With shows like Cobra Kai, fans of the Karate Kid franchise have been gifted with wonderful continuations of the story they know and love. And with Karate Kid: Legends, we got to bring Daniel LaRusso’s world to Mr. Han and it was glorious.
Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) met Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) back in 1984. Then we had Daniel back for The Karate Kid Part II and Part III and it would be a while before we saw him return to the dojo. With the 2010 film The Karate Kid, we had Jackie Chan playing Mr. Han, a Kung Fu instructor from China who taught a young Jaden Smith.
All of that (and the Netflix series Cobra Kai) has led to this: Karate Kid: Legends. Li Fong (Ben Wang) moves to New York after his mother (Ming-Na Wen) gets a new job. Their life is difficult after the passing of Li’s brother, who passed away a few years prior, and his mother constantly tells Li that she doesn’t want him fighting. He doesn’t necessarily listen.
For all the same emotional beats that Legends and the original film share, there is something so satisfying about watching one of these movies and seeing our hero come into their own as a martial artist. With Li, he has to believe in himself and it helps that he has Daniel and Mr. Han at his side trying to make him the best fighter he can be.
Karate and New York? A dream combo!
One of the exciting things about Legends is that it takes the franchise to the East Coast. Daniel LaRusso was a New Jersey boy who moved to the Valley in the first film and so we always had an “East Coast” energy in the franchise but it isn’t the same and allowing the film to be so very New York really helped make it special.
Li takes part in the “Five Burroughs Tournament” which has contestants all fighting in different areas around the city (and from different burroughs). Li is competing for Brooklyn (he moved somewhere off the L train and I’m still trying to figure that out) and watching him train is what makes this movie so fun. He isn’t Daniel, he’s his own fighter and it means that we get to see Wang really shine in those montage moments.
But one of the best parts of the movie comes from Li’s relationship with his neighbor. Victor Lipani (Joshua Jackson) is a pizza shop owner who used to be a boxer and it feels very Italian-American in a way that Daniel LaRusso did in the original films. But Daniel didn’t have New York as his backdrop and this feels like the merging of two worlds in that special “New York” way.
It was beautiful watching Li and Mia (Sadie Stanley) explore New York and get to have that young and carefree moment in the city. And all of that worked to make the competition of Legends one of the best in the franchise.
Karate Kid: Legends doesn’t erase what the franchise set up in the past, especially not Cobra Kai, and it will allow a new generation of kids to engage with this franchise in a modern way and I think that’s pretty cool.
(featured image: Sony Pictures)
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