Fist of the North Star

Rating:
Summary: Fists-ful of martial arts action
Review: British Kickboxer Gary Daniels has had a long and fantastic career in direct-to-DVD martial arts movies. He has ocassionally worked with Don "The Dragon" Wilson, and though most of his movie are petty good, they are generally made with budgets and production values that make Don's movies look lik they were made for millions.

Not being familiar with the FIST OF THE NORTH STAR comic books or animated series, I cannot judge this movie based on comic book standards. But I can judge it as both a martial arts fan and Gary Daniels fan, and from that criteria I can say without hyperbole.......
FIST OF THE NORTH STAR IS GARY DANIELS BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!

It's got a great story, plenty of martial arts, and an absolutely beautiful leading lady, Isako Washio. I can guarantee you will not find yourself bored during the non-martial arts scenes, since Isako is in most of them.

As for those martial arts combat sequences, well, let me just say that any action hero whose martial arts manuevers include literally blowing up his opponents with a series of speedy punches can make any movie work.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST FIGHTING ANIME EVER CREATED
Review: don't bother with any of the endless crap animated versions of this story... anytime fist of the north star comes up in conversation or pops into my head, i think of the excellent, flawlessly choreographed, and surprisingly well acted live action version with gary daniels as the dark martial arts hero. the only weakness of this straight to cable film is the slightly fake looking soundstages, but the colors and gothic, post apocalyptic overtones make these easy to overlook. the final sequence, in which daniels plows through a cadre of goons to reach mandylor's villain, is perhaps one of the greatest martial arts sequences ever captured on film, and the final confrontation between the two is theatrical and memorable. great, underrated stuff... a must own dvd for fans of martial arts, science fiction, and action films.

Rating:
Summary: The End?
Review: Here we go again. Kenshiro continues on his quest to rid the earth of worthless scum and uphold the honor of Hokuto Shinken. Heads explode and fists do indeed fly. Some of these episodes delve into Ken's past (a nice change) and we get introduced to his three adoptive brothers who all veying to be the true successor of their father's martial art "Hokuto Shinken".

As a nice bonus, you get a few extra episodes on this disc (compared to the previous 4). Still, one thing left me scratching my head..this isn't the end,not by a long shot! Yes I did check...Kenshiro still has a few more fights in him, but its up to Manga Ent to acquire the rights and put out the rest (quickly, let's hope).

Back to the DVD..audio and video are satisfactory. Obviously I recommend the Japanese language track with subs (hey, its the way it was meant to be!) Just sit back, relax and watch the Ken dispatch foe after foe with skill and the line "You are already dead". You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: The End?
Review: Here we go again. Kenshiro continues on his quest to rid the earth of worthless scum and uphold the honor of Hokuto Shinken. Heads explode and fists do indeed fly. Some of these episodes delve into Ken's past (a nice change) and we get introduced to his three adoptive brothers who all veying to be the true successor of their father's martial art "Hokuto Shinken".

As a nice bonus, you get a few extra episodes on this disc (compared to the previous 4). Still, one thing left me scratching my head..this isn't the end,not by a long shot! Yes I did check...Kenshiro still has a few more fights in him, but its up to Manga Ent to acquire the rights and put out the rest (quickly, let's hope).

Back to the DVD..audio and video are satisfactory. Obviously I recommend the Japanese language track with subs (hey, its the way it was meant to be!) Just sit back, relax and watch the Ken dispatch foe after foe with skill and the line "You are already dead". You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff yet bad animation
Review: I enjoyed this. It was on one of those starz movie channels and I got to see the first 4 episodes. It is alright. Ken, a.k.a. Kenshiro, is pretty cool. The boy Bart is a little out of place. He just shows up and trusts this strange martial artists who can kill guys with insanely weird moves. The girl also seems out of her element.

The fights are alright, but the juice of the episodes are the kills. Every episode has these weird deaths like "exploding fingers" or "your dead in 7 seconds from my fingers in your neck". Stuff like that happens.

The problem with these episodes is animation. There is only, mabye 2 scenes you can consider fights. Almost every other death is by some weird killing move that lasts a few seconds but requires 2 clips of animation. Then, instead of showing the actual guys fall apart, they make the screen all bright and you see the shadow of the guys go all squishy and fall apart. Not cool.

On top of that. There is so little animation that it is a little infuriating. It almost feels like the creators tried to use one frame at least twice. I remember seeing 6 cars speeding through a city. 2 cars sped across followed by 4 others. The 4 other cars were just clones of the first 2. You could clearly see the exact same people go across the screen 3 times. As I said earlier, the fights all involve one or 2 moves. A frame is one little shot of the characters. I'd say it takes about 5 frames for a character in Dragonball Z to punch someone slowly. There may be 10 different frames tops to one fight in this anime. It is almost pathetic.

Normally I don't have high expectations. I'm satisfied by even the lowest animation if there is a story or something interesting. I remember seeing tons of old animes that had bad animation but still kept my interest. This seriously though has to be some of the worst use of animating I have ever seen. If Ken wasn't so awesomely cool I would of given this DVD 1 star.

Rating:
Summary: Not for everyone
Review: I give it 5 stars because it is a great introduction to the series, and has some of the best episodes of the whole series. I really watch this disc often.

Fist of the Northstar is a violent japanese animated series, which takes place in a postnuclear western setting where only the strongest, and usually most brutal survive.

FOTNS starts with Kenshiro (the true fist of the northstar and main charactor) searching for his love Yulia, and old-friend (and kidnapper of Yulia) Shin. Kenshiro has seven scars making up the constelation of the big dipper on his chest which were given to him when Shin took Yulia away from him. On Kens journey he encounters and befriends two children who accompany him on his travels. They play a major role in the first 4 discs, and really help level out the story and violence with the humanity they bring.

During their travels they run across people (usually struggling farmers)who get bullied, robbed and killed by ruthless bands of super-strong villains who have no mercy (lots of really innocent people get murdered with brutality by motorcycle thugs). Ken usually gets their a moment to late to save some mom, old man, or child, but he always makes the villain die an explosive death. Ken is a Good man and he knows that the only way to stop the violence is to destroy the villains. There are always ranks of bad guys who Kenshiro must punch his way through, so your always waiting for him to get to the next stronger badguy.

On his way to get to Yulia and Shin (like 20 episodes), Ken uses his Hokoto shinken (misspelled) a special martial art passed on from father to son where by knowing how to press punch or kick certain power points on a body, you can manipulate the body to do what you want it to do. Kenshiro can heal but to his enemies he will probally explode their chest or face out, or cooler. Only one man on Earth can practice Hokto shinken at a time.

If you like horror/scifi/fantasy/comedy/animation, dont mind the gritty feel, and low quality compared to anime gems like Samurai x, Neon Genesis Evangelion, or Rahxephon. You should buy FOTNS (for $18 a disc at Bestbuy, or circuitcity). If you like movies like Army of Darkness, Road Warrior, Conan the barbarian, The Streetfighter, From dusk til Dawn, etc. buy this. If your a fan of great hip hop artists like Mf Doom (listen to most of his albums after watching series especially the 2003 releases ) El-p cannabal ox aesop rock, old Wu tang, Necro, buy this series. Musical taste really has nothing to do with you liking FOTNS though, I'm just saying you can see the influence throughout popular culture.

The only bad part about the whole FOTNS series is that around episode 22 or 23 on disc 4 another journey begins with a different new mission and mostly new charactors , it's still good after but the series could have ended there. Also at the end of the series on episode 35 on disc 5 the last episode of the series there is no conclusion, though disc 5 still follows the recipe found in disc 1 minus the humanity. If you don't mind recurring themes, some recycled content, and probally like 20-25 deaths a 20 minute episode average, and some of the funniest lines you've ever heard on a cartoon, coming from awful post-nuclear mohawked bad guys, buy disc one.

Rating:
Summary: Not for everyone
Review: It was a beautifully intricate blend of flavors that make this a classic. I laughed and cried at its beauty.......... The ecstacy is similar to the ecstacy felt that you would recive if you arrived in heaven, looked into god's face, and he said, "You, you are my most wonderous creation. Come, be with me." The most touching, heart felt, truly powerful piece that ever graced my vision. I would rather die than have not have seen it in its glory. The highest elation recived comes when watching this.........

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: It was such an epic, that it made me shed a tear or two. The drama rivals that of 'Gone With the Wind'. A must buy.

Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: Ok the Orignal Fist Of The Northstar movie was good for it's time. However, this real life remake is crazy good. I like the fact that even though this product seems to be made on a low budget they kept everything important intact. For example, this move has very artistic moments. The acting is very good and the storyline is even better than the orginal(even tough it basically is)this one makes the story easyier to follow. The one thing that made this movie almost impossible to make on this budget and at this time was Ken's strength. The moto "fists fly heads explode" translate to "fist fly why didn't his head explode". A true fan would say hey they tried, or at least this if humerious. Good job, you have done well!