As Peter Jackson has so deftly demonstrated, one doesn't need to make a horror film to make an effective gore flick. While gore and the inherent violence of horror films seem to go hand in hand, the comedic film also presents an almost limitless amount of opportunities for onscreen carnage-one just has to be a little more imaginative to find the right moments to splash the blood and guts across the screen. For proof of this, one need look no further than Jackson's Bad Taste-a classic example of the gore comedy. Viewers who find that film to their liking will want be sure to track down a copy of Ngai Kai Lam's The Story of Ricky-another hilarious splatter epic that has to be seen to be believed.

Alternately titled Riki-Oh (which translates to "King of Strength"), The Story of Ricky is chop-socky masterpiece based on a wildly over-the-top Japanese manga. Siu Wong Fan stars as Ricky, a young martial artist given a ten year prison sentence for murdering the guy who killed his girlfriend. Ricky's a badass, witnessed by the fact that he sets off the prison's metal detector because he kept the five bullets that his victim shot into him lodged in his chest as "souvenirs". In the future (which is not entirely unlike the present), prisons are run by private corporations-and the warden and the assistant warden at Ricky's prison don't like him one bit. Because of this, they'll torture Ricky continually-culminating in a never-ending sequence of atrocities once Ricky burns down their secret opium field.

Fear not for Ricky, though-he's a master of a special brand of kung-fu that allows him to punch through walls, tombstones, and when he feels like it (which is often), human bodies. The warden and the Gang of Four (four superthugs who essentially run the prison from the inside) will try to thwart Ricky at every turn-but our boyish Bruce Lee lookalike is more than up to the task.

In essence, Ricky is sort of like a Chinese Martin Luther King Jr.-if Dr. King settled his disputes with the people who were oppressing him by punching their heads off and ripping out their entrails. All Ricky wants is for his people (the other inmates) to be treated like human beings-The Man (in the form of the warden and his cronies) will have none of that, though-so Ricky has to step up and fight the power, becoming a hero and a leader to his people in the process. Or maybe not...

Putting those allegorical elements aside, The Story of Ricky works best when viewed as a wild thrill ride of gory excess. It's all but impossible to take this film too seriously-the assistant warden has a claw for a hand and a fake eyeball (filled with a seemingly never ending supply of breath mints), the effeminate Gang of Four leader is played by a woman (Yukari Oshima) in drag, and the violence is so off the wall that it's hard to imagine anyone being offended by it. If films like August Underground use gore to shock and repulse an audience, The Story of Ricky takes it and utilizes it as one more comedic gag.

This is not to say that the gore in the film is less effective for its slapstick tone-because it isn't. It's just that watching a serial killer hack up a corpse in his bathtub is a lot more "disturbing" than seeing a member of the Gang of Four crush a guy's head with his bare hands. Rather than eliciting the stunned silence of something like Guinea Pig, The Story of Ricky all but encourages its audience to hoot, holler, and "eww" at the onscreen bloodletting.

Gore fans will no doubt be pleased by the carnage on display-and highlighting all of it would take an entire review of its own. Highlights include the aforementioned head smash (which was a regular clip on The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn), a guy who eviscerates himself then tries to strangle our hero with his own intestines, razorblades in the mouth, numerous punched off heads, and in my favorite bit, Ricky's arm tendons are sliced by a knife-so he ties them back together and continues his fight. That's just good stuff.

Story of Ricky may not be the goriest film on display here, but it's one of the best starting points for the neophyte splatter fan. The humorous tone is a stark contrast to many of the more nihilistic gore films out there, which allows viewers to ease into the subgenre without jumping right off into the abyss with their first movie. Don't let the fact that it's lighthearted turn you off, though-there's enough gore, guts, and grue here to satisfy even the most jaded gorehound. The Story of Ricky is a splatter classic for a reason-it delivers the saucy stuff by the bucketful. 

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening