something to the effect of, well, maybe it's time we moved to somewhere warmer and get out of this situation. And there, and I think it was Lee who said, no, you must stay and fight for everything that you have. I'm like, uh, that's not very good advice. Yeah. And the dad's like, actually, you know, I, I've been thinking and it might be nice.

[00:45:27] No. Yeah. It was like, uh, I don't know if my life was on the line, I might skip town too. I don't know. So after I finished it the first time, all that stuff, I was just like, ah, it feels amateurish and I don't know why, but second time through I felt the charm of it a lot more. Well, that's good. It'd be worse if it went the other way for you. Yeah.

[00:45:55] Plus we have this like movie club thing where our tickets roll over. So I didn't really have to pay for the second ticket. So that helped. My wife got me in for free. Yeah. Perfect. My wife manages a movie theater. Nice to have connections. Yeah. I should use it way more than I do. Yeah. I was going to say I would, but I don't know if I would these days. I got a nice big TV.

[00:46:26] And an internet connection. All right. What's next? So my last point for me anyway, the highlight out of all the charm and fresh energy that we've been talking about through all the nitpicks, it was a hundred percent worth it for me because at the end I got a Johnny Lawrence cameo. Yeah. Yeah. That was cool.

[00:46:55] I was not expecting that. I really just assumed like, I get it. Ralph Macchio is going to be in this. We're going to have that tie to the original, uh, karate kid franchise. And I thought that's where the focus was going to be mostly on the karate kid connection. I didn't know that they were going to also make a connection with Cobra Kai as well. I just totally went in with zero expectations for that at all. Same. And I, that's probably why it was even more exciting, not expected, you know, there at

[00:47:22] the end when Daniel gets that pizza delivery, uh, with the note. Um, and then when he walks in and oh my God, I think I lost my mind. I am sorry to anyone that was in the movie theater with me. I know. I was like, what? That's hilarious. Johnny! Yeah! Totally apologize for my reaction. I mean, cause where I was watching it first time, you know, thinking, ah, this feels like fan fiction. And then I see Johnny Lawrence and that it's complete and total fan fiction moment. But I was still like, I can't help it.

[00:47:51] I'm smiling at this. Yeah. Well, maybe that's why Daniel had to be in the movie so he could get a pizza and we could see Johnny. Exactly. I thought it was great. I, it just gives, you know, we're still, you know, kind of fresh off Cobra Kai, you know, still kind of living off that high and how great and fun that series was, you know, for me. So still kind of feeling, um, all of that.

[00:48:17] So getting to see Johnny and Daniel again in this lighthearted moment where they're, you know, bantering, you know, about Johnny's, of course, another crazy idea, right? With the whole, uh, pizzeria and called Miyagi dough, uh, you know, and throwing out crazy slogans like no mercy, no anchovies, you know, it just, it was just a lovely little nod to that relationship between Johnny and Daniel.

[00:48:43] You know, um, we've seen how them, how they went from rivals to friends and, you know, uh, and then where it wrapped with Cobra Kai between them. And it was just a nice, another little moment, you know, between them and a nice nod. Um, and I thought a good, not that the movie didn't have any good comic relief moments, because I do think that they had some really good lighthearted moments in the movie, but I thought that this brought a nice comic relief to it as well. Cause Johnny just always makes me laugh.

[00:49:11] So what were his, what were some of his taglines? I can only remember all of on all of off. He said, uh, why would you ship pizza from New York? Everybody knows the best pizzas in Encino. He said, uh, I got a great idea. You know, Miyagi dough business idea. Miyagi dough. Daniel says that's disrespectful. And he goes to pizza.

[00:49:36] Uh, slice first, slice hard, no anchovies. Miyagi dough, olives on, olives off. Yeah. That's the only ones I wrote down, but, uh, it's supposed to be set this movie three years after the events of Cobra Kai. So that means Johnny and Daniel are still hanging out and haven't killed each other or anything. So that's good. Oh really? I didn't, I didn't know that. Yeah.

[00:50:02] Because I think, you know, the Cobra Kai started in 2017, 2018 and only a few years past. That's true. So, and this is modern day and that's what Ralph Macchio said to that. This is a few years later. Hmm. Ah, okay. I didn't know that. Well, then that just makes me love it even more because, you know, here they've had those years together and they're still, you know, friends and same, same chemistry. Yeah. I loved it.

[00:50:30] That was, you know, like I said, all the, all the good things I was already like, you know, Oh, that was, you know, thinking, Oh, that was a really fun movie. And, you know, kind of drying up the tears a little bit. Cause I loved the tradition of the movie. Like I, you know, I know that there were some just weird parts where it just felt like they didn't like, how did we get here? But it was still kind of nice. I liked those ones. Like when, when, uh, Daniel. Yeah. Like it was just bringing out maybe it was nostalgia. I don't know. Maybe it was nostalgia that was bringing up the emotions or something, but I thought it was a really cool moment.

[00:51:00] Like when, um, Daniel was putting the headband on him, but then, uh, Jackie Chan tied it for him. And, you know, just the talks about tradition and things like that, that just really got me. So, you know, fresh off of all of that thinking, Oh, this was fun. And you know, I'm not mad about watching this movie at all. And then to get that was just like, you know, chef's kiss. So you see it on the cake. Yeah, absolutely. I was wondering, you know, if there's anyone out there who's watched the karate game movies,

[00:51:29] didn't watch Cobra Kai, what they would think of this. And I was like, is there anybody even like that? And then I saw a guy on Reddit who's said that that was him. And I asked him if he thought it was weird or anything with Johnny at the end. And he was like, no, it seemed like believable that they would have become friends after, you know, Johnny respected him at the end of karate kid. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. That's cool. I took a, I went and saw it with Spencer. He knows more.

[00:51:57] I think that we have mutual friend, Spencer, he's not into karate kid, but I think he's seen the movies, but I asked him, I go, what'd you think? He goes, it was all right. I'm glad you didn't have to pay for it, but it was all right. But he understood everything and he was fine with the story and stuff. Yeah. Good. What else, Rich? Anything else? Um, um, um, um, um, um, um, yeah, the humor is good.

[00:52:24] I felt a little forced towards the end of the many training montages with Daniel Shifu and Lee, but I thought it, I thought it, I thought it was a little bit of a lot of I thought it ended just in time before it started becoming too annoying, you know, in my opinion. But, um, uh, but the fighting was great. Yeah. I'll talk about the fighting for a little bit, right? Real fast, lots of spinning, lots of jumping. The film dwell fusion. Yeah. The fusion of Kung Fu and karate, which by the way, to address your point, Jason, I think

[00:52:53] that's why Daniel is in the movie. So he could, so they could fuse the two styles to give Lee an edge. Cause that Connor dude was pretty fricking bad ass. Right. I mean, that's, that's a good rationale for it. But, um, you know, Daniel's pretty good, but he's, I mean, just seeing him teach him those typical blocks when we've been seeing him flipping around and stuff. It seemed like, Oh, like that's.

[00:53:20] And then, and then he's like, Daniel's like, this is new to him. You need to take it easy on him and stuff. It felt like I, like I said before, does it make sense a week before a tournament to teach a new style, you know, and maybe possibly confuse him, but no, I think you're right. I think that's part of it. And I think actually the reason that they said in the movie was that it's a karate tournament. So you need to know karate. I don't know how they would judge that or whatever, but I think that was the reason. I didn't even catch that film. Yeah.

[00:53:50] Or maybe because like we talked about with the karate kid 2010 version, uh, when it was all Kung Fu and it was still called karate kid, maybe they needed to incorporate some karate and in, in here. So there you go. Well, the real reason is, is to get, you know, these two legends in there. That's why. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But I loved, uh, another thing too.

[00:54:16] I wanted to say about the fighting was, uh, it's kind of silly, but I like it when someone gets kicked or punched and they go sliding across the map, like they were sliding in a second base or something, you know? I don't know why it's so stupid. It doesn't make any sense, but it's fun to watch Connor through him at one point. Right. That was pretty, that was a new move. Yeah. That was crazy. There's a few of those moments. And then I also love that Han and, uh, Mr. Han and Daniel were protecting Lee during

[00:54:44] the tournament, which you hadn't seen before, you know, where, uh, the goons, O'Shea's goons would come up, you know, give them the nods like, Oh, disable them or whatever. Yeah. They'd come up and just before they could get to Lee, they did their, it was real brief, but they did their little, you know, their Kung Fu and karate stuff to, to keep the goons off of Leo. I thought that was cool. That part. And then occasionally when, um, Mr. Han and Daniel would kind of fight each other, you know, good natured in training and stuff to show whose moves are better.

[00:55:12] I thought, ah, they really did a good job of making it look like Ralph Macchio can hold his own against Jackie Chan, which you would think no way. Like Jackie Chan's probably just leagues better. Right. Because he's this martial arts expert, but I'm guessing that, um, Ralph Macchio is probably happy that he just spent all this time in Cobra Kai honing his skills again so that he could hone his own, hold his own. Cause I think that probably made him way better than he would have been if he hadn't done that. You know?

[00:55:41] I mean, he, I don't know how casual he was at practicing, but he did it for several years. Yeah. Get a little bit better. Even if you do it as a hobby, my guess is just doing it for Cobra Kai really honed his skills a lot more. Yeah. Totally. Uh, let's see what else. There was one other thing adding. Oh, adding, adding the extra move to Lee's the drag signature spin kick, you know? Yeah. Is that what it was? The drag kick.

[00:56:08] You know, they did it at the, in the first fight at the, on the school grounds. And then, so, you know, there was a whole thing there about how he's already used it and Connor's going to expect it and he's going to do the same thing he did before. So it makes a lot of sense how they taught him an extra move or two at the end of it. Trap tiger. Yeah. Several times. Yeah. They went to the turn style in the subway and all of those, uh, uh, and, uh, that made a lot of sense to use as a finishing move too. And it was a really cool move. Yeah.

[00:56:38] But still for me, I was a little bit anxious at the very end of the tournament there because of all of those seasons we watched of Cobra Kai, I was a bit anxious on whether it was going to work. Cause they are already so good at throwing. That's what they want. Yeah. But it did just work exactly the way they planned. It worked perfectly. Everybody was happy and everyone lived happily ever after. And that was, there we go. That was this movie's crane kick. Right. And, and I thought that was well done.

[00:57:04] And that was Daniel's biggest contribution to the whole thing was coming up with that strategy, teaching it to him and then it worked for him. So I felt pretty satisfied with all of that. Yeah. It felt earned versus like the issue that I had, like with the 2010, uh, reboot, you know, with, with that finishing move. Cause this, this at least felt earned. Um, because he, he did struggle with it and then we never saw it before in the 2010 one. It just came from out of nowhere. Yeah. Exactly.

[00:57:34] And I thought it was cool because also, you know, whenever he had talked about, you know, well, I already tried this move and it didn't work. He, he, he saw it coming and just laid me out and it reminded me of, um, and I hope it's okay to talk about if I hope people have seen Cobra Kai. So I hope I can talk about, um, the tournament, um, where Daniel was like coaching Johnny where he's like, you know, because Johnny always wanted to go in like full force, full force. And he's like, let him come to you.

[00:58:03] So it kind of reminded me of that moment where Lee, he is kind of going all in, but putting in the twist to go low enough to where Connor wouldn't be able to counter it. So I liked kind of like the, the mixture of the two where he, he went all in, but modified it so he wouldn't be able to counter counter move hit. Mm. And the way they filmed it was they really milked it, you know, in a great way. All slow mo. Yeah. Yeah. Combination of super fast and the slow mo.

[00:58:34] Yeah. Several different shots. What'd you think of that thing at the end where he comes at him again and Lee Fong throws him down and then it looks like he punched him in the face, but he actually hit next to him. Hit the mat. I was hoping he'd punch him in the face. It looked like he did. And then you see it's next to his face and then he offers him a hand up. I thought he was going to honk his nose. He kind of did pretty much. Same thing. And then he left, he offered him a hand and that's, I think what made him go, okay, fine.

[00:59:04] I respect you. Yeah. Okay. Well, let me go to some things I liked. We've talked about a lot of it already. The, the, the quickness and the energy, not the energy of the quickness, but also just having it in New York city where there's people around and outside a lot just had a good feel to it on the rooftop was so good. Right. Right. I don't know how they filmed that because it was right at like the golden hour sunset. Right.

[00:59:34] And they, I wonder if it was like in Mandalorian when you're inside a fake environment, you know, cause how could you have film a long sequence like that and have that sunset light the whole time? Right. That's true. It only lasts for like 45 minutes. It was really cool. I love the environment with all the people around and everything. Yeah. That was something that felt very different. 45 minutes. Versus like the old valley. I literally just said the golden hour lasts for 45 minutes. I think it lasts. Well, I don't know.

[01:00:04] It's probably an hour, I guess. Right. I don't know. Um, I liked the kind of stylistic split screens and multi panel shots with the word fight coming up, you know, and different font and everything that was kind of neat comic booky. That was street fighter ish. Mm-hmm. Uh, fighting the, the, the Chinese-ness. Uh, I liked seeing an Asian kid as the star and the little bits of Chinese culture that

[01:00:32] he brought, like teaching his girlfriend to bargain using Chinese, you know, cause when there's familiarity, then you get better deals. That's like a thing, you know, that was pretty cool. I wonder if that's true. It is. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, at first I thought, wow, your English is way too good. And then he said he studied in Hong Kong and I'm like, it's still probably too good, but yeah, uh, I think they, I wondered if they'd considered having him speak broken English,

[01:01:02] like Mr. Miyagi and decided against it. Probably a good move. That would have been hard to keep his charisma and charm if he did that. Yeah. Uh, I love that he was already great at Kung Fu. I thought it was really funny. I have the whole thing on funny things I'll do later. Um, I love the dad and I liked that it was high. Even though I said it was ridiculous. I liked that it was high stakes where if he wins this tournament, then his dad and girlfriend get to stay in New York and keep their business.

[01:01:30] And if not, then they, they can't, you know, that was good to have it be high stakes like that. Yeah. Um, the training and the fighting, is it a stretch that the dad wanted Lee Fong to train him, even though he's a boxer. He said he wanted to learn speed and flexibility. You just don't worry about that. I think it helps with the defense for sure. Okay.

[01:01:57] Cause it has showed a lot of that, how he was avoiding getting hit. I think it made sense just for the agility and learning to be a little quicker, uh, faster on his feet, being able to dodge the blows. Yeah. The way he was able to move and, you know, get around, um, you know, obviously he can't do the kicks and things like that. That's not boxing, but I thought it made perfect sense. And I mean also just cause he's older.

[01:02:26] So, you know, it helps them learn that, you know, kind of agility and that's, that's required in that sport. So made sense to me. The fighting too was pretty intense. I thought the boxing match was especially intense for some reason. I was like really anxious during it. Yeah. The romance. Um, I thought when Lee Fong and Mia first met, it was, it was pretty cute and they had really good chemistry.

[01:02:51] And then when she was flirting, it looked like she was flirting with her ex and he saw, and that just brought back a lot of high school memories, seeing girls going for the asshole. And I was like, at this point, I'm hoping the plot is that Lee Fong fights her. But then I know that's, that's harsh, but then, um, you know, she says she, she said no to him, but, uh, still man, he hit Lee Fong in the face on the subway.

[01:03:19] So I'm still kind of mad at her even for hanging out with him and laughing and whatever. Like he's a dude, he's a dickhead. Yeah. Yeah. I was really disappointed in that moment too. I was like, come on. She's not good at being over him in her words. Uh, there were a lot of nods to other karate kid stuff. The same opening music. I can't do it, but, um, lots of the same music. There was pan flutes inside Miyagi's house and everything. Yeah.

[01:03:48] Seeing a Mr. Han is a Kung Fu teacher and doing that whole jacket on jacket off with a, like a whole failings of kids doing it was pretty cute. Yeah. That's something I wouldn't have remembered if you didn't do the karate kid 2010. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, the mom is moving from China. That's the same idea as original karate kid where, uh, Daniel's mom's moving from New Jersey and karate kid 2010 where they're moving to China.

[01:04:16] And then here, cause they're going to America, she's trying to get him to speak English. But Dre's mom was getting him to speak Chinese in the 2010 movie. By the way, somebody on Reddit said, uh, what happened to Dre? It would have been nice to get a, um, cameo from Dre and somebody replied, they forgot about Dre. Yeah. Yeah. Which I liked, uh, the whole thing. Everything is Kung Fu. You know, Lee Fong says it to Victor first rule of Kung Fu.

[01:04:43] Everything is Kung Fu, which we know his Mr. Han taught him. Cause he said that in karate kid 2010. But what really hit me is now knowing that the two, um, the two branches, one tree thing where Miyagi's karate came from the hand family and they say everything is Kung Fu that sort of aligns with the whole karate kid thing of using the environment to teach like wax on wax off jacket on jacket off. Everything is Kung Fu. It's all together. You know, that's the first time it ever hit me was watching this movie. Mm hmm. Yeah.

[01:05:13] I liked it. Han told Lee Fong to tidy up his room and kicked up his jacket and clothes. And it's always about picking up jackets with this guy for some reason. And, uh, the whole life knocks you down, get back up. That came up a lot in this movie. So I wouldn't remember that if we hadn't just watched the 2010 one. Um, and then, uh, last note I have, or last item is funny stuff. Cause I thought there was quite a lot. Lee Fong's, uh, SAT tutor, Alan.

[01:05:43] Yeah. I thought look kind of like Elijah would. He says, uh, your mom thinks you're going to get into somewhere with these calculus skills. And Lee Fong goes, yeah, well, I wouldn't be laughing. Have you met my mom? And then he goes, did she do that to your eye? Yeah. That was good. And then, uh, later when she, me is trying to get him to go to this party and he's like, I got to study. And Alan's like, no, you're crushing calculus. So you should take a break and go.

[01:06:10] And, um, then Mia leaves and he goes, am I really crushing it in calculus? No, no, this is all wrong. Yeah. Just trying to make it look good. I liked when Lee Fong, because Lee Fong's mom always doesn't want him to fight cause his brother got killed in that knife fight. And then Lee Fong's mom is sitting there with Mr. Han at one point and she goes, I know why you're here. No, you know, then, you know, I don't approve. I know.

[01:06:39] Uh, I loved when during the training, uh, Mr. Han picks up one of those New York hot dogs with the works and then Lee Fong orders one and watch it get all made up. And then he goes to take a bite and Mr. Han slaps his hand. No hot dog is bad for you. And he gives him an apple. Uh, I'd be pissed if he did that to me. Pretty funny when Daniel and Mr. Han are beating Lee Fong up to prove whose techniques are better. Yeah. Oh, I know that poor kid. I had that in here. Yeah.

[01:07:09] Constantly flipping him to the ground, arguing. Yeah. Lee, Lee played an excellent straight man for that, for that whole scene. He's like, oh, I'm just going to stay down here. It's nice down here. Oh no. Oh, that one hurt. There's two of them. Um, when, uh, they're training him with that whole baiting Connor in this trap with the dragon kick with the turnstile and, um, Lee Fong hit his head on the turnstile. And Daniel says, you got to go faster and drop lower. And the hand goes, stop hitting your head.

[01:07:40] Yes. Uh, just a couple more. I liked that at the tournament they were calling him Lee stuffed crust Fong. I like that. They even called him that at the tournament. Yeah. It was up on there. And they even put it up at the tournament. I was like, oh, poor kid is never going to live that down. And then the last one, which is probably the funniest was the whole thing with Johnny, but we already talked that talked about that. It's worth mentioning twice. Mm hmm.

[01:08:10] You know, maybe that's why I said Johnny Carino when I was reading the intro because I had just had stuffed crust pizza the night before I went and watched the movie. Uh, Johnny Carino. Yeah. See it all, it all fits together. Yeah. Everything is stuffed crust pizza. Everything plays a part. Everything's Kung Fu. Everything. All connected. All right. Let's go into notes. Do you have any notes? Anybody? Rima? Rima. I do. I just have one.

[01:08:40] And I wasn't quick enough. I was trying to take notes while I was in the movie theater. I know I just watched it yesterday, but I was like trying to watch and pay attention since I knew I was only watching it once, trying to take notes without missing anything. Um, but there was something that Lee said to Victor, uh, when he was going through the whole training thing. And he, there was, uh, he was talking to him about water. So there was like a water quote and telling him to like be like water and how water was always flowing.

[01:09:07] And it immediately, uh, triggered the, um, I don't know if you have ever heard of the Bruce Lee's quote about water. It is something that's, I heard a long time ago and has always stuck with me and just, I don't know, really resonates with me. It's, um, he says, empty your mind, be formless, shapeless like water. Now you put water in a cup. It becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle. It becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot. It becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash.

[01:09:37] Be water, my friend. Hmm. I love that so much. It just resonates with me always. Uh, and that's what I'll tell myself sometimes when I'm in a, in a tough situation. Uh, it, cause it just kind of reminds me to like be flexible, be adaptive to my environment. Um, so I just, I'll just always kind of tell myself be water, you know, or, you know, pass it on to others. So I heard that. I don't know if that was intentional or not in the movie, but it's what it reminded me of and just wanted to kind of call that out.

[01:10:07] Cause I love that. That's great. That's also exactly how we teach, uh, fluid dynamics and phase changes in science is water. Where the definition of a liquid is it flows and it takes the shape of its container. That's great. Love that. I mean, I think it, I think it's related because it comes from, uh, Taoism. You ever look into Taoism? Rima? A little. It's a Chinese philosophy, the Tao Te Ching. And, um, that's in there a lot, that kind of a thing. The Tao of Poo.

[01:10:37] Yeah. The Tao of Poo. It's great. That's my first time. Yeah. I'm not learning anything about it, but if you read, if sometimes if I'm feeling anxious, I'll just flip to a page in the Tao Te Ching and read it and it'll make me feel better sometimes. Oh, well I'll have to look into that for my anxiety. Yeah. That'd be great. Seriously. Read the Tao of Poo. It was a great book. I will do that. Thanks. Rich got any notes? Um, well, speaking of Bruce Lee, that one inch punch. Oh yeah.

[01:11:06] That was so cool. Quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah. That was, uh, that was a Bruce Lee thing. That was great. That was cool. And they use it quite a bit too. Um, oh shoot. What was the other one? Oh, uh, I forgot to mention the, the, uh, alley fight scene where I'll leave the zone against the alley. Yeah. In the alley. Yeah. The alley scene where they had a fight. It was a, that was a cool fight. Yeah. Body, you know, body flying stunts.

[01:11:32] I don't know if they were on wires or not, but I thought that was an excellent, uh, scene with the fighting and also a great example of, uh, Jackie Chan style of fighting. Absolutely. Kung fu style of fighting. Use the stuff around you. Yeah. And I, I was thinking that like, yeah, you can tell he's related to Jackie Chan. Sort of. Uh, yeah, I think that's it. That was it for me. Um, I only had a few.

[01:11:58] I, Ming now when she played link, Lee Fung's mom and she was in shield and, uh, agents of shield. And so I met her a few times at Walker stalker con and she was super cool. One of the ones that would just come up and look you right in the eye and at least pretend to be interested in whatever you were saying, you know, she's just really warm and nice. And they weren't all like that, but she was especially cool. She's an actor. Really wish I'd had a chance to meet her.

[01:12:28] I don't know if she was at any of the ones that I went to. She didn't go to many of them. I was gonna say, I don't recall her being there. I would have loved to have met her because I've remember her from, uh, I'm a big ER fan and what was cool about her role in this movie is in ER. She was also an ER doctor. Oh wow. I didn't even know she was in that. I was like, all right. Yeah. Oh, I'm a big fan of ER. And she was like, I know how to do this. Yeah.

[01:12:53] Um, I noticed that Daniel looks into Mr. Hun or anybody's eyes when he bows like Mr. Miyagi taught him. I'm always look I, but Mr. Hun doesn't, he looks the ground and I looked it up and avoiding eye contact during a bow is the norm in Asian cultures. It's a sign of respect, humility, and deference. Direct eye contact while bowing is actually considered a bit aggressive or challenging. So that's what Miyagi taught Daniel.

[01:13:21] But I think when, when Miyagi said that to Daniel, it felt a little bit more like, I don't want you to, um, defer to me so much. I want, we're kind of, we respect each other. So we're going to look at each other or something like that. I don't know. Maybe I'm just reading into it. Um, I read into that is Miyagi. I, we've learned over the last several years had, uh, you know, had some serious fights. Yeah. Right. Yeah. His fights were for life and death. I kill man in tournament.

[01:13:50] Keep an eye on your partner. We'll get the first shot. That'd be funny if, uh, you know how George Lucas did special editions of star Wars. They do one of karate kid and just throw in the line of Miyagi as they get to the tournament go, I kill man in tournament once. What? Um, and then last is just that if, if this is the last thing karate kid, then I'm glad at least that it ended on Daniel and Johnny.

[01:14:20] That's pretty cool. Oh yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Oh, and now, uh, that we're finished with our review and recap and everything we decided, or I asked you guys anyway, if you, if we could rank all of the karate kid things. Right. Which includes, um, the karate kid one through three, the next karate kid, the karate kid 2010, Cobra Kai and karate kid legends. Got it.

[01:14:50] So who wants to go first? What do you say? Rima same order. Rima. Yeah. Sure. Well, for me, um, I say Cobra Kai. Of course. It's the last one. Probably not, not, no. First. It's the last one. Are you kidding me? Uh, anyone who knows me knows better. Yeah. So no, Cobra Kai, number one, uh, karate kid, the first movie, karate kid one, uh, then karate

[01:15:15] kid two, karate kid legends, karate kid three, uh, the next karate kid. And then the karate kid 2010, um, as my least, very nice. That is exactly my ranking too. You're kidding. Yeah. And I was a little, I was like, can you do this? Can you rank Cobra Kai before the original karate kid? But you know, it's just so great. Oh yeah. I think a lot of people. Yeah. Absolutely. Number one in my book.

[01:15:42] And then the first movie, the second movie karate kid legends, this one, which I thought was pretty good. And it certainly beats the next karate kid in the karate kid, 2010. And in my book, I agree with you. One hundred percent. Rima. What do you think mine is like way different? It's probably similar. You gotta have Cobra Kai. No, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I was gonna say, I feel it's probably close, but I bet you probably have karate kid one and then Cobra Kai. Yep. That's exactly right.

[01:16:11] It's the same order except. So I'll go reverse order. Karate kid, 2010 is probably my least favorite next karate kid. Those two are pretty close for me, but I guess rank karate kid, 2010, a little bit lower. Um, it's all right though. Then karate kid three, I might've ranked that worst if not for Terry silver, bumping it up a little bit since we saw him in Cobra Kai. Yeah.

[01:16:39] Then karate kid legends number two. Then yeah, I'd put Cobra Kai second and first is the original karate kid. So the same order. We all had the same order except my number one and two were switched. Yeah. We knew, we knew that was going to be the case. Yeah. Pretty cool. That's awesome. That is really cool. How we're like really all on the same page. Pretty close. Yeah. Yeah. I love Cobra Kai so much. That was a really good show. I know.

[01:17:06] I think about it from time to time, just, you know, just out of the blue, it says pop some scene pops into my head or something. Damn. That was a good show. Yeah. I can't wait to do a rewatch. Yeah. Me too. Yeah. Sometime.

[01:17:19] Donnie's past and Daniel's feet. Kai's door. The other seeks balance, peace, and more.

[01:21:00] Okay. We're back. It's time for some news. First, Karate Kid legends actually performed slightly under expectations in its opening weekend and earned 21 million after projections of 25 to 30 million. That was the first weekend. As of today, we're recording this on Wednesday. It's made just over 24 million US 26 international for a total of 50.

[01:21:25] This actually makes it the fourth highest grossing Karate Kid movie and it could eventually beat out all except for the 2010 reboot, which made 351 million. That's the highest grossing. The first Karate Kid only did 90 million. Now, this is not adjusted for inflation. So, but still, I think even if it was, yeah, the first, the 2010 reboot higher.

[01:21:49] So, um, chat GBT said that Karate Kid legends would probably need to do at least 150 million worldwide or just catch on really well in streaming and merchandising to, to make them want to do a sequel. Um, it said as it stands, legends is performing more like a nostalgic coda than the kickoff to a new film trilogy, which I think could also lessen the chances that we'll get a Cobra Kai spinoff, you know?

[01:22:18] Um, right. I don't know. I hope at the very least, as I said before that Ben Wang goes on and does some cool stuff after this. Yeah. It's all about the money. If it makes money, they'll do it again. Yep. Yep. That is true. But man, if, if Netflix was considering letting them do a prequel series because of the success of Cobra Kai, I hope they don't pay any attention to this movie because that would be a shame.

[01:22:51] You know, if that changes anybody's mind or anything. Uh, and then I only had one other thing, but it's kind of long. It's a interview with Ralph Macchio at Hollywood reporter. Uh, they mentioned how the release date of karate kid legends was originally supposed to come out while Cobra Kai was still airing, but it got pushed back. And Ralph Macchio said when karate kid legends was initially stated for a December 13, 2024 release, I was screaming constantly every day. This movie has to come out after Cobra Kai finishes.

[01:23:21] And once marketing got together and realized that the early release would not benefit either, they did the right thing by delaying it. Karate kid legends is now coming out at a time where I believe that the Cobra Kai fans are thirsty for another chapter. Well, he was wrong about that. Um, that he said that Cobra Kai spinoffs are in development and it's just a matter of time before Netflix and creators, John Hurwitz, Josh healed and Hayden Schlossberg decide which directions to go next.

[01:23:51] There are a few balls up in the air. I don't know which one's going to land. I hope all of them do, or some of them do, or one of them does. He says the success of karate kid legends could propel all that stuff. That's kind of where I got like, Oh God, I hope it doesn't mess it up. Um, he also talked about Miyagi's house. There were originally, there was one real house in the original karate kid movie, and then they built a replica for karate kid two and three.

[01:24:18] Those first two houses were in Los Angeles, but then they were demolished after karate kid three. The Cobra Kai version was built in Atlanta and then they rebuilt it in Montreal for this movie. Cause the movie filmed in Montreal. Um, they asked Ralph Macchio. One of the biggest surprises about adulthood is that I don't feel as far removed from my 17 or 18 year old self as I thought I would.

[01:24:44] Do you feel all that different from the young guy in the flashback at the beginning of karate kid legends? You know, in karate kid two flashback, he says, that's a great question. Then he asked for a few moments to ponder. And then he said, when I did one of my first Cobra Kai scenes with Billy Zabka, we'd been in the skins of our characters for 34 years at that time. But when we stepped onto that mat inside the Cobra Kai dojo in the second episode, there was wisdom on both sides of us from different perspectives.

[01:25:11] When we spoke to each other through our characters, there was a heightened element of awareness. It felt like yesterday, yet it felt new at the same time. When I look at young LaRusso in that opening scene, I think of Hawaii and Pat Morita. I can smell the day. I remember the humidity level and what it felt walking in the Miyagi family dojo. So it takes me back to a moment in time. Now there's life lived and wisdom gained, but the person is the same.

[01:25:39] Ironically, when I think of Daniel LaRusso in that specific scene, he was a very earnest Daniel LaRusso. He wasn't the knee jerk guy with the temper that got up in Johnny Lawrence's face. Every time he got pissed off, he was the earnest student wanting to learn. And then when you look at Daniel LaRusso in Karate Kid legends, he's very much on the opposite side, all of Mr. Miyagi. He's open and earnest and sharing that wisdom with the next generation. So it's an interesting perspective to look at him in that opening scene as a youngster

[01:26:06] and later as the wiser, more grounded, experienced teacher. They said, for many of us, you will always be the Karate Kid, but for a younger generation, you're now what Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi was to my generation. Did it take a while to get used to seeing yourself as the sensei character after being the kid all these years? He said, yeah, that's a great question. It evolved early on in Cobra Kai.

[01:26:29] I'll never forget a moment in the first episode of season two where Tanner Buchanan's Robbie was now the one waxing the car and painting the fence and sanding the deck. We camera blocked the rehearsal of that little montage. And I went back to my trailer to get changed because we hadn't changed into wardrobe yet. I then had this rush of emotion by myself. I won't say I was bawling, but I started getting misty. There was a little lump in my throat as I was getting ready to do the scene because I had just remembered all the magic that happened in Miyagi's backyard in 1983.

[01:26:58] Pat Morita showed me how to paint the fence and all the stuff that's become a piece of pop culture. So I was now on the other side of the mat and all those years were gone. John Abelson was no longer there. Pat Morita and producer Jerry Weintraub had both passed. And I just felt the emotional responsibility of carrying this legacy forward in that poignant moment. So that was the time that I felt that. As far as feeling the sensei versus the student, I've had that experience as a parent.

[01:27:25] I would also tell stories of yesterday to the young cast of Cobra Kai. And just like any dad telling a story of his childhood, they would lean in and listen. I did the same thing with Ben Wang on Karate Kid Legends. I take pride in sharing a piece of yesterday because in essence, we don't have any of this right now without what was created back in the early 1980s. I don't like to get lost in that nostalgia, but you do need to pay it forward and make it relevant. Cobra Kai did that very well. Wow. Deep dive.

[01:27:56] Yeah. And with that, that is our show. And we want to thank everybody for listening. And I just wanted to mention that we're almost exactly five years old. We, we started this in June of 2020. And it's now June 2025. Wow. Wow.

[01:28:24] I just, I've talked about this a lot, but I just want to say how awesome this experience has been for me on a, on a number of levels because the Karate Kid was my favorite movie for many years. And, um, doing this podcast really helped me figure out why that was in a way I didn't really understand before. Uh, that was so cool. On top of that, it was just so much fun. It was a fun show and fun to talk about it with you guys and who we all appreciate eighties culture and have a similar sense of humor.

[01:28:53] And we love watching kick-ass martial arts. So it was just a good combination of people for this. And, and I'm also grateful to everyone who wrote and called in and everyone who listened and made it worthwhile for us to do it. And, um, I, as I said, there's a lot of other stuff going on at Podcastica and they're all great in their own way. And we put just as much into everything we do, but, but I hope you guys, you know, check out some of that stuff if you haven't already, but this one was really special for us. Yeah. Thank you.

[01:29:22] Well, thanks for putting it all together, Jay. Good work. Thanks. It's been a pleasure being part of this, uh, karate kid therapy. Yes. I like that. Karate kid therapy sessions. Right. Yeah. It's been great. All right. That is our show. Thanks for listening. Everyone. Wax on wax off.