The new season of “Cobra Kai” has finally been available on Netflix since yesterday, 9 September 2022 – and since the episodes are relatively short compared to other series hits such as “Game Of Thrones” or “Stranger Things”, many fans of the “Karate Kid” series have probably already watched some of the new episodes. But already in the first episodes, one name is mentioned again and again, which is attributed great importance for the current events: Kim Sun-Yung. But who is that anyway?
Those who know the “Karate Kid” films have probably heard the name before, but may have forgotten it by now. Because with Kim Sun-Yung, a familiar figure returns, but one who was only known from stories. Nevertheless, his influence on the lives of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), Terry Silver (Ian Thomas Griffith) and co. then and now is undeniable.
KIM SUN-YUNG: THE TRUE SURVIVOR OF “KARATE KID” & “COBRA KAI”?
Both in the feature films from the 80s and 90s and in the currently so successful series spin-off on Netflix, we get to know various antagonists – including, for example, Terry Silver, John Kreese (Martin Kove) and their cronies. Kim Sun-Yung, on the other hand, we never got to see. And yet he is partly responsible for the karate war between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai that has been going on for decades.
Kim Sun-Yung was a martial arts master who trained a certain George Turner in Tang Soo Do during the Korean War. And it was this same George Turner who, years later, passed on his knowledge to Kreese and Silver – teaching them to fight without honour and without mercy. After all, the Cobra Kai motto is not for nothing: Strike hard. Strike first. No Mercy.
The sensei known as Master Kim learned the Korean equivalent of karate at a young age and eventually encountered plenty of headwind among martial artists when he developed “The Way of the Fist” – a particularly brutal and unfair way of fighting.
But it’s not only Sun-Yung’s intellectual property that lives on in “Cobra Kai”. With Kim Da-Eun, played by Alicia Hannah-Kim, a blood relative of his is in the service of Cobra Kai: In season 5 of “Cobra Kai” we see his granddaughter as an instructor in Terry Silver’s dojo.
