Christopher Cain directs Pat Morita, Hilary Swank and Michael Ironside in this soft reboot of the Eighties teen martial arts series where Mr. Miyagi is back and he takes a new pupil under his wing: a troubled adolescent girl.

Didn’t bother with this as a teen… Was it direct to video in the UK? How was I supposed to know Hilary Swank would grow up into an Oscar darling? Adequate… good villain from Ironside. He runs a fascist teen death squad to keep his high school / college in order. Little Walton Goggins is one of his mid ground hench kids. The one that occasionally has flickers of humanity on his face. There is a Free Willy subplot involving an injured eagle. Swank wears some LA Gears. Clutch the straws, relax the brain.

5

Perfect Double Bill: The Karate Kid Part III (1989)