List of The Karate Kid characters

The List of The Karate Kid characters are fictional characters from the films The Karate Kid, The Karate Kid, Part II, The Karate Kid, Part III, The Next Karate Kid, and The Karate Kid Remake.

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Daniel LaRusso

Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is the main character of The Karate Kid film series, with the exception of the fourth installment, The Next Karate Kid. LaRusso's mother is Lucille LaRusso. Some time before the events of the series, Daniel's father died of an unknown cause. This event is what caused Daniel and his mother to move to Los Angeles where Daniel became tormented by the "Cobra Kai", a group of karate students from the karate dojo Cobra Kai. After nearly being killed by the Cobra Kai's best student Johnny Lawrence, Daniel was saved by his apartment's maintenance man, Kesuke Miyagi. After saving Daniel, Miyagi began to teach him the ways of karate. Daniel later defeated Johnny at the "All Valley Karate Tournament". Daniel seemed to have won the respect of the Cobras. In the later movies of The Karate Kid Series, Daniel would eventually learn more from Mr. Miyagi about karate and face new and more highly skilled enemies.

Mr. Keisuke Miyagi

Main article: Keisuke Miyagi

Mister/Staff Sergeant Kesuke Miyagi (Pat Morita) is the main supporting character through the entire The Karate Kid film series including The Next Karate Kid, which starred Hilary Swank and Pat Morita. Mr. Myagi teaches Daniel "karate" from 1984 to 1989. Mister Miyagi is a veteran of the United States Army, having served in Europe during World War II and decorated with the Medal of Honor. His wife and newborn child died at the Manzanar Relocation Camp on November 2, 1944 while he was fighting in Europe.^[1][2][3]

John Kreese

John Kreese (Martin Kove) is the secondary antagonist of the first two films and the main antagonist of the third film. Kreese is an ex-Special Forces Vietnam Veteran. It becomes clear in The Karate Kid Part II that Kreese is racist toward Asians (judging by when he calls Miyagi a slope in the movie). Kreese also instructs his students to be merciless towards their enemies and by ordering his students to use illegal strikes at the tournament to disable their opponents. After his best student, Johnny Lawrence lost to Daniel in the "All Valley Karate Tournament", Kreese violently proves himself as a sadistic sore loser (which is later stopped by Mr. Miyagi in a humorous way), and all the students depart from The Cobra Kai dojo. During the events of The Karate Kid Part III, Kreese plots revenge against Daniel and Miyagi for the loss of his dojo and students. With nowhere to go, Kreese visits his Vietnam War buddy Terry Silver. After listening to Kreese's story, Silver decides to help him out by harassing Daniel and Miyagi and even hiring Mike Barnes to defeat Daniel in the All Valley Tournament.

In the 2010 remake, a character named Master Li mirrors Kreese in that he teaches his students an unethical form of Kung Fu; and orders his students to use cheap shots in the tournament, during the film's climax.

The Referee

The Referee (Pat E. Johnson) plays the referee of the ring in all of The Karate Kid films.^[1][2][3]

The Karate Kid

Ali Mills

Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue) The main love interest of Daniel LaRusso in the first film. During the events of the first film, she seems to take an instant liking to Daniel and the two begin to date and eventually fall in love, much to her ex-boyfriend Johnny's dismay. It is revealed later in The Karate Kid Part II that Ali left Daniel because she fell for a football player from UCLA.

Johnny Lawrence

Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is Daniel's first enemy, the main antagonist of the first film. He is Ali's ex-boyfriend, and defending All-Valley Karate Tournament Champion.^[4] He is also John Kreese's top student at the Cobra Kai dojo. Although he plays the role of a bully, when John Kreese told Bobby to put Daniel out of commission Johnny looked at John Kreese in disgust. At the end of the film during the final round of the tournament as he lost to Daniel, Johnny shows respect to him and says "You're all right, LaRusso" and gives Daniel the trophy himself. It is later revealed that Johnny, along with all of the other Cobra Kai students, departed from John Kreese after he proved himself a sadistic sore loser. In the 2010 remake of the movie, this character is Chinese and is called Cheng.

Bobby Brown

Bobby (Ron Thomas) A friend of Johnny's and a fellow student at the Cobra Kai Dojo, Bobby is Kreese's second best student. Although one of Johnny's gang, Bobby is seen as a more caring character than his friends, as he tries to stop Johnny from ruining the beach-party, stop him harassing Daniel, and from doing further damage to Daniel at the Halloween party, yet trips Daniel at the soccer try-outs, which causes Daniel to lose his spot on the team. During the tournament, Kreese orders Bobby to put Daniel "out of commission," which Bobby reluctantly does. After the severe kick to Daniel's knee, Bobby drops down and apologizes to Daniel: "Daniel! Daniel, I'm sorry. Sorry, man, I didn't mean it. Listen to me, listen to me! I'm sorry". Then, Bobby is pulled off Daniel by Mr. Miyagi and got disqualified.

Tommy

Tommy (Rob Garrison) Another friend of Johnny's and a Cobra Kai classmate. His mannerisms and cadence suggest he may have sociopathic tendencies. He is known for being the most vocal of the Cobra Kai students, and after being eliminated by Daniel LaRusso in the tournament, is heard cheering Johnny on from the sidelines during the final match with Daniel. His most memorable line in the movie is "Get him a bodybag. Yeah!" after Johnny re-aggravates Daniel's leg injury. He also had another memorable quote when Ali is seen walking with Daniel at school; he yells out in anger towards them "Must be 'taking a worm for a walk' week".

Dutch

Dutch (Chad McQueen) Johnny's friend and Cobra Kai classmate. Enjoys personally picking on Daniel LaRusso, even confronting him in the locker room before the start of the All Valley Karate Tournament and calling Daniel "dead meat." Daniel eliminates Dutch himself before facing Bobby in the semi-final round.

Jimmy

Jimmy (Tony O'Dell) Another student at the Cobra Kai dojo and one of Johnny's best friends. Jimmy is known for being the most quiet member and the only brown belt in Johnny's quintet group. He is eliminated by Daniel in the All Valley Karate Tournament.

Freddy Fernandez

Freddy Fernandez (Israel Juarbe) He is a high school student that lives in the same apartment building that Daniel and his mother move into. He briefly becomes Daniel's friend and invites him to a beach party. However, when Daniel is defeated by Johnny on the beach for "getting in Johnny's way", he hesitates to talk to Daniel and makes fun of Daniel at school and does not try to stop his friends from ridiculing Daniel, although he does not join in himself. He is next seen in the crowd at the All Valley Karate Tournament cheering for Daniel: "Come on Daniel, you got this guy you can do it". At the end of the film, he is seen cheering for Daniel and along with some of his friends, picks Daniel up and cheers. This implies that he will treat Daniel with respect and the two will become friends again. In the 2010 remake of the movie, this character is an American living in Beijing and is called Harry.

Mr. Mills

Mr. Mills (William Bassett) Ali's father. He is shown to be somewhat friendly but strict at the same time. He does seem to look down upon Daniel's family somewhat, seeming disappointed at the country club dance that his daughter wants to go out with "that boy from Reseda" again.

Lucille LaRusso

Lucille LaRusso (Randee Heller) Daniel's mother. She is portrayed as being a loving and hardworking mother. She is seen in the film attempting to become a manager in an Oriental restaurant through a "two nights a week" training program, with her dialogue implying she is going away from a job in computers to pursue said management career. However, in the second film she is called away for work for the summer, which seems unlikely with a restaurant manager job, implying she may have stuck with the computer career after all. In the third film, she is shown to be taking care of her sick brother, Louie. In the 2010 remake of the movie, this character is called Sherry Parker.

Jerry Robertson

Jerry (Larry B. Scott) Another student at the Cobra Kai Dojo. He is the brown belt student who is defeated by Bobby in a sparring match at the dojo. He was also the first Cobra Kai member defeated by Daniel LaRusso in the All Valley Karate Tournament.^[5]

Susan

Susan (Juli Fields) One of Ali's best friends. She seems to have a disliking for Daniel. She refers to Daniel as "fungus" during the Halloween dance. She is later seen at the All Valley Karate Tournament in the crowd cheering. At the end of the film, she is seen walking onto the ring, along with Freddy and several others cheering for Daniel.

Barbara

Barbara (Dana Andersen) Barbara is another one of Ali's friends. Like Susan, she does not care much for Daniel at the beginning, but is seen cheering for him in the end.

The Karate Kid, Part II

The Announcer

The Announcer (Bruce Malmuth) The announcer for the All Valley Karate Tournament. He appeared in all of the The Karate Kid films. He seems to have a deep respect for Daniel.

Chozen Toguchi

Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) is Daniel's second enemy, and the main antagonist of The Karate Kid, Part II. He is Sato Toguchi's nephew and best student. Like Johnny Lawrence from the first film, he is portrayed as a bully to Daniel, constantly tormenting him. Unlike Johnny, however, Chozen seems to have a sense of honor for the art of karate and is more highly skilled. His sense of honor does not extend to the natives of Tomi Village, however, as he cheats farmers by using rigged weights, which Daniel later exposes, causing the villagers to gain respect for Daniel and more disgust for Chozen's dishonesty. Chozen also goes so far that he will even be willing to kill his opponent for honor. He even forces Daniel to face him in a death match while holding Kumiko hostage at the end of the second film. Chozen proves to be a more difficult opponent, but in the end, he is defeated by Daniel who spares his life.

Toshio

Toshio (Joey Miyashima) One of Chozen's cronies who helps torment Daniel.

Taro

Taro (Marc Hayashi) Another one of Chozen's cronies who helps torment Daniel.

Sato Toguchi

Sato Toguchi (Danny Kamekona), Sato is the enemy of Miyagi, although he was once Miyagi's best friend. During their childhood, Miyagi and Sato had a strong brotherly friendship. Their friendship was so strong that Miyagi even asked his father to teach karate to him and Sato both (even though traditionally it had only been taught from father to son). However, When the two grew older, Sato had been arranged to marry a girl named Yukie. Although Yukie was arranged to marry Sato, she had instead fallen in love with Miyagi. Their love was so strong to one another, that Miyagi had announced that he would break the tradition of arranged marriage and marry Yukie anyway. Sato however, felt disgraced and challenged Miyagi to a fight to save his honor. But Miyagi left Okinawa, Japan the next day. When Miyagi returned to Tome village with Daniel, Sato had been eager to face his old friend in a death match. However, the two became friends again when Miyagi saved his life during a typhoon. Sato is not a villain per se, but however more along the lines of the tragic anti-hero. All of Sato's actions against Miyagi were out of anger of his former friend dishonoring him. Though he does show signs of sympathy and respect, by letting Miyagi and Daniel see Miyagi's father for the last time and honoring a lost bet between Daniel and Chozen.

Kumiko

Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita) Yukie's niece. During the events of The Karate Kid Part 2, she and Daniel start to fall in love with one another. When Daniel and Miyagi arrive at Tome village, the two spend much time together. Kumiko expresses her desire to become a dancer, although there are no schools for dancing where she lives. After hearing this, Daniel tries to convince her to come to America with him. After Miyagi accepts Sato's challenge to fight to the death, she and Daniel express their true feelings to one another as the two share a kiss. She is last seen performing an O bon dance at the old castle outside Tome village. It is there she is taken hostage by Chozen in order to get Daniel to fight him. Daniel accepts and Kumiko makes an effort to intervene choking Chozen with a piece of cloth before being forced away. Daniel wins the fight and the two romantically embrace as the crowd cheers. It is revealed later in The Karate Kid Part 3 that Kumiko was offered a dancing career in Tokyo that she couldn't refuse. It seems that Chozen has a lust for Kumiko; it is implied further when after Chozen threatens Daniel, Kumiko pelts his shirt with a tomato, rather than retaliate he smiles and takes his shirt off saying "You keep, for your collection. I know you like it."

Yukie

Yukie (Nobu McCarthy)

Yukie is Mr. Miyagi's loving childhood girlfriend. Although she was arranged to marry Sato, she had already been in love with Mr. Miyagi, which is what caused Sato to challenge Mr. Miyagi to a death match to save his honor. Mr. Miyagi never fought him, however. The next day, he left for America. When Mr. Miyagi returned to Tome village, it was revealed that Yukie had never married Sato. During the events of The Karate Kid Part 2 it was shown that the two still had feelings for one another and they began to rekindle their romance.

Miyagi's father

Miyagi's father (Charlie Tanimoto) and sensei trained him to use the art in the right way. In The Karate Kid, Part II, he became ill and died, but not before seeing his son one last time. As sensei to Miyagi and Sato, both men came to his side at his hour of death. His final act was to bring the two former close friends together.

The Karate Kid, Part III

Jessica Andrews

Jessica Andrews (Robyn Lively) She becomes Daniel's best friend during the events of The Karate Kid Part III. It was shown that Daniel had a brief crush on her, but when she claimed that she had a boyfriend and was going back to her home in Columbus, Ohio soon, Daniel had come to see them as just friends and the two began forming a close friendship.

Terry Silver

Terence "Terry" Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith). An acquaintance of John Kreese from his military days, Terry Silver is the head of Dynatox Industries, the sponsor of the All Valley Karate Tournament, and the antithesis of Daniel LaRusso. He is one of the main antagonist's in the third film.

When his best friend John Kreese is financially ruined, due to the Cobra Kai’s defeat at the hands of Daniel and Miyagi, Silver makes it a personal mission to help Kreese recover and avenge him. To this end, he has his thugs force Daniel to enter the All Valley Karate Tournament and recruits “Bad Boy” Mike Barnes to compete against Daniel. He also supposedly trains Daniel for the tournament, after Miyagi refuses to do so, in reality setting him up for a defeat by Barnes. At the tournament, he instructs Barnes to deliberately drag the fight out in an attempt to torture Daniel.

Mike Barnes

Michael "Mike" Barnes (Sean Kanan) is Daniel's third, hardest, and final enemy in The Karate Kid, Part III. He was hired by Terry Silver to defeat Daniel in the All Valley Karate Tournament in exchange for 25% (later 50%) ownership of his new dojos. It is shown that he is a highly skilled karate master. He proves to be far too much for Daniel (mostly because Daniel couldn't so much as land a single damaging blow to him until the end of the film). He constantly torments Daniel and tries his best to force Daniel into signing an application for the All Valley Karate Tournament (which Daniel chooses not to enter because he has no reason to fight). Later when Mike forces Daniel to sign up for the tournament, Miyagi trains Daniel for the event. At the tournament Mike (under Silver's instructions) toys with Daniel by scoring points and then losing them with penalties. Despite his situation, Daniel defeats him in a sudden death match with the kata that Miyagi taught him.

Snake

Snake (Jonathan Avildsen) One of Silver's henchmen and one of Mike's cronies that helps torment Daniel. He is shown to be a "bad boy", but not as "bad" or skilled as Mike.

Dennis

Dennis (Christopher Paul Ford) Terry Silver's other henchman, and another one of Mike's cronies. He is shown to be a "bad boy" and karate practitioner like Snake, but is not as skilled as Mike (mostly because he was defeated by Daniel so easily). Dennis rarely speaks. He only has two lines through-out the whole movie.

The Announcer

the Announcer (Rick Hurst) he makes the announcements at the All Valley Karate Tournament.

Mrs. Milo

Mrs. Milo (Frances Bay) The negative old lady that lives in the same apartment building as Daniel.

Uncle Louie

Uncle Louie (Joseph V. Perry) Daniel's uncle. During the events of The Karate Kid part 3 he becomes ill and Lucille returns to New Jersey to care for him.

Milos

Milos (Jan Triska) Terry Silver's butler.

Margaret

Margaret (Diana Webster) Terry Silver's secretary.

The Next Karate Kid

Julie Pierce

Julie Pierce (Hilary Swank) A troubled teenage girl who lost her parents in a car accident. Like Daniel, she is also bullied by a gang, The Alphas and their leader, Ned who hits on her at her school. Mr. Miyagi takes her in as his student when he sends her grandmother (her only known living family member) away for a vacation and proceeds to train her in self-defense. At first, she wanted nothing to do with him, but learns to accept him as a teacher after being taught a few familiar techniques that Mr. Miyagi once taught Daniel.

Colonel Dugan

Colonel Dugan (Michael Ironside) Colonel Dugan is the principal antagonist in The Next Karate Kid. He leads an JROTC-style program at Julie's school, and his style of instruction and morals he instills upon his students are very similar to those of John Kreese from the earlier films.

Louisa Pierce

Louisa Pierce (Constance Towers) Julie's grandmother and only known living family member. She and Mr. Miyagi knew each other for many years since her late husband was a good friend of Miyagi during and after World War II. She was later sent to stay at Miyagi's home in Los Angeles, so that he could look after and teach her granddaughter the techniques of virtue and discipline through karate and she also makes Tacos for Juile's birthday.

Eric McGowen

Eric McGowen (Chris Conrad) A new student who joins Col. Dugan's group to someday become accepted into an Airforce Academy. He shows infatuation when in Julie's presence, even up to occasionally teasing her at times just for her to warm up to him. Although Julie initially disliked him (on account of him being part of the ruthless Col. Dugan's group), she begins to bond more with him after he watches over her hawk, Angel as a favor when she was away for training.

Abbot

Abbot (Arsenio "Sonny" Trinidad)

Ned

Ned (Michael Cavalieri) - A skilled academy student with bullying tendencies (nearly the equivalent of Johnny Lawrence) and antagonist of the film. He constantly tries to hit on Julie, only to be rejected by her many times. As a response to the rejections, he does whatever he can to make Julie's life miserable like getting her almost suspended from school as he lied to Col. Dugan that Juile was smoking.

Charlie

Charlie (Walton Goggins) A student in Ned's gang. After witnessing Col. Dugan putting so much pressure onto Ned of severely beating Eric McGowan at the docks, he sympathizes to Ned that he doesn't have to keep going at it. He is much like Cobra Kai student Bobby Brown from the original film.

Tall Monk

Tall Monk (Jim Ishida)

Monk

Monk (Rodney Kageyama)

Buddhist Monk

Buddhist Monk (Seth Sakai)

Mr. Harold Wilkes

Mr. Harold Wilkes (Eugene Boles)

School Clerk

School Clerk (Kenna Keel)

Gabe

Gabe (Tom O'Brien)

Morgan

Morgan (Thomas Downey)

The Karate Kid Remake

Dre Parker

Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) Dre is the main protagonist of The Karate Kid Remake. Like Daniel LaRusso, he goes into training for self defense after being bullied. Dre was originally from Detroit, Michigan. However, Dre and his mother moved to Beijing, China to start a new life after the death of Dre's father. Dre's mother was thrilled about Beijing, although Dre wasn't particularly thrilled about the move. Shortly after moving to Beijing, Dre immediately fell in love with a pretty young violinist named Mei Ying. Soon after in the movie he kissed her as well. It was obvious that she had mutual feelings for Dre, however, a local bully and kung fu prodigy named Cheng attempted to keep them apart. Afterwards, Cheng continually tormented Dre until he was stopped by Mr. Han. After Mr. Han's interference, Dre began to learn kung fu from Han when Cheng's shifu, Master Li challenged them to a fight which forced Dre to compete in the upcoming 'Open Kung Fu Tournament.' At the tournament Dre managed to defeat Master Li's students and ultimately Cheng himself. After his victory, Dre had earned the respect of Cheng and his friends. Like Johnny in the original, Cheng personally presented the trophy to Dre.

Liang

Liang (Shijia Lü) is one of Cheng's friends and fellow classmates who antagonize Dre Parker in The Karate Kid Remake. Like Bobby Brown (AKA Butterman), Liang is the most caring out of the group. He is also the one who injures Dre's leg during the semifinals of the tournament on Master Li's orders. In the process, he is disqualified and is visibly regretful of his actions.

Wu Ping

Wu Ping is one of the young competitors competing in the Kung Fu competition Dre Parker competes in. He is easily distinguished by his mohawk, which he slicks upwards before a match. He managed to make it all the way to the semi-finals only to lose to Cheng, who defeated him with an elbow to the chest.

Mr. Han

Jackie Chan as Mr. Han

Main article: Keisuke Miyagi#2010 remake

Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) is a Chinese maintenance man who becomes Dre's shifu. He is the deuteragonist of the Karate Kid Remake, and is based on Keisuke Miyagi from the original films. The film follows the same story line as the original, and several lines and actions are repeated from the original. Unlike Miyagi, and has a car in his living room and is fixing it however, Han is a practitioner of kung fu, and elements of his backstory differ from Miyagi's, such as the circumstances surrounding his wife's and son's death. In this version, Han tells Dre that he is distracted by an argument with his wife while driving his car, and he crashes, killing them and misses them. and conutines to train Dre for the Karate touranment

Cheng

Cheng (Zhenwei Wang) is the main antagonist of the film. He is seemingly older than Dre, and continually harasses him throughout the film for Dre's interactions with his [Cheng's] possible love interest, Mei Ying. He also goes as far as drastically beating him in the secluded back entrance of Dre's apartment before being stopped and defeated by Mr. Han. Cheng is much like Johnny Lawrence: being the bully of the school, wealthy, well-known, and distressing and thrashing the protagonist. Similarly as in the first 'The Karate Kid' film, Dre earns Cheng's respect when he beats him at the finals of the 'Open Kung Fu Tournament' and Cheng personally awards Dre the trophy and shows Mr. Han respect.

Mei Ying

Mei Ying (Wenwen Han) is Dre's (and possibly Cheng's) love interest. Mei Ying has an interest in music (notably playing the violin exceedingly well) and gets admittance into Beijing Academy of Music (which Dre refers to as 'BAM!'). She briefly breaks contact with Dre under her father's directions before again, becoming a couple with him after she kisses him and Dre rehearses a written apology to Mei Ying's which is translated by Mr. Han through Dre's words. At the end of the film, she is seen cheering loudly, keeping her 'pinky promise' to Dre, which was for her to be the loudest fan to cheer for him when he would win the Kung Fu tournament.

Master Li

Master Li (Yu Rongguang) Cheng's Wushu (Kung Fu) instructor and the secondary antagonist of the film. Like John Kreese, Master Li teaches his students to be ruthless and merciless towards their enemy, as well as using cheap shots to injure their competitions at the Kung Fu tournament. When Cheng told him that Mr. Han and Dre bullied him when the two protagonists arrived at 'The Fighting Dragon' studio to make peace, Li forces either Mr. Han or Dre to fight Cheng. Mr. Han promises Li that Dre will compete at the opening Kung Fu tournament. During the tournament, Master Li instructs Liang, one of the most caring fighters of the group, to deliver an illegal strike to Dre's leg, disallowing him to continue the tournament and allowing Cheng to win the tournament by default. Ultimately, Dre returns to the ring and ultimately defeats Cheng. According to Mr. Han, he doesn't teach his students real Kung Fu; he instead is a "bad man teaching them very bad things."

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} The Karate Kid Cast & Crew
2. ^ ^{a b c} The Karate Kid Part II Cast & Crew
3. ^ ^{a b c} The Karate Kid Part III Cast & Crew
4. ^ "Sweep the Leg! Interview with the real Johnny, William Zabka". Kung Fu Magazine. http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=899. Retrieved 2010-05-27. 
5. ^ Youtube - You're The Best Music Video

External links

• The Karate Kid (1984)
• The Karate Kid, Part II (1986)
• The Karate Kid, Part III (1989)
• The Next Karate Kid (1994)
• The Karate Kid (2010)