The Karate Kid Original Movie And Book

[XtremeTrainer]

There has been much posting here about the Cobra Kai series on Youtube Red which stats Ralph Macchio who played Daniel and William Zabka who played Johnny and takes place 30 years after the events of the first movie. Anyway, I want to talk more about the first movie. In the first movie, I though the plot and character development was quite good although you really do need to read the book to understand some stuff as the book explained certain stuff and there were certain scenes that were in the book that weren't in the movie.

In the book in between the country club scene and the arcade scene there is a scene where Daniel and Ali have an argument and that explains why Ali was not being nice to Daniel at the arcade. There has been some confusion among fans of the movie who haven't read the books as to why Ali was being mean to Daniel at the arcade when all Daniel did was embarrass himself at the country club by having spaghetti sauce spilled all over him. I don't know if such a scene where Daniel and Ali had an argument in between the country club and arcade scenes was shot for the movie and then cut from the final draft or if such a scene was ever made for the movie but the book does have such a scene and in my opinion it was a big mistake that they didn't include it.

Also Daniel's age. Among fans there has been some confusion over Daniel's age. The book clearly states that Daniel is 15 going on 16 and the birthday he has with Mr Miyagi is his 16th birthday. This would seemingly contradict Daniel having his senior prom the following spring in the sequel as 16 is a bit young to finish high school but Daniel might've skipped a grade.

Anyway those are some of the stuff that the book explains that the movie doesn't. So I encourage any fan of the movie to read the book if they haven't done so.

[singularity6]

Could he not have turned 17 the following spring? Many people graduate before they turn 18.

[Spartacus Maximus]

For some reason the books are very difficult to find nowadays. Even back in the 90’s it wasn’t such a common book and getting it meant raiding several used book stores. It was great reading them, though and perhaps made the movies more enjoyable to rewatch again.

[mazzybear]

I just ordered the book off Amazon after reading this post. £3 used with delivery from the states. I've never read it, so time to give it a go, loved the movies as a kid.

I think like any book to movie there's always going to be differences some huge, some small and some that leave you scratching your head. But generally the books are ALWAYS better than the movie. I was furious when they adapted Alex Garland's "The Beach" to a movie, it was one of my favourite books at the time and the movie just killed it, was so far off the book in so many ways.

But I look forward to reading the Karate Kid and I'll report back what I thought when I've read it. Only 2-3 weeks to wait on delivery from the states

Mo.

[Spartacus Maximus]

The thing about books versus movies is that the author often has very little say about how the movie will be done once permission is granted to put the story on film.

Watching Jurassic Park after reading the books was very confusing, to give an example. Missing scenes, characters etc.