You think Karate Kid is trash? Meet Karate Warrior

Teenager Anthony flies to the Philippines to visit his father, an ex-journalist turned full-time loser. When his father uncovered the dubious machinations of a large corporation and was threatened with trouble from business and politics, he demurred and preferred a lazy life in Manila after his divorce. Anthony could go on picking on him, but he meets the pretty Maria at the market, with whom he falls in love immediately. Trouble arises when bully Quino demands the monthly protection money from Maria's parents. Anthony plays the hero, but gets beaten up in the worst way. Left behind in the jungle, he is picked up by the monk Kimura. He once introduced Quino to the high art of deadly blows, but now he deeply regrets it. He counts on poetic justice by making Anthony his new student. When Anthony is able to beat up a watermelon with his eyes closed, the time has come to give bad guy Quino a good beating.

Director Fabrizio De Angelis, who already presented us with The Killer Alligator, a first-class Jaws rip-off, is once again inspired by Hollywood and shows us his homage to Karate Kid with Karate Warrior. The plot is very much based on the first two Karate Kid movies with the difference that the action has been moved to Manila. Apart from that, the story about a boy who falls in love with a girl, first gets beaten up by a villain before he strikes back stronger, is very generic. Nevertheless, especially trash lovers should take a look at this brawler movie, which is shot against an exotic backdrop.

The arrogant Anthony seems unsympathetic throughout, especially when he argues with his father about his misdeeds. As the hero of the movie he has a very bad standing. Why Maria gets involved with this know-it-all American, who tries to land her with cheap junk from the local market, remains a mystery, at least she never tires of mentioning several times how powerful and dangerous Quino is, which Anthony always denies, until he lies in the jungle with a bloody nose. Apart from that, you may wonder why there are karate tournaments in a boxing ring in the Philippines, why Anthony knocks out an innocent cow with his death punch at the end of his training or how it amuses to see some of the extras staring into the camera.

Janet Agren, our beloved heroine from the Umberto Lenzi cannibal firecracker Eaten Alive, plays a rather insignificant supporting role as Anthony's mother, who has little qualms about her son spending several days with a strange old man in the jungle, even though she has just arrived from the US to take care of her son who was beaten up by Quino. When Anthony's father sees his son beating up the evil Quino in the ring, he suddenly discovers his balls in his pants again and wants to return to the US to work as an investigative journalist again. At the side of his ex-wife, of course. An unusual but effective way of family therapy. It's hard to understand that the movie had five more sequels after that. The Karate Kid had just three sequels...

The shorter US version is available separately on the UK Blu-ray

The UK Blu-ray contains the uncut Italian version and the US version of the film. The audio selection is a little bit limited. The US version has only the English sound, while the Italian version has only the Italian sound, each with optional English subtitles. The US version is a good three minutes shorter and lacks some dialogue in the scene when Anthony picks on his father, furthermore the complete scene in which Anthony and Maria walk through Manila is missing, whereas Maria doesn't get tired to mention just how threatening the evil Quino is.

The question arises why the director didn't offer the uncut version with English sound and subtitles for the missing scenes. The problem is that the movie was probably first edited and then dubbed, because in the English version you can partly hear the dialogues that were cut a little bit later. If the missing scenes would now be shown with subtitles, the viewer would hear some things twice. You may ask critically if this would have been noticed at all, since otherwise you would hear some things several times.

It's hard to say which version is recommendable. The US version impresses with its sloppy dubbing, which makes the movie a little bit more fun, while in the Italian version Anthony picks on his father for a longer time and walks around the market with Maria. Also two super amusing scenes. If you are interested in bad movies, then you probably can't avoid to watch both versions. The picture quality of the UK Blu-ray is quite good, the price is right, so that you can easily buy it.

Runtimes:

US version: 85:20 min.
Italian version: 88:23 min.

The US version was compared to the Italian version. Both are included on the UK Blu-ray by 88 Films.

[00:16:12][00:16:12]

In the Italian version, the dialogue between Anthony and his father Paul continues as they work on the motorcycle. Anthony justifies the reason for his trip with the fact that he wants to find out what happened to his father.

Anthony: "She says we must follow family traditions. We've been Harvard graduates for four generations. You're part of this tradition too. The articles you wrote used to make people talk all over the country. What happened to the man that used his pen to fight the injustice in the world? That's the reason I'm here. To understand what happened to my father. My father. The person I admired most in the whole world."

IT: 48 sec.


[00:16:19][00:17:07]

The Italian version cuts to Anthony, then to Paul as he explains what happened to him.

Paul: "One day, that famous journalist everyone knows about found out that a huge company was building a nuclear plant..."

IT: 9 sec.


[00:16:42][00:17:40]

Paul goes on to talk about his fight against the influential company he has taken on.

Paul: "He wrote a series of articles and even managed to bring the company to court. That's when the trouble started. You see, that company was a behemoth. It wasn't just rich and powerful, but its men knew how to play dirty and destroy a reputation."

IT: 19 sec.


[00:16:57][00:18:13]

Paul comes to the end of his story, which ends in his failure and escape to Manila.

Paul: "They perpared a scandal. I fell for it like a fool. Long story short, that's why I'm here. A useless special news correspondent in the Philippines."

IT: 18 sec.


[00:17:07][00:18:42]

Paul can be seen a little longer. He gets to finish his sentence.

Paul: "[The truth is you always have to know who you're squaring up against] ...if you don't wanna find yourself tilting at windmills."

IT: 1 sec.


[00:17:11][00:18:47]

In an additional dialogue, Anthony gets to the heart of why his parents got divorced.

Paul: "If I hadn't been so naive I'd have never lost your mother and you."
Anthony: "No. You lost mum because you stopped tilting at windmills and not because you've been defeated once."

IT: 12 sec.


[00:21:12][00:23:00]

Anthony and Maria walk longer through the streets of Manila and also stroll through a market. Maria makes it clear that Quino is a very strong fighter and it is better not to mess with him.

Maria: "Quino is a strong karate warrior. He was a student of the great Master Kimura."
Anthony: "Okay, maybe a great master taught him karate but how could you be afraid of someone just because he knows martial arts? There's no more samurai in Japan, let alone in the Philippines."
Maria: "Quino is much feared."
Anthony: "Feared because he trained with this old guy Kimura? Come on, give me a break."
Maria: "Kimura is considered a legendary warrior here in the East."
Anthony: "If you say so."
Maria: "Kimura has been the greatest karate teacher of the last forty years."
Anthony: "Is having been taught karate by him enough to scare everyone?"
Maria: "Kimura has an almost godly reputation. His former students are considered invincible."
Anthony: "It sounds crazy, everyone can be beaten. Nobody is invincible."
Maria: "Quino is. You must stay away from him."
Anthony: "I'm not afraid of him."
Maria: "You should be. Courage is not enough to challenge Quino. It's getting late, we'd better go back. Tomorrow you'll understand my words."

IT: 1:10 min.


[00:59:38][01:02:36]

In the Italian version, we see Kimura and Anthony a little earlier.

Kimura: "Now listen, my boy, [I'm going to teach you things I've never taught anyone.]"

IT: 2 sec.


[01:04:18][01:07:18]

While Anthony is training blindfolded with the watermelon, the Italian version cuts to Kimura.

Kimura: "Quino will try to kill you."

IT: 3 sec.