MovieChat Forums > The Karate Kid (1984) Discussion > What was the deal with Mr Miyagi and tha...

What was the deal with Mr Miyagi and that filthy swimming pool?

posted 5 years ago by FootOfDavros (8702)
9 replies | jump to latest

Was there some deep hidden meaning behind the run down state of that pool?

Mr Miyagi was after all the handyman for the apartment block. Seems to me he could have had it fixed and up and running no problem. Yet he chose to leave it in that crummy state...

Was it a metaphor for Mr Miyagi's own broken life? And if so should the film have ended with Daniel-San and Mr Miyagi dive bombing - hand in hand - into the newly restored pool (freeze framed mid-air)?

[–] wearsalan (5554) 5 years ago

Maybe the pool needed money spending on it and the owner didn't want to or couldn't afford to spend money on it.
The pool is fixed by the time Cobra Kai series comes around so it only took about 34 years

[–] FootOfDavros (8702) 4 years ago

Just reached that point in Cobra Kai now. It's brutal.

The pool looked fantastic! I think seeing it in that state hit Daniel San real hard though, like all at once he realised that Mr Miyagi could have fixed it back then as easily as he did his bike.

The realisation that he could have been spending his youth poolside with some Reseda honeys instead of doing hard manual labor and putting his life at risk pulling roots out of cliff faces is so hard for him to overcome he takes to daytime drinking with his sworn mortal enemy to try and wash away the pain.

[–] wearsalan (5554) 4 years ago

Yeah....a nice pool would do that.

[–] Obifuntoknowme (1149) 4 years ago

LOL

[–] strntz (12773) 4 years ago

Handymen take care of pools for daily maintenance, but if there was a defective filter pump, filter housing, underground leaks in the piping, then the filter would be shut down until a pool company came out and replaced/repaired the defects - assuming the property manager or property owner wanted to spend the money.

[–] PaladinNJ (21772) 4 years ago

For all we know the owner may have told him not to fix it. Remember in KK3, Miyagi came home to find himself out of a job because the owner sold off the property.

[–] strntz (12773) 4 years ago

Also true. Pools are *expensive*.

My brother had his in-ground shut down because of a split PVC pipe. They had to jackhammer the concrete deck to get underneath to fix the pipe, then repour a new deck.

[–] Who (5146) 4 years ago

Because he couldn’t figure out a way for Daniel to do it. Skim the leaves and Change the Filter are better suited for Bojutsu training than Karate.

[–] ncdwbmk6 (81) 4 years ago

Show me ... Skim-a leaves!
SHOW!