While critics have slammed the original 1984 Karate Kid for being “too white,” Ralph Macchio, who starred as Daniel LaRusso in the film, rejected the claims, saying it was actually “ahead of its time.”
“People have said it’s a very white cast, that it didn’t dive into the Asian story,” Macchio, 60, told Stellar Magazine. “But I always say this: The film was ahead of its time because it was a popcorn movie that talked about Japanese internment camps during World War II.”
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Macchio, 60, said the film was progressive for the time, noting a scene in which Mr. Miyagi, played by co-star Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, revealed he lost his wife and son in one of the internment camps.
“Pat himself spent two years in the camps,” Macchio explained. “So it had double meaning and some depth.”
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Macchio also starred in two Karate Kid sequels and is currently playing Daniel as an adult in the show Cobra Kai.
