Movie Description

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is a 1991 Hong Kong martial arts film written and directed by Lam Nai-choi, and based on the Japanese manga Riki-Oh by Masahiko Takajo and Saruwatari Tetsuya. The film stars Fan Siu-wong, Fan Mei-sheng (Siu-wong's real life father), Ho Ka-kui and Yukari Oshima.

Fan Siu-wong plays Ricky Ho Lik Wong (Lik Wong is the character's given name, but the subtitles use the anglicized "Ricky") and Yukari Oshima as Yomi (Rogan in the English dub). The English title given on screen is simply Story of Ricky but later releases were sold under the title Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. It had a limited theatrical release in the US around 1993. It is well known for its extreme, brutal, and highly unrealistic violence, as well as its high camp factor and extremely poor English dubbing (although versions in Cantonese and Mandarin are also available). One scene, showing a character crushing another character's skull with his bare hands, later became a regular fixture on The Daily Show during Craig Kilborn's time as the host.

Riki-Oh's Category III rating (the Hong Kong equivalent of an NC-17) greatly inhibited its ability to make money at the box office. It was one of the first Hong Kong movies that used Category 3 film rating system for non erotic media. The film, however, has received surprisingly positive reviews overseas. Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice called the film "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."