The Karate Kid Exposed!

The Karate Kid stars Ralph Macchio (My Cousin Vinny), Pat Morita (Happy Days), Elisabeth Shue (Hide and Seek), William Zabka (Just One of the Guys), Martin Kove (Rambo: First Blood Part II), and Randee Heller (Bulworth), and was directed by John G. Avildsen (Rocky). It's Rocky with teens and karate standing in for blue-collar Philadelphians and boxing. Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) and his mother (Heller) move from New Jersey to Southern California, where Daniel runs into trouble in the form of some martial arts trained high school bullies called the Cobra Kai, forcing him to turn to Mr. Miyagi (Morita), a karate master (and his apartment complex's maintenance technician) to train him to defend himself. The Karate Kid is a beloved cult classic from my youth, and so I'm probably biased in my belief that it is a perfectly realized underdog-overcoming-the-odds tale that delivers in every way and then some. To put it even simpler, The Karate Kid kicks butt. That being said, the film left more than a few burning questions unanswered...until now!

First up, why didn't Mr. Miyagi give a car to Daniel's mom? Think about it. Who needs a new car more, an unemployed teenager, who spends all day studying karate with his apartment complex's maintenance man, or a single, working mother, whose car needs to be pushed to start a lot of times? I mean, not only would Mr. Miyagi have been doing the right thing by giving the car he gave to Daniel to his mother instead, but, hey, she's single, he's single-you never know. It might've paved the way to true love, or, at least, a booty call or two. That being said, I'm pretty sure that in the world of amateur athletics, a coach giving one of his players or the mother of one of his players a car is some kind of rules violation. I'm just saying.