Golden Harvest roped in Hark and a bunch of Hollywood effects guys to create this impressive spectacle of a fantasy flick, boasting a great cast and groundbreaking visuals for HK circa 1983. But somewhere between the flying fairies, fireballs, lightsabre duels, and all the other bells and whistles, the story and the characters got lost.

I mean, the actors are fine, and all do a good job--Yuen Biao, Meng Hoi, Moon Lee, etc.--but I feel that they are kinda' pushed into the background by all the special effects stuff, stifling their otherwise fine performances. And the already complicated story drowns in there as well. I've watched this movie a number of times and still have absolutely no idea what it's about. Sure, it keeps throwing crazy, flashy stuff at you, but it doesn't really go anywhere.

For the international version, a whole new plotline, involving Yuen Biao as a modern day fencing champion who goes into a coma and lands in an alternate reality, was shot and tacked on. The original fantasy stuff, being that reality, was recut, and the whole thing was sold as a slightly different movie. The modern day stuff is pretty fun. And I would like to see that full version some day.

I think the movie is a bit of a letdown in the action department as well. It is certainly competent. But I'm just not a big fan of fantastique wire fu. And the fact that there is so much visual effects stuff going on around it also distracts from the physical stuff.

In the end, I can enjoy this film as more of a curiosity than a fully fledged piece of cinema. To me, this is a good example of the dangers of big effects movies: if you lose the story and the characters, then all you are left with is bright lights and big bangs. And that in itself is not filmmaking.

Oh my, was this film sickly. Well, anyways, yes this film is a bit retarded. The only thing really worth commenting on in this film is the final battle between good wizard and bad wizard. My god. How truly incredulous the special effects are. The lasers are flat-out stupid, along with the background shots with the actors implemented. It is so bad. But I did laugh at it so I found it entertaining.

Other malignant things to expect are blood worms, tits, ass, crappy sex scenes (maybe I should start getting into porn), crappy decay effects, and some bleeding.

I could only recommend this film to insane crackheads or people who are lovers of the absurd. I follow "lovers of the absurd", of course, but this film is the pinnacle of trash cinema. Not recommended to serious film lovers.

This film is not only a kung fu film but also a slasher horror film at that. In this movie there is this chick who gets raped constantly, and every time she gets raped, the rapists are stalked by a creature elusive from the screen, making ambient screeching sounds then killing the rapists vehemently. Then it is revealed that the chick is the killer, but subconsciously, 'cause she transforms into a mutant mantis and she can't control the beast within her. She appears in full mantis attire near the end of the flick. It's silly but it works very well and is quite entertaining I MIGHT ADD!!!!

The kung fu action is actually quite good; a mixture of weapons, hand-to-hand, and some bizarre crap like the porcupine character with spikes on his back of the She-Mantis.

This film will not please everyone. I mean maybe the concept of a mutant mantis will not please those who take their (kung fu) films more seriously. This film will only please cult, b-movie, exploitation film lovers in general.

So, if you like a lot of rape, a mutant she-mantis, good kung-fu action, and a somewhat consistent story this film will interest thee. Not recommended to serious film lovers.

Also Shek Tien is in this as a lead villain and he plays a serious role (gasp!). More insanity for this film.

It really pains me that the once mighty Philip Ko Fei, a name that to me use to meant quality, chose this path for himself. I also feel bad for poor Yukari Oshima, who he dragged through more B-movie schlock than I care to remember. And I doubt this would have happened had the two not been an item at this time. But I guess "the Osh" was just standing by her man, and I admire that.

This movie is as about as cheap as it gets. Well, maybe not, but it's pretty damn cheap. Philip, Yukari, and Sharon Kwok are the only known actors in the entire movie. The rest (including the male lead) are just Filipino no-names who look like they just stepped on the set in whatever clothes they were wearing, and whose sole motivation seems to be the paycheck at the end of the day. Forget the story, forget the characters. At this point, Philip had just stopped caring, so you don't have to either.

But at least the action delivers, right? Wrong! Yukari was one of the best female screen fighters of all time, and I love that little snaggletoothed Japanese tomboy to death. But not even she could save this clunker. There are odd moments of halfway-decent choreo. But for the most part, it is just a messy mix of awkward, acrobatic gunplay, retarded use of slo-mo, poorly edited fight scenes, and wonky wirework. What a waste.

But the silver lining here is the final showdown, which is pretty damn awesome! Actually, no, it's not, I'm lying. It's just more of the same crap, set to the theme from "The Terminator" and complete with a blatant rip-off of the car jousting battle from "Bullet In The Head". And they couldn't even get that right.

To sum up, this movie is piss poor, and a complete and utter waste of time. I wouldn't even recommend this for Yukari completists, 'cause this would be a shitstain on any movie collection; and I will in fact go and throw out my copy right now.

The reason why this is one of my all time favorite films is because it portrays what I like in cinema: a film that acts serious but doesn't take itself seriously at the same time--an example being that the film's story is very dramatic but the action is overdone in terms of sarcasm, asininity and over-the-top gore. The fact that someone can punch a hole in someone else's body is downright funny and entertaining. And the fact that some of the FX are evidently facecious give it its prime enjoyment. The gore level in this film is at "Dead Alive's" level. Nam Nai Choi, one of my all time favorite directors, could have been the next Herschell Gordon Lewis or Lucio Fulci, but unfortuantely his film carrer ended with the all so entertaining film THE CAT which was made after RICKY.

Gore film fans will like it, but people who are infatuated with anything relevant towards Hollywood and big budget films will hate it, as well as people who prefer films to be fast-paced, because this film sort of lacks pacing. But then again who cares? BEST FILM EVER!!