To this day, whenever The Karate Kid fans hear Peter Cetera’s “Glory of Love”, it transports them back to 1986 when Daniel LaRusso was sitting across from Tamlyn Tomita’s Kumiko. She was just 19 then. 40 years later, she returned to the same universe when she reappeared as the same character on Cobra Kai season three on Netflix. As beautiful as ever.
When Cobra Kai premiered its third season on New Year’s Day, Tomita returned for a two-episode arc as an old and wiser Kumiko. But she did say yes to the part immediately. She had conditions that had to be met. “I said I would love to, this would be so fun, but the only caveat is that because I’m older, because I’m a little bit more knowledgeable, and I’m going to fight for it anyway — I need to be able to inject a truer picture of Okinawa,” Tomita revealed.
Born in Okinawa to a Japanese American father and an Okinawan Filipina mother, and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Tomita (60) leaned on her own experience and culture to bring the character to life again. And she did it so well, that is hardly feels like 40 years has gone by. Daniel even says it out loud during their reunion: “This is absolutely surreal. I feel like I haven’t seen you in five minutes, but it’s been 30 years.” Ralph Macchio later confirmed, “That is the truth. That was an honest piece of dialogue.”
Tomita has had a love/hate relationship with Kumiko over the years, as she struggled to break free from the typecasting. “It’s hard to break away from that because everybody wants to see more of the same,” she admits. There was a time she wanted to leave the character in the past, but today she embraces the part. “She is still an integral and important part of me, and I want to put her back on and say: ‘She still fits.’”
She’s even warmed up to the “Glory of Love” song. “Who else has an entrance song, first of all?” she joked in an interview.
Since her acting debut in The Karate Kid Part II, Tomita has appeared in plenty of hit films and shows, including The Joy Luck Club, Star Trek, The Good Doctor and she even did voice work on Disney’s DuckTales. But she’s avoided the stereotype roles.
She’s been around. In fact, PEOPLE magazine named her one of the world’s most beautiful people in 1991.
Nearly four decades after The Karate Kid Part II introduced her to the world, Tamlyn Tomita remains a standout presence, proving that her beauty, confidence, and screen appeal have only deepened with time.
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