“We’re human beings! HUUUMAAAAN BEEEEIIIINGS!”

The Story of Ricky is an early 90s Hong Kong cinema movie based on an 80s super violent Manga; Riki-Oh. Super violent, super gory and, well…super violent! The Story of Ricky is everything the fist of the North Star live action movie should have been.

The story revolves around Ricky, a man with super strength and a master of the Chi-gung, who is falsely imprisoned after wrongly being accused of murder. Now plot hole number one is that he did actually clearly kill him…anyway, it’s set in the distant future of 2001, where prisons are owned by private companies and a law unto themselves. The corrupt prison guvnor, and the top prison gang rule the roost and will kill anyone who steps out of line.

Queue head popping, limb severing, punching holes through people, strangulation by intestines and some of the most outlandish deaths I’ve ever seen. A sprinkling of opium growing, a meat grinder and some amazing early 90s haircuts are all thrown in for good measure. Any fan of brutal kung fu films with loads and loads of gore will love the Story of Ricky. A face is planed off and an eyeball is jammed full of nails in the first 5 minutes!

I’ve hardly scratched the surface of the insane deaths in the story of Ricky, and reading this back, I want to watch it again, now! The plot is full of holes, the fight scenes are plentiful and smothered with blood and one of the main bad guys in this all male prison, is played, pretty obviously, by a woman. This to me just adds to the magic of this insane splatter flick. I have to also point out that it is well worth watching the Story of Ricky with the English dub track. The voices are ridiculous and just add to the brilliance of this film. I absolutely adore The Story of Ricky and would suggest you check it out as soon as you can. You won’t be disappointed!