Hokuto no ken (1986)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Toyoo Ashida

Writers:

Buronson (comic)
Tetsuo Hara (comic)

Release Date:

27 September 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

After a nuclear holocaust tears the world apart, mankind is forced to the harshness of not only the oppression of others who are much more powerful...

Plot Keywords:

Nuclear Holocaust | Teacher Student Relationship | Blood | Kidnapping | Cut Into Pieces

Cast

Akira Kamiya	...	Kenshirô
Yuriko Yamamoto	...	Yuria (Julia)
Kenji Utsumi	...	Ken-Ô (Raoh)
Chikao Ôtsuka	...	Jagi
Toshio Furukawa	...	Shin
Kaneto Shiozawa	...	Rei
Tomiko Suzuki	...	Rin (Lynn)
Teiyû Ichiryûsai	...	Bat (Bart) (as Mie Suzuki)
Arisa Andô	...	Airi
Junji Chiba	...	Ryûken
Hidekatsu Shibata	...	Zeed
Junpei Takiguchi	...	Heart
Takeshi Aono	...	Fox
Hiroshi Ôtake	...	Jackal
Daisuke Gôri	...	Uighur

Also Known As:

Fist of the North Star

Runtime:

Spain:105 min | USA:110 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Spain:13 | Iceland:16 | USA:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Company:

Toei Doga

Trivia:

Ryûken's speech regarding the nature of life and death, which opens the English dub, is quoted verbatim by Jeru the Damaja on the intro to his classic album The Sun Rises in the East.

Quotes:

Ryûken: [Opening the doors] Ryûken, the fist of the north star has been defeated. Shin crushed him as he would an insect. When you chose Ken as your successor, I told you that it should have been me and I was right! Stand up, I'll prove it to you! I challenge you to a test of strenght!
Ryûken: Physical strenght is no substitute for perception. For perception is the key which unlocks the intangible powers of the spirit. You perceive nothing.
Ken-Ô: You silly old fool. Stop hiding behind your metaphors and metaphysical fantasies. The fist of the north star is dead!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spin off Last Battle (1989) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Heart of Madness

The best Fist Of The North Star there is

I've just got through watching the first 36 episodes of the TV series of Fist Of The North Star on DVD and until a couple of days ago i thought the TV series came after the movie. The movie comes after the TV series. I have to admit that even though the series has more info and detail about the fighting styles etc i think that the movie is slightly better. It has better animation, better voice acting (in English) and is less repetitive. I watched the movie just over ten years ago and was quite literally blown away by it. It has action, adventure, comedy, gore, thrills, spills and for those people disgusted by the sex scenes in Urotsukidoji you'll be happy to know that FOTNS is sex free.

FOTNS is obviously to some extent based on Mad Max but a heck of a lot better. Only thing that bugs me (just like the series) is that the gore scenes are usually blurred or we see peoples shadows exploding. Kind of annoying. Also there seems that there are a few gaps in it which makes me wonder if there has been a scene or two edited out or cut down (atleast in the UK version).

I'll quickly give a brief summary of the story. It's about a guy called Ken who must get his girlfriend back from his former best friend Shin who beat up Ken, kidnapped his girlfriend and left him for dead. Ken walks through the barren wasteland (it's set after a nuclear war) and kills bad guys with his style of fighting. If he punches anybody they explode shortly after. In the meantime his eldest brother Raoh has amassed an army and is trying to conquer the world. There are also a couple of sub plots. One has this guy called Rei (or Ray?) looking for his sister and is also looking for the guy responsible for kidnapping her.

All this leads to an explosive finale. Fist Of The North Star along with Urotsukidoji is my favourite Japanese anime movie of all time. A definite must see but avoid the American live action film. That sucked the big one for sure. This great anime gets a perfect 10/10 from me.