When I was a teenager I was into the cute Asians girls so I would definitely have chosen Kumiko as she was also a reason I preferred re-watching the second part rather than the first. The third movie I think I only saw once and I don't think the girl in there was really his girlfriend, just a girl for one or another reason separated from her boyfriend. I guess they wanted to have Kumiko in the third movie but it didn't work out so they had to find some other solution. Since Daniel had girlfriends in the previous movies they put in another girl. To be honest both Ali and Jessica were so uninteresting that I forgot their names already while I'll never forget Kumiko. Also Chosen was as Daniel's rival meaner than Johnny or that guy what's his name from the third. Chosen woul defo have been a great horror villain, like an evil Bruce Lee!

Yeah I thought Okinawa was a much more interesting setting than the US for a karate kid movie. They went to Asia for the remake but it's quite ridiculous when it wasn't about karate but Kung-fu. And don't let me get started about Will Smith's son playing the star.

While it's maybe weird that a 27 year old Machio could still play a teenager well he still had that babyface look so it worked. And I guess you meant Jessica Andrews, Julie Andrews is of course the famous Mary Poppins and Maria from Sound of Music ;)

I dunno if you remember those action figures they made from the Karate Kid? I used to have Miyagi. If I remember correctly a friend of mine had Johnny and that bad boy from the third. Too bad they never made a cute Kumiko doll (or not that I know of) as I would so have wanted it even if it looked like a Barbie doll

edit: What do you think about The Next Karate Kid with Hilary Swank? I thought the movie wasn't too bad and I found Swank convincing as the tomboyish troubled teenager. I guess the problem was that people were comparing it a lot to the previous karate kid movies and that it was basically a rehash of the same story but this time with a girl instead of a boy. Swank might not be pretty she is a darn good actress, especially in 11:14 she rocks.