Sunday, December 10, 2006

7:03 PM 

Nobody Puts Miyagi In The Corner

Men and women eh... they're so different, aren't they? Ask a man what his favourite film is and he'll beat his chest, start a fire, and say something along the lines of Godfather or Karate Kid. Ask a woman, and she'll tilt her head, twirl her hair around her finger, get all dreamy-eyed and pipe "Dirty Dancing!" in her high pitched lady voice. And that is pure fact; EVERY woman's favourite film is Dirty Dancing WITHOUT exception.

But are Karate Kid and Dirty Dancing really *so* different? They seem to have startling similarities...
  • Let's face it, both of the films are about learning an art. Daniel learns karate, Baby learns to dance. Dance 'dirty'
  • The lead characters from both are strangers in a new land, alone and unfamiliar with their surroundings
  • Both focus on the teacher-student relationship, as Miyagi and Johnny are both masters of their craft who impart knowledge to the protagonists. Both have the line between teacher and student being crossed and wandering into romance. This was shown outright in Dirty, but was merely implied in Karate
  • Class divide. Both films had a sense of overcoming the boundaries between the haves and the have-nots. Larusso (the quintessential TV dinner and ketchup muncher) was trying to win the affections of Ali (whose stock was of Country Club, horses, Republicanism and shagging the pool cleaner). Same as Dirty, where the well-to-do family of Baby would never dream of letting their darling child slum it with the STD-ridden Johnny. They'd much rather she went for their arranged choice, the slimy hotel manager (change with Abi and Lawrence in Karate)
  • Both have a move. Laurusso practiced his crane kick to win the All Valley Championship (which he totally didn't deserve by the way, the other guys were way better and could have whooped his chump ass on the street). Baby practiced her lift manouver, the only difference being that she didn't win anything by doing it
  • Both have a memorable soundtrack; "And I've had, the time of my liiiiife" will get most pissed-up twenty/thirty-somethings into a frenzy on any dancefloor despite the fact it SUCKS. Conversely, everyone remembers "You're the best, around, nothing's gonna ever keep you down!" from the tournament montage in Karate Kid.
So there we have; with the superficial differences aside, we essentially have the same movie. Maybe men like the same stuff as women, but with added karate.



Next week: why the directors cut of Aliens is a futuristic version of Pretty Woman.
Leave a comment     ::

 

 

 

    

 

 

That was incredibly funny!

"You're the BEST!
around!"

Damn, I am looking forward to Aliens and Pretty Woman! You've promised us, now you have to deliver...

That photomashyshoppy things of Daniel and Baby made me wee a little bit!
posted by Blogger T-Bird  


Cheers T! You've put me under a bit of pressure now for next week. In reality, if any film is like Pretty Woman then it's Dunston Checks In, except Julia Roberts is slightly less physically attractive than Dunston.
posted by Blogger skillz  


Predator and Brokeback Mountain.

Now there's two movies that are almost identical.

I'm also looking forward to Aliens Vs Pretty Woman
posted by Blogger Tim  


Awesome. I think you captured the essence of the movies even better than Patrick Swayze singing "she's like the wind."
posted by Blogger Dinah  


Erm, at the risk of disagreeing with you (something I NEVER thought I'd do), I would rather eat my own head than watch Dirty Dancing. Give me Karate Kid any day, though Fight Club is my favourite film. I haven't seen Pretty Woman. Erm, sorry. Cough.
posted by Blogger iPandah  


Timbo - yet to see Brokeback, but I'll keep and eye out for a mini-gun and guys dry shaving their heads when I do.

iP - We're not supposed to talk about that film! Though in saying that, I did (in context) use the line "three pitchers of beer and you still can't ask" the other day to a friend.
posted by Blogger skillz  


That reminds me, Top Gun is actually a film about a man's struggle to find his sexuality...
posted by Blogger Florance  


That's not true Flo! I wish people would stop saying that.. He was shagging blondie! And Goose was married to Meg Ryan!
posted by Blogger skillz  




 
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