Riki-Oh - The Story of Ricky

Rating:
Summary: Yeah baby, yeah!
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: Ricki - So-So
Review: I purchased the DVD after seeing it shown on the 100 most goriest films on Channel 4 (UK). I found a copy in Virgin and read the review quotes. The quotes made a comparison to Brain Dead and Evil Dead 2, incidating that Riki-Ho was something special.

I have been watching Hong Kong films and gore fest films for over 20 years and this film was clearly nothing special.

The special effects were quite graphic, but to be honest in terms of, what I call, 'upsetting gore', the film was pretty tame.

It was fantasy violence to the extreme; the kind of gore that you laugh at and don't think to yourself 'now that's nasty'. As this film is purely about gore (the script having about as much depth as a paddling pool), its reputation of containing graphic violence was unjustified.

Compared to the George A. Romero's films (especially 'Day of the Dead', where the guy's face is torn off and he screaches his head off with a high pitch noise) Riki-Ho was Manga/Hong Kong cartoon ridiculousness.

If you want real gore films, Peter Jackson's Bad Taste/Brain Dead are still untouched by this Hong Kong rubbish.

Be wise - Do not purchase this item - If you are not convinced rent a copy for a few quid - do not spend £20 on your own copy.

Rating:
Summary: Two severed thumbs up
Review: A friend showed me this movie and after seeing it, i knew i had to add it to my collection. I always wished someone would make a live action ninja scroll, and this is the closest i have seen(Minus the monsters). Well, i guess there is one "monster" in the movie and it could have been done better. But, hey if you dig horror and kung-fu, you should check it out. I don't think you have to be really into either genre(horror/kung-fu) to fully enjoy this movie, Just dig alot of action in your movies,Oh and blood and guts. Hey, i have a pretty good dvd collection and some of my movies are great and some most people wouldn't waste their time with, but i've played this movie for alot of my friends and we all had a good time watching it. Maybe it was all the alcohol and whatever, but riki-oh is a cool movie and should be in every <film> lovers collection.

Rating:
Summary: RIKI-OH-MY GOD!!!!
Review: This is the Dead Alive of all kung-fu movies. The ultra violence is so over the top it is cartoonish and you won't take it seriously, but man do you find youself lovin it! I haven't had so much fun with a movie in a long time, you had the big tough guy thugs that you wanted to see beat up in the way only riki-oh could and boy did riki deliver. There was so much blood and gore in this movie it is hard not to compare it to Dead Alive. This is easily one of the best kung-fu/cult movies ever made and you would be doing yourself a favor if you added it to your movie collection or at least watched it.

Rating:
Summary: What the.....this movie rules
Review: When I first saw this movie it was because my friend Hector borrowed it from a friend in the movie theather that was bootlegged 3 times on one VHS. He saw it once, he couldn't believe it and got Ricky and Luis G. to see it. Then Ricky and Luis G. showed it to William, Jon, and Luis R. They saw it and loved that piece of marvelous crap. Four years passed and I came from the United States back from college. My friends told me about it all the time, about how crappy and funny this movie is. I personally went on a scavenger hunt to look for this movie. After one more year I saw it in Suncoast video and bought it without thinking tiwce. DVD version nonetheless.

Now let's talk about the movie. The "story" was so surreal. Starting in a "futuristic" jail that looked more like college dorms. I was going to say camp but camp is more organized. The prisoners were allowed to walk freeley in the prison with no guards in site, only when "trouble" came. Then this Ricky comes. He fights somebody in the bathrooms, and that person falls on spikes that magically appear are on the floor. Also, when Ricky is burried alive a dog is over his grave and this guy comes flying and kicks the dog and makes it explode for no resone whatsoever. A guy is crucified and Ricky literally rips from the ground the cross, lifts it up in the air and "places" the cross gently on the floor. Now Ricky must be God because that thing must have weighed at least a ton. I won't go on because most of you have said it all. But I will say this, the more you see it the more you think it's crap but you can't help to love it.


P.S. This all happened it Puerto Rico