THE WISDOM OF ... Mr. Miyagi

12 years ago today, the beloved Pat Morita passed away at the age of 73. Indubitably his greatest role was that of Mr. Kesuke Miyagi in The Karate Kid movies.

In memory of Pat Morita (Jun 28, 1932-Nov 24, 2005), I am posting another entry in my "The Wisdom of ..." series.

Enjoy!

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Daniel: Hey, what kind of belt do you have?
Miyagi: Canvas. JC Penney, $3.98. You like?
Daniel: [laughs] No, I meant...
Miyagi: [laughs; then, seriously] In Okinawa, belt mean no need rope to hold up pants.
Miyagi: Daniel-san...
Miyagi: [taps his head] Karate here. 
Miyagi: [taps his heart] Karate here. 
Miyagi: [points to his belt] Karate never here. Understand? 

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[Daniel is about to have his first match in the tournament]
Daniel: All right, so what are the rules here?
Miyagi: Don't know. First time you, first time me.
Daniel: Well, I figured you knew about this stuff. I figured you went to these before. Oh great, I'm dead. I am dead. You told me you fought a lot.
Miyagi: For life, not for points.

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Miyagi: First, wash all car. Then wax. Wax on...
Daniel: Hey, why do I have to...?
Miyagi: Ah ah! Remember deal! No questions!
Daniel: Yeah, but...
Miyagi: [makes circular gestures with each hand] Hai!
Miyagi: Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out the mouth. Wax on, wax off. Don't forget to breathe, very important.
Miyagi: [walks away, still making circular motions with hands] Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off.

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Daniel: Hey - you ever get into fights when you were a kid?
Miyagi: Huh - plenty.
Daniel: Yeah, but it wasn't like the problem I have, right?
Miyagi: Why? Fighting fighting. Same same.
Daniel: Yeah, but you knew karate.
Miyagi: Someone always know more.
Daniel: You mean there were times when you were scared to fight?
Miyagi: Always scare. Miyagi hate fighting.
Daniel: Yeah, but you like karate.
Miyagi: So?
Daniel: So, karate's fighting. You train to fight.
Miyagi: That what you think?
Daniel: [pondering] No.
Miyagi: Then why train?
Daniel: [thinks] So I won't have to fight.
Miyagi: [laughs] Miyagi have hope for you.

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Miyagi: Now, ready?
Daniel: Yeah, I guess so.
Miyagi: [sighs] Daniel-san, must talk. [they both kneel]
Miyagi: Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later [makes squish gesture] get squish just like grape. Here, karate, same thing. Either you karate do "yes" or karate do "no." You karate do "guess so," [makes squish gesture] just like grape. Understand?
Daniel: Yeah, I understand.
Miyagi: Now, ready?
Daniel: Yeah, I'm ready.

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Miyagi: Your friend, all karate student, eh?
Daniel: Friend? Oh, yeah, those guys.
Miyagi: Problem: attitude.
Daniel: No the problem is, I'm getting my ass kicked every other day, that's the problem.
Miyagi: Hai, because boys have bad attitude. Karate for defense only.
Daniel: That's not what these guys are taught.
Miyagi: Hai - can see. No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher. Teacher say, student do.
Daniel: Oh, great, that solves everything for me. I'll just go down to the school and straighten it out with the teacher, no problem.
Miyagi: Now use head for something other than target.
Daniel: Hey, I was just kidding about that.
Miyagi: Why kidding?
Daniel: Because I'd get killed if I go down there.
Miyagi: Get killed anyway.

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Miyagi: Karate come from China, sixteenth century, called te, "hand." Hundred year later, Miyagi ancestor bring to Okinawa, call *kara*-te, "empty hand."
Daniel: I thought it came from Buddhist temples and stuff like that.
Miyagi: You too much TV.

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Daniel: [after seeing Miyagi practice the crane technique] Could you teach me?
Miyagi: First learn stand, then learn fly. Nature rule, Daniel-san, not mine.
Daniel: Where'd you learn it from?
Miyagi: Father teach.
Daniel: You musta had some father, man.
Miyagi: Oh yes.

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Daniel: When do I learn how to punch?
Miyagi: Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home. Understand?

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Daniel: Where am I, this ring over here?
Miyagi: Hai. Number three.
Daniel: What's that guy kneeling like that for?
Miyagi: Don't know.
Daniel: Don't you know anything you can tell me?
Miyagi: Hai. No get hit.

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Daniel: I don't know if I know enough karate.
Miyagi: Feeling correct.
Daniel: You sure know how to make a guy feel confident.
Miyagi: You trust the quality of what you know, not quantity.

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Miyagi: [Daniel has just gotten his driver's license and Miyagi has given him a car for his birthday] Just remember, license never replace eye, ear, and brain.
Miyagi: [notices Daniel has suddenly gotten quiet] What matter?
Daniel: I'm just scared. The tournament and everything.
Miyagi: You remember lesson about balance?
Daniel: Yeah.
Miyagi: Lesson not just karate only. Lesson for whole life. Whole life have a balance. Everything be better. Understand?

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WORDCOUNT

(This section I will not add towards November's tally as well as the header picture and video I made above... I will only use hand-drawn pictures or animated GIFs I've created towards Nov's NaNoWriMo totals):

It looks like I made my goal of 50,000 words via text and pictures towards the National Novel Writing Month/NaNoWriMo. Although I had a secondary goal of blogging everyday which I was not able to accomplish, but with NaNoWriMo, the ultimate goal was to blog regularly.

This post: 919
November running tally: 69,079 words
Words in excess of NaNoWriMo's 50,000:  19,079

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IN MEMORY OF: Pat Morita (June 28, 1932 – November 24, 2005)

8 years ago today, Nov 24, 2005, beloved actor Pat Morita left us. He died at 73 from complications coming about from his alcohol addiction which he could never beat. Probably best known to the world as "Mr. Miyagi", instructor to Ralph Macchio's "The Karate Kid".

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December 12, 2005
Vol. 64No. 24

Pat Morita: 1932-2005
By Mike Lipton

The Karate Kid's Mr. Miyagi Broke Barriers as a Stand-Up Comic and Prolific Actor but Lost a Lifelong Battle with Alcoholism

When Pat Morita first auditioned for what would be the role of his career—The Karate Kid's Yoda-like martial-arts mentor Mr. Miyagi in 1983—producer Jerry Weintraub rejected him, fearing he was too well-known as diner owner Arnold from TV's Happy Days. But Morita wouldn't give up. He grew a beard, adopted his uncle's Japanese accent and did a screen test. "When Jerry saw it, he said, 'That's what I want—a goddamn actor,' not realizing it was Pat," recalls Morita's wife, Evelyn.

Sadly, there was one goal Morita never could attain: sobriety. "He said, 'I tried. I can't do it. I'm an addict,'" says Evelyn, who was with him at a Las Vegas hospital Thanksgiving morning when he died at 73 of complications from alcoholism.

His battle with the bottle was one of the few that managed to daunt Morita, who broke out in the '60s as the first mainstream stand-up comic of Japanese-American descent. "He had a comic hipness," says Happy Days star-turned-film-director Ron Howard. "He was a cool guy, and he had a lot of wisdom. He'd seen a lot of life, and it wasn't always pretty. Yet he never [talked about] it with any anger or bitterness."

Born Noriyuki Morita, the son of immigrant farmworkers in California, Morita was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis at age 2, after his legs became paralyzed. For the next nine years, he said, "I was in a cast from my shoulders to my knees." Experimental surgery in 1942 restored his ability to walk, but instead of going home from the Catholic-run sanatorium where he recuperated (and where one of the priests named him Patrick), he was sent with his family to an Arizona internment camp for Japanese Americans during WWII. "I went from being an ailing child to a public enemy," Morita said.

After the war, Morita, who had three daughters (Erin Rodda, now 50, Aly Morita, 35, and Tia Morita, 30) by his first two wives, went to work at his parents' Sacramento restaurant. "He honed his comedy skills [bantering] with the customers," says Happy Days costar Anson Williams. "He felt good putting smiles on people's faces." One acquaintance, talent agent Sally Marr, the mother of Lenny Bruce, encouraged him to become a stand-up. Morita would slyly send up racial stereotypes. "He'd come out and say, 'Jeez, these lights are so bright, they make my eyes squint,'" recalls Evelyn. "He was trying to show the absurdity of such slurs and the bigoted people who need to use them," says his friend George Takei (Star Trek's Mr. Sulu).

After guest shots on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and sitcoms like M*A*S*H and Sanford and Son (where he befriended star Redd Foxx), Morita became a regular on Happy Days. The Karate Kid (for which both he and costar Ralph Macchio had to take a six-week cram course in karate) earned Morita an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. But it was just one of more than 70 films in which he appeared, including Thoroughly Modern Millie (his 1967 screen debut), Honeymoon in Vegas and Spy Hard. Not even his drinking slowed his work pace. Last year third wife Evelyn, who married Morita in 1994, put him in rehab, but "he relapsed big time," she says. "[The doctors] warned him if he continued to drink, he would die."

After being hospitalized on Halloween, Morita developed a severe bladder and urinary tract infection. The night before his death, "he said, 'Evi, you have to let me go. I gotta go home now. I gotta be with Redd Foxx and all those funny guys up there in the sky,'" says Evelyn. "He had a huge heart, and he was the love of my life, and he will forever be missed."

Mike Lipton Howard Breuer in Los Angeles

Contributors: Howard Breuer.

Copied from People.com.

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For more information:

• IMDB
• Wiki
• NY Times - Pat Morita, 73, Actor Known for 'Karate Kid' and 'Happy Days,' Dies

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Brandon Lee in the TV show "Ohara"

Did you know Brandon Lee was on an episode of Pat Morita's TV series, Ohara? 

Here is the full episode!

Enjoy!

As with all who pass away so early in their life, such potential, such promise ... gone. You are missed.

RIP Brandon Lee

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