Ralph Macchio has denied accusations that his 1984 film “The Karate Kid” was “too white” and did not give enough time to reflect on the Japanese cultural effect on the martial arts discipline.
Macchio, whose performance as Daniel LaRusso in that film entrenched him as a household star, stated this week that he always thought the film was ahead of its time, primarily because it handled the issue of World War II-era Japanese internment camps.
“People have said it’s a very white cast, that it didn’t dive into the Asian story. But I always say this: The film was ahead of its time because it was a popcorn movie that talked about Japanese internment camps during World War II,” the 60-year-old actor explained.
Macchio noted that his late co-star, Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, linked his Academy Award nomination to a sequence in the film about the camps — and his character’s experience during the war.
On what would have been their anniversary, the normally stoic Mr. Miyagi was inebriated and losing control of his emotions as he remembered his wife. The latter perished in childbirth along with their son in an internment camp. The sequence concludes with Macchio’s Daniel putting his mentor and teacher to bed.
The fact that Morita had spent time in the camps, according to Macchio, was what made the scene so poignant. “Pat spent two years in the camps.” “It had a twofold meaning and depth,” he explained.
Despite the scene’s complexity and force, Macchio claims it almost cut due to fears that the film was too lengthy.
“The studio’s main concern was that with the movie running over two hours, they would lose a daily screening time, and essentially, money in the process. They all shut up once we screened it for them with an audience,” he added.
Macchio returned to the role he made famous decades later, playing Daniel La Russo in Netflix’s “Cobra Kai.”
Despite some reservations about returning to the part, Macchio reveals in his new biography that the series has succeeded in delivering the aspects that made the films “work” to a whole new generation of fans – “Overcoming the obstacles, finding your way … figuring it out” — to a whole new generation of fans.