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Riki-Oh - The Story of Ricky Director: Ngai Kai Lam Number of Items: 1 Format: Color Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 90 minutes Studio: Media Blasters Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2000-09-05 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 85 Average rating: 4.5 "WE WANT RICKY!!!" This movie is just pure scchhhlloock fabness in a "Dead Alive/Brain Dead" sort of way. The premise is simple. Ricky is a really strong martial artist who has the gift of strength and can smash anything to pieces or chew razorblades and still smile... and he does. He is in a prison where there are a load of villains for him to plough through in the most gruesome of ways imaginable. It is like the "Toxic Avenger" crossed with a Bruce Lee movie minus the technique. Scenes involve guys getting their jaws punched off and hands coming out of their mouths or people getting their eyes slapped out of their heads. The whole movie is like that from start to finish. Everything you have heard about Ricky is true. It's great! It's fun! It is pure messing around by the film makers but you can tell that everyone is here for a bloody laugh. There are scenes in this film which are utterly hilarious (like the girlfriend's death, OMG! What a laugh. I nearly peed myself afterwards). Or how about the scene where they bury him underground. Its is so so so funny. Imagine if you will the scene from "Enter the Dragon" where Lee is below with the prisoners and they are all chanting for him. Well Ricky is like that scene x 90 minutes with pure gore and limbs flying everywhere. This film is hoot! WE WANT RICKY!!!! "Gratuitous Hong Kong Action Blowout" What more can be said about this (literally) eye-popping kung fu/fantasy/gore opus? Absurdly violent scenes that define the word 'gratuitous' appearing at 1,1/2 minute intervals, cheap yet goofily creative special effects, moronic dialogue rendered more ridiculous by incompetent dubbing, and half-assed moral posturing - sounds like my idea of a great time. With alarmingly frequent eye-gougings, dogs kicked in half, and faces reduced to fist-shaped craters, this movie really must be seen to be believed. This is a very nice widescreen DVD transfer, although the only extras are some trailers (one for Ricky and three for other HK action films). It's interesting to note that the DVD allows you to run both the subtitles and dubbing simultaneously, allowing you to compare how wildly different they are. "A let-down......." I had been hearing about this movie for years. I am a big fan of Hong Kong cinema, "wire-fu," zombie movies, and cheesy horror movies like "Dead Alive." Upon mentioning "Dead Alive" to people, many mentioned this movies, saying that I HAD to see it and that it was SO funny and SO gorey. I finally broke down and bought it and watched it yesterday. The dubbing was great, the voices and some of the lines were hilarious; but it didn't make up for what the movie lacked..... The gore was a bit silly, but not so over-the-top as I had expected. Overall, I was dissapointed and would recommend VIEWING this movie, but not OWNING it. "Gory fighting and that is it..." Story of Ricky is set in the near future when prisons are run like franchised companies. The main character, Riki, is sent to one of these prisons where his superior martial arts skills help keep him alive as he finds out that the prison is run by a corrupt warden and four powerful prisoners. Story of Ricky is a carnival of gore and martial arts which often becomes nauseating. The story is not the main event in this film, but rather the ultra violence is what keeps the audience's attention. There is a feeble attempt to display Riki's sensitive side, however, this becomes abundantly awkward. In addition, the poor cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, acting, voice over, and music makes this a terrible cinematic experience. "Finally a movie that just completely kicks butt." When you've had enough of lame American "action" movies, it's time for Riki-Oh. It's like the difference between throwing a bullet and shooting it. My wife almost freaked out when the first really violent thing happened (when the guy was thrown down onto the board with the nails sticking out) but by the end we were both roaring with laughter and I didn't want the movie to end. One nice thing about this movie is that you are not going to have a weak opinion about it. You are going either totally hate it and have no use for it, or, like me, you are going to be wildly enthusiastic and think it is the greatest thing you have ever seen. This movie even beats out the Evil Dead.