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#535 - Story of Ricky
Lam Nai-choi, 1991
A young man with superhuman strength and endurance is sent to prison for murder and must fight against the villainous inmates and wardens.
The most well-regarded martial arts films tend to feature fluid camerawork, exquisite choreography, clever storytelling, and a general sense of substance. Story of Ricky, on the other hand, features virtually none of that. Even by the genre's standards, the premise is extremely flimsy. In the not-too-distant-future, prisons have become privatised and unregulated; this allows the staff to be incredibly corrupt and sadistic, often using established prison gangs to keep an especially draconian order among the population of inmates. Into this system enters a young man named Ricky, who is quickly established as being unnaturally strong and tough. Before too long, he's upsetting the prison's regime by fighting back against the various bizarre villains that both inhabit and operate the prison. While a standard martial-arts film would use that story as a launching pad for all sorts of elaborately crafted fights, the violence that characterises Story of Ricky is as deliberate an inversion of the genre's usual fare as possible. Most of the actual fights are over pretty quickly, and the reason why is either the film's greatest weakness or its greatest strength depending on your tolerance for over-the-top violence.
It is quite ironic how a film that features the words "story" in its title seems to place as little emphasis on telling a good one as Story of Ricky does. There is no dramatic tension whatsoever. The main character is practically an invincible superhero whose punches are not only capable of tearing massive holes in his opponents but can also break through solid doors and walls. Though his motives and powers are explained in-story (often through flashbacks, including one where he himself wasn't even present), you do have to infer for yourself why he doesn't just break out of prison at the earliest possible juncture or even allow himself to be trapped by the villains again and again. The concept of setting up vulnerable sympathetic characters to off-set the hero's invulnerability is barely developed beyond the film drawing a very black-and-white line between "good" prisoners and "bad" prisoners (hint: the good ones start treating Ricky as their saviour while constantly being mutilated and murdered by the bad ones). Characters are given the slightest amount of definition necessary to either progress the plot or to justify something weird and violent happening. The violence on offer is brutal, sure, but often in absurdly grotesque ways to the point where it's practically a splatter comedy on par with Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies or Peter Jackson's Braindead. There is an art to creating such noticeably fake effects and it contributes to a sufficiently humourous aesthetic. It's debatable as to whether or not the film-makers were going for intentionally comical bloodshed, but either way I can't say I'm disappointed with the film as far as pure entertainment goes - it's graphic without being genuinely disturbing and well worth a chuckle.
It's not often that I re-watch a film within a day or so, but I figured that Story of Ricky earned it (if only because I was torn between seeing it in its original Cantonese or with an English dub, so I ultimately decided to watch it twice). Though the extremely low budget and incredibly shoddy quality of just about every facet has apparently generated a "so bad it's good" kind of reputation, I have trouble thinking of it in the same terms that I would with something like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Troll 2. At least Story of Ricky seems at least somewhat aware of its own silliness with its collection of physically impossible feats and fights, scenery-chewing cast of bizarre characters, and (most importantly) the capacity for cartoonish and colourful carnage. Its revels in its shortcomings without a trace of ironic self-indulgence and so every little off-putting detail or badly executed stunt only adds to the charm rather than hinder it. Obviously, those of you who don't go in for excessive amounts of violence are advised to look elsewhere. Otherwise, this rightfully deserves its reputation as a cult classic built on the back of some delightfully memorable instances of over-the-top kung-fu action.
Lam Nai-choi, 1991
A young man with superhuman strength and endurance is sent to prison for murder and must fight against the villainous inmates and wardens.
The most well-regarded martial arts films tend to feature fluid camerawork, exquisite choreography, clever storytelling, and a general sense of substance. Story of Ricky, on the other hand, features virtually none of that. Even by the genre's standards, the premise is extremely flimsy. In the not-too-distant-future, prisons have become privatised and unregulated; this allows the staff to be incredibly corrupt and sadistic, often using established prison gangs to keep an especially draconian order among the population of inmates. Into this system enters a young man named Ricky, who is quickly established as being unnaturally strong and tough. Before too long, he's upsetting the prison's regime by fighting back against the various bizarre villains that both inhabit and operate the prison. While a standard martial-arts film would use that story as a launching pad for all sorts of elaborately crafted fights, the violence that characterises Story of Ricky is as deliberate an inversion of the genre's usual fare as possible. Most of the actual fights are over pretty quickly, and the reason why is either the film's greatest weakness or its greatest strength depending on your tolerance for over-the-top violence.
It is quite ironic how a film that features the words "story" in its title seems to place as little emphasis on telling a good one as Story of Ricky does. There is no dramatic tension whatsoever. The main character is practically an invincible superhero whose punches are not only capable of tearing massive holes in his opponents but can also break through solid doors and walls. Though his motives and powers are explained in-story (often through flashbacks, including one where he himself wasn't even present), you do have to infer for yourself why he doesn't just break out of prison at the earliest possible juncture or even allow himself to be trapped by the villains again and again. The concept of setting up vulnerable sympathetic characters to off-set the hero's invulnerability is barely developed beyond the film drawing a very black-and-white line between "good" prisoners and "bad" prisoners (hint: the good ones start treating Ricky as their saviour while constantly being mutilated and murdered by the bad ones). Characters are given the slightest amount of definition necessary to either progress the plot or to justify something weird and violent happening. The violence on offer is brutal, sure, but often in absurdly grotesque ways to the point where it's practically a splatter comedy on par with Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies or Peter Jackson's Braindead. There is an art to creating such noticeably fake effects and it contributes to a sufficiently humourous aesthetic. It's debatable as to whether or not the film-makers were going for intentionally comical bloodshed, but either way I can't say I'm disappointed with the film as far as pure entertainment goes - it's graphic without being genuinely disturbing and well worth a chuckle.
It's not often that I re-watch a film within a day or so, but I figured that Story of Ricky earned it (if only because I was torn between seeing it in its original Cantonese or with an English dub, so I ultimately decided to watch it twice). Though the extremely low budget and incredibly shoddy quality of just about every facet has apparently generated a "so bad it's good" kind of reputation, I have trouble thinking of it in the same terms that I would with something like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Troll 2. At least Story of Ricky seems at least somewhat aware of its own silliness with its collection of physically impossible feats and fights, scenery-chewing cast of bizarre characters, and (most importantly) the capacity for cartoonish and colourful carnage. Its revels in its shortcomings without a trace of ironic self-indulgence and so every little off-putting detail or badly executed stunt only adds to the charm rather than hinder it. Obviously, those of you who don't go in for excessive amounts of violence are advised to look elsewhere. Otherwise, this rightfully deserves its reputation as a cult classic built on the back of some delightfully memorable instances of over-the-top kung-fu action.