After the sleeper success of 1984’s The Karate Kid, a sequel became inevitable. One arrived two years later via 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II.

When Daniel LaRusso’s (Ralph Macchio) mother takes a job out of town, he ends up palling around with mentor Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) for the summer between high school and college. This period takes a turn when Mr. Miyagi learns that his father lays ill back home in Okinawa.

Daniel decides to accompany Mr. Miyagi on this trip, and they encounter various conflicts, some of which involve Miyagi’s old rival Sato (Danny Kamekona). While Miyagi deals with this challenge – and rekindles his affection for old flame Yukie (Nobu McCarthy) – Daniel finds his own way.

On the positive side, Daniel enjoys a romance with local lovely Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). On the negative, Daniel finds himself in yet another fight with yet another alpha d-bag, Sato’s nephew Chozen (Yuji Okumoto).

All that sounds like a pretty good film, right? It could be, if there wasn’t the constant interruption of Daniel, putzing around the village and the island.

Daniel gets a lightly reworked version of his plotline from the original: wrong side of the wrong guy and a strictly “G”-rated love interest. In this case, the wrong guy is Sato’s nephew Chozen.

Chozen just plain doesn’t like Daniel, pretty much because his uncle doesn’t like Miyagi. Daniel puts him over the edge by proving him wrong in the famous ice-breaking sequence and by exposing his scheme that’s been cheating the villagers out of their crop money. Every scene with these two in it plods ponderously toward the inevitable final showdown.

Of course, the other Daniel story angle follows his love interest. I have a real problem with the whole Kumiko/Daniel dynamic, as there’s negative chemistry between them, so when they’re together, they actually make the movie less romantic.

As an indirect result, Kumiko seems to exist solely to exhibit some ancient Okinawan tradition every two seconds. I appreciate the exposure to another culture, but this movie does it so much that it starts to feel absurd.

And does Daniel have to be so stupid about this stuff? Saying things like “Forget the honor garbage!” and smugly remarking “Is this seat taken?” before a tea ceremony makes him look like an idiot, not a charmer.

For me, the worst offense Kid II commits is cheating its viewers out of a true Miyagi/Sato throwdown, instead favoring Daniel and crazy Chozen at the dance festival. There’s absolutely no suspense to this fight; we know exactly how it will go, as not even Miyagi’s foreboding advice about this not being a tournament can help.

The film suffers from a good deal of smaller problems, like the once-again over the top villainy, the hilariously constipated delivery from Sato, and the fact that the film cuts the interesting material short in favor of the film’s title character. The original film had a lot of these same problems, but with one major difference: emotional resonance. This isn’t a David vs. Goliath tale any more - it’s just a run of the mill story, and it comes with an absurd climax.

At its peak, Kid II is a redeemable sequel, but it falls far short of enjoyability level boasted by its progenitor. I enjoyed the material with Miyagi and his culture, the funeral scene, Miyagi contemplating the loss of his father, and the overall scenery change by shifting the film to Okinawa.

There are even a few scenes that actually advance the relationship between the two friends, but there’s far too much stuff here that just isn’t that interesting. I guess it would have been hard to call it a sequel to The Karate Kid without actually having the Karate Kid in it, but that would have been a better film.

For all its flaws, it does have one thing definitely working for it: it’s better than Karate Kid Part III.

The Karate Kid Part II appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The Dolby Vision presentation looked surprisingly terrific.

Unlike most films of this one’s era, sharpness seemed consistently tight. Perhaps a sliver of softness materialized at times, but if so, those instances remained too minor to create concerns.

I saw no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. Grain felt natural, while I detected no print flaws.

Source flaws stayed minor. I noticed a couple of small specks but nothing more, as the majority of the flick looked clean. Grain was also within normal limits.

Colors looked natural and vivid. The disc’s HDR added range and impact to the tones, so they appeared bright and rich.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, while low-light shots came across with appropriate clarity. HDR brought power to whites and contrast.

I debated my grade, as “A-“ felt a little high. Nonetheless, this turned into a much better than expected image, and given the way most 1986 movies look, I thought it deserved high honors.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos audio offered surprisingly positive fidelity, especially in terms of music, as both the score and songs boasted nice range and dimensionality. Effects were fine, as they were accurate and full.

Speech was usually positive as well. Some lines seemed a bit reedy and stiff, but most of the dialogue seemed natural.

As for the soundfield, music featured nice stereo spread, and we got some decent environmental material. The scene with the massive storm became easily the most dynamic of the bunch.

While the movie didn’t deliver an action-packed soundscape, it used the various channels to create a pretty engaging impression. Though not demo material, the audio added to the film’s impact.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? The Atmos soundtrack felt more involving than the 5.1 mix.

As for the Dolby Vision image, it offered a nice upgrade. The 4K UHD appeared better defined, cleaner and more vivid than the unexceptional Blu-ray. This became an appealing step up in quality.

On the 4K disc, we find a brand-new audio commentary from actors Ralph Macchio and Tamlyn Tomita. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at aspects of their characters and performances, sets and locations, reflections on other cast and crew, and general memories of the production.

Recorded during the COVID pandemic via remote options, I like the reunion between two of the movie's leads. However, I can't claim they give us a lot of insights here.

Oh, the track remains breezy and likable enough across the film's running time, so it doesn't flop. The commentary simply doesn't deliver a lot of concrete info about the production.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we get one deleted scene. It runs a mere 34 seconds and shows Daniel as he helps rebuild the garden. Though it also links to his relationship with Kumiko, it seems entirely superfluous.

More features appear on the included Blu-ray copy. Continuing a feature found on the Blu-ray for the first film, Kid II provides an interactive component called Blu-Pop.

However, the scope of the sequel’s Blu-Pop didn’t extend as far as the presentation for the original film. The prior flick’s Blu-Pop mixed text commentary with picture-in-picture comments from actors, but this one just provides the pop-up factoids.

These give us notes about cast and crew as well as factual connections to the movie’s story and setting. We learn some minor tidbits here, but don’t expect a wealth of information.

A vintage featurette called The Sequel runs six minutes, 18 seconds. Created to promote the film in 1986, the show includes comments from producer Jerry Weintraub, director John Avildsen, and actors Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio.

They tell us a little about the story and that’s about it. The piece features lots of film snippets and no real information, as it exists to promote the film. Skip this waste of time.

The set ends with some Previews. This area includes ads for Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, Extraordinary Measures, Facing the Giants, and The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. No trailer for Kid II appears here.

While the first movie provided a pretty enjoyable underdog story, The Karate Kid Part II is a drag. Parts of it just rehash elements of its predecessor, and the plot tends to be so stale and hackneyed that it plods along toward its inevitable – and unsatisfying – conclusion. The 4K UHD gives us very good picture and audio along with some supplements. The film seems lackluster, but the 4K UHD brings it home in top form.

Note that this version of Karate Kid Part II appears only as part of a three-film 4K “Karate Kid Collection”. In addition to Karate Kid Part II, it includes Karate Kid and Karate Kid Part III.

To rate this film, visit the prior review of KARATE KID PART II