Production
All the interior and exterior high school scenes were filmed on the Brookline High School campus, except for the scene in the gymnasium. The exterior shot is the Brookline High School gym, but the interior was Cousens Gymnasium at Tufts University. Other scenes from the movie were shot in the Boston area. For example, the scenes at Julie's house were filmed in nearby Newton.
The first three movies in the series, which featured Ralph Macchio as Daniel, were set in Los Angeles. In this movie, the setting is changed to Boston.
Because Hilary Swank could learn the advanced "flashy" moves and had trouble with the beginner moves, Pat E. Johnson, the martial arts choreographer, awarded her with a "Pink" belt, a mix of the white (beginner) and red (the one just under black in that particular style).
In all the four movies, the reunion scene is the only time Miyagi actually wears his Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is worn on a silk ribbon around the neck, not pinned through a jacket. The only other neck order issued by the United States is the Legion of Merit.
Conforming to the title changes of the first, second and third Karate Kid films for their releases in Japan, The Next Karate Kid was renamed Best Kid 4 (ベスト・キッド4/Besuto kiddo 4); the major and obvious change is that this movie's translated title now explicitly identifies it as the fourth in the series.
John G. Avildsen, the director of the first three films in the series, dropped out of this one in favor for 8 Seconds. As a result, Christopher Cain took over in the director's chair.
The Next Karate Kid is the only film in the series where screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen, who had written all three of the others for the screen, did not have a writing credit.
Read more about this topic: The Next Karate Kid
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“It is part of the educator’s responsibility to see equally to two things: First, that the problem grows out of the conditions of the experience being had in the present, and that it is within the range of the capacity of students; and, secondly, that it is such that it arouses in the learner an active quest for information and for production of new ideas. The new facts and new ideas thus obtained become the ground for further experiences in which new problems are presented.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally to be nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)