Having endured a mostly horrendous childhood, he hustled his way into the stand-up circuit in his early 30s, becoming an impressive sitcom star, and then fought his way into The Karate Kid, winning an Oscar nomination for his performance. He’d had a lean few years before that, and a turbulent few decades. The character came late to Morita – he was 50 when Miyagi arrived. “We view Mr Miyagi as a character on our show,” co-creator Josh Heald once said. There are constant references to Miyagi, both verbal and visual, many of them touching tributes, sensitively baked into the story, his mischief and wisdom both intact.
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Morita died in 2005, but the creators of Cobra Kai have ensured that his presence is keenly felt throughout. It was diminishing returns for the rest but Morita was solid throughout, a wise old man with a broken heart, a selfless, formidable mentor. Morita played Mr Miyagi, the mild-mannered Japanese maintenance man/karate master in four films, beginning with 1984’s charming drama The Karate Kid. Starring the original leads – Ralph Macchio (as cute underdog turned smooth-talking family man Daniel LaRusso), William Zabka (school bully turned middle-aged burnout Johnny Lawrence) and Martin Kove (terrible tyrant turned even more terrible tyrant John Kreese), it’s an exhilarating rejuvenation.
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MR MIYAGI WIFE SERIES
Four seasons in and Cobra Kai, the Netflix sequel series that picks up from The Karate Kid films three decades on, is a sleeper smash.
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Nobody – least of all Noriyuki ‘Pat’ Morita – would have predicted Mr Miyagi’s afterlife.