It wasn’t just ‘Terminator‘ and ‘Back To The Future’  locations whilst Ethan and I were in L.A. as we also visited the apartment complex where Daniel and his mum moved in to at the start of the ‘Karate Kid’ (1984). It also featured in the sequel movies. The address is 19223 Saticoy Street in Reseda and we went here early in the morning on my birthday (the perfect present!) before hitting Universal Studios.

Below is the screenshot from the film and as you can see the place is not too different nearly 30 years after filming took place. Apart from the trees one difference is the apartment blocks entrance gate. Today it is an iron gate with a pin-code needed for entry but in the film it was a wooden gate which Daniel-san kicks open and promptly knocks over a fellow resident.

They walk up to Daniels new apartment passing by the swimming pool which his mum had been raving about. Sadly for them it was pretty much empty (below) whereas when I was there the pool was in fine condition.

At the bottom of the steps they meet the old woman and ‘Uncle Louis’ Dog’ who Daniel later brings down a bowl of water for.

Daniel’s apartment is at number 20 and is the first door on the left at the top of the steps. The rocky waterfall feature seen in the film has been replaced by a hedge.

The tap is not working in Daniel’s apartment so he goes to find the janitor by walking down the steps from his apartment and going down a little alley where he finds Mr Miyagi practising his chopstick skills (though not in the conventional manner!) in his workshop.

The picture below is where that workshop was which I guess was a temporary facade put up by the film makers. A security gate has been added.

The above photo are the bins where he dumped his bicycle following his second altercation with the Cobra Kai gang. To the right of that is the fence where the ‘skeleton’ fight scene takes place with Johnny kicking the sh*t out of Daniel before Mr Miyagi comes over the fence and intervenes giving the Cobra Kai a good kicking in the process.

Many thanks to the following sites: fast-rewind.com and cinema-astoria.com