Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
(Aka: Riki Oh/ Lai Wong)
(1991)
review by Head Cheeze

A lot of live action films based on manga tend to sacrifice a great deal when it comes to translating what can be done with animation to what can be done with human beings, thus losing the impossible physics, breakneck speed, and oftentimes insanely over the top violence. There are a few exceptions, however, and Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki is definitely one of them.

Ricky is a good guy who killed some folks in retribution for a horrible crime against him. He is sentenced to life in a prison run by a corrupt head guard and four prisoners who each run one of the prison's cell blocks, and, together, grow opium in one of the prison's vacant buildings. When Ricky finds out, he is challenged by one of "The Four", but they understimate his fighting ability and he defeats him. It is then that they give him the choice to join them or die, but Ricky has other plans.

Riki-Oh is one helluva violent flick, just like it's manga counterpart, and it doesn't take it's time to show us that. Ricky's punches pierce people's stomaches, smash heads, shatters hearts, and even if he just punches in the air in your direction he can at the very least give you a bloody knows. Not only is Ricky ultra-strong, he's tougher 'n hell, using his teeth to tie off severed arteries in one arm while kicking ass with his other. It's truly barf bag worthy stuff!

The downside of all of this cool violence is the fact that it comes at the expense of any sort of real story; Riki-Oh is basically brainless Kung Fu Theater type fodder dressed up in buckets of blood and guts, but in a film like this one doesn't exactly expect the heated dialogue of David Mamet. This is pretty much "My Kung Fu is better than yours" level entertainment, but taken to the absolute limits of non-animated cinematic violence.

The DVD from Tokyo Shock features a very solid transfer and a KICK ASS sound mix that rumbled my house enough to get the girlfriend pissed off, so you know that's a good thing. There's also a text essay about the film and some trailers for other Tokyo Shock releases, but not much else beyond seemingly endless language options.

Riki-Oh is a really crazy flick, worthy of the praise it's recieved from both martial arts fanatics and absolute stoners (hehehe). I've heard about it for years, seen the "underground" VHS convention copies, but now, thanks to Tokyo Shock, we can all see it in it's fully uncut bloody digital glory.