We recently saw Tomita as the cold Romulan Commander Oh in Star Trek: Picard, but when she finds her character of Kumiko, her smile is as disarmingly warm as it was thirty years ago. Nevertheless, seeing Kumiko again gives any Karate Kid fan the feels. It’s also a long way from that moat stage in the castle, which surely would’ve been converted to a tourist site. There he finds Kumiko performing a traditional dance on the shopping mall stage. But what was a quaint rural fishing village thirty years ago is now Tomi Village Green, a modern shopping mall.
While there he decides to visit Tomi village, Miyagi’s hometown, and the setting of The Karate Kid Part II. In Cobra Kai season 3, after losing distributorship of Doyona cars, Daniel is forced to return to Japan in hopes of renewing his dealership’s contract. The only logical way for Cobra Kai to evoke The Karate Kid Part II was to have Daniel return to Okinawa. The den-den daiko has been shown several times, but that was as far as they could go. Instead of finishing Chozen, Daniel honks his nose.īecause The Karate Kid Part II was set in Okinawa, it was an outlier and challenging to weave into Cobra Kai. In a painfully predictable conclusion, and an important coup de grâce for the Cobra Kai Easter egg, their fight ends exactly like the one between Kreese and Miyagi at the beginning of the film. And if it was so secret that Chozen didn’t know, why would the audience understand that the den-den daiko had anything to do with Karate? The finale fight is a silly attempt to insert some poetry into the film’s climax, but it doesn’t make much sense when you step back and look at it logically. But if it’s a Miyagi-do secret, wouldn’t Chozen know it too? He had the same grandmaster as Daniel, Miyagi’s father (Charlie Tanemoto). Instead of intervening, Miyagi and the reformed Sensei Sato (Danny Kamekona) lead the audience in twirling their spinning hand drums (known as den-den daiko) to inspire Daniel to use the new secret hand technique that Miyagi taught him. There was a large audience watching Kumiko’s dance recital but when Daniel and Chozen begin their death match, no one tries to break them up. However, Daniel tips over the bridge, the moat appears to be only about a foot deep. While Kumiko performed a traditional fan dance on a moat encircled platform in the center courtyard of an ancient castle, Chozen swooped in and challenged Daniel to a fight to the death. The finale fight between Daniel and Chozen was flawed on several levels. Aside from the opening scene, the cast and location of the sequel is swapped out completely except for Miyagi and Daniel.
And Johnny stayed in California, so he was replaced by a new rival, Chozen.
She was replaced by Kumiko, a new love interest for Daniel. Ali (Elisabeth Shue) did not return for the sequel. Miyagi rescued Johnny from Kreese but instead of finishing him, he honks his nose.Īfter that, Daniel and Miyagi left the rest of the cast behind and travelled to Okinawa. Choke holds are a choreographic motif echoed in later fights between Kreese and Johnny in Cobra Kai. Kreese (Martin Kove) was so angry about Johnny (William Zabka) losing that he starts to choke him. The story picked up immediately where the first film left off, right after Daniel’s first victory at the All-Valley Karate Tournament. It reunited almost all the cast from the first film, but only for segue cameos. The sequel was the most financially successful film of the Mr. The Sequelįirst, a reminder of just what went down in The Karate Kid II. Here are some ways in which Cobra Kai season 3 plays homage to The Karate Kid Part II.
#Tower of trample lady cobra tv
When Daniel and Kumiko go dancing at a ‘50s retro club, the song that’s playing is “Rock Around the Clock.” That was the theme song to Happy Days – the ‘70s TV show where Pat Morita had a recurring role as the owner of the soda shop, Arnold Takahashi. Even that sequel had an early Easter egg, before Easter eggs were even a thing.
#Tower of trample lady cobra full
The creators of Cobra Kai have been on point with this so Daniel’s return to Okinawa is full of homages to The Karate Kid Part II. With any reboot series, it’s often the Easter Eggs that are the most endearing for longtime fans.