Yahoo Lifestyle 'Cobra Kai' Star Alicia Hannah-Kim Praises Her Character's 'Empowered' Ending (Exclusive)
Sensei Kim Da-eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) only appears in three of the final five episodes of Cobra Kai, but her first appearance is a doozy. "I send Grampy on to his next life," actress and martial artist Hannah-Kim says in an exclusive interview with Parade. She's being humorous, sure, but she's not actually kidding. Her character kills her grandfather, Kim Sun-yung, rather than follow his order to off a redeemed John Kreese.
Related: Martin Kove Reveals an Alternate Ending for John Kreese in 'Cobra Kai' (Exclusive)
"That's a very complicated decision for her, and I think one that he actually approves of and has been grooming her for since she was a kid," she tells Parade. "It's Sensei Kim finally, really coming into her own and being free of her grandfather, of the karate war that's got nothing to do with her. [She's] letting it all go and and realizing that she's going to stand alone and do it her way and forge this path. It's a very sort of empowering thing for a female founded dojo."
That her character ended on such an "empowered" note was important to Hannah-Kim given that she was the lone female Sensei on the show.
"I think she was unhappy with with the way her life was going, and it was really tied to the other men in the franchise," she explains. "And so for her to step away and be her own woman was a really powerful way to, you know, honor the only female Sensei in the story."
With Cobra Kai behind her, Hannah-Kim says there's nothing she'll miss more from the show than the atmosphere on set. "I've been on many different sets," she says. "Cobra Kai is just the warmest and most fun."
"There's a lot of in-jokes, a lot of silly things going on behind the scenes. And it doesn't really feel like work. I mean, it feels like work, actually, when you're spending six or seven hours beating someone up. But ... you know, in school, when you're there with a bunch of your friends, and you're all like talking shit and having fun? That's what it's like."
Related: 'Cobra Kai' Has the Perfect Ending for True Fans of 'The Karate Kid'
Perhaps the only person she felt bad for on set was her stunt double—Hannah-Kim wanted to do all of her own stunts, and so each day, the double would get dressed up only to watch from the sidelines. "I did every single one of my own stunts except for one fall ... and that was just to prevent me getting injured," she says.
Reflecting on what it's all meant to her, she can't help but feel proud. "When I was little and I would watch, you know, Michelle [Yeoh], doing what she was doing, I was like, 'I want to be like this.' So it's a cycle, and I'm just happy to be part of the the continuum of storytelling."
Cobra Kai is now available in its entirety on Netflix.
