Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1992)
If you are a fan of bad movies, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is essential viewing. This violent prison film is so over-the-top and features such obvious and terrible special effects that it's consistently hilarious. Watch the English dub to get the maximum enjoyment.
Ricky (Fan Siu-wong) is a super-powered, nearly invincible fighter sent to prison after avenging the death of his girlfriend (or is it sister?). The facility he's been sentenced to is no joke. Prisoners are regularly murdered by the ruling gangs (an easy task considering they all have ready access to several wood-working tools) and the wardens are using the prison as a front for illegal operations. It’s time for Ricky to take out the trash and that means killing a whole lotta people with his bare hands.
When I look for the “perfect bad movie”, this has got it all. The special effects are bad. If the gore had been rendered realistically, it would be traumatic to see. With its fake dummies that land on the ground with a thud, gallons of blood, rubber severed limbs, obvious makeup, inflatable prosthetic heads, visible strings, and embarrassing puppet mutants, this movie cannot be taken seriously. The story is so preposterous you couldn't even if the special effects were good. There’s really no plot; just an excuse to get Ricky from one over-the-top fight to the next. Characters are introduced just so they can be killed in an “emotionally impactful” moment or to explain something about Ricky’s past and then never show up again.
If you’re going to have a bad story, you better complement it with wooden performances and jaw-dropping dialogue. I can't attest to the quality of the original Cantonese script. For all I know it was Shakespearian in its prose and language. The English dub gives us such gems as “You’ve got a lot of guts Oscar!” A line that by itself sounds harmless, but when you keep in mind that it’s uttered after Oscar pulls out his intestines to use as a weapon, it’s something else.
Take five different people, make them watch Riki-Oh and they will all single out a different scene as their favorite. It might be the bald guy who clearly shaved the top of his skull to make it look like he's losing his hair. Perhaps the people's ability to pull 2-foot swords out of nowhere, or that no one seems to notice wooden boards donned with nails on the ground until they’re embedded in their faces. This movie’s fight scenes are like something out of Dragon Ball Z mixed with Mortal Kombat, but with infinitely flatter characters and action that always results in broken bones or a revelation that all along, they were just made out of bags filled with random chunks of meat and gore.
When you think Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki has gotten as crazy as it can, it once again tops itself. This is the kind of movie that you want to have in the background of your party because everyone who catches a glimpse of what’s going on will be amazed/baffled and will have a good laugh. I wouldn’t change a single eyeball popping, jaw destruction, X-ray punch, androgynous martial arts fighter, or exploding head. (Original English Dub on DVD, September 11, 2015)