Fist of the North Star (1995 live-action film)

Fist of the North Star
Fist_of_the_North_Star_poster.jpg Movie promo poster
Directed by	Tony Randel
Produced by	Mark Yellen, Aki Komine
Written by	Peter Atkins, Tony Randel
Narrated by	Masane Tsukayama
Starring	[[wikipedia: Gary Daniels|Gary Daniels]], Costas Mandylor, Chris Penn
Music by	Christopher L. Stone
Cinematography	Jacques Haitkin
Editing by	Sonny Baskin
Release date(s)	April 22, 1995
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English, Japanese

Fist of the North Star

An American-produced live-action movie version of Hokuto no Ken was released in 1995, directed by Tony Randel based on a script by Peter Atkins and Wynne McLaughlin. The movie, loosely based on the Shin storyline of the manga, stars Gary Daniels as Kenshiro, Costas Mandylor as Shin and Japanese actress Isako Washio as Yuria, with Malcolm McDowell as Ryuken and Chris Penn as "Jackal" (actually a renamed Jagi). It also featured a cameo by professional wrestler Big Van Vader as Goliath. The movie saw a direct-to-video release in Japan and America. The Japanese dubbed version used the original voice actors from the 1980s anime series.

The movie had mixed reviews from fans and critics. Dave Foster of DVD Times panned the movie as a poor adaptation and commented that Kenshiro's pressure point techniques "look rather tame" in comparison to the way depicted in the manga and anime series. A reviewer from eFilmCritic remarked that Kenshiro's defeat at the hands of Shin "comes off as standard" and "unbelievably goofy" compared to the 1986 animated movie version. However, Video World gave a much more positive review, calling it "First rate." It has since been firmly established as a cult film in the west, and remains the film for which Gary Daniels is best known.