If someone tells you to “Sweep the leg, Johnny,” you can assume that you are supposed to act decisively, and without mercy.
If someone gets up in your grill, and you feel the need to back them off with a crane-kick stance, you got Daniel Larusso to thank for that.
And if you’ve ever done a crappy repetitive task and were solaced by the fact that you may be reaching zen enlightenment, or possibly use the monotonous skill in a combat situation (I’m looking at you, empty copier tray), you owe Mr. Miyagi a “wax-on”* (*not sexual, only sounds that way).
Let’s be honest, the prevailing culture of the eighties gave us a lot of tacky and shallow crap. The music was often synthesized, not in an LCD Soundsystem kinda way, more of in a Rick Astley kinda way. And when the music wasn’t rockin’ the keytar, your only popular alternative was hair-metal, the music that satisfied nobody yet pervaded everywhere (see Coldplay for present-day analogy).
But the movies from the eighties have a special place in my heart. The original Karate Kid was released in 1984. Written by Robert Mark Kamen (The Karate Kid series, Gladiator, The Fifth Element, Transporter series) and directed by John G. Avildsen (The Karate Kid series, Rocky, Lean on Me), The Karate Kid features the story of bullied kid who finds a unlikely mentor in a handyman, who turns out to be a master of martial arts, as well as self-control.
All of the locations for The Karate Kid were located in the Los Angeles area. One of the main locations was Daniel and his mother’s apartment in Reseda. This is also the location of Mr. Miyagi’s shop, and where Daniel gets clobbered by the Cobra Kai gang near the chain link fence.
The numerous beach scenes in the movie were filmed at Leo Carillo State Beach, west of Malibu. This includes when Johnny and the Cobra Kai gang ride motorcycles onto the beach to throw a beating on Daniel, and the epic training shots of Daniel-san practicing the crane-kick on the pole stump on the beach.
Speaking of training, the shots where Daniel-san is training on the boat while Mr. Miyagi is fishing is at the Tejon Ranch Company– a sprawling, 270,000 acre ranch near Los Angeles.
While some locations from the film have changed or disappeared forever (I think the Cobra Kai dojo was torn down for a Starbucks), some of the locations live on. Ali’s parents house is located in the hills of Encino. The Golf N’ Stuff where Daniel mini-golfs his way into Ali’s heart is still very much around. And even though it is currently closed, the school with the outdoor lockers that they all went to is still around.
So put on that rising sun headband, grab your fly-catchin’ chopsticks, and hit the streets of LA if you want to soak up some eighties nostalgia that doesn’t suck.