Responding to recent criticism that “Karate Kid” from 1984 was “too white” and did not sufficiently delve into the Japanese cultural aspects of the discipline, the film’s star Ralph Macchio last week called the coming-of-age story “ahead of its time”.
“People said it was a very white cast, that it didn’t dive into Asian history,” Macchio, 60, told Stellar Magazine. “But I always say this: The movie was ahead of its time because it was a popcorn movie that was about Japanese internment camps during The Second World War.”
The former child actor, who is promoting his new memoir ‘Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me,’ added that late co-star Noriyuki ‘Pat’ Morita said he got his Oscar nomination for the film due to the scene in which it is revealed that he lost his wife and son in one of the camps.
“Pat himself spent two years in the camps,” Macchio explained. “So it had a double meaning and a certain depth.”
Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio in a scene from the film ‘The Karate Kid’, 1984.
(Photo by Columbia Pictures/Getty Images)
Macchio said the Oscar-worthy scene was almost cut from the film, but was saved by fans.
“The studio’s main concern was that with the film running over two hours, they would be wasting daily screening time, and essentially, money in the process,” he said. “They all shut up once we screened it for them with an audience.”
Actor Ralph Macchio speaks during a memorial service for Pat Morita, his co-star in the film ‘The Karate Kid,’ at the Palm Mortuary & Memorial Park November 30, 2005 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Morita, Oscar nominee for his role in the film, has died aged 73.
((Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images))
RALPH MACCHIO, 60, HONORS ‘KARATE KID’ ALMOST FOUR DECADES LATER AT NICKELODEON KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS
The powerful scene halfway through the film shows Mr. Miyagi still sober, drunk and desperately emotional as he struggles to come to terms with the memories of his wife and son on his birthday. Macchio’s character, who puts his sensei to bed after passing out, discovers that Miyagi’s wife and son died in childbirth in 1944.
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(L-R) Ralph Macchio, Martin Kove and William Zabka attend the ‘Cobra Kai’ Press Line at Hilton Bayfront on July 18, 2019 in San Diego, California.
(Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images)
And while the first “Karate Kid” was set in California, the second in 1986 revolved around Macchio’s character, Daniel, spending time with his sensei as a child. Okinawan house.
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Macchio, who did not appear in Will Smith’s 2008 remake of the film, currently stars in the show “Cobra Kai” in which he plays Daniel as an adult.
