I’m a fan of The Karate Kid, especially the original, 1984 version, directed by John Avildsen and starring Ralph Macchio. So I don’t mean it as an insult when I say The King’s Speech, which I also liked a lot, is really just The Karate Kid in a spiffier costume.To be fair, both movies fall into the category of education story—a genre that comes with its own set of rules. But still! Don’t let the Weinstein Company, the studio behind The King’s Speech, fool you. As the Brothers Weinstein proved again and again in their Miramax years with such films as The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love, they are experts at winning over critics and Academy members by decking out B-movie stories in A-list rags.
So in the thick of The King’s Speech’s highfalutin awards campaign, let’s count the similarities between the movie and The Karate Kid. (I saw both versions of The Karate Kid, but will stick to the original version here.)
1. A circumstance beyond the hero’s control compels him to learn a new skill or fail utterly. In The Karate Kid, Danny, a skinny Italian-American from Newark, New Jersey, is uprooted from his home by his mother and moved to California, where his new schoolmates, muscular and blond, bully others with a brutal form of karate. In The King’s Speech, Prince Albert, a stammerer, is thrown into alien territory with the new popularity of radio, which forces him to deliver speeches to the millions of commoners in the British Empire.
2. The hero is humiliated in the presence of his future teacher. Danny is beaten up by the California kids, and his future teacher, Mr. Miyagi, a handyman, sees the whole thing. Prince Albert is humiliated when he flops while delivering a speech at Wembley Stadium, where his future instructor, Mr. Logue, is watching as a member of the audience.
3. The teacher’s unorthodox methods humble the student and even cause him to quit, albeit temporarily. Mr. Logue puts Prince Albert in the odd position of dealing with a commoner on equal footing: Logue calls the Prince “Bertie”; asks him personal questions; makes wagers with him; flushes a toilet within his royal earshot; encourages him to sing and swear; and even speaks to him in a “treasonous” manner. In The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi humbles Danny by having him perform various chores that would seem to have nothing to do with the chosen field of study (waxing his cars, painting his fence, scrubbing his floor). He causes him to fall into the water and makes light of his lack of punching power.
4. The teacher may be a quack. Mr. Logue is revealed to have no formal training in his field. Mr. Miyagi seems like not such a role model when he gets stinking drunk.
5. The teacher is an outsider, with low social status in his new land. Mr. Miyagi is called a “Nip” and “Mr. Moto” by white Californians. Mr. Logue is insulted by Prince Albert, as well as a theater director, for his Australian origins.
6. The unorthodox, uncredentialed teacher is contrasted with a cruel—but more respected—educator. Before Mr. Logue appears in The King’s Speech, Prince Albert works with a certified teacher who invokes Demosthenes and forces his charge to stuff his mouth with glass marbles before reading aloud. This causes the student to gag and storm off. In The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi’s opposite number is the head of the prosperous-seeming Cobra Kai dojo, a white Vietnam veteran who preaches a form of karate that asks its adherents to strike first and does not allow for mercy.
7. In the teacher’s backstory lies patriotic wartime service. Mr. Miyagi won the Medal of Honor for his part in fighting Nazis as a member of the U.S. armed forces in the European theater. Mr. Logue learned his craft while working with Australia’s shell-shocked Great War veterans.
8. The teacher helps fill a void left by the student’s absent father. After King George dies, Prince Albert turns to Mr. Logue for counsel. Growing up without a dad, Danny LaRusso looks up to Mr. Miyagi as a father figure.
9. The teacher prepares the student for a grand stage, where he must display everything he has learned or suffer public defeat.For Danny, it’s the All-Valley Karate Tournament, where he will once again confront the blond bullies who tormented him on his arrival to California. Mr. Miyagi is close by during the tournament, cheering him on. For Bertie (now King George VI), it’s the moment of the solemn radio address, in which he must tell his subjects all over the globe that Great Britain is at war with Germany. Logue is close by during the big speech, cheering him on.
10. The teacher looks on with pride at the moment of his student’s final triumph. In the end shot of The King’s Speech, Mr. Logue watches with pride—without being too obvious about it—as the King steps to a palace balcony, from which he sees a swarm of his newly respectful subjects cheering his appearance. In The Karate Kid’s final moment, the injured but victorious Danny raises his hard-won trophy while shouting, “Hey, Mr. Miyagi, we did it!” The teacher, standing nearby, watches his charge with a proud, but still stoic, expression.
If you’ve noticed any other similarities between The Karate Kid and The King’s Speech, please add them in the comments.