THESE ARE ORIGINAL PERSONALLY AUTOGRAPHS OF
"THE KARATE KID II" STARS: RALPH MACCHIO, PAT MORITA, MARTIN KOVE,
TONY O'DELL AND RON THOMAS.
PLOT:
The Karate Kid, Part II (1986) is a Hollywood adventure-drama movie and is a sequel to The Karate Kid. Both Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, formerly of Happy Days fame, respectively reprise their roles of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi.
Part II begins where the first movie left off. First the movie shows flashbacks of the first film and ending with the All Valley Karate Tournament. After the tournament, Daniel and Mr. Miyagi are heading toward Miyagi's truck, when they notice John Kreese (Martin Kove) violently scolding his best student (Daniel's former rival) Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) for finishing second in the tournament by kicking him off the team.
Kreese shatters Johnny's trophy and begins strangling the youth by putting him in a choke hold. Fellow Cobra Kai students Bobby, Dutch, Jimmy, and Tommy rush to Johnny's defense, but Kreese swats them away. Miyagi intervenes, demanding that Kreese let Johnny go. Kreese refuses, threatening both Miyagi and Daniel, and the two senseis have a short brawl, in which Kreese, attempting to punch Miyagi, shatters two car windows, bloodying his knuckles in the process. Miyagi finally humiliates him by tweaking his nose instead of delivering a final, deadly blow. (It was later revealed, in The Karate Kid, Part III, that Johnny, Bobby, Jimmy, Dutch, and Tommy all cease to be Kreese's students as a result of this behavior, as do the rest of his students.) Miyagi explains to Daniel that "for those with no forgiveness in their hearts, living is an even worse punishment than death."
Six months later, Miyagi (having finally caught a fly with a pair of chopsticks, as he has long attempted to do) is interrupted by Daniel, who is fuming about his damaged car, his mom's transfer to Fresno, and the collapse of his relationship with schoolmate Ali (Elisabeth Shue), who dumped him for a football player at UCLA. After easily fixing the car's engine, Miyagi takes Daniel to the backyard and restores the boy's focus by having him build a new wing for Miyagi's house. It is revealed that Daniel is building a guest room for himself, Miyagi having arranged for Daniel to live with him while his mother goes to Fresno.
Unfortunately, Miyagi receives a letter from Okinawa, telling him his father is very ill. Miyagi intends to return to Okinawa alone, but Daniel uses part of his college savings to accompany him. Arriving in Okinawa, they are confronted by Miyagi's old enemy, Sato (Danny Kamekona). They were once best friends, having both studied karate under Miyagi's father, but they became rivals in a love triangle involving a woman named Yukie (Nobu McCarthy). Miyagi fled Okinawa to avoid a fight to the death with Sato.
Miyagi and Daniel are welcomed to Tome village (which is now adjacent to Kadena Air Base) by Yukie and her niece Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). There they learn that Sato is now a rich industrialist, whose supertrawlers have decimated the local fish population. The village's economy now depends on farming. The denizens lease their farmland from Sato's corporation, which owns the entire property. Sato's nephew Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) is even worse, regularly cheating the farmers with hollow weights while measuring and buying their crops for market.
On the street, Sato confronts Miyagi and is about to attack him when Yukie runs to them, crying that Miyagi's father is dying and wants to see both his students. Just before passing away, the father pleads for them to put aside their feud and make peace. Miyagi is willing to do this, but Sato is belligerent. Out of respect for their mutual sensei, he gives Miyagi three days to mourn before confronting him again. Miyagi and Yukie rekindle their old bond, while Daniel flirts with Kumiko and has her teach him about Japanese culture. Daniel also learns a new style of karate, one even more difficult than the "Crane Technique" of the first film: the "Drum Technique." In this way, Daniel and Kumiko develop an ever-growing bond and liking for each other.
Daniel is repeatedly hounded by Chozen and his two equally nasty friends. They beat Daniel up in front of Kumiko after he tries to stop Chozen from cheating the villagers. The next day, in a bar, Chozen's gang forces Daniel to break multiple slabs of ice for a bet. Although no one has ever broken six slabs with a single strike, Miyagi bets a large sum of money that Daniel can perform the feat. Thanks to Miyagi's breathe-and-focus exercises, Daniel succeeds, regaining his college-tuition money. That evening, Chozen tries to steal Daniel's wallet, but Daniel thwarts him. Later that night, a spear-wielding Chozen and his cronies gang up on Daniel. Miyagi comes to the rescue, but not before the thugs ransack the Miyagi family dojo.
The next day, Miyagi decides that now is time for him and Daniel to go back home. Yukie wants to go with him. Meanwhile, Daniel tries to encourage Kumiko to come to America. They are all interrupted by a group of bulldozers sent by Sato, who threatens to destroy the village if Miyagi refuses to fight him to the death. Miyagi agrees to fight on one condition: that the deed to the entire property will no longer be leased, but donated, to the farmers. Sato initially blanches at the request, but Miyagi calls it a small price to pay for his honor, which Sato values greatly. Sato agrees to Miyagi's terms.
Daniel pleads with Miyagi to forget about the "honor garbage," but Miyagi says it is about the survival of the village, and that even if he dies, he will win because the village will be safe forever. That evening, a typhoon springs up. As Daniel, Miyagi, Kumiko, and Yukie help villagers get into a shelter, they see Sato's dojo collapse. They find Sato trapped underneath a large support beam from the dojo. Miyagi rescues him by breaking it in two with a shuto (sword hand) strike (effectively answering Daniel's question from the airport concerning a picture of Sato breaking a large wood log and whether or not Mr. Miyagi could "break a log like that". Subsequently, Mr. Miyagi answers, "Don't know. Never been attack by tree"). Sato is taken to safety while Daniel attempts to rescue a little girl on the bell tower. During Daniel's return to the storm shelter, he falters with the young girl on his back. Sato tells Chozen to help Daniel, but Chozen's cowardice starts to show - he refuses, retreating and cowering among the other villagers. Sato, though injured, rushes into the storm to help Daniel and the little girl, whom he takes into his arms and into the storm shelter. Ashamed at his nephew's cowardly behavior, Sato denounces Chozen, prompting Chozen to flee into the storm in disgrace.
The next day, Sato arrives unannounced to rebuild the village, along with the deed to the village, admitting that his years of hate have been wrong and asking for forgiveness. Miyagi, accepts the deed and establishes peace with Sato. Taking this opportunity, Daniel requests that the traditional o-Bon dance be held in the traditional place of the castle of King Shohashi. Sato agrees, stating that the dance will be held there "now and forever" if Daniel agrees to take part in it. At the dance, Chozen, now a man with nothing to lose, suddenly appears, takes Kumiko hostage with a balisong, and challenges Daniel to a duel. Before Daniel approaches Chozen, Miyagi reminds him that "This not tournament, this for real." They fight on a platform surrounded by water. At first, Chozen holds the upper hand, even blocking Daniel's Crane Kick. Both combatants wallop each other almost to a pulp, and everybody can see that unless Daniel puts a quick end to the battle, there will be no winner. Accordingly, Miyagi reveals a small, man-shaped drum, which is decorated with two weighted strings resembling arms and fists. As Miyagi twists this drum, Sato and Yuki follow suit, as do many other villagers. Daniel gets the message, using the Drum Technique to defeat Chozen. Chozen opts for a death blow from Daniel, who instead tweaks his nose, just as Miyagi did with Kreese in California. Daniel and Kumiko embrace triumphantly, while Miyagi, Sato, Yukie, and the rest of the villagers applaud them from the castle walls.
BIOGRAPHY OF PAT MORITA:
Abundantly busy and much loved Asian-American actor who became an on-screen hero to millions of adults and kids alike as the wise and wonderful Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, the sparkling Noriyuki Morita was back again dishing out Eastern philosophy and martial arts lessons for The Karate Kid, Part II and The Karate Kid, Part III, and even for The Next Karate Kid.
However, putting all that karate aside, the diminutive Morita actually first started out as a stand-up comedian known as the Hip Nip in nightclubs and bars, and made his first on-screen appearance in Thoroughly Modern Millie. He quickly adapted to the screen and showed up in small parts in comedies including in The Shakiest Gun in the West, alongside Don Knotts, and in Evil Roy Slade supporting John Astin; plus he was popular on TV Shows including Sanford and Son and M*A*S*H. Morita got his next break playing the often-perplexed restaurant owner Arnold in two stints on the hugely popular Happy Days between 1975 and 1976 and again between 1982 and 1983. Morita was quite in-demand on the small screen and also scored the lead in his own cop show, Ohara, plus he had guest-starred on other high-profile TV shows including Magnum, P.I., Murder, She Wrote, Baywatch Hawaii, and The Hughleys.
Although most often used as a minor character actor, he remained consistently busy and additionally lent his vocal talents to animated features such as Mulan. However, his real strengths lay in portraying slightly oddball or unusual characters in offbeat films. He died of natural causes at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, in November 2005, at the age of 73.
BIOGRAPHY OF RALPH MACCHIO:
Ralph George Macchio (born November 4, 1961) is an American actor with Italian ancestry. He is best remembered for his role as Daniel LaRusso in the Karate Kid series. Macchio and his family currently reside in Miller Place, New York.[citation needed]
Born in Huntington, Long Island, New York, Macchio attended Half Hollow Hills High School West.
CAREER:
Macchio began his acting career during the mid 1970s, as star of television commercials for products like Bubble Yum and Dr Pepper. His first big role was playing Jeremy in the television series Eight Is Enough. In 1983, he starred alongside many young actors who had yet to become major stars such as C. Thomas Howell, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze and Matt Dillon in The Outsiders. It was not until 1984, however, that he became an international teen idol, after the release of the first Karate Kid movie, where he starred alongside Pat Morita and Elisabeth Shue. With his boyish looks, Macchio became one of the most famous teen idols of the mid-1980s, his face appearing on the cover of many teen "bubble gum" magazines such as Tiger Beat, 16, and Teen Beat.
Macchio participated in the first three Karate Kid movies, which came out in 1984, 1986 and 1989. In 1992, he starred opposite Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in the hit comedy My Cousin Vinny, playing the part of a big city boy wrongly accused of murder while passing through a small southern town. Also of note is his appearance in the 1986 film Crossroads. He played music student Eugene Martone, who battles Jack Butler (played by guitarist Steve Vai), a protégé of the Devil. Since the mid 1990s Macchio's film appearances have been occasional cameo or supporting roles, notably and recently A Good Night to Die (2003) and Beer League (2006).
In 2005, Macchio played himself in HBO's Entourage. On May 1, 2007 Macchio played himself in an episode of the Starz series Head Case with Alexandra Wentworth and Liz Phair.
PERSONAL LIFE:
On April 5, 1987, he married Phyllis Fierro, with whom he has a son (Daniel, 1996) and a daughter (Julia, 1992). He has one brother, Steven. His parents, Ralph and Rosalie Macchio, own the Wild West Ranch and Western Town in Lake George, New York.
