Violence, Inept Animation Mar ‘Fist of North Star’

With its grotesquely overmuscled hero and stiff animation, “Fist of the North Star,” a new Japanese animated feature (at the Nuart) looks like a Saturday morning kidvid version of a Jean-Claude van Damme movie.

Based on a series of manga (comic books) by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, it’s a typical Japanese sci-fi epic set in the post-apocalyptic future.

The convoluted story centers on Ken, a martial artist with unspecified superpowers. In a misguided attempt to give him a brooding, mystical appearance, the artists draw dark shadows around his eye sockets, which make the character look like Rambo masquerading as Tammy Faye Baker.

Ken fights a series of duels-to the-death to rescue his girlfriend (and what’s left of the world) from a succession of rival martial artists, petty warlords and gangs of motorcycle mutants shamelessly lifted from the “Mad Max” films. But the climactic final confrontation between Ken and his older brother, the vicious conqueror Raoh, sputters out in an unconvincing plea for ecological awareness. Director Toyoo Ashida of the Toei studio fails to build any sense of tension into the repetitive conflicts, which makes the film seem a lot longer than its 100 minutes.

Even by the standards of the genre, “North Star” is exceedingly violent, and the numerous shots of exploding skulls, popping eyeballs, fists punching through bodies, severed limbs and splattering red paint (representing blood, but looking exactly like red paint) would be stomach-churning if the execution weren’t so inept.

Computer graphics were used for some of the grislier effects and the visuals jump annoyingly between grainy, low-resolution video images and clearer frames shot directly onto film. The animation barely approaches the level of contemporary Saturday morning TV.

The soundtrack provides some inadvertent comedy that lightens the visuals: Tom Wyner’s cliched dialogue is often excruciating. The gory action may please adolescents and hard-core Japanese cartoon fans, but it will bore and repel most viewers.