Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)

The greatest movie ever!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A hilarious Asian live-action manga movie, based on a popular Japanese comic book (looking suspiciously similar to the classic Fist of the North Star), lauded for its total commitment to visceral violence and insanity. THE STORY OF RICKY is darned near perfect for a comic-book-turned-movie, an action-packed and visually arresting display of superhuman skills, bad guys versus good guys, and plenty of bizarre dream-like situations. The plot is wafer thin and needs to be so. Basically it involves our hero Ricky (the Bruce Lee-alike who smashes and crashes his way throughout the movie) getting sent to prison after murdering the drug dealer who caused the death of his girlfriend. After standing up for himself and the fellow prisoners, Ricky is then continuously beaten and tortured until the prison riot that marks the film's close.Sure there are plenty of holes and negative aspects of this film. Taken as a serious work of art, it just doesn't hang together. The dialogue is dumb on purpose and the acting hardly sets the screen alight, but then it doesn't need to. The storyline makes no sense whatsoever if you think about it at all. If Ricky has all these powers why doesn't he just escape at the start instead of letting himself getting chained up and the like? Instead, THE STORY OF RICKY is happy to display one incredible scene of superhuman feat after another. Ricky is buried alive, blinded with crushed glass, squashed under a ceiling, and stuck fast with cement. He has the tendons severed in his arm but manages to knot them back together and return fighting. He endures a gob full of razor blades and some of the hardest beatings you will ever see. This is nothing in comparison to what he does to the enemy, though.Bad guys are skinned, crushed, and have limbs literally torn from their bodies. Ricky's punches have the power to break bones and knock heads off entirely. He punches through stomachs, knocks out eyeballs, and shoves the bad guys into meat grinders. It's all amazing stuff that will have you glued to the screen. The special effects are tacky but colourful in much the same way as BRAINDEAD; you'll never be disturbed or horrified for an instant as instead the film is infused with that particular Asian humour that makes light of the darkest situations.Although BRAINDEAD wins hands down due to the non-stop barrage of visceral carnage (here, you have to wait for the plot to catch up between each set-piece), THE STORY OF RICKY still deserves major mention for some of the truly outrageous gob-smacking scenes of brutality and over-the-top mayhem. The highlight has gotta be when a bad guy slashes open his own stomach in order to strangle Ricky with his intestines. Or perhaps the "did I dream that?" finale in which a villain turns into a Hulk-like monster for a splattery showdown with our God-like hero. There's stuff here you won't see anywhere else, which is why I wholeheartedly recommend this film for gore fans everywhere.

Picture if you will, a prison shower populated by men in black jumpsuits. Along comes a man, Ricky (Louis Fai-Siu Wong) to take a shower, as you do. When suddenly, a shirtless obese man named Zoro (Ho Chuang-Tao) charges up to Ricky and body slams him, threatening to turn him into mince meat and put him in a pie. Ricky then proceeds to punch a hole clean through Zoro's stomach, and the latter's blood and intestines flow forth. That is just one of many memorable scenes in this 1991 camp classic based on the manga of the same name. A film in which body parts come off just as easily as one might bend a straw. Eyeballs are loosened, limbs are lost, and heads are split, all in full view of the audience. Combine this with questionable acting and laughably bad dubbing ("HE"S A KILLER!") and you have a film that transcends the boundaries between good-and-bad and becomes its own thing.

Exploding heads, self-disembowelment and unstoppable punches. What are you looking for in your kung fu movies? If this is it then you've come to the right place! Unlike all those yawn fest karate movies where no one gets hurt and fighting scenes go on and on without a slightest drop of blood, Riki-Oh is a fountain of blood in a desert of boredom. Riki-Oh will take you on a blood soaked ride so violent and so beautiful you'll have a new description for what you want in a movie.Ricky is a martial artist expert who is going to jail for the murder of a man who was indirectly responsible for his girlfriends suicide. Once in the prison Ricky realizes the warden, an over-weight one eyed pornography addict is illegally growing opium and killing prisoners. Ricky is compelled to defeat the Gang of Four who rule over the four wings of the prison and free the prisoners. We quickly find that Ricky is an expert in Qigong a mystical style of kung-fu that gives him the power to literally punch and kick through people.The film itself is surprisingly beautiful. The shots all feel very symmetrical and well thought out, the colors work very well to create an almost comic book atmosphere and the scenes are dramatic and fast moving. What really makes Riki-Oh special is his Qigong kung fu style. He has the power to rip peoples faces off and punch through their stomachs. The gore is done in such an exaggerated fashion that instead of the film being gut wrenchingly disgusting it feels much more like a cartoon. And for good reason too! Riki-Oh is based on a successful Magna and two animated films. The adaptation is nearly perfect! The film is something that should be seen to be believed.This is director Lam Nai-choi's most famous film. Lam also directed the incredible Seventh Curse and is a favorite. His ability to mix comedy, gore and sci-fi is something extremely unique and feels fresh even today. His framing is thoroughly thought out in Riki-Oh and it shows the whole way through. The film is tight and fast moving. Other kung fu films and action in general should take notice! This film is a cult favorite for a reason.

Spoilers withinRicky (Fan Siu-Wong) is a super-powered martial artist in a corporate run prison (year 2001 A.D) where the warden (who turns into a giant demon) and assistant warden (who keeps mints in his eye and has a hook for a hand) mistreat the prisoners and deploy the use of the gang of 4 (A yakuza guy, a gay kung fu expert that runs opium, a giant guy that also has super strength and a blonde guy who uses a wire blades to pierce people) Suffice to say Ricky has his hands full and he endures numerous torture devices that includes being buried alive and forced to eat razorblades in what is one of the most enjoyable anime adaptations that really kicks ass mainly due to the level of carnage. The Story Of Ricky really must be seen to be believed, I mean you just can't take your eyes off what is going on. The best example is the opening in which a cannibal sumo threatens Ricky and Ricky then punches through his stomach and tears out his guts. Also where a guy guts himself and uses such to strangle his enemy and of course the meat grinder finale. The Story Of Ricky is also best recommended in dubbed format, the subtitles actually showcase that the acting isn't too bad, but in dubbed form it truly becomes that much goofier, as it's dubbed like a 70s kung fu effort and the dialog contains cornier jokes and really flat voice dubbing (once again it's dubbed like a kung fu movie) The movie then is hard to decipher on whether it is very bad or a masterpiece. Indeed I lean with the latter because you can tell this was made with a lot of love and ambition. In other words this is a must see, and a perfect reason why Hong Kong cinema is often times so interesting.* * *1/2 out of 4-(Very Good)