Talk:Fist of the North Star (1986 film; original uncensored version)/@comment-33757443-20171223175515

I come with some good news.

So, from the research I have conducted I have come to the conclusion that the original theatrical screenings of the film where indeed uncut! My proof lies in an art pamphlet given away during the original release of the film. This pamphlet, while a nice piece for my Hokuto No Ken 1986 collection, provides screenshots taken from the original film print. Two panels clearly show scenes that would later be censored in home video releases. The first is when Kenshiro is branded with the seven scars, and the second is when the first Zeed punk gets his skull crushed by Kenshiro.

As for TOEI destroying its older film prints, that is still a mystery even to this day. TOEI has always been very reclusive regarding the handling of there films, however, I can assure you that at least some of the animation cels survived. In the past, I have seen various cels of the film go for auction on sites like eBay. One of which was the most well known uncut scene where Rei slashes through the face of a random thug. So the cels are certainly uncut, it would just be a matter of tracking down every cel for every censored scene.

If anything, TOEI has a master copy with the censored footage added after the original theatrical run in 86, so the original prints shown at screening may hold the uncensored footage.

Now for any rumors that some obscure release of the film on home video was uncut, this to my knowledge is false. I own several releases of this film on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD and all of them have minor differences (Film Transfers, Dialogues, etc.) but none of them have anything further than the scenes we have from the Italian VHS (Ken Il Guerriero Le Film).