Fist of the North Star (1996)

Very disappointing...

Just what I expected

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Harshly slammed by unforgiving critics on its release, FIST OF THE NORTH STAR is actually a reasonably entertaining adaptation of the popular Japanese graphic novels and anime from the 1980s, which gets by on a low budget and has plenty to offer in look, sound and feel. The comic-book level of the film works through some nicely-portrayed settings which depict a post-apocalyptic society. Despite such ruined, burnt-out settings being widely familiar through such films as the MAD MAX series and dozens of others, they make for an effective backdrop for the violent action which this film offers, complementing a fast-moving action-based story which never lets up from the very beginning.Our heroic lead is portrayed by British-born martial artist Gary Daniels, here performing well in a role which may be his best ever – although judging by the rest of his filmography, that's not really saying much. Daniels is excellent as the exiled Kenshiro, with years of hard training having paid off to give him a sculpted, imposing physique. Not too sure why a Brit was chosen to play a Japanese man, but the gamble pays off and Daniels is one of the best things the film has to offer. Unfortunately his pretty-boy adversary, Costas Mandylor, isn't much of an opponent and his evilness tends to be lacking at crucial points. Better attention is given to lower-list scumbags like the ubiquitous Clint Howard as gun-toting bike rider Stalin (who disappears halfway through the film) and Chris Penn, who has a ball as the extremely weird and aggressive henchman, Jackal.The rest of the supporting cast isn't given much of a look in (aside from an annoying Japanese teenage character who is thankfully bumped off before too long) but there are a surprising amount of familiar faces here – Melvin Van Peebles as an old-timer, MTV presenter Downtown Julie Brown as a fierce fighter, and genre pro Malcolm McDowell making one of his cameo appearances, a presence that always lifts the level of a film. The dialogue is pretty monosyllabic and hardly enlightening, but thankfully the film does work on the action-orientated level at which it attempts – and with gusto.For the few who don't know, the original characters of Kenshiro and Shin were blessed with super-normal abilities which allowed them to easily break apart mere mortal opponents. Such powers here take the form of bone-breaking punches and kicks, and a special move that Daniels performs which makes the heads of his opponents bubble and swell before exploding in a grisly fashion. His opponent, Shin, instead prefers to perforate the chests of his enemies by literally sticking his fingers into them, leading to much blood spray and carnage.Yes, you guessed it, FIST OF THE NORTH STAR is an exceptionally violent movie, but like the (superior) STORY OF RICKY, the violence is portrayed in a rubbery, comic-book style so it never seems shocking or disturbing. The martial arts work is great, especially from Daniels, although the cameraman does use bad angles sometimes which make it clear that the kicks and punches aren't connecting. This flaw is eased by some splendidly meaty sound effects work to enhance the battles, and as a whole the kung fu doesn't disappoint. Not a great movie, but not a bad one either. Pretty good fun in all respects, actually.

This was a pretty lame effort to stay faithful to the original if you ask me (if that is even what they were going for); whoever said it was loyal to it's source doesn't know what they are talking about. Mind you, the cartoon movie was quite a hash up itself compared to the series (or comic!) and can be hard to follow if you don't already know the story, so if that's all they decided to go on then you can't really blame them too much. Compared to the original story, though, I have to say that the characters were all weak; the bad thug guys don't look mean enough (but they sure were ugly enough!); the main characters are not tough (ahem,super- human?) enough; the kung fu is not ridiculous (or, oxymoronically, believable) enough; Julia is not beautiful enough and to top it off, I'd have to say that Kenshirou's master Ryuuken is not really "zen" (or bald) enough either (and what's with that weird zombie scene?!). All that said and adaptation-shmadaptation aside......the fight scenes still sucked, the directing was bad, and the acting worse... I'm reeaaally sorry, but you should probably just watch something else!!

Take Malcolm McDowell who dies quickly, rather like the plot of this film. He is the only star in the film. I did recognise Chris Penn but I don't know what I've seen him in before, possibly Reservoir Dogs. Wrestling fans may recognise a brief appearance by Leon White also known as WCW and WWE Superstar Big Van Vader. His fight scene is most likely the best and well organised fight in the whole film.This is a manga comic or anime film that has been made into live action and it was obviously a really bad idea.No script, bad story, really bad acting and some really bad fighting scenes. I really wish I hadn't bothered watching it.

I was really disappointed with this film. I saw it back in 1996 on the Sci-Fi channel and remembered it being not half-bad. Upon watching it again, I found it to lack many things. I never watched the Anime or read the comics because I am just not into that stuff, but, from what I have read about it, the Anime sounds like it wipes the floor with this poor production.Kenshiro is the hero of the story played by Gary Daniels for some reason. It's funny, I thought Kenshiro was suppose to be Asian, but whatever. Lord Shin, the lead bad guy also played by an American, kidnaps Kenshiro's girl Juliet and leaves Kenshiro for dead after brutally injuring him. What you think would be a classic good vs. evil story gets very boring as nothing happens until the end, and at that point you have already lost interest.I had thought this movie was going to be extremely violent due to the fact that the Anime is suppose to be viciously violent, but, this movie lacks any real action or violence, minus about 3 or 4 scenes. Instead, what we have is a movie that feels like the end of a really bad Trilogy that doesn't exist. Perhaps, if the movie were cast better and had a decent script it would have worked better. And Tony Randel as director was very disappointing considering this is the same guy that directed Hellraiser 2 (one of my all time favorite films).The only plus side of this movie was a pretty decent soundtrack and Chris Penn. The soundtrack was very good considering the movie was very boring. Chris Penn did a cool job with his character and was probably the only real highlight of the film.I guess I need to watch the Anime, even if I don't really like Anime. I would suggest staying away from this movie only if you really like Gary Daniels. 4/10