Amazon#17: The Karate Kid Part III (novelisation)

"Make his knuckles bleed"

Link - 5 stars.

John G. Avildsen's existentialist melodrama is given a surprisingly coherent treatment in this novelisation by B.B. Hiller - like all good novelisations, it's enough to make you doubt if the film really came first, or whether the film was an adapted screenplay of this dense, symbolist tome.

The third episode is far bleaker than the previous installments, and communicates this with ease. Here, there are no silky 'soccer' skills from Daniel-san - and no hilarious ice-smashing contest taking place in America's idea of what Okinawa should be like - they return to find their apartment complex being torn down, symbolising their return to a USA that is deformed, stark, and with an almost prophetic sense of the looming spectre of terrorism that will soon be visited upon it's shores and mountains.

The main difference in the book is the wealth of material on the character of Noel Gardner, surprisingly cut from the film itself - he is more deity than man, and his narrative takes up the first third of the book. It's him that's concerned about the way the world is heading, it's him that organises the repeat karate tournament, and he is responsible for giving Daniel-san a bye into the final for being a previous champion (incidentally, I've written to the FA about incorporating this into the FA Cup - I've had no reply so far) in a desperate attempt to halt the decline of Western civilisation that is symbolised so eloquently by Mike "The Bad Boy of Karate" Barnes. For some insane reason, he was not featured in the film, and is replaced by a bizarre love interest that seems to disappear without anyone noticing.

I believe that it's these bizarre ideas that has stopped this trilogy being recognised as a modern classic - and it so nearly could have been. However, because the novel gambles and succeeds, it is rightly regarded as a triumph.