Story of Ricky

"Riki Oh" is a frightening piece of work. Some of the bizarrest stuff ever put on celluloid to my knowledge. Every single frame is bursting with insanity and confusion. Don't even try to understand it, you might as well try to divide large numbers in your head for an hour and a half.

Riki is a very hunky prisoner in a future where corporations control everything. I know this information because the producers felt it necessary to put this in TWO different captions at the start of the film. Just so we know.

Young Riki gets into a lot of trouble both with the guards and his fellow inmates. This allows him to rip his shirt off a lot and expose his flexed chest (Seriously, the guy takes his shirt about once every thirty seconds. He puts it back on just so he can take it off again.).

Somehow Riki was given supernatural powers that really help in a prison riot. You see Riki can punch through just about anything, be it animal, mineral or vegetable. He punches through walls, desks, pipes, bars, and lots of human bodies. Yes that's correct, he punches through people. Their arms, legs, stomachs, and sometimes heads.

This excessive violence lends the film to excessive gore. We're talking spilled jugs of Kool-Aid excessive. And you get to see it all; although the worst gore is rarely on screen for more than a split second. Still you get to see a guy eat razors, a person explode like a balloon and one guy get put in a huge meat grinder. Yummy!

The copy I saw was dubbed, and that only added to the fun. I recommend this movie, solely for goofing on it. Otherwise, it is a very bad film. Only for those with a good sense of humor. You have been warned.

A man jailed for getting his revenge on those who (indirectly) killed his girlfriend gets sent to the prison of the future. While in prison, he discovers an opium greenhouse (not cleverly hidden) and fights plenty of guards, inmates and the warden.

I gave this film a ten, not because it is a cinematic masterpiece... but because this film stands alone as something that can never be equaled. You will not walk away from this film the same person. Its kiss is like jackhammer; when it is through with you, you are changed.

The violence is excessive to the point of being funny -- walls and body parts exploding. It was hard to tell if this film was supposed to be a comedy or action because while the plot is serious, the action is outrageous. And sometimes you can too easily tell that a body part is a model or that walls are being pulled apart by strings.

The dubbing is really funny, and the use of multiple subtitles (in both British English and American English) is amusing. The film probably deserves a decent transfer and better subtitles, but that might take something away from this film's immense cheese factor. The characters are pretty interesting -- a warden who can transform into the Incredible Hulk and his assistant with one eye and a hook for a hand (who has a wall full of pornographic videos).

If you liked the gore of something like "Terror Firmer", you will find this to be in a similar vein (though, in my opinion, far less offensive). If you do not like blood in your movies, you want to run away from this as quickly as possible. But heck, this is seriously something you cannot go through life without seeing. Highest possible recommendation.

If you hate blood and guts (literally) stop reading now this movie is in no way for you.

On the popcorn scale of fun brain removed films this is on the top rung for laugh out loud enjoyment.

The plot has Ricky, a kid with super strength being thrown into prison for killing the man responsible for the girl he loved. This is a corrupt privatized prison of the future where the prisoners are nothing more than cheap labor. Ricky instantly gets under the skin of the wardens, the guards and the leaders of the prison population. Cartoon violence with bloody gory consequences ensue. Body parts go flying as Ricky fights to stay alive and help his fellow prisoners.

This is one of the bloodiest movies I've ever seen. Think Python's Salad Days sketch but for 90 minutes. There is blood and limbs everywhere. The effects run from very good to god awful, with most just okay. None of it is really "real".There's no way you could do this film realistic, assuming the plot allowed it, with out having the audience throwing up all over the place. I'm assuming they are done the way they are for effect, we see the effect of the violence and laugh at the silliness of it all while keeping our lunches.

And as the film spins more and more out of control, with plot holes that are more like stellar voids, you find your self staring and laughing at it all, disbelieving that grown people put this together. Its a 12 year-old's action figure dream come true, but some how it all works on an adult level since the film makers seem to be winking and nodding at those watching it.

High camp? Low brow? There is nothing in this film that seems to be serious except for the way that pretty much everyone plays it dead nuts straight to wonderful tongue through cheek effect.

Not a movie you want to see on a first date (or any date) this is a movie to watch with some loud friends with strong stomachs and a great sense of the absurd. Its not a great film as such and I doubt it was ever intended to be, however on the throw your mind out of the car on the way to the video store scale this film rates at the top.

And I can't stress enough this film lives up to its rep for blood and guts. If you don't like to see them flying in every direction stay away stay away stay away.

This film could be seen as the Chinese version of "Braindead" aka "Dead Alive": a Bruce Lee-like guy named Ricky, who´s talented with supernatural powers, fights his way through a corrupt prison and leaves a trail of blood and guts behind him. For sure, "Story of Ricky" is a very violent and gory flick, but everything in it is so exaggerated that no one should take it too serious: there is gut-strangulation, people in a meat grinder and for the showdown the leader of the prison mutates to a giant Kung Fu-fighting monster..! However, this film is so funny that you will laugh your heads off! Larded with typical Asian humor "Story of Ricky" is one of the definite cult movies that were shot in the last decade! If you had fun with it, try also to find director Ngai Kai Lam´s Indiana Jones-fantasy-action-gore-adventure "The Seventh Curse" (Check out the review which I wrote under my former pseudonym "Daywalker"..!) starring Chow Yun Fat, which contains nearly the same plenty of gore and curious ideas as this one has! Two great films that would make a great double-feature!! Check´em out!!!

Close second to "Dead Alive" as goriest film ever made. Rivers of ridiculously over-exaggerated red will fill your screen and turn your stomach.

Riki was just an innocent (though super-powered, think Mr. Incredible) youth until the day his girlfriend was killed in a botched rape attempt by gangsters. After dealing out his bloody revenge he is carted off to prison where he wishes to serve his sentence as peacefully and undisturbed as he can. However, this pseudo sci-fi Asian prison is any thing but peaceful. Prison film clichés ensue (ie. corrupt guards, an evil warden, an escape attempt).

Technically speaking, the movie isn't very good. The sets lack believability, the dialogue is pretty horrible, and the acting is way over board. The bad guys seem to be bad because they can be...either that or they are just bored, one or the other. Outside of Riki, there is no background attached to any of the characters and none of them are ever developed properly. Additionally, the plentiful fight scenes aren't choreographed very well. Top it all off with some of the cheesiest kung-fu dubs ever recorded and you have a film suffering from lack of talent.

So why the positive score? This is a damn fun movie, that's why. Each and every fight scene ends with a gory display of gruesome blood letting. Heads crushed, stomachs torn open, eyes popped out, faces cut off, one villain even tries to strangle Riki with his own intestines. Amidst the crimson flow, the dumb-as-a-brick story is awash in unintentional humor; the more serious it takes itself the funnier it is. Even the gore itself makes for a joke, it's so over the top it ceases to offend and becomes a sight gag.

Main stream viewers will not get this movie and will simply not like it. Genre fans, however, will find the holy grail of gore flicks.

8/10