More than miyagi the pat morita story series#
Morita was the life of any party, a ray of sunshine in any room he entered, but sadly suffered from a debilitating disease that sidelined his career and surely caused much personal strife.ĭirector Kevin Derek does a solid, straightforward job of mixing archival clips of Morita during his nascent years as a stand-up comedian and guest star on sitcoms footage of Morita as Arnold on “Happy Days” and the lead on the short-lived series “Mr. Miyagi to life in four “Karate Kid” films in the 1980s and 1990s and was nominated for best supporting actor for the first in the series, died in 2005, but his legacy lives on through those movies and in the Netflix series, which has introduced the wise and strong and funny and wonderful Miyagi to a whole new generation of fans.īut there was much more to Morita than his most memorable role, as evidenced in the title of the documentary “More Than Miyagi,” a lovingly compiled tribute to a groundbreaking comedian and actor who was adored by his colleagues and loved by the fans - but wrestled with alcoholism for decades, eventually succumbing to symptoms brought on by the disease. Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, the man who brought Mr. All the interviews revolve around that one central point: The mark that Pat Morita left on people’s lives is a legacy of kindness, and More than Miyagi is a testament to that.Love Project Films presents a documentary directed by Kevin Derek. In spite of his issues with alcoholism, everyone talks about what a kind and gentle person he was. There a joys and defeats, happiness and sorrow, but in the long run Morita left his mark. It is the story of a very human person’s life.
There isn’t much by way of rising and falling action in this movie. After five auditions he landed the most pivotal part of his life, the part that would earn him an Academy Award, and the part that would pigeon hole him again. Miyagi, Morita had to really prove that he had the acting chops to play a character that wasn’t a goof on his own race. Originally passed over for the part of Mr. Through his work in television he was proving himself a competent actor (even getting his on sitcom briefly) but the typecasting that he had experienced in his early television career kept him pigeonholed. Soon he found himself on television variety shows (which there is incredible archival footage of), and then on the sitcom Happy Days. There were some really dark things, the film’s producer Oscar Alvarez told Yahoo Canada. Starting with stand up, and billed as “The Hip Nip,” he found ways to work around the racism that surrounded him by using self effacing humor and not being afraid to play into and against stereotypes. A manuscript written by the late Karate Kid star Pat Morita, sharing his life story in his own words, was the catalyst of an inspiring but heartbreaking documentary More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story. That discrimination became a jumping off point for a life in comedy and acting. After the war his parents opened a Chinese restaurant for two reasons, first because Chinese food was more popular than Japanese food, but also to avoid the discrimination that the Japanese faced after the war. Spending nine years in the hospital, he was transported as a child to an internment camp for the Japanese during World War II. His early life was plagued with an illness that made it so he couldn’t walk for years. He is show as a man that was happy, that wanted to be the life of the party, who cared about his family, but who couldn’t conquer his addiction to alcohol. Featuring interviews, with friends, families, costars and himself, the portrait that is drawn of Morita is kind if some what bittersweet. In this documentary, lovingly finished, by Morita’s wife we get to learn about his past, the ups, and the downs of his career. His poignant story of military service, and personal loss perpetuated by the country that he served. His gentle, but grumpy grandpa way of teaching karate. There is no way to deny the power that Pat Morita’s portrayal of the humble karate sensei is one of the most recognizable characters from the 80’s. More than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story – 2021
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