Great Characters: Kesuke Miyagi (“The Karate Kid”)

In the 1984 movie The Karate Kid (written by Robert Mark Kamen) the story’s Mentor is known as Mr. Miyagi, played by the late Pat Morita, a role for which Morita was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Here is the plot synopsis per IMDB:

Daniel and his mother move from New Jersy to California. She has a wonderful new job but Daniel discovers that a dark haired Italian boy with a Jersey accent doesn’t fit into the blond surfer crowd, especially when he tries to date one of their girl friends. Daniel manages to talk his way out of some fights but is finally cornered by several who belong to the same karate school. As Daniel is passing out from the beating he sees Miyagi, the elderly gardner leap into the fray and save him by outfighting a half dozen teenagers. Miyagi and Daniel find the real motivator behind the boys’ violent attitude is the their karate teacher. Miyagi promises to teach Daniel to fight and arranges a fight at a karate contest some months off. When his training begins, Daniel can’t understand what he is being shown. Miyagi seems more interested in having Daniel paint fences and wax cars than teaching him Karate.

Paint fences and wax cars. How awesome was that payoff in this scene [minutes 12:00–14:55]:

As a Mentor, Miyagi not only teaches Daniel the physical nature of karate, but also its spiritual aspect as in this exchange:

Daniel: Hey — you ever get into fights when you were a kid?
Miyagi: Huh — plenty.
Daniel: Yeah, but it wasn’t like the problem I have, right?
Miyagi: Why? Fighting fighting. Same same.
Daniel: Yeah, but you knew karate.
Miyagi: Someone always know more.
Daniel: You mean there were times when you were scared to fight?
Miyagi: Always scare. Miyagi hate fighting.
Daniel: Yeah, but you like karate.
Miyagi: So?
Daniel: So, karate’s fighting. You train to fight.
Miyagi: That what you think?
Daniel: [pondering] No.
Miyagi: Then why train?
Daniel: [thinks] So I won’t have to fight.
Miyagi: [laughs] Miyagi have hope for you.

One of the themes of the movie is appearances can be deceiving. Who would think that an apartment complex handyman would be a karate expert? That he would have built a Japanese garden in the back yard of his house? That within Daniel lies the heart of a lion? Or that the point of learning karate is not to fight.

If you ever need a fix on what a Mentor character’s central narrative function is, you can always bring to mind Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid.

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