The Karate Kid was a blockbuster film of the 80's which was released on June 22, 1984. The film was directed by John Avildsen and written by Robert Kamen. The Karate Kid tells the story of Daniel Larusso who recently moved to California from New Jersey. Larusso runs into trouble with some kids from the Cobra Kai karate dojo and is severely beaten until Mr. Miyagi jumps in and saves the day. Larusso pleads with Miyagi to become his sensei and teach him karate and Miyagi ultimately agrees and educates Larusso in life and karate.


The Karate Kid rode the wave of martial arts movies during the era which began with Enter the Dragon and Drunken Master. These films helped to make Asian culture more acceptable and heightened the presence of Asians in film. In The Karate Kid, Miyagi was the only prominent Asian martial artist in the film. The rest of the martial artists were white, which propelled martial arts and particularly Karate in American culture. The recognition of Asian martial arts acted as a bridge between Asian and American culture and helped to solidify Asian American culture.


The main factor from this movie which impacted Asians in America was the character of Mr. Miyagi, played by Pat Morita. Morita was most known for his past role as the abrasive foreign cook, Arnold, from Happy Days, which was a more foreign and comedic character. Mr. Miyagi is a handyman with roots in martial arts and has a past with the US Army. Through his background as a soldier as well as an everyday handyman, Miyagi is more easily identifiable as American. The role of Miyagi brought with it authority and wisdom as well as a sense of honor and discipline. An Asian role which demanded respect and commanded authority had not been seen in a long time and this helped the Asian image. This movie effectively brought back the stereotype of Asians as Bruce Lee and added a bit more flavor to it while doing so. The image of awkward Asian men was shattered and replaced by Miyagi's character. Although this movie did give the Asian stereotype a more positive light, Miyagi was still forced to harbor broken English which weakened his image as an Asian American.


Despite this, the role of the Asian protagonist greatly helped the image of Asian Americans both in Hollywood and in culture. The image of the authoritative Asian in Hollywood was made acceptable by The Karate Kid and the reputation of Asians was on the upswing. The Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi will forever be among the most popular and loved icons of pop culture of the 80's. And looking past the crane poses, being called Daniel-san and supposedly being able to catch a fly with chopsticks, they had a positive impact on Asian Americans as well.