Heartwarming / The Karate Kid Part II

Kumiko: Do you think [America] would love me?
Daniel: Well, I know one part of it that already does.

Nariyoshi Miyagi: My father, he ever tell you about how he feel when I leave?
Yukie: One time. He say he love you very much, and what you did was right.
Miyagi: Except for one thing. I should have taken you with me.

The Karate Kid Part II is a film all about the glory of love, whether that love is romantic, parental (for both actual and surrogate children), or in the form of repairing a life-long friendship.

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• The Cobras trying to protect Johnny from Kreese, and quitting en masse out of disgust. They may be Jerkass bullies but they do honestly care about Johnny. Cobra Kai 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 Papa Wolf instincts for his student's rival as he had for Daniel himself, and his Tranquil Fury when telling Kreese to let Johnny go is a sight to behold.
  • This event ensures that Johnny's Heel–Face Turn is real and permanent. Johnny learns more from Miyagi in 15 minutes than he ever learned from Kreese in several years. Even in Cobra Kai, 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 Neutral Female 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 Heel–Face Turn, 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.