I watched the first two Karate Kid movies practically on repeat one summer. I'm reasonably certain that I wore out that pair of tapes. Revisiting the movies on Blu-ray, I quickly realized that I'd never seen them in widescreen, just VHS. As a result, I have no standard for comparison in terms of "theatrical" picture quality. Needless to say, there were various little visual details that I'd never picked up on before. I don't share the kind of "Godfather III"-level hatred of The Karate Kid Part III as some of my friends do, but I don't miss it nearly as much as I would "Kid II" if it'd been missing.

Also, unlike various friends, I'm not freaked out about the remake, and in fact welcome it. The keeping of the title bothered me until I saw the international trailer that explained it. Now it only sort-of irks me. I dig the premise, since it links the disadvantaged kid sticking up for himself with the broader globalization and outsourcing facing the modern working world. I'm also an unapologetic supporter of putting Jackie Chan in the Miyagi role.

As reviled as he is by critics for the Hollywood paycheck jobs of his that they've been subjected to, I like him for things like The Shinjuku Incident, The Myth, and The Forbidden Kingdom. Even though I don't have time to put it together in time for the release of the new movie, I'm putting together a career retrospective on Chan. It'll cover everything from well-known to less-known stuff and hit later in the year. The Ozu thing is going so well that I've decided to make these retros an ongoing thing, pacing them such that they never fall behind and, most importantly, continue to interest me.