‘Karate Kid Part II’ Turns 40: Ralph Macchio Interview

Ralph: One of my treasured relationships, besides with Pat Morita, is with Tamlyn Tomita, who played Kumiko. 

As the years went on, I felt there was more story for Daniel and Kumiko. It’s special to me personally because Tamlyn is such a good friend, and creatively because those characters have this innocent, honest, beautiful love story. 

People to this day ask me, “Who do you think Daniel LaRusso should have wound up with?” Taking nothing away from the Cobra Kai journey and my great friendship and creative work with Courtney Henggeler, who portrayed Daniel’s wife so perfectly in the series, I always felt it made the most sense that Daniel and Kumiko would wind up together. 

When they made Part III, the concept was “let’s get back to the valley.” I always questioned how they could leave Okinawa, Yukie, and Kumiko behind. Fortunately, in Cobra Kai, we got to weave those characters back in.