History Heartwarming / TheKarateKid

!''Film/TheKarateKid1984''
* At the beginning of the film, Daniel brings a bowl of water for the old lady's dog to drink, establishing him immediately as a NiceGuy. Bonus points since Ralph Macchio is a dog lover in real life.
* The beach party scene:
** When Ali sees Johnny and the Cobra Kais arriving at the beach, she kicks away the ball she and Daniel were playing with so he'll go away to fetch it, knowing that Johnny's jealousy is going to cause trouble and wanting to get Daniel as far away from him as possible.
** Daniel steps in to defend Ali, who he has only just met, when he sees Johnny harassing her and taking her radio.
** Although Freddy and his friends abandon Daniel for getting beaten up by Johnny, Ali tries to comfort him and later thanks him for standing up for her.
* When Daniel asks what kind of belt Mr Miyagi has, the old man makes a joke about it being "Canvas, JC Penney, $3.19" and how "In Okinawa belt mean no need rope to hold up pants" and laughs. Then...
--> '''Mr Miyagi''': Daniel-san. Karate here [''taps his head'']. Karate here [''taps his heart'']. Karate never here [''gestures to his belt'']. You understand?
* Daniel's birthday celebration at Mr. Miyagi's home shows that Daniel is much more to Mr. Miyagi than just a student. When he takes him to the driveway where he keeps his collection of cars and simply says, "choose", the look on Daniel's face is nothing short of amazing.
-->'''Daniel''': You know, you're the best friend I've ever had.
-->'''Miyagi''': You... pretty okay too.
* The relationship between Daniel and Ali. Their first date at Golf n'Stuff (shown in a romantic montage) and how she serves as his cheerleader in the tournament.
* At the All Valley Tournament:
** Bobby desperately and sincerely apologizing to Daniel for injuring him after Kreese orders him to. A DeletedScene shows that Bobby is so disgusted by this that he quits Cobra Kai on the spot.
** Mr. Miyagi cradling and soothing Daniel after Bobby injures him. If you listen carefully, you can hear Miyagi telling Daniel "Daniel-san, Miyagi here, okay?!" as a way of comforting him.
** When Daniel convinces Mr. Miyagi of his need to face Johnny in the final, Miyagi pulls out his famous HealingHands to give Daniel his shot at the final. He also confirms his belief in Daniel's chances of winning, despite Johnny's massive advantage in experience, and of course he is ultimately proven right.
--->'''Daniel:''' Mr. Miyagi, you think I had a chance of winning?\\
'''Miyagi:''' Win, lose, no matter.\\
'''Daniel:''' That's not what I mean.\\
'''Miyagi:''' Hai. Had good chance.
** When the tournament announcer mispronounces Mr. Miyagi's name, Daniel makes sure to correct him, in stark contrast to how Daniel himself had mispronounced it earlier.
** After spending most of the film acting like a total JerkJock, Johnny makes a HeelFaceTurn, first by his obviously upset reaction to Kreese ordering him to attack Daniel's injury, then by humbly presenting the trophy to Daniel himself and hoisting him up along with the others. He proves Mr. Miyagi's philosophy 100% right: "No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher".
--->'''Johnny:''' You're alright [=LaRusso=], [[DefeatMeansFriendship great match]]!
** After Daniel wins the tournament, he yells "Mr. Miyagi, ''we'' did it!", giving his mentor equal credit for his victory.
** Miyagi beaming at his student's triumph is all the real reward Daniel needs and the ''perfect'' final image for the audience. Director John G. Avildsen considered it so heartwarming that the moment they were finished filming, he decided to simply end the movie on that note, not bothering to film the originally planned ending which would later be used as the opening of ''Part II''.

! ''Film/TheKarateKid1984''
* Miyagi and Daniel's entire relationship, especially when you take their backstories into account. Daniel lost his father seemingly not long before the trilogy began, and Miyagi lost his wife and son while he was serving in World War II, so the two of them essentially are the family to each other that they couldn't have.

* When Daniel asks what kind of belt Mr Miyagi has, the old man makes a joke about it being 'Canvas, JC Penney, $3.19' and how 'In Okinawa having belt mean no need rope to hold up pants' and laughs. Then...

* Daniel's birthday celebration at Mr. Miyagi's home in the first film shows that Daniel is much more to Mr. Miyagi than just a student. When he takes him to the driveway where he keeps his collection of cars and simply says, "choose", the look on Daniel's face is nothing short of amazing.

* The first film, just seeing Miyagi beaming at his student's triumph is all the real reward Daniel needs and the ''perfect'' final image for the audience.
* Johnny's total HeelFaceTurn, humbly presenting the trophy to Danny himself and hoisting him up along with the others.
** It fits in with a subtheme of the movie: "No such thing as bad student; only bad teacher"

* Mr. Miyagi cradling and soothing Daniel, after his leg is injured by Bobby- who even apologizes for hurting him. If you listen carefully, you can hear Miyagi telling Daniel "Daniel-San, Miyagi here, okay?!" as a way of comforting him.
* A subtle moment at the beginning of the film, when Daniel brings a bowl of water for the old lady's dog to drink. Bonus points since Ralph Macchio is a dog lover in real life.

! ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII''
* The Cobras trying to protect Johnny from Kreese, and quitting en masse out of disgust. They may be JerkAss bullies but they do honestly [[VillainousFriendship care about Johnny]]. ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that even after the original dojo went under, the core gang stayed best friends into their adulthood.
* Mr. Miyagi saves Johnny from Kreese, even though he had fought Johnny himself to protect Daniel. Miyagi shows the same PapaWolf instincts for his student's rival as he had for Daniel himself, and his TranquilFury when telling Kreese to let Johnny go is a sight to behold.
** This event ensures that Johnny's HeelFaceTurn is real and permanent. Johnny learns more from Miyagi in 15 minutes than he ever learned from Kreese in several years. Even in ''Series/CobraKai'', where Daniel and Johnny have reignited their feud, this remains mostly true. As much as the two of them fight in that series, we never see Johnny speaking ill of Mr. Miyagi or his legacy, nor does Johnny ever tolerate his students taking up the rule-breaking and dirty fighting of Kreese's Cobra Kai. He even punishes his students when he hears about Miyagi's Medal of Honor being stolen. In season 4, when Johnny complains that Miyagi-Do is boring, he humbly shuts up when Daniel reminds him of how Miyagi saved him.
* Miyagi cheers up an angry Daniel after his disastrous prom and break up with Ali by giving him a new meditation exercise to take his mind off it.
* Mr. Miyagi has Daniel help him on an extension to the house. When Daniel asks him who it's for, he says a "refugee" from Fresno. He planned to let Daniel stay with him for two months while Daniel's mother took a business trip out of town.
* Daniel begs Miyagi to let him come along when he goes to Okinawa to visit his dying father, on the grounds that, "When I need you, you're always there for me."
-->'''Airline Employee:''' Young man, the plane is boarding.
-->'''Miyagi:''' ''[smiling]'' Young man coming with us.
* Daniel comforting Miyagi after his father's death shows us that flip-side of their relationship, and that Daniel can be just as much of a guiding light and support system to Mr. Miyagi as Miyagi is to him. He finds the perfect words to show that he understands Miyagi's pain and alleviate Miyagi's guilt about missing so much of his father's life after running away from Okinawa.
-->'''Daniel:''' You know, when my father died... I spent a lot of time thinking I wasn't such a great son. Like maybe I could have listened more... spent more time with him together. I felt so guilty... like he did everything for me and I didn't do anything for him. Then one day I realized, I did the greatest thing for him before he died. I was there with him... and I held his hand... and I said good-bye.
* The love stories between Miyagi and Yukie and Daniel and Kumiko:
** The entire conflict of the film started because Miyagi and Yukie fell in love even though she was arranged to be married to Sato. After Miyagi tried to break from Okinawan tradition by publicly proclaiming his love for Yukie, he was forced to flee Okinawa to avoid a fight to the death with an enraged Sato. Upon returning to Okinawa decades later, Miyagi fully expects that Yukie will have long since married Sato, only to be informed to his shock that she refused an chose to remain a spinster rather than marry any man other than Miyagi.
** Miyagi and Yukie have an impromptu tea ceremony. As Kumiko puts it, "They're re-kindling their relationship, Daniel-san." Kumiko later performs the same tea ceremony for Daniel.
** Miyagi admits to Yukie that he has only one regret about leaving Okinawa.
--->'''Miyagi:''' I no take you with me.
** Daniel invites Kumiko to return to America with him. When she is hesitant, asking if America would love her, Daniel replies "I know one part of it that already does."
** In the climax, Daniel doesn't hesitate to enter a fight to the death with Chozen, who appears to be leagues above him in karate prowess, to save Kumiko's life. Kumiko, for her part, completely averts the NeutralFemale trope by immediately intervening in the fight to help Daniel. Chozen knocks her out with one punch, but the effort is admirable.
** Daniel and Kumiko end the movie in each other's arms, as Miyagi smiles proudly.
* Miyagi shows up just when Chozen has dared Daniel to break all six blocks of ice. Miyagi, instead of getting them out of there, places ''six hundred dollars'' on a bet that Daniel can do it. His proud grin afterwards also counts.
* After the typhoon in which Sato learns the true heroism of Miyagi and Daniel, Sato comes with a work crew to rebuild the village and asks for Miyagi's forgiveness for all the trouble he caused. To that, Miyagi warmly responds, "Oh Sato, nothing to forgive."
** Daniel then seizes the moment to ask Sato if they can hold the dance in the castle. Sato says to Miyagi, "Your student has become my teacher," and announces that it will be held there, now and forever. On one condition: That Daniel joins them. They shake hands and share a sincere smile. Daniel and Kumiko head off together with their arms around each other.
* During the typhoon, Daniel saves a little girl who got caught in the local tower during a typhoon which triggers both Sato's HeelFaceTurn, going so far as to insist on helping Daniel, and his rejection of Chozen. Later, in a local celebration Daniel attempts to follow the little girl as she performs a traditional dance...
-->'''Daniel''': If not for you, I'd have made a lot more mistakes.
-->'''Girl''': If not for you, I no be here!
** While Miyagi and Daniel are rescuing Sato, the latter screams a bunch of insults at Miyagi, assuming he's come to kill him. Instead, Miyagi just chops through the board holding Sato down, and says, "I've got you, old friend."
* At the end of the dance, Miyagi, Sato, and Yukie are seen sitting together.
* During Daniel and Chozen's final fight, when it looks like Daniel is going to lose, Miyagi and the rest of the audience use little Okinawan drums to show Daniel they support him and to remind Daniel of the drum technique Miyagi had taught him earlier, which Daniel promptly uses to beat down Chozen and win. Finally Daniel proves that he has taken Mr. Miyagi's pacifist teachings to heart by sparing his defeated enemy just as Miyagi did with Kreese at the start of the film.
** Notably, the second person to take out their drum is Sato, who earlier pleaded for Chozen to stop what he was doing.

Works with their own pages:

! Works with their own pages:

** Daniel then seizes the moment to ask Sato if they can hold the dance in the castle. Sato says to Miyagi, "Your student has become my teacher," and announces that it will be held there, now and forever. On one condition: That Daniel joins them. They shake hands and share a sincere smile.
* During the typhoon, Daniel saves a little girl who got caught in the local tower during a typhoon which triggers both Sato's HeelFaceTurn, going so far as to insist on helping Daniel, and his rejection of Chozen. Later, in a local celebration Daniel attempts to follow the little girl as she perfoms a traditional dance...

* The Cobras trying to protect Johnny from Kreese. They may be JerkAss bullies but they do honestly [[VillainousFriendship care about Johnny]] and quit en masse out of disgust. ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that even after the original dojo went under, the core gang stayed best friends into their adulthood.

* The Cobras trying to protect Johnny from Kreese. They may be JerkAss bullies but they do honestly [[VillainousFriendship care about Johnny]]. ''Series/CobraKai'' shows that even after the original dojo went under, the core gang stayed best friends into their adulthood.

* After she tries to kill a cockroach, Julie makes amends by showing one of the monks a grasshopper she's holding (also a bit of a meta funny moment, considering the other [[Series/KungFu1972 famous martial artist/monk named "Grasshopper"]]). The monk gently places it in a tree, and they smile at each other.

! Meta
* RealLife example: During Creator/PatMorita's funeral procession, Creator/RalphMacchio gave a brief eulogy and ended it with, "Forever, my Sensei".