Friday, February 13, 2015
It
was 1984, I had been teaching youth for 5 years at the Scranton Boys Club.
Down
the street from my home lived Fred Meurty a local judo competitor and Judo instructor. He stopped by my home and
told me about this new movie “The Karate Kid” that was coming out. Knowing I
taught youth (as well as holding youth
karate tournaments) he told me about an idea he had. He found sponsorship and
was inviting all of the youth martial arts programs in Lackawanna County to a
free showing of the movie in Downtown Scranton. Not knowing what the movie was
about I said sure and then invited my class to attend the showing with me.
Watching
the movie that first time with the kids from my class, well I was knocked out. That movie “ The Karate Kid” and it’s first
sequel “The Karate Kid II” IMO are probably the two best movies that have ever
been made about karate. No, not from the technical aspect, the execution was
cheesy to say the least, but from the explanation about what karate was
designed to be on Okinawa.
I
have seen to many martial arts films. At times entertaining but none of what I
have seen really gets to what karate is to me. I don’t watch movies for
technical excellence, rather for content. This movie shows a why one studies
karate, and gives an Okinawan perspective about what karate could be.
At
that showing you could have heard a pin drop. All of the kids there were
astonished, including the young men and women who trained with me. The applause
at the end of the show was thunderous. I still recall leaving the theater that
Saturday afternoon, entering the bright sunlight, and feeling incredulous after
seeing that show.
In
a small way, life would never be the same.
11-4-2024
The subsequent Karate Kid movies never made me feel this way and eventually I stopped watching them, especially as I do not feel they really captured what those first two movies did.
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