Riki Oh: The Story of Ricky

Plot

The plot closely follows the events depicted in the original Japanese comic and its anime adaptation, with some minor modifications in certain instances.

By the year 2001, all correctional facilities have been privatized. Lik Wong/Ricky Ho (Fan Siu-wong), a martial artist and former music student, is sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter after killing a crime lord who was indirectly responsible for the death of his girlfriend Keiko/Anne (Gloria Yip). Flashback scenes reveal that a group of thugs had captured her after she had witnessed their heroin deal. Anne was so scared in captivity that she ran upstairs and then leapt off the roof to her death.

One morning in the prison bathroom, an elderly inmate named Ma/Omar is viciously beaten by the captain of the cells, Wildcat/Samuel. As Samuel leaves, Ricky trips him, and Samuel falls on a piece of wood with nails on it, hand and face first. As Samuel devises a plan to get back at Ricky, one of the inmates suggest that they should have Zorro, a dangerous, morbidly obese inmate, to kill him. Omar is later informed by the guards that they turned down his probation after Samuel tells the guards that Omar was spreading rumors although this was untrue. Stricken by grief, Omar hangs himself.

The next day, Zorro attacks Ricky, but is quickly and horribly killed along with Samuel. Shortly after, a member of the fearsome Four Heavenly Kings (Gang of Four in the English dub) named Hai/Oscar, the leader of the North Cell, suggests that Ricky should see the sadistic one-eyed Assistant Warden Dan. After Ricky confronts Dan, he suggests Oscar to kill Ricky. Outside the prison yard, Oscar and Ricky engage in a fight, which ends with Ricky defeating and killing Oscar.

Later on, Ricky soon discovers that the Gang of Four is growing illegal opium for profit. Huang Chung/Rogan, leader of the West Cell, discovers that Ricky had set the poppy garden on fire and they both fight. As the fight goes on, Brandon, leader of the South Cell, throws his needles and ties Ricky up with them, leaving him defenseless. Meanwhile, the guards report to Dan that the Warden is returning from his vacation in Hawaii, prompting Dan to raise the Zero Alarm. While the fight continues, Tarzan, leader of the East Cell, interferes, claiming that he wants to fight Ricky. As the Zero Alarm goes off, Ricky and the Gang of Four part ways for now.

The next day, the Warden and his spoiled, overweight son return from their vacation. Dan informs the Warden about the incidents during his absence, including the poppy garden which infuriates the Warden. Dan escorts the Warden to Ricky's cell. As the Warden questions him, Tarzan bursts through the wall and fights Ricky once again, which ends with Ricky brutally defeating Tarzan. The Warden then activates a ceiling trap to crush Ricky. As Ricky struggles to stay alive, Tarzan regains consciousness and saves him from being crushed by the ceiling, at the cost of Tarzan's life.

Later, the Warden orders the inmates to bury Ricky alive, which they reluctantly obey. The Warden claims if Ricky survives by staying underground for a week, he will consider freeing him from prison. As the week quickly passes by, Ricky survives, but the Warden does not free him. Later that night, Ricky is chained in his cell. A fellow inmate, named Freddy, brings him food so Ricky can regain his power. However, another inmate sees this and informs Dan about it and in response, Dan mortally wounds Freddy. Dan, dragging Freddy's body with his hook, then opens Ricky's cell to show the body to him. However, Dan and the other inmate find that Ricky has broken free from the chains, and Ricky kills the inmate and knocks out Dan's remaining eye. As the guards rush to the scene, the inmates rebel and violently ambush Dan.

In the kitchen, Ricky, the prisoners, and Dan burst through the wall and the Warden shoots Dan with a gas-pressured bullet, causing him to inflate and violently explode. Rogan and Brandon then confront Ricky one last time, which ends with Ricky gravely injuring Rogan. Brandon, realizing Ricky is far too powerful for him, flees from the scene, but not before the Warden shoots and kills Brandon. The Warden, revealing that he too, is a martial artist, transforms into a grotesque creature and battles Ricky. The fight quickly ends with Ricky crippling and throwing the mutated Warden into a meat grinder. In the finale, the prisoners rebel once again and start to attack the guards. Ricky then breaks the prison wall, allowing all the prisoners and himself to go free.

Cast

Notable scenes

The film is notorious for its excessive use of graphic violence and gore, primarily due to the fact that the lead character is practically invincible, has superhuman strength and can virtually withstand all pain, which is partially explained by Ricky being a practitioner of a mystical kung-fu style known as Qigong. This leads to attempts by other characters to subdue him which end up being extremely gory and over-the-top.

Aside from the aforementioned head crushing and meat grinding scenes, most notable is a fight scene between Ricky and a knife-wielding prisoner named Oscar. During the fight, Oscar throws powdered glass in Ricky's eyes and then slashes Ricky's right arm. Ricky seemingly finished, smashes a water pipe and cleans his eyes, then uses his teeth and left hand to tie the veins and tendons in his arm back together. Oscar then charges at Ricky, but Ricky dodges and smacks him in the back of the head, popping one of his eyes out, leaving it to be eaten by crows. Seeing himself at a disadvantage, Oscar attempts suicide by seppuku. However, when Ricky approaches Oscar to try and stop the suicide, Oscar grabs his own intestines and wraps them around Ricky's neck in an attempt to strangle him, prompting the assistant warden to exclaim in the English dub: "You've got a lot of guts, Oscar!". Ricky then punches Oscar in the face, with an X-ray image showing the front of his skull shattering. The deceased Oscar crumples to the ground without so much as a visibly broken nose.

In another fight scene, Ricky punches and graphically breaks the Gang of Four member, Tarzan's arm, then lands an uppercut with such force that Tarzan's jaw is torn off. Finally, Ricky goes for the Coup de grâce and punches several of Tarzan's fingers off as he attempts to punch Ricky.

Another scene includes the warden's graphic death which depicts Ricky throwing him into an industrial meat grinder. Ricky pushes the struggling warden through the grinder, until his whole body is shredded and only his head remains. In that scene, so much fake blood was used that Fan Siu-wong could not wash the blood off his skin for three days.

The film's low budget shows in the scene where Ricky's girlfriend Keiko jumps to her death. For this scene, an obvious mannequin wearing her clothes is thrown off the top of the building, landing with a dull thud and a slight bounce. A dummy is also used in some scenes where there is a close up.

Box office and reception

Riki-Oh received a Category III rating (viewers under 18 not allowed). It was one of the first Hong Kong movies to receive such a rating for non-erotic content. This rating greatly inhibited the film's ability to make money at the box office. The film grossed $2,147,778 HKD in Hong Kong.

Riki-Oh has received positive reviews overseas. Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice called it "a rather astonishing, starkly stylized blood flood set inside a privatized prison." Kurt Ramschissel of Film Threat gave the film 5 stars, saying that "the violence comes fast and furious and is just as outrageous and over-the-top as Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson ever were." Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes currently has the film rated at 89% fresh on their Tomatometer.

Home video and online streaming releases

In the U.S, Tokyo Shock released it on a bare bones DVD in 2000. In 2002, Hong Kong Legends released their DVD in Region 2 territories. In 2003, Fortune Star (formerly Mega Star), current holders of the Golden Harvest library from Media Asia, released a Remastered version of the film on a 3 disc set along with: The Dragon from Russia and City Hunter.

The film was released on Blu-ray Disc on 10 January 2012. Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky became available in its original Chinese with hard-coded English subtitles on Netflix's Instant Streaming service in mid-2012. The movie aired on Turner Classic Movies on 2 November 2012 and 14 April 2013 as part of TCM Underground.