Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)
★★★ — Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)
There is a particular strain of Hong Kong cinema that has always been willing to go further than its Western counterparts, whether in terms of action choreography, melodrama, or sheer, gleeful excess. A Better Tomorrow and Come Drink with Me both demonstrate the range the industry is capable of, from stylish heroic bloodshed to wuxia elegance. Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, released in 1991, sits at a rather different end of that spectrum. Based on the Japanese manga series by Masahiko Takajo and Saruwatari Tetsuya, the film transplants its source material's hyper-violent, near-satirical vision of a dystopian future into a live-action Hong Kong production, and the result is one of the more notorious cult items to come out of that era of genre filmmaking.
The premise is set in 2001 (a future that, even at time of release, was only a decade away), where the privatisation of the prison system has created a world of institutionalised brutality and corruption. Into this setting arrives Ricky, a young martial artist with superhuman strength, condemned to a privately run facility after a conviction for manslaughter. Director Lam Nai-Choi, working with Orange Sky Golden Harvest among the producing outfits, had built a career on commercial genre pictures, and here he commits entirely to the manga's over-the-top register. The film is famous, or perhaps infamous, for its practical gore effects, which are extraordinarily unrestrained by any reasonable standard. The budget was modest, and the effects are very much of their time, but there is a certain craft to the sheer ambition of what ends up on screen, even when (especially when) it tips into the absurd.
Louis Fan Siu-Wong carries the film as Ricky, a role that requires him to look impassive while surrounded by escalating chaos, which he manages with a straight-faced commitment that suits the material perfectly. Fan Mei-Sheng and William Ho provide the film's villainous hierarchy, while Yukari Ôshima, a well-regarded figure in Hong Kong action cinema, appears in a supporting role. Gloria Yip Wan-Yee is also among the cast, though the film has little interest in anything other than its central collision of one man's fists against a corrupt institution. If you are coming to this expecting the polished but unremarkable gloss of a mainstream action picture (the kind of thing that fills a Fast X-shaped space on the release calendar), you are going to be quite surprised by what Lam Nai-Choi has actually made. The film's reputation as a midnight-movie staple is not accidental, and it has been passed around on battered VHS tapes and dodgy imports for decades for a reason.
It's so bad it's good. What a bad film lol. Honestly it's just one of those films that so bad it's good. The violence, the gore, the random monster thing... Punching dogs to death lol
And honestly, that about covers it. There is a whole genre of film criticism that tries to intellectualise the "so bad it's good" experience, to find the hidden artistry, but sometimes a film just punches a dog to death and you either go with it or you don't. I went with it, helplessly. Films like The Raid 2 show what truly controlled, purposeful action filmmaking looks like, and Riki-Oh is very much not that. But there is something almost freeing about watching a film that has abandoned all pretence of restraint and is simply having the time of its life being ridiculous. It is a film you watch with your jaw somewhere near the floor and a grin you cannot quite explain. Sometimes that is enough.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1991 | Watched: 2025-04-19
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Criterion Channel
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Hong Kong: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Hand of Death (1976) · Come Drink with Me (1966) · Street Fighter (1994)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
