Customer Reviews

Riki-Oh - The Story of Ricky

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4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

You MUST buy/rent/steal the video "the story of Ricki Oh"....An instant classic and quite possibly the most violent, gory, and graphic film ever made. Multiple gorings, eye gougings,stabbings, impalings, and dismemberments. Dudes get buried alive, encased in concrete, flayed, their tongues cut out, crushed under presses, and run through meat grinders. Guys are chopped in the face with swords, boards studded with nails, and have wood planes run up their face. Did I menntion that the prison warden in this movie shoots prisoners with exploding bullets that make them expand like balloons beforee they burst like road kill underneath a car tire?

The hero ricki punched through dudes, decapitates his enemies with oopen fist blows, crushes guys heads like he's popping a zit. There's even a scene where a guy, who is about to die in a fight with Ricki, grabs a knife and stabs himself in the stomach...then he pulls out his intestines and tries to strangle ricki with them....

With memorable lines like:

"They gave me 30 pounds of rice to cut you up, turn you into mince meat, and put you in a pie..."

"Oscar has shown his tatoos...now he must kill!!!!"

"Ricki, I am your uncle. I have known you since your were 7 or 8 years old, when you possessed suoperjuman strength. Do you still possess your super human strength?"

"Chi Cong feeds on strength!!!!!"

"I have hit you in your death spot..soon you will die"

"His style of Kung Fu is unorthodox...I do not think I can defeat him..."

Based on a Japanese manga by Tetsuya Saruwatari, which developed into an animated series and finally this live action film, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1992) aka Lik Wong is probably one of the most comically gonzo, graphically gory features I've seen since viewing Peter Jackson's comical horror splatter fest Dead Alive (1992) aka Braindead. Written and directed by Ngai Kai Lam (Erotic Ghost Story), the film stars Siu-Wong Fan (Supercop 2) as a young man with superhuman abilities who ends up taking on the sadistic leaders of a corrupt prison system. Also appearing is Mei Sheng Fan (Year of the Dragon), Frankie Chin (Operation Scorpio), Yukari Oshima (Death Triangle), and Ka-Kui Ho (Once Upon a Time in China II).

As the movie, set in the not to distant future of 2001 A.D., begins, we learn prisons have been privatized, and are run as franchised businesses, at least in Hong Kong, and we witness the arrival of a group of new inmates including a young, muscular man named Ricky. Shortly after settling in to his new surroundings, Ricky runs afoul of a mid-level flunky/bully, who subsequently recruits a homicidal blimp named Silly Lung to dispatch Ricky in the shower. Thing is Ricky isn't any ordinary schmuck, as he possesses superhuman strength along with powerful kung fu, enough to punch a hole through his obese attacker's guts causing them to spill out all over the floor. This causes the sadistic assistant warden, a fat slob with a hook for a hand and a prosthetic eyeball, to take notice, enough so to order the Gang of Four, a group of powerful prisoners with awesoma skills who rule the inmate population, to take Ricky to task. As Ricky stands up to the powerful and brutal leaders of the prison, the rest of the inmates start developing a rebellious attitude, seeing Ricky not only as their hero but their savior. Things eventually come to a head as Ricky uncovers, and subsequently destroys, an illicit business being run from the prison, resulting in the Warden, who was on vacation, making the scene, with his fat, goofy, annoying son in tow. More fights ensue along with some flashbacks, eventually leading to a full-scale riot as Ricky finds himself battling the warden himself, whose unorthodox kung fu is mighty to say the least.

This film extremely violent, disgustingly gory, and actually, pretty funny, if you share a decidedly bent sense of humor. A lot of the comedy comes from the ridiculous English translations of the dialogue, along with the outlandish, and often grotesque, situations that ensue during the fight scenes. There's one scene where Ricky literally guts an opponent and the man, in his death throes, uses his own intestines to try and strangulate Ricky. Perhaps one of my more favored lines of dialogue, taken from the English subtitles, comes as Ricky threatens the warden with the following exclamatory statement...

"You'll die mutilated today!"

Classic stuff...I can't wait to use that line at work...anyway, I learned a number of things from this movie, including the following...

1. If you're a wee, runty little fellow in prison it's probably best not to attack someone larger than you with a hand plane as they'll probably swipe it from you and use it to peel your face off, which, I'm guessing, is as painful as it sounds.
2. In prison deceased inmates are transported wearing handcuffs, as I guess there's a concern that they may come back as the undead and try to escape.
3. Severed tendons can be tied together in order to restore ones ability to utilize the affected limb.
4. Crows seem to really love eyeballs, especially ones knocked out of someone's skull during a fight.
5. Prison cell doors are rarely locked allowing the prisoners to come and go as they please.
6. Apparently a flute and a trumpet sound so much alike they can be mistaken for one another.
7. Keeping your prosthetic eye in the same glass of water that you drink from is kinda disgusting.
8. The hollow part of a glass eyeball is a great place to store your breath mints.
9. A leaf can be played in such a way that it sounds exactly like a flute...that is if you've still got your tongue.
10. Prison finks generally don't fare well behind bars as they usually end up getting their skin removed or having their head literally punched off.

As far as the story, well, it's fairly dodgy as there's plot holes galore (some of them ginormous enough to drive a bus through), but the visceral action sequences (the head popper bit is worth the price of admission alone) are copious and spread evenly throughout enough so to have kept me distracted from such shortcomings. Just to give you an idea of the brutality consistent with the film in one scene our hero is immobilized in a strange, rebar construct, and he's being uncooperative during the subsequent interrogation, which results in one of his tormentors shoving a fistful of razor blades in Ricky's mouth, taping it shut, and then smacking him viciously in the face. I won't tell you what happens next, but it's truly classic. All in all this is a spectacularly horrific film, certainly not for all audiences, but if you like your action extremely violent and cartoonish, your gore abundant, and your subtitled dialogue atrocious, then this one should be right up your alley.

The back of the DVD case for this Tokyo Shock DVD release states the picture is presented in widescreen, with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, but I'd say it looks closer to 1.78:1...regardless, the picture is fairly clean and comes across well, and the Dolby Digital audio, available in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, is decent. There are subtitles in Chinese and English, along with the original theatrical trailer, cast and crew biographies and filmographies, along with a text synopsis of the plot. Also included are previews for the films Heroes Shed No Tears (1986), Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1978), Duel to the Death (1982), and Magnificent Butcher (1979).

Cookieman108

The story of ricky has got to be one of the most absurd and goriest film to come out of Hong Kong. Even though there isn't any long fight scenes since Riki-Oh gets to punch his way through prison gaurds or any one that gets in his way the film is deffinently one of the most insane Kung fu films I have ever seen. The blood and gore is so over the top that it seems to rival the level of violence in films like Peter Jackson's dead alive and the toxic avenger, scenes like one of the fat prisoners getting his stomach sliced open and his guts spilling all over the place will tell you imediatley what type of film your watching, as the film progresses it gets increasingly more violent as heads are being smashed in and limbs are hacked off you also get an evil prison warden that has a gun with exploding bullets and a meat grinder that well you'll just have to see it for your self, the gore scenes are plentyfull and it is definently not for the weak of stomach but then you will realise its not be taken seriously as some of the scenes are un-intentionaly halarious like Ricky Oh's girlfriend comiting suicide by jumping of a roof while attempting to escape from the drug dealers, nice one. The story of Ricky was based on a popular Japanese manga or comic book and as you can see from the original trailer the scenes were taken from the comic book exactley with all the nauseating detail, the story takes place in a high maximum security prison in the year 2001 in the future, Riki-oh is one of the prisnors that gets incarcerated for killing one of the drug dealers out of revenge for killing his girlfriend, Riki-oh soon gets to confront the corrupt prison gaurds and assistent warden who has a hook replaced in his arm and one glass eye that contains mints, yep thats right mints he also gets to drag prisoners from there mouths with his hook. There is also a flash back scene that shows us how Riki-Oh's uncle or as Riki likes to call him uncle ghost trains Riki-Oh and tells him about his super human strength. If that wasn't enough we also get the gang of four that seem to discipline prisoners by torturing them or killing them in gruesome ways like ripping there faces of. Anyway if you like your films to be ultra gory in a funny way then you should deffinently check out The story of Ricky, I must have watched this film alot since I had bought it last year it was definentley good.

What more can one say except that this is a movie you MUST have in your collection!!! It will horrify your parents! Your pets will hide under the couch! Friends will think you are twisted and super-cool! "The Story of Ricky" is Hong Kong's answer to The "Evil Dead" Trilogy: over the top, disgusting and totally hilarious.

Ricky is sent to prison for killing the thugs who kidnapped his girlfriend after she witnessed a drug deal and jumped off a roof to escape said thugs. Granted, it was lemming behavior (and somehow not as poignant as Isaac falling to his roof-induced death in "SMilla's Sense of Snow"), but this is Hong Kong Cinema and Ricky is HUGE and needs revenge.

So.. jail.

It's not "Cool Hand Luke" per se but there is a heirarchy and I KNOW one fo the wardens HAD to have said, "Son, what we got here is a failure to communicate" but it never made it to the subtitles. Ricky navigates the heirarchy by eliminating the Wing Bosses, using wood lathes in rhinoplasty, doing surgery on himself, being strangled by people's intestines (while they are still attatched to them. Was this a homage to "The Reanimator"? Could be!) all the while befriending tongueless mutes and playing Enya-like music on blades of grass.

Ricky is not only HUGE but he's a Sensitive New Age Guy, too. A SNAG who kicks butt.

I don't have enough space to delve into the homoerotic scenery and undertones, but it ranks with "Midnight Express". Trust me.

In conclusion, "The Story of Ricky".. buy it. It's a wonderful and horribly horribly horribly violent movie that brings a smile to my face and song to my heart.

Do you like martial arts? Do you like gore? Do you like campy, trash videos? If you said yes to any of the above questions, then The Story of Ricky is definitely for you. What can I possibly say about a movie that has been voted #1 by all stoners as the greatest movie ever to watch while high. Nam Nai Choi proves that you do not need any computers to create the greatest and most hilarious gore scenes ever to grace celluloid. The Story of Ricky is the average tale of one strong, noble man that has the courage to stand up to the evil, and oppressive authority. In this case the strong man happens to be an invincible prisoner named Ricky, and the cruel authoritarians happen to be super powered thugs and prison officials. The Story of Ricky is definitely one to add to the collection.

WOW! What can I say about this movie? It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my life and I loved it. This movie is just so bad, so bloody, and so completely weird, one must be very drunk, very high, or completely insane to even think of trying to comprehend the plot. But then again, in a movie where someone rips out his own intestines to fight another man, who needs deep meaningful plot?

Buy this movie, invite over all your friends, and prepare yourself for a hilarious trip into Japanese Shock Movie Culture.

If you like heads exploding and people getting strangled with intestines look no further.This movie takes action to another dimension. With an underlying theme of romance and what it's like doing hard time , this movie has something for everyone. The story blasts off when our hero Ricky takes his revenge on a two bit crime lord who murders his fiance and as a result lands himself in jail. But, this first act of vengence is only the begining as he systematicaly takes vengence on the ruthless crime lords jailed thugs who wish to kill him .This movie is Big trouble in little china meets Faces of death. It has to be seen to be believed.

Set in the not-so-distant future, Prisons have became commercialized and franchised by the government. A young man named "Riki Ho" has been sent to a large maximum security prison for manslaughter, there are plenty of hellish things going on like the evil warden, the assistant warden and a deadly gang of foursome murdering and terrorizing the inmates including smuggling drugs. It's up to Riki to use his superman-esque superhuman strength to literally punch through the enemies and save the good prisoners.

This 1992 Science Fiction/horror/martial arts/fantasy from Hong Kong and Japan is a wild and outrageously gory-as-hell flick. It has build up a huge cult following and it's one of my top 130 favorite movies of all time since i first saw it on Video in 2000. There are definitely some amazing martial arts sequences, a hilarious English dubbed soundtrack, and tons of gore galore in a ride that may not be for the squeamish.

The DVD certainly has a very good transfer with great sound that contains the English dub soundtrack with original Cantonese & Mandarian soundtrack, theatrical trailer including to some Hong Kong flicks, a synopsis on the film and bio page. I highly recommend this movie to fans of "Kill Bill", martial arts, horror, fantasy, sci-fi and gore flicks.

Also recommended: "Battle Royale", "Ichi The Killer", " Versus", " The Evil Dead", "Evil Dead 2", "Re-Animator", "Day of the Dead", "Total Recall", "Starship Troopers", " From Dusk Till Dawn","Videodrome", "Scanners", " The Toxic Avenger", "Demons", "Rabid Grannies", "Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2", " Akira", " Ghost in The Shell", "Ninja Scroll", " Cemetery Man", " Nightmare City", " Hell of the Living Dead", " Mad Max", "Road Warrior", " Terminator 1 & 2", " The Fly ( 1986)", " Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2", "Maniac ( 1980)", "I Spit on Your Grave", " Rats: A Night of Terror", " Enter the Dragon", " The Green Mile", " Bio-Zombie", " Robocop", " Nightmare on Elm Street series", "Cannibal Ferox", "Cannibal Holocaust", "Jungle Holocaust", " Eaten Alive!", " Hero", "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", " Blade Trilogy", " The Running Man", " Blood Diner", " Last House on The Left", " House on The Edge of the Park", "Cool Hand Luke", H.G. Lewis movies, "Fist of the North Star" (Animated), " Violence Jack", " Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend".

The Story Of Ricky
directed by Ngai Kai Lam
1991, 91 mins.

Riki-Oh, or The Story Of Ricky, or King Of Strength, or Li Wang, or Lai Wang, or Riki Ô, is quite the infamous movie. Originally based on an ultra-violent manga, it revolves around a guy named, get this, Ricky (crowd cheers: "No really!?"). Ricky is going to jail. Why is Ricky going to jail? Because Ricky killed some drug dealers. Why did Ricky kill some drug dealers? Because they killed Ricky's girlfriend. Why did they kill Ricky's girlfriend? They didn't, but that's a different story. See the movie, and you'll see. Hilarious.

However, Ricky is in jail. And it's hell. This jail consists of four divisions, each with one leader. All of those leaders are quite brutal and they give Ricky, who stands up against them, quite the hard time. Well, that's the story. So apparently, Ricky's so called story, isn't much of a story at all. Then why should one watch this movie?

Well, maybe for the hilarious scenes, and more likely for its reputation of 'one of the most violent Hong Kong movies ever made!!!' (as the box of my Riki-Oh DVD modestly states). The humor is quite obvious, although it shows that this movie was made to be at least semi-serious. However, the props are of such bad quality, that you can do nothing but burst out in laughter when you see a man falling face-down on a piece of wood with spikes sticking out of it, since the man very obviously is not a man, but a shamefully bad looking doll. Wow. However, this has its charm. It makes you feel sympethetic towards the creators, because they obviously tried to make something good out of this; they just didn't have the money, nor the ability, nor the talent.

As for this movie being 'REALLY VIOLENT AND SHOCKING' and yatta yatta, well, to a certain extent. There's some (exquisite, I must say!) gore featured in Riki-Oh. Be amazed when you see a guy trying to strangle Ricky with his own intestines, be shocked when you see a woman stuffing Ricky's mouth full with razor knifes and then beating him in the face repeatedly, be in awe when you see Ricky punch holes all through some other dude, be warned. Ultimately, this is a great kung-fu movie with a brilliant amount of gore. It doesn't make for a good movie, but it sure does make for a nice one!

Sven says:

Scares? -1/10
Gore? 10/10 (albeit obviously fake)
Number of people slaughtered in incredible ways? I lost the count/10
Fun factor? 10/10
Did-they-really-kill-his-girlfriend? 0/10

I heard about this movie from a guy I work with and was immediately hooked. After finding out that my work didn't carry it I ordered it from Amazon and immediately knew this movie kicked the living crap put of any movie ever made. It was nonstop killing from begining to end. Some of out will make you laugh and some of it will make you cringe in disgust. Who ever made this movie knows exactly what the American public wants. If you don't have this movie pick a copy up. It is worth every penny.