{"id":6337,"date":"2024-10-20T01:11:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T05:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6337"},"modified":"2024-10-20T01:12:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T05:12:07","slug":"fist-of-the-north-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/20\/fist-of-the-north-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Fist of the North Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Fist of the North Star<\/strong> (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Streamline Pictures\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (graphic bloody martial arts violence throughout, language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Toyoo Ashida\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Susumu Takahisa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Katsuhisa Hattori\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Tamio Hosoda\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 29, 1991 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast (English language version): John Vickery, Melodee Spivack, Wally Burr, Dan Woren, Michael McConnohie, Gregory Snegoff, Holly Sidell, Tony Oliver, Barbara Goodson, Jeff Corey.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0One critic in his review of Fist of the North Star<\/strong> referred to it as a \u201csplatter-toon\u201d due to the high amount of graphic violence and gore. That\u2019s what prompted me to see it. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving 1991. That day, I went to the Ritz theater at the Bourse with a friend to see City of Hope and Slacker. My decision to stay and watch Fist of the North Star<\/strong> afterwards was one of those spur of the moment things. My friend had to go to work so I was on my own for this one. That critic wasn\u2019t kidding; this thing is super-violent and bloody as hell. As you all well know, I live for this kind of movie. It goes without saying that I really enjoyed Fist of the North Star<\/strong>. It was cool! I didn\u2019t even care that the story made little to no sense.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I suppose that describing Fist of the North Star<\/strong> as a wild, blood-soaked ride is a better way of putting it. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the world has become a contaminated wasteland where survivors fight for food, water and survival. The main protagonist is Ken (Vickery) who holds the title of \u201cFist of the North\u201d. He practices a deadly form of martial arts that relies on the use of pressure points to defeat the enemy. It usually results in the defeated fighter\u2019s head exploding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While traveling with his fiancee Julia (Spivack), he\u2019s challenged to a fight by Shin (McConnohie), his former friend and \u201cFist of the South\u201d. Shin practices a different form of martial arts. Shin beats Ken and leaves him for dead, taking Julia with him. All the while, Ken\u2019s older brother Raoh (Burr) watches from a distance. He was always jealous that his youngest brother was chosen by their sensei Ryuken (Corey) to be \u201cFist of the North\u201d. After killing him, Raoh declares he will be the ruler of the new world.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A year later, Ken arrives back on the scene with the intention of finding Julia and killing Shin. He\u2019s become a lone wolf hero who protects the weak and innocent from bad guys. He teams up with Rei (Snegoff) who\u2019s looking for his kidnapped sister. The sister was kidnapped by Jagi (Woren), another one of Ken\u2019s brothers. It\u2019s Jagi who tells Ken where he can find Julia and Shin. Elsewhere, Raoh has amassed a huge army and plans to take over Shin\u2019s territory. Basically, it comes down to Ken rescuing Julia and fighting Raoh.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A lot happens in Fist of the North Star<\/strong>. I told you some but not all of it. The plot is all over the place. Yet it\u2019s never incoherent. Messy, yes. Incomprehensible, no. The animation is pretty good. It\u2019s crude but keep in mind it was made in the 80s. For me, the true selling point is the gore and violence. The fight scenes are also quite good. I say this, Fist of the North Star<\/strong> isn\u2019t lacking in the action department. There\u2019s plenty of that too. The characters are cool. It\u2019s not the best anime movie I\u2019ve ever seen but it gets the job done.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Staying to watch Fist of the North Star<\/strong> that Friday night 25 years ago was a good decision. It\u2019s a lot of fun.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fist of the North Star (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Streamline Pictures\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (graphic bloody martial arts violence throughout, language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Toyoo Ashida\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Susumu Takahisa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Katsuhisa Hattori\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Tamio Hosoda\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 29, 1991 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast (English language version): John Vickery, Melodee Spivack, Wally Burr, Dan Woren, Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Fist-of-the-North-Star-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6337"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6537,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6337\/revisions\/6537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}