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Story of Ricky

I was promised seven bags of rice to turn you into mince meat and put you in a pie

A review by Mike Shea   Movie Rating: ( * * * * · )    DVD Rating: ( * · · · · )

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Story of Ricky is certainly one of the most unique movies I have ever seen. While all the elitest snobs are sipping five coffies and discussing the artistic abilities of Ang Li, real men are wondering just how possible it is to tie the tendons back together in your arm if they get cut during a fight.

Story of Ricky is a tale of revenge set after the fact. I am a huge fan of revenge films, probably because I am such a wimp, so I was grabbed right in from the beginning. We start off with Ricky getting sent to prison for killing some Triad bad dude who caused the death of his girlfriend. We all sympathized with Ricky, she was pretty hot even if she was made out of foam. Within this franchised prison he is swept into a world of corruption and mayhem with only his gung-fu to protect him and the elements of humanity he sees fit to protect or avenge. For the hour and a half masterpiece, we are led along a path of violence, each act worse than the one before it.

The movie is a mix between Crouching Tiger and Shawshank Redemption, but rather than dazzling us with incredible martial arts scenes, we are blown away by gore. In all the movies I have seen, I have never seen one with more guts than this one. While some movies like Saving Private Ryan use gore to horrify us, Story of Ricky uses it to glorify the fights. One of the things that censors never understand is that glorified violence is far different from humanitized violence. The former is more of a novelty, the latter is used to horrify.

While Story of Ricky will be remembered for the extensive gore, the plot really isn't too bad for Hong Kong trash. We are given some flashbacks of Ricky's past and a detailed political structure of the corrupt prison including the Gang of Four. These four bad dudes are like the bosses of a video game but still offer a lot more flavor than one would get with a bunch of sub plots.

My friends and I were so taken with Story of Ricky that we immediately began planning a sequel with the working title "Ricky Ho is a Bad Motherfucker". Assuming we could get about 100 million for a budget, we would hire the Rock as Tarzan and Carrie Ann-Moss as Rogan, two of the Gang of Four. Our conversations then started to turn to a list of violent acts to add in including tearing a man in half like a t-bone and replacing one man's jaw with another using a particularly harsh hook punch. Then we got bored and started to play SSX on Playstation 2.

We're lucky to even have a DVD of Story of Ricky, much less one with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. This one isn't going to be used for any kind of system demo, but it does a fine job reproducing a movie that was never before available. The picture is a 1.85 to 1 aspect ratio but is not 16x9 enhanced. There were no extras except for some trailers.

Story of Ricky is an amazing film no matter how you look at it. It will be known as one of the most violent films ever made and has already turned into a new verb "If you don't give me that controller I am going to go Story of Ricky on your ass!". For hardcore kung-fu fans, this movie shouldn't be missed. For the elitest snobs with no caring for the art of film (or normal people as you like to call yourselves) forget you ever heard of it.