Ricky (Siu-Wong Fan) is sent to a maximum security prison after he kills the people who murdered his girlfriend. The prison he is sent to is run by a ruthless assistant warden who also has a gang of four ruthless assassins working for him. As the gang of four terrorise and kill the inmates, Ricky decides to stand up and fight.

Ricky begins to challenge each of the gang and any other prisoners who stand in his way, cutting a bloody trail of carnage through the prison. Soon the prison warden comes to the prison to check what’s going on, determined to put an end to Ricky once and for all.

Based on a Manga of the same name, The Story of Ricky is deliriously violent. It is chock full of guts being ripped out, brains being splattered and skin being flailed. There is so much about this movie that is laughably bad, yet I still love it. Firstly the acting is really bad, almost Troma bad. Yet some of the effects are quite well done for a movie that is 23yrs old. However, some of the effects, like the death of Ricky’s girlfriend, are hilariously bad. There are some decent fight scenes, but not something I’d call out and out martial arts.

That being said, if you’re a fan of ultra violence, gore and splatter then it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll like this film warts and all. Live action Manga rarely fares well, with the manic intensity of the animated version rarely matched in the live action version. I would say that it is well worth a watch. I think the fact that it plays it so straight doesn’t do it any favours. It would be much better if it was played a little more tongue in cheek. Like I said though, still worth a watch.

3/5

JM