wax

Look... It's not even a debatable issue. The Karate Kid is a great movie, but The Karate Kid II is better, and I'll tell you why.

The improvement in Daniel's karate over the course of the first movie is huge, but it's like transitioning from a pee wee football player to a JV stud. Perfection of the crane technique is an important milestone in his development as a fighter, but if there's anything that the last scene of The Karate Kid II taught us, it's that the crane technique is a flawed maneuver with vulnerabilities. "No can defense" my ass... How did Toguchi defend it? "Hey look at that, I caught your leg." Not to discount what he accomplished in The Karate Kid, but the point is that anybody with an ounce of athletic ability and/or determination could have done it. I liken Daniel's progress in the second movie to going from division 1 college player to an NFL player. To the untrained eye, the leap in skill isn't as drastic, but it's a much more difficult leap to make because it's more cerebral in nature. He also learns the drum technique--a more versatile move (it can be used for both offense and defense), and, consequently, a tougher one to perfect. There's a lot to be said for the way that he learned about the virtues of the drum technique as an offensive weapon because he realizes it in the middle of the fight--his fighting was more dynamic because he improvised in the heat of the moment to make it work for him on his first try. And don't even get me started on the fact that he broke through the six sheets of ice with those spaghetti arms after that bigger, tougher black guy couldn't even get through three.

Not only is Daniel's karate at a higher level in The Karate Kid II, but his competition is too. The Cobra Kais drew their strength from their numbers, and Daniel quickly exposes their fraudulence at the All-Valley Karate Tournament, proving that at the end of the day, they're a bunch of pussies individually. Toguchi and his guys, on the other hand, rolled only three deep where there were five Cobra Kais. Sato is also a much more formidable opponent than John Kreese. They both have craziness working for them, but Sato had the same sensei as Mr. Miyagi. Enough said. And don't forget about the fact that Kreese and Lawrence are white, but Sato and Toguchi are Asian and have karate in their blood.

The primary conflict is more compelling in the second movie. In the first, he's not fighting for anything except respect. Mr. Miyagi said himself that Daniel didn't even really need to win to do that. Just to "make good fight" would have been sufficient. There was so much more on the line in the second movie. The Cobra Kais just wanted to bust Daniel's balls over some bitch that just ended up leaving him for some UCLA football-playing cunt, but Toguchi wanted to actually kill him. It wasn't about a girl. It was about life and death and HONOR. He was fighting for the preservation of his own life (not to mention Kumiko's) AND Mr. Miyagi's honor in a fight that he literally couldn't run away from (because Toguchi made him drop the bridge into the water).

All right, haters... Have at it with the comments.