I never saw this movie in the 80s, and only recently watched it on Netflix.

I had a general idea of what it was about, and somewhere I remembered knowing about the phrase ”wax on, wax off”, but this was one of those 80s ‘classics’ that had totally passed me by.

What got me into watching this movie was the Netflix series Cobra Kai. I knew my wife loved The Karate Kid, so when I saw Cobra Kai pop up on Netflix I suggested we watch it together.  If you have not seen it, Cobra Kai is a knowing, very belated sequel to the original movies, featuring many of the same characters and the same actors, now in middle age. The story concerns warring karate schools in LA, and there are a great many witty throwbacks to the original movies. 

So, after really enjoying Cobra Kai, we just had to sit through the 3 original movies! They are all, frankly, quite cheesy, very much a product of the 80s, and the quality progressively dips with the sequels. But the first movie certainly does have its charms, most notably from the late Pat Morita as ‘sensei’ (teacher) Mr Miyagi. 

I don’t think The Karate Kid is a classic, and I certainly don’t love it as much as my wife. However, we thought it would be cute to own a little bit of memorabilia, and we picked up this Japanese ‘chirashi’ flyer and booklet as a memento.