haildevilman
Starts with the apocalypse.Then just gets bleaker.The violence starts off slowly. First with a duel between friends over a woman. Then we see the oppressive regime brutalize innocents. That's when our wandering hero steps up.The oppressors gruntwork is done by guys that look like the Road Warrior had a baby with a Punk Rocker. Huge muscles too. They bully a little girl (with a mental gift) and that's when the tide turns.Ken (Yeah....that's the good guy....in the original Japanese version anyway) starts seriously taking names.A few quick hits, and in one case, a flamboyant series of kicks, causes these guys to literally explode. Or fall apart like cold cuts.The violence really gets going then. The final half hour seems like they were trying to fit as many kills as possible. Each one more creative and nastier than the last. It of course is heading toward a duel. And not what you think either.VERY violent. VERY gory. And the holocaust like setting will be a downer for some. This is NOT NOT NOT for kids that's for sure. But horror/sci- fi fans will love every massive second of it. Just remember the fantasy element.A live version was released......not worth going there.
josepharake
Its so deep,profound and overall accurate on everything it portrays.listen to Ryukens opening speech on the meaning of life-it sets the tone for the whole film.The music score rules-in a weird Japanese,experimental kind of way.Ken is so rock hard, yet pure of mind and full of perception.Rao is everything Ken is-with one fundamental flaw-he lacks humanity or as the film calls it perception. Best Line-Even Julia put up more of a fight than this,so did Ryuken, our dear,departed father.He's dead Ken,i KILLED HIM!That line makes Ken more angry than ever before.Why does Rao get him so worked up?Because now the final contest is at hand!
killbison
Hmmmm Fist of the North Star is a tough one. I love the film, because it is essentially an amalgam of popular action films. Ken is essentially a suped up Mad Max/Bruce Lee character, in a Mad Max environment, with the ability to explode heads like a Scanner. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as seeing a Japanese take on films that are essentially foreign makes for an interesting experience. Contrary to popular belief, there is a plot, albeit a fairly straightforward one, but I think that it was definitely sidelined in favour of the graphic violence. This violence is usually the biggest problem for non-fans, as they can't see the humour behind it. The main purpose of Fist of the North Star, in my opinion, is to question the nature of violence on television, as when seen in animation, the most horrific scenes of gore can appear quite funny. Otherwise it's good fun, and Kenshiro is one of the all time Anime greats, a rebel in a world gone wrong. I love Fist of the North star, but it definitely needs to be seen with a pinch of salt.
fibreoptic
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.
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