RIKI OH: THE STORY OF RICKY Blu-ray Review

This may be the greatest film ever made. Riki Oh is an adaptation of an ultra violent manga that ran from 1983 to 1990, the book was adapted to the screen by Lam Ngai-choi, the depraved madman responsible for Cat III legends The Cat and Seventh Curse.  Riki Oh may not be as balls-out insane as those films, but it certainly trumps them in terms of gore and one on one violence. A very young Fan Siu Wong (Ip Man 1 & 2) takes the lead role and plays a sort of murderous romantic vigilante, trying to rid the prison in which he's been locked up of corruption. The ensuing fights are legendary and put Riki Oh on a pedestal as one of the most notorious Cat III films ever made. Tokyo Shock promised us this Blu-ray back in September, but various delays have kept it off shelves until now.  The resulting disc is a definite improvement over SD, but the difference isn't exactly night and day.

The cult classic returns in all its head exploding glory! Ricky (Fan Siu-wong) is sentenced to prison for the pulpy murder of a lowlife responsible for his girlfriend's suicide. In the dystopian future of 2001, the prison system has been privatized and run by monsters far worse than criminals they keep locked up.

Ricky finds himself up against the gang of four super powered martial artists who rule the various blocks and assist the warden with his illegal opium operation. Ricky's innate sense of justice sends him into battle, forcing him to punch his way through one monstrous opponent after the other-literally! Action choreographed by Shaw Bros. legend Phillip Kwonk ( John Woo's Hard Boiled, 007's Tomorrow Never Dies).

Riki Oh is a catalog of brutality, both justified and capricious. The warden's inside team, the Gang of Four, are masters of different martial arts who use their superhuman strength and agility to keep the other inmates in line. However, when Ricky Ho shows up, he doesn't like the state of things, and makes it his mission to clean the place up, no matter what it takes. The resulting massacre is insanely bloody, and ridiculous on a scale that can almost never be matched.

Fan Siu Wong's protrayal of the excruciatingly upright Ricky is a model of white hat heroism.  Everything he does is for the greater good, he even managed to get sent to prison for the murder of a drug dealer who he believed caused the death of his girl. He never shows any remorse for that act, nor does he ever give the impression that he feels it is wrong that he's been imprisoned.  He accepts the consequences of his actions because he knows he'll earn those consequences in the long run. When he discovers that the Gang of Four are helping the warden grow illegal poppies for use in opium, he loses his shit and the carnage goes into overdrive.

You'll see things in Riki Oh that you've never seen before in a film.  I don't care how many gory horror films you've seen, this film takes the cake for absurd FX. Heads are smashed, stomachs are punched through, faces are skinned, limbs severed, at one point a guy tries to choke Ricky with his own intestines, it is completely insane.  This is the best kind of film, the unforgettable kind.  For all of its faults, and with as low budget a production as Riki Oh was, there are many, Riki Oh never fails to be entertaining.  You've gotta respect that!

The Disc:

This disc from Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters was initially slated to release on September 27th, however, in a move that fans will no doubt be familiar with, the release was pushed back and is now presumably sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Was it worth all the wait?  The answer is: maybe.  The Blu-ray is certainly an improvement over my Hong Kong Legends UK disc in terms of A/V. Tokyo Shock's version opens with the Fortune Star logo, which leads me to believe that it was from the relatively recent HD master that Fortune Star used in their DVD release from a few years back.

The image on Tokyo Shock's Blu-ray will certainly not blow anyone's mind.  Apart from a few especially impressive close ups, the disc isn't exactly brimming with fine detail.  However, one must give some consideration to the fact that this film was a very low budget film and the stock was probably pretty shitty.  That being said, this probably could've been better with a good amount of restoration, but I'm fairly satisfied with the result as a healthy improvement over my old DVD.  The image is very grainy, though I don't imagine that will bother purists, and the numerous slow motion shots showcase the grain even more.  The colors are certainly warmer than my HKL disc, though I'm not sure how it compares to the Fortune Star. All that being said, there are a few close ups of actors that were pretty damned impressive, and detail in those shots was far better than I'd expected.

The audio receives a bigger boost, with the disc housing 5 different DTS-HD MA tracks, two each in Cantonese and English (5.1 and 2.0) and one in Mandarin (2.0).  The infamous English dub is well represented here, if a bit quieter than the original Cantonese audio. I don't really think that the surround mixes were necessary, as there isn't a whole lot of immersion on this disc.  There are no noticeable drop outs or hisses on the tracks, though, so that's a bonus.

We get three relatively minor extras on this disc.  The first is a two minute introduction/homage from Hobo with a Shotgun director, Jason Eisener. Eisener basically recounts the plot while getting punched repeatedly for two minutes. This feature is deceptively labeled as a "Roundtable with the Hobo with a Shotgun director Jason Eisener, producer Jason Cotteril, and cinematographer Karim Hussain". It is not that. Also included is a more substantial twenty minute interview with star Fan Siu Wong from around 2001, this interview was also available on the Hong Kong Legends disc, and remains informative. It's nice to see a talented action star like Fan getting work again with the recent trio of Ip Man films.  Tying up the extras is a trailer for the film, which is in notably worse condition than the feature.

I don't know what to say about this disc.  I'm glad I have it.  It blows my HKL disc out of the water in terms of A/V.  That being said, Tokyo Shock did not work a miracle with this film.  I tend to think that this is the best we'll see it looking for quite some time to come. I give this one a modest recommendation.