Fist of the North Star

Original Title: 北斗の拳
Romanized: Hokutou no Ken
Literal: Fist of the North Star

Plot Synopsis

In the near future, a nuclear war destroys nearly all life on the planet. The few survivors wander the barren land either trying to avoid roving gangs of violent thugs that terrorize the land, joining the nation headed by the Fist of the North Star (a powerful and mysterious warlord), or falling victim to one or the other. A lone wanderer, Ken, travels the land searching for his lost love, Julia, but he knows that she is still with the man who took her from him--his own brother. Meanwhile, another powerful warrior, Rao, watches and waits for the moment to strike with his armies and claim the shattered remains of earth for his own. There can be no winner in this battle, but one thing is for certain: there's going to be a bloody lot of mayhem before the dust settles.

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-11-03

This notorious theatrical remake of the Fist of the North Star TV series boils all the martial arts mumbo-jumbo, post-apocalyptic drama, and over-the-top musclebound freaks beating each other to a gooey pulp of the original down into an abbreviated version of the seminal exploding-head-a-minute splatterfest romp. It tries (rather unsuccessfully due in part to Streamline's cheesy dub) to be more serious than the TV version, the viscera is executed (put intended) with an interesting sort of artistic flair, and there's a clunker of an cerebral ending thrown on top, but in the end the movie knows its audience is just waiting for the famous line "You're already dead.", and it serves it (and the subsequent popped crania) up with appropriate relish and glee.

Higher entertainment, Fist of the North Star is not, but it defined the splatterfest genre in the early years of modern anime in the US, and for 90 minutes of late-night heckling with some friends or fans of classic 80s gory anime, it's hard to go wrong with this film version of the genre-defining original.

US DVD Review

The DVD, one of the handful produced before Streamline disappeared entirely, is about as minimal as they come. It features a box, an English soundtrack, and not much else. There are no subtitles of any sort, no other soundtracks, the video transfer is a little rough, and it's not letterbox (though in fairness, I'm not sure that the movie was originally). Also, if you do find a copy somewhere, beware--the film transfer isn't horrible, but it is very shaky.

Content Guide

Violence, violence, and more violence make for an easy 16-up.

Violence: 5 - Despite how ridiculous it is, the sheer volume of gore stands alone.

Nudity: 1 - One very brief and undetailed shot.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Zip.

Language: 3 - Some crude language in the dub.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a 24-episode TV series that ran in 1984, which was in turn based on a long-running manga series.

One of the earliest Streamline releases, and hence among the first anime movies to reach the States. Note that there was a medium-budget live action version made in America in 1995. It probably cost more than the original to make, and may be better known in the US (though even when it was first released it was far from a mainstream blockbuster). In any case, it did about as good a job as you could expect in trying to live up to the original, but you can only do so much with live action. In an amusing bit of questionable casting, Kenshiro and Shin both seem to be Australian, while Julia is Asian. Go figure.

Availability

Was once available in the US from Streamline Pictures on dub-only VHS and DVD, both long out of print.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store