DVD Info Year: 1993 Country: Hong Kong Director: Nam Nai Choi, Ngai Kai Lam Cast: Fan Siu-Wong, Yukari Oshima, Frankie Chan Available on DVD in Australia from Hong Kong Legends (Universal) Running time: 88 min Language: Cantonese Distributed in Australia by: Universal Pictures

Synopsis:

Based on the Japanese comic-strip 'Riki Oh', this equal parts martial arts movie, futuristic prison picture and sci-fi monster flick, Story Of Ricky is set in an alternative universe similar to our own. After killing the drug dealer responsible for his girlfriend's death, Ricky (Siu-Wong Fan) finds himself banged up in a prison ruled by a corrupt warden and a group of super-mercenaries known as the Gang of Four.

Trained in an especially deadly form of martial arts, and possessing super-human strength making him virtually indestructible, Ricky responds to the bullying of various inmates, prison guards and the Gang of Four in the only way he knows how. Cue disembowelment, decapitation, dismemberment, flaying, manual organ removal, exploding bodies, crushed heads, exposed brains, popping eyeballs, human mincing, one jaw-dropping mother of a monster and the goriest climax you will ever see!

Review:

This schlock horror classic, based on a manga called Ricky-oh, will delight fans of extreme violence. Our eponymous hero Ricky (Fan Siu Wong) is banged up in prison for killing heroin traffickers responsible for the death of his girlfriend (the giggling Gloria Yip), and meets a variety of brutal killers all bent on extracting various parts of his well-muscled body, probably to use as decoration. Fortunately, Ricky has super-strength, and fights his way through a roster of bad guys. Quite literally: Ricky drives his mighty fist through body parts right and left, leaving dollops of blood and leftover bits that sometimes wriggle about like newborn eels.

Oddly enough, the back story to this extreme violence is a sociopolitical one: the privatization of prisons, which the writers of the manga accurately predicted in the early 90s, although they may have slightly overstated the potential for mayhem. The serious political comment sits oddly with the ‘buckets urv blurd’ aesthetic, making for a schizophrenic experience that will wreck your mind as well as your appetite.

The bad guys are seriously bad, and the good guys, except for Ricky, are dispatched with extreme prejudice. There’s a plethora of skin removal, more entrails than a pork butcher, and more blood than a dozen black puddings. There’s carpentry tools and iron bars, mincing machines and attempted strangulation by entrails. If you rate films according to the amount of inside bits brought outside, this will score over the top. If not, then best you don’t watch it.

4 carpentry tools used for cosmetic surgery out of 10

by Alison Jobling

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