Hokuto no Ken: O Filme

Fun big-screen adaptation of the classic manga and anime series. Much more graphic violence than the TV series could get away with. Most of the popular characters are there with the notable exceptions of Toki and Mamiya. However, Streamline Pictures' dub destroyed any remnants of story in this movie. It makes no sense at all; it never even bothers to explain what the Hokuto Shin Ken style is all about. Even if you don't speak Japanese, rent that version instead. It will still make more sense than Macek's dub.

I love violence on screen. This movie satisfied that to the extreme. This is the most violent movie possibly EVER released. A lot of people hate this film because it is a blood fest with "no point", but you have to understand, the point of the movie is to MAKE FUN of the whole thing. Now, I'm also a big fan of comedy, and this movie satisfied the comedy WITH the violence! It's genius, because so few people see this. Add to that, an intricate story line that follows through and makes sense. The movie is all about going from big, powerful guys and gruesome death scenes to more and more and more gruesome death scenes and more powerful guys. The writing is excellent (and funny!). Like I said about comedy, the death scenes are made to make you laugh, the writing and speech are designed almost so that you can predict what's going to happen before it does! Then the speech becomes like a punch line. e.g. "A fight to the death, then!" "You're already dead." and "Hey. These belong to you?" You have to watch this movie to know what I mean, of course. Heh heh. the music is good, and the English dubbing is awesome. The voices are perfect. The drawing style is great, too. The huge muscles small heads approach (trust me, it is VERY realistic) is hilarious, yet cool looking. Rent it at Blockbuster video under the animation section or action / kung fu. One gripe: the ending (the last like 2 minutes) sucks. Corny love / regrowth stereotype there.

I have to add, the funniest moment in any movie EVER in the world is in this movie. It is the scene where Shin kills his own trusted commander. PLEASE watch this movie so you can agree with me. The punch line effect of the writing and the animation is so subtle, so superb. I was laughing for hours (slight exaggeration. Slight.) The only thing wrong with this movie is that it is under infinity hours long.

This movie rocks. I have seen a fair share of anime, but I'm not as hard core as some of the purists who don't like this movie. Regardless, this is the best anime film I've seen. The animated action is tremendous. I did see the dubbed version, and I'm sure it is better with subtitles. Nevertheless, there are some classic lines in this movie that had me rolling.

"Death is something to be savored like fine wine... but if you are so impatient I must kill you now, so be it" excuse the inexact quotation;

This movie is all about bad ass fighters. You see one character and you think, wow that dude can kick some ass... he is bad ass. Then a new character comes along... no wait a minute THIS guy is bad ass... then another character... my mistake, THIS guy is bad ass. The heirarchy of power in this movie seems to have no limit. I think this film is much more artistic and creative than much of the pure porno anime that makes up the genre. If I want to watch porn I prefer real life to animation. This movie explores the full potential of drawings in motion.

"You are already dead!"

As a fan of Manga films i have seen a fair few and if i was to have a top 10, Fist of the North Star would come a close second. It is not Uncommon for the Manga industry to make ultra violent films. In fact, most Manga films will have a dark theme or two somewhere in it. I find that there is a certain proportion of Manga that is gory, sadistic or just plain wrong for the sake of it. Eg, Urotsokodoji 1, 2 & 3. Fist of the north star could easily have become one of these had it not been executed with such style and class. This is definitely a defining moment for the anime generation. If you like that style and haven't seen this film yet then you need to stop what you are doing, get some cash and buy it right now.

A Billion out of ten

Adapting first part of fist of the north star is a difficult task because most of the time it follows this pattern - kenshiro arrives at settlement, raiders arrive at settlement, raiders pillage the settlement, kenshiro blows them up without so much as breaking a sweat, rinse and repeat until kenshiro confronts shin, it's almost like trying to adapt a video game. So how about we add part two to the mix ? But this creates another problem because part two is opposite and has a lot more going on - finding rei's sister, defeating jagi, finding toki (which got cut), "defeating" raoh and helping with rei's bucket list (which also got cut). This results in scenes being heavily rushed because they were plots of entire episodes like for example fight with shin or scenes being spliced with other ones which is much better and more interesting alternative. Very important locations, plot points and characters got cut like aforementioned toki which is much more important character than jagi (which weirdly enough got his confrontation before shin in this version) or the whole town of medicine city. Honestly this movie, while still somewhat good, is too abridged, it should have been only the first season and jagi storyline and maybe even then it might be too much.