Did Ralph Macchio have a stunt double? Did Sony buy Columbia? Why didn't the Japanese girls make it into III?
There isn't a pop song in earshot in II, instead an annoying overuse of Japanese flute, as we head to Okinawa, Myagi's old flame (and Miss Tokyo) Nobu McCarthy (Pacific Heights and much on TV) and a former friend who wants to kill him (Danny Kamekona), plus cute love interest for Kid Tamlyn Tomita (also lots of TV).
Then in III Macchio's filled out a bit, and we pick up with disgraced Cobra Kai leader Martin Kove and his nutty psycho millionaire buddy Thomas Ian Griffith, who becomes Kid's trainer, for a while. (There's some weird stuff with millionaire's personal secretary and chauffeur, who mysteriously disappear from the plot.) Kid has a completely platonic relationship (he seems to have less and less sex as the series continues) with Robyn Lively, and the pair go climbing into the Devil's Blender (or whatever it's called) to dig up Mr Miyagi's old bonzai - well we all know he's not going to be happy. Despite playing dirty, Kid naturally rises to the occasion and wins in the ring etc etc.
Sony bought Columbia in 1989. Avildsen takes co-editor credit on all three films. He made the Jack Lemmon film Save the Tiger before getting the Rocky gig, and IMDB claims he's lined up to film the new Karate Kid II, which is interesting, as he hasn't directed a film this millennium. (Harald Zwart did the first one in 2010.) In fact, as I now learn that Avildsen's been dead for four years, that doesn't seem very probable at all. To answer my own question, there was a female Karate Kid, Hilary Swank no less, in the 1994 The Next Karate Kid, also with Pat Morita, which doesn't have great ratings. There's also a three series sequel to the original films, Cobra Kai, reuniting Macchio and School Bully William Zabka.
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