Story of Ricky AKA Riki-Oh is a 1991 exploitation kung-fu movie based
on a 1980s manga comic of the same name. Produced in Hong Kong, the
film is directed by Ngai Kai Lam and stars Siu-Wong Fan as the eponymous
hero. The film is world famous for both it's excessive use of gore and
poorly executed special effects and is considered a cult classic.
The
film is set in the bleak dystopian year of 2001 and (unsurprisingly)
follows the story of Ricky, a mysterious young man who finds himself in
one of the country's new privatised and brutal prison systems. Not one
to quietly pay his debt to society, Ricky soon makes enemies amongst the
small-time prison thugs and the one-eyed assistant warden. This rapidly
escalates to involve Ricky in a deadly feud with the gang of four;
Oscar, Rogan, Brandon and Tarzan. The gang of four are the respective
leaders of each of the prison wings (north, south, east and west) and
one-by-one Ricky rips through them in ultra-gorey and hilarious fashion.
In between fight sequences, we learn of Ricky's background and how his
uncle taught him the ancient martial art of Qigong. This explains
Ricky's apparant invincibity and also how he avenged his girlfriends
death, landing him in possibly the most violent prison ever seen
on-screen. Through these mystical powers he's able to dismember the gang
of four and confront the head warden. However, the warden has some
unusual powers of his own and Ricky has to spill extremely large buckets
of blood before he can set his fellow prisoners free.
The
only reason most people have heard of this film is the gore, even if
you haven't seen the whole film, chances are you've seen a still, or a
clip. The effects are certainly something to behold, whether shockingly
violent or just shocking, and are very evenly distributed throughout the
film. It's very difficult to become bored with the actual plot of the
film as round every corner there's someone just waiting to have their
head punched off, and even though the switch to a rubber dummy isn't
very subtle, it is certainly enjoyable. Though this type of gore is
synonymous with exploitation cinema, it also has a real comic-book feel
to it due to the story being adapted from an actual manga. This stops
the film from becoming too miserable, and the sheer creativity involved
in some of the violence on display is nothing short of inspired.
The
film also works very well as a kung-fu film. I don't ususally watch
foreign films that are dubbed unless they're already bad movies, in
which case it can only add to the hilarity. Most of these Chinese
prisoners seem to have acquired a southern American accent, this makes
nearly every line of dialogue far funnier than intended and is great
fun. The basic plot of the film is also rooted in kung-fu tradition, a
mighty warrior must defeat four other warriors in order to confront his
nemesis and set his brothers free. It's actually quite a nice touch to
update this Chinese folklore and apply it to a futuristic (circa 1991)
prison setting.
Story of Ricky is shoddy, gory and
super cheesy, and it's brilliant! The Ricky character is easy to get
behind as an invincible bad ass, with just enough humanity to gain him a
following amongst his fellow inmates. Poor dubbing, poor special
effects and poor set design make this a great bad movie. For a similar
more recent film I would reccomend Tokyo Gore Police (2008), an even
bloodier film with even more surreal moments. Just remeber, if you can't
repair your own forearm ligaments with your teeth, then you're clearly
not cut out for prison.
4 Negative stars ****
Have you ever heard of the film? What's the goriest film you've seen?
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