This is a film that completely caught
me off guard when I first viewed it. I don’t if it was the insane levels of
violence, the incredibly poor special effects, or the bad translations. But
once the story started, I could not look away from this ultraviolent bit of ridiculousness.
Now there have been better
translations done over time as word of this film spread and reached cult
status, but my initial copy had translated the words literally, without giving
thought to the context of the situation. For example, the scene where Ricky is being
held in a steel bar cage that wrap around his neck in the warden’s office, one
of the villains stuffs a handful of razorblades into Ricky’s mouth then hits
him in the head with a pipe wrench six times, causing the blades to stick out
through Ricky’s cheeks. 
In
the translation I had, he spits out the blades and yells, “None of you are a
good lot!” See what I mean, not exactly a realistic response to the situation. In
later copies of the film, I saw that the line had been translated as, “You son
of a bitch!” Which makes more sense, but is not as fun if you are viewing Riki Oh through the so bad its good
lens.
The
film is based on the Japanese manga Riki-Oh
by Masahiko Takajo and Saruwatari Tetsuya. While I have not read the manga, I
have been told by people who have that the film follows the events of the book
very closely.
 |
| This speaks for itself |
By
the year 2001, all correctional facilities have been privatized. Ricky Ho is sentenced
to 10 years in prison after killing a Yakuza boss who was responsible for the
death of his girlfriend. Flashback scenes reveal that a group of thugs had
captured her after she witnessed their heroin deal. Attempting to get away from
them, she ran to the roof of a building and jumped off to her death.
 |
| My favorite death in the film |
One
morning in the prison bathroom, an elderly inmate named Ma is viciously beaten
by the captain of the cells, Wildcat. As he leaves, Ricky trips him, and Wildcat
falls on a piece of wood with nails on it, hand and face first. The cell
captain then sends Zorro, a dangerous fat inmate, kill him. The next day, Zorro
attacks Ricky, but is grotesquely killed. Shortly after, a member of the Gang
of Four who run each section of the prison named Hai, the leader of the North
Cell, sends Ricky to see the sadistic one-eyed Assistant Warden Dan- who is
missing an arm and keeps mints hidden in his fake eye. After Ricky confronts
Dan, he suggests Hai kill Ricky.
Outside the prison yard, Hai and Ricky engage
in a fight. Ricky knocks out Hai’s eye by hitting him in the back of the head.
Hai then blinds Ricky by throwing shards of glass into his eyes and cutting the
tendons of his arm. Ricky breaks open an water pipe, clears the glass from his
eyes and sews his arm back together using his own veins. Hai then cuts out his
own intestines and attempts to strangle Ricky, but Ricky flips him up in the
air and breaks Hai’s skull. 
And
so on and so on. It continues with this ridiculousness, until Ricky has defeated
the Gang of Four, the evil Assistant Warden, and finally the Warden- who turns
into a huge monster at the end (of course) and is defeated by being pushed into
a giant meat grinder. I could go on, but the plot is really unimportant. You
could watch it with the sound off and easily get as much enjoyment, not knowing
what was happening.
There
was allegedly a sequel called Dint King,
Inside King (aka, Story of Ricky 2
or Super Powerful Man) was released
in Hong Kong in 2005, however from what I’ve head the plot does not follow the
events that supposedly occur after Ricky breaks out of prison, and is set in
the distant future as opposed to 2001 for the first film. However the same
actor was hired to play the lead as in Ricki
Oh.
Below is the film entire, and a selection of the most graphic bits for those who want to skip to the good parts. Enjoy and Caveat Emptor.
Full Film
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