Film Review - The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid is a cautionary tale of caucasian child slavery in America. A young boy, Daniel, is kidnapped by an aging Chinese man, Mr Miyagi, who forces Daniel to perform back-breaking labour.

Over the course of the film, Daniel is forced to wax cars, paint fences, dig irrigation channels and construct homes for impoverished families. All the while, he is kept in the most horrifying conditions, sleeping on floors and snatching flies from the air to supplement his meagre food rations.

Watching Daniel’s decline as the film progresses is gruelling for the viewer, but there is to be no upturn at the climax. There is no Hollywood happy ending here, be warned. Instead, just as you think our hero’s plight can get no worse, Mr Miyagi reveals his true intentions.

He has been grooming Daniel to perform in illegal, under-12s bare-knuckle fighting. It turns out that gambling on youngsters in these death-matches is big business and Mr Miyagi is something of a kingpin in this shadowy underworld.

The final scene depicts Daniel’s induction in child-fighting. He faces a gnarled 11-year-old veteran. Without wishing to give the ending away, Daniel kicks his head in. But there is no glory in this victory - merely survival.