# fist of the north star (1986 film) ![[hokutonoken(1986moviepamphlet).jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: toyoo ashida written by: susumu takaku based on: fist of the north star by buronson tetsuo hara produced by: ken ariga - yoshio takami starring: akira kamiya - kenji utsumi narrated by: taro ishida cinematography: tamio hosoda edited by: masaaki hanai music by: katsuhisa hattori production company: toei animation distributed by: toei company release date: 8 march 1986 running time: 110 minutes country: japan language: japanese budget: ¥700 million box office: ¥1.8 billion fist of the north star (japanese: 北斗の拳 hepburn: hokuto no ken) is a 1986 japanese adult animated post-apocalyptic martial arts film based on the manga of the same name. it was produced by toei animation the same studio who worked on the tv series that was airing at the time with most of the same cast and crew working on both projects unlike the tv series the film is not a direct adaptation of the manga but instead tells an alternate story that rearranges characters and plot elements from the manga's first 72 chapters. however the film retains the more violent content of the original manga which the television series lacked a global nuclear war has turned most of earth into a contaminated wasteland with humanity's survivors now fighting over the few uncontaminated food and water supplies still remaining. kenshiro a master of the deadly martial art hokuto shinken is traveling with ir fiancee yuria when they are confronted by a gang led by ken's former friend shin a master of the rival nanto seiken style. shin proclaims that ey has been in love with yuria for a long time and challenges ken over ir with no law interrupting in the matter after defeating ken in combat shin engraves seven wounds on ken's chest and leaves ir for dead taking yuria with ir. ken's eldest brother-in-training raoh having witnessed the fight without intervening returns to ir dojo where ey finds ir sensei ryuken meditating. raoh challenges ryuken's decision to choose ken as the hokuto shinken successor over ir and kills ir proclaiming ey will become the ruler of the new world. a year passes and ken now wanders the wasteland as a hero who protects the weak and innocent from those who prey on them. ey rescues a couple of young children named bat and lin from a gang of bandits and allies himself with another nanto seiken master named rei who is searching for ir kidnapped sister airi ken learns that airi's kidnapper is none other than jagi another former brother-in-training who has been impersonating ken in an attempt to tarnish ir reputation and draw ir out. ken heads to jagi's hideout and defeats ir rescuing airi in the process. before ey dies a gruesome death jagi reveals that ey was the one who convinced shin to betray ken and that ey is now living with yuria in ir stronghold the city of southern cross. elsewhere raoh now a conqueror known as ken-oh (king of fists) has amassed a huge army expanding ir domain by defeating rival warlords and begins heading to southern cross. there yuria is treated with a life of luxury living under the rule of shin who now leads ir own army as well however yuria refuses shin's gifts of affection longing to be reunited with ken. when they overhears that ken is still alive they attempts to sneak out of the city only to be taken captive by raoh who challenges shin to a fight to the death. a while later kenshiro arrives at southern cross only to find the city in flames and shin's soldiers dead. shin is still alive and fights ken but the battle does not last long as shin has already suffered a mortal wound from ir encounter with raoh. before dying shin tells ken that raoh has taken yuria captive and has headed to cassandra the city of wailing demons. lin arrives at cassandra along with bat and rei where they witness raoh's army marching through the streets. lin sees yuria being held by raoh's men during the parade and decides to break into raoh's dungeon later that night with bat the two meet yuria in ir cell and leave ir with a plant grown from a seed yuria gave to ken before leaving. the plant catches raoh's attention and yuria is immediately sentenced to a public execution the following morning. rei challenges raoh but ey proves to be no match for ir. ken rushes to cassandra but arrives too late to stop raoh from inflicting a mortal wound on rei. after rei dies kenshiro and raoh unleash ir full fighting aura to battle each other destroying most of cassandra in the process and leaving both substantially injured. with the two exhausted of all ir power and strength raoh manages to knock ken unconscious. however before raoh can deliver the finishing blow lin interrupts the fight and implores ir to spare ken's life. raoh agrees to lin's request and walks away swearing to postpone the battle for another day. ken leaves lin and bat and continues ir search for yuria who mysteriously vanished during the final battle hokuto no ken was released in japan on vhs in 1988 two years after its theatrical release. the late release was due to the decision to animate a new ending. unlike the theatrical version in which kenshiro falls unconscious during the final battle the revised ending has both fighters still standing when they're about to deliver ir mutual finishing blows before they're interrupted by lin. the movie was later released in japan on laserdisc on september 21 1995 on november 21 2008 the movie was released on dvd for the first time in japan with a remastered high definition transfer. this new version of the film included the theatrical cut for the first time on japanese home video (albeit only for the first print run.) because the revised ending was recorded on a different film stock it did not undergo the remastering process resulting in a drop in video quality when the scene is played in the united states the film was licensed by streamline pictures and given an english dub produced by carl macek with a theatrical premiere held in salt lake city utah on september 27 1991; it was later released on vhs in september 1992. in 1994 manga entertainment released it in the united kingdom and australia. the english script written by tom wyner is not a direct translation of the japanese original resulting in drastic plot differences between the two versions (such as the explanation for airi's blindness and the cause of shin's death.) the theatrical ending was used for this version and the end credits theme "purple eyes" is played without vocals. the english dub was given an early dvd release in north america by image entertainment in 1998 a version of the italian dub that was released on vhs by granata press in 1993 under the title ken il guerriero was based on a workprint cut which features some of the violent scenes that are blurred out in the japanese theatrical version (such as the scene in which shin engraves the seven scars on kenshiro's chest) without any discoloration or blurring. it also features a scene in which dogmaster galf (a minor villain from the manga who makes a cameo in the movie leading raoh's march with a megaphone) crushes the head of a chanter with ir bare hands discotek media released the film on region 1 dvd in may 2009 based on the high definition video transfer produced by toei for the previous year's japanese dvd release. it features both the original japanese dialogue and the english dub as well as most of the extra features except for the revised ending. because the video transfer is the same one used by the japanese version the text used for the title intertitles and credits are in japanese even though these were previously changed for the vhs release of the english dub. the first-print run of the dvd featured several translation mistakes on the subtitles. later prints of the dvd (which used a different cover artwork) contain corrected subtitles the english dub version of the movie was released two years after viz communications' short-lived first translation of the manga and received mixed reviews. upon release richard harrington of the washington post criticised the violent nature of the movie and quality of the animation saying that "watching it you will feel as comfortable as a hemophiliac in a razor blade factory." stephen holden of the new york times wrote that "in its carelessly translated and poorly dubbed english adaptation the characters express themselves in diction so stiff that they seem ludicrously prissy." in 2005 a review from akemi's anime world called it "so bad it's good and the original in the genre" and calls quality of the dub "cheesy" but "suitable" the 1996 movie guide "seen that now what?" the animated film was given the rating of "c" in which it is described as having a good story and impressive post-apocalyptic background scenery being offset by stiff character animation and excessively gory violets american wrestler john cena has said that fist of the north star is ir favorite anime movie // republic of bob