(artwork by Sam Gilbey)
Last year Gallery1988 hosted an exhibition called ‘say hi to the bad guy’ in LA, and I wondered what if would be like if the Cobra-kai had commissioned a promotional poster at the height of their badassery. The poster was sold in a limited edition, and seemed to be received pretty well at the time. You can see it in more detail here.
Cut to this summer, and Gallery1988 got in touch to say that Sony would like to use the artwork on a reissue of the original Karate Kid movie on blu-ray. It was like taking an unexpected crane-kick to the face (without the obvious telegraphing of Daniel-san standing on one leg in front of you) and it was certainly one of those emails that demanded to be read a couple of times before it could be taken in. The artwork need to be rearranged somewhat for the more compact aspect ratio, and a title was added, but then it was ready to go.
It’s one of 16 iconic films that Sony are re-releasing on blu-ray as part of ‘Project Pop Art’, each with a new illustrated steelbook cover from an artist that’s contributed to a Gallery1988 exhibition. I’m incredibly flattered that they thought to put my artwork forward, and equally humbled that Sony chose it. There’s so much good work out there, and so many talented artists, so this really as an honour, especially considering how much I love the movie.
The Karate Kid was a big part of both my childhood and then later during university, where it was an important shared pop-culture reference at the karate club. In fact one year I remember we even used screen-grabs and quotes from the films on posters trying to recruit new members. I was a serious (Shotokan) karateka for the best part of a decade (although I guess not that serious seeing as I’ve stopped now and only battle pixels these days, but that’s for another time). In any case the movie certainly had something to do with igniting my passion for martial arts in the first instance, before I discovered the cinematic delights of Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and numerous others, and before I tried my hand(s and feet) at the real thing. It turns out that ‘Sweeping the leg’ in a tournament really isn’t that big a deal by the way.
Anyway, Ralph Macchio personified the ultimate movie underdog teen, and Noriyuki ‘Pat’ Morita flawlessly embodied the mysterious wise master archetype as Mr. Miyagi in his Oscar-nominated performance. Daniel-san clearly didn’t have the best Karate technique, but that attitude of practising something ad infinitum until it becomes instinctual is really the goal of any artist, martial or otherwise, so there’s a nice parallel there too.
So what started out as a simple news post turned into something bordering on existential there, so I’ll simply wrap it up now with the following: you can order the blu-ray now at Best Buy!
http://samgilbeyillustrates.tumblr.com/post/101249009099/limited-edition-karate-kid-blu-ray-steelbook-cover
