The Karate Kid: 40 Years On

John G Avildsen's popular underdog story celebrates four decades

Credit: Sony

Warning: Contains spoilers

I didn’t see The Karate Kid in the cinema. I was nine at the time, and more interested in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). But I caught up with it on video about a year or so later, and it became an instant favourite. Rather amusingly, it also became a film the evangelical church my parents attended show…