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This is Story of Ricky. A 1991 Golden Harvest/Star TV Hong Kong/Japanese co-production presented by Media Asia Group (the international licensing distributor), and based off a hyper-violent (think Fist of the North Star style) 1988 manga titled Rikki-O (aka Power King or King of Strength) by writer Masahiko Takajo and artist Tetsuya Saruwatari, Story of Ricky centers around an extraordinary young man named Ricky Ho who's been thrown into a privatized prison in the year 2001 for killing a Triad drug dealer responsible for his girlfriend's death. Naturally, being a franchised business, the privatized prison is corrupt and basically run by the Gang of Four; four murderous convicts who each control a wing of the prison through terror and fear. The kindhearted Ricky, having learned an unconventional method of superhuman kung fu from his uncle, comes at odds with the Gang of Four over their mistreatment of his fellow inmates and, in what could at best be considered the understatement of the century, a whole lot of GORIFIED ass kicking ensues. Needless to say, things only get worse when Ricky discovers that an entire wing of the prison is being used to grow poppies for opium production, and sets the entire crop ablaze. When the vacationing warden, Cobra, returns to see what has happened to his prison, he proceeds to try and set the mischievous Ricky straight the only way he knows how; by attempting to torture Ricky into submission. Unfortunately for the warden and his men, nothing can contain Ricky's rage as he hits his breaking point and literally decimates the surrounding area as he busts out of the prison after a final meat grinding showdown that definitely has to be seen to be believed! Make no mistake: Ricky is one badass motherfucker.
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Things to look out for in the film include:
One of the prison bullies named Wildcat (renamed "Samuel" in the appropriately cheesy Media Asia-produced English dub), after having thoroughly tormented a prison inmate and breaking his wooden toy train he had made for his kid, receives his comeuppance when tricky Ricky trips Wildcat, who lands face first onto a wooden board of nails, a painful effect which appears tame when compared to the rest of the film.
Ricky violently punching through the gargantuan gut of Elephant ("Zorro" in the English dub), a 400+ pound homicidal maniac who is recruited by Wildcat to kill, and then eat, Ricky.
A sadistic assistant warden with a hook hand and a glass eye which dispenses, of all things, breathe mints. Also of special mention is the pornographic video collection prominently displayed on the wall shelves in his office.
During a battle with Han ("Oscar" in the English dub), a heavily tattooed member of the Gang of Four, Ricky manages to instantly repair his own slashed arm by digging into his bloody wound and manually tying his torn tendons back together!
Just as soon as Ricky's about to finish him off, Han commits hari-kari and pulls out his own intestines, which he then proceeds to use to strangle Ricky with! In retaliation, Ricky smashes in Han's skull with a fist through the face shot, completely done in x-ray (a special effect the American filmmakers behind the Jet Li vehicle Romeo Must Die tried to claim as their own original creation in the latter film; too bad for them that Story of Ricky beat them to it by a good ten years)!
In one of many don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it moments, Taizan ("Tarzan" in the English dub) demonstrates his excellent head smashing technique, which has been frequently exhibited on the Five Questions segment intro of the Craig Kilborn-hosted episodes of The Daily Show.
Female Asian action star Yukari Oshima in a gender-switching role as the meant-to-be-effeminate pretty boy Huang Chan ("Rogan" in the English dub), the Gang of Four member who's in charge of the west wing of the prison where the poppies are harvested. You know he takes his job seriously when he violently splits an innocent dog in half with one swift hit done out of mere frustration.
Shorty ("Brendan" in the English dub), the final bleach-banged member of the Gang of Four, who uses oversized sewing needles on elastic bands as his main weapon (and to good effect, too). He gets shot in the ass and ends up suffering the same fate as the assistant warden below.
The assistant warden blowing up like a bloody gut-filled balloon after being shot by the warden with a special gun which seems to cause people to continually swell to immense proportions until bursting.
During one of Ricky's torture sequences, he is pitted against Taizan, who the warden has hired to teach Ricky a lesson. Ricky, at this point having finally decided that incarceration just ain't for him, disintegrates Taizan's elbow and delivers a satisfying through-the-chin/out-the-mouth uppercut in another excellent don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it moment.
In the final climactic showdown, the seemingly meager-looking warden proves to be more than he originally appears to be when he transforms into an almighty humanoid uberdemon, who is able to withstand Ricky's violently blows, leaving Ricky with no other option but to formulate a new plan of attack that's so ridiculous in concept and theory that it JUST! MIGHT! WORK! (And does!)
Bodies are punched through, limbs are smashed down to hamburger, and heads are cleanly chopped in half as Ricky sets about on his quest to clean up his cellblock. The effects work is questionable, but is so ridiculously over the top that what it may lack in quality, it certainly more than makes up for in style and presentation.
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Story of Ricky is available on DVD in the U.S. through Media Blasters as Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, the debut title for their Tokyo Shock live action film label. It is also available abroad through MegaStar, Tai Seng, Laser Paradise, Deltamac, and various other distributors, licensed and unlicensed, and usually as a region free release. Of special note is that nearly all available DVD releases seem to use the exact same ready-made DVD transfer from Media Asia Group, right down to including the four extra trailers for other Media Asia/Golden Harvest films (John Woo's Heroes Shed No Tears and Last Hurrah for Chivalry, Siu-Tung Ching's Duel to the Death, and Woo-Ping Yuen's Magnificent Butcher with Sammo Hung), all of which appear to almost borderline on being parodies of their respective genres.
Truth of the matter is, I just can't speak highly enough about this film. Try DVD Price Search for the best deal. And then share the viewing with your friends. Because it's really more than just a film; it's an experience.
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