Ask John: Why Won’t Toei Release the Hokuto no Ken Movie Fully Uncensored?

Question:
I’ve heard rumors that the Japanese theatrical release of Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken) in 1986 was uncensored with gore not blurred or have any censorship filter. But the home video releases on VHS and DVD in Japan, U.S, France, and Korea were censored. Many of the gore scenes had rainbow blurs or black and white filter. There are some uncensored releases on VHS such as U.S or Italy. In the out-of-print Italian VHS the print had some of the censorship removed, but major close-up of some gore scene had rainbow blurring. Some copies of the U.S. VHS like the 1st generation original VHS copy have all of the uncensored violence intact. Why are all of the current releases of the Fist of the North Star 1986 movie on DVD censored? Why can’t Toei just release it uncut in the future?

Answer:
The 1986 Hokuto no Ken movie has a strange and convoluted history. The film premiered in Japanese theaters on March 8, 1986. The original theatrical release included a climax in which Raoh beats Kenshiro unconscious, but is stayed from killing his defeated younger brother by Lynn. In this theatrical ending, which was also included in the original American release of the film dubbed and distributed by Streamline, Kenshiro remains unconscious throughout Lynn’s entire presence in the final confrontation. The Japanese home video release of the movie in 1988 contained an alternate ending in which Kenshiro remains conscious, and he and Raoh prepare to conclude their fight before Lynn intercedes, stopping the battle. First edition copies of Japan’s 2008 remastered DVD release of the movie included the original theatrical ending as a bonus feature. The current Japanese DVD release includes only the home video version ending. The current American DVD release contains only the original theatrical ending.

According to unverified rumor, the movie was actually released to Japanese theaters uncensored, but after only a week of release, complaints about the graphic violence from Japanese parents groups caused Toei Animation to hastily censor some of the gore. The original Italian VHS release included uncensored shots that were either censored in the Japanese home video releases or simply weren’t present at all in the initial Japanese home video releases. The gruesome shot of Rei’s fingers cleaving through a head that appears at exactly 90 seconds into the theatrical trailer does not have the hazy blurring present in the same scene in the movie itself.

Same scene in the actual movie: blurred

Furthermore according to unverified rumor, the original master footage of the fully uncensored version of the movie was lost at some point in a warehouse fire at the Toei studio. The loss of master quality footage of the original, completely uncensored footage may explain why no modern release of the movie has ever been fully uncensored. Since Hokuto no Ken is such a high profile marquee franchise for Toei, the studio may not want to tarnish the franchise by associating it with sub-par film quality. Granted, the un-remastered home video ending is present on current Japanese DVD, but unlike the uncensored gore scenes, the home video ending has been widely available to Japanese viewers for years, so releasing it as is detracts little from Japanese consumer expectations for the franchise. In fact, American distributor Discotek did request permission from Toei to include the Japanese home video ending and excerpts of the uncensored gore footage as supplemental features on its American DVD release, but Toei denied Discotek’s request. The only logical explanation for the refusal is that Toei just doesn’t want obviously inferior-looking video quality associated with major Japanese or American releases of one of its tentpole franchises.

Theatrical ending:

Home video ending: