A hilarious Asian live-action manga movie, based on a popular Japanese comic book (looking suspiciously similar to the classic Fist of the North Star),lauded for its total commitment to visceral violence and insanity. THE STORY OF RICKY is darned near perfect for a comic-book-turned-movie, an action-packed and visually arresting display of superhuman skills, bad guys versus good guys, and plenty of bizarre dream-like situations. The plot is wafer thin and needs to be so. Basically it involves our hero Ricky (the Bruce Lee-alike who smashes and crashes his way throughout the movie) getting sent to prison after murdering the drug dealer who caused the death of his girlfriend. After standing up for himself and the fellow prisoners, Ricky is then continuously beaten and tortured until the prison riot that marks the film's close.

Sure there are plenty of holes and negative aspects of this film. Taken as a serious work of art, it just doesn't hang together. The dialogue is dumb on purpose and the acting hardly sets the screen alight, but then it doesn't need to. The storyline makes no sense whatsoever if you think about it at all. If Ricky has all these powers why doesn't he just escape at the start instead of letting himself getting chained up and the like? Instead, THE STORY OF RICKY is happy to display one incredible scene of superhuman feat after another. Ricky is buried alive, blinded with crushed glass, squashed under a ceiling, and stuck fast with cement. He has the tendons severed in his arm but manages to knot them back together and return fighting. He endures a gob full of razor blades and some of the hardest beatings you will ever see. This is nothing in comparison to what he does to the enemy, though.

Bad guys are skinned, crushed, and have limbs literally torn from their bodies. Ricky's punches have the power to break bones and knock heads off entirely. He punches through stomachs, knocks out eyeballs, and shoves the bad guys into meat grinders. It's all amazing stuff that will have you glued to the screen. The special effects are tacky but colourful in much the same way as BRAINDEAD; you'll never be disturbed or horrified for an instant as instead the film is infused with that particular Asian humour that makes light of the darkest situations.

Although BRAINDEAD wins hands down due to the non-stop barrage of visceral carnage (here, you have to wait for the plot to catch up between each set-piece),THE STORY OF RICKY still deserves major mention for some of the truly outrageous gob-smacking scenes of brutality and over-the-top mayhem. The highlight has gotta be when a bad guy slashes open his own stomach in order to strangle Ricky with his intestines. Or perhaps the "did I dream that?" finale in which a villain turns into a Hulk-like monster for a splattery showdown with our God-like hero. There's stuff here you won't see anywhere else, which is why I wholeheartedly recommend this film for gore fans everywhere.

I heard that the dubbed version of this film is horrible. Sadly, the one I saw was subtitled...as I was looking for a bad film! Fortunately, in every other way it was a very bad film!

The movie begins with a prologue where you learn that in the near future prisons are privatized and are fun by maniacs. Soon, Ricky and two others are brought to this hell-hole where they must fight to survive--all during which, Ricky broods.....and kills. As far as plot goes, that's all there really is!

"Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky" is a film that could have been one of the most repulsive films in movie history. After all, there really is almost no plot and the film is a non-stop gore-fest. Eviscerations, tons of blood and maimings are the sort of stuff you see from start to finish. But, what keeps this from being a stomach-turning film is that the special effects are THAT dumb and not even once does it appear to be real. When heads explode, it's obvious that they are rubber. When a guy's face is impaled with nails, once again it's obviously some sort of rubber dummy. When Ricky gets mad, his punches go right through people's bodies! So, instead of inducing horror from the audience, it elicits laughter...lots and lots of laughter. It's also very funny watching Ricky emote--he broods and screams and runs an emotional range that is far less than Rambo's!!! As for everyone else, they are among the worst actors in film history. I am not sure whether to give this one a 10 (after all it is unintentionally VERY funny and worth seeing for bad movie fans) or a 1 (after all, it is stupid and cheap and crappy from start to finish). I think you just have to see this one to believe it!!

By the way, through the film, Ricky is often referred to as Riki Oh or Riki Ho. I prefer Ricky Ho.

I don't think I have seen quite another movie like it. I have seen Kung Fu movies, I have seen splatter movies, but this amalgation of both? Quite extraordinary and kind of funny to see it rated to high. I enjoyed it a lot, but I didn't think a movie that is quite so brutal and out there would be so well received. It deserves it for all the mayhem it contains.

Again, if you are squeamish, don't like movies with a lot of violence and especially gore and blood - why are you still here? If you don't mind a movie going over the top and do not question "story" and/or motivation (though in contrast to the people in the audio commentary I also listened to, I know why he didn't do the thing he does at the end way earlier - he had a mission, a goal) ... go ahead and watch and enjoy! The main character has quite the charisma too ...