 Dir. Ngai Choi Lam, Hong Kong, 91 mins Having been trawling the murky worlds of Film Gutter for the better part of five years, how on earth have I not come to look at Riki-Oh yet? This Hong Kong movie has a huge reputation as a cult movie, and also as one of the most violent films ever committed to screen at the time – quite possibly ever. It's based off an equally brutal manga, and has the distinction of being the first Hong Kong film to achieve the notorious Category 3 status for something other than sexual/erotic content. But how does this one stack up all these years on? The year is 2001 – the far-flung future! – and private prisons are cesspools of corruption and gang warfare. Into this melee lands Ricky, a young man sent to prison for taking revenge on a crime lord for his heinous actions. But Ricky is no ordinary inmate – he's been trained by his uncle in martial arts and has not only incredible combat skills but also superhuman strength and resilience. It's not long until he finds himself the target of the Gang of Four, a quarter of kingpins who effectively run the prison along with the crooked governor. And so begins an absolute orgy of excess the likes of which you might never have seen, and are probably unlikely to see again. Now don't get me wrong – I can see why this movie has achieved a cult status. For anyone who is big on martial arts movies, you'll probably get a kick out of this one (if you'll forgive the pun). The action itself comes thick and fast, and there's liable to be enough blood and guts to keep most gorehounds happy as well. But to be honest, this one does fall apart fairly quickly if you give it a close inspection. As such, it's important in many regards to switch your brain off before you hit play and just enjoy the crazy action for what it is – it's as much pure spectacle as it is an actual movie, a cavalcade of outrageous scenes filled with bonkers special effects and over-the-top violence. It's also fair to say that the English dub does this movie no favours at all – some of the voice performances are frankly ridiculous, and don't do anything to sheer away the slightly silly veneer that the film has. Personally I wasn't a fan of this one. Any long-term readers will know that I'm not much of a fan of real gratuity in films, and Riki-Oh is gratuitous in spades. I also found it hard to overlook some of the logic holes that were featured in this one – I won't pick at those particularly here, because that is fairly spoiler-ish territory, but you'll certainly know then when you see them. My final criticism was in evidence in the very writing of this review, where more than once I wrote 'game' instead of 'film'. And that's the ultimate feeling – this would actually be a blinding good video game if anyone had ever turned their mind to making it, and there's a sense of climbing through the levels before finally meeting the boss at the end. And that will appeal to some, but it wasn't really to my taste. RATING: 5.5/10. In my view, Riki-Oh is a mess. But it was based on a mess, and was only ever really meant to be a mess. In its way it's an entertaining mess, but I can't get over the fact it is (once again) a mess. The story jumps all over the shop, and the lead character is all but indestructible, which diminishes any tension. There's a level that you can get something out of it as a spectacle, but as an overall film I can only go a scooch above average at 5.5/10.     |
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