| Probably director Nam Nai Choi's (The Cat, The Seventh Curse) most ambitious project in terms of special effects, the aspect Story Of Ricky is most widely known for (in addition to the fact that it's based on the Manga cartoon Riki-Oh by Tetsuya Saruwatari and Takajo Masuhiko).
No one could ever argue that Nam displayed consistent filmmaking skills. Case in point, Story Of Ricky bears such traits as poor dialogue, poor framing, cheap looking sets, sans logic for most of the running time, obvious continuity errors and performances that even for the genre barely becomes average. That leaves Nam with his special effects and those alone makes the film very much watchable. For a Hong Kong movie of this era, the execution is good even if the different impalings, explosions and gut bustings on display can't hide that distinct rubber look of the setup's. One or two aftermath effects are surprisingly effective and, again, judging this element by Hong Kong movie standards, Nam's team pulled off the high number of effects well.
Providing unique, insane, Hong Kong cinema entertainment is what director Nam does best and he can spellbind the target audience with his frenetic to the on screen spectacle. The problem with Story Of Ricky is that it doesn't opt for that high gear intensity previously and later seen in Nam's work. Also, certain areas of the film are played serious and with that comes a cheesy atmosphere, a bad one unfortunately. Still, it's good fun, Nam Nai Choi rarely provides less. Also with William Ho (not nearly as evil as in his different Cat III movie roles), Fan Mei Sheng (star Fan Siu Wong's real life father) and Yukari Oshima. In a nice touch, the original Hong Kong cinema trailer on the Hong Kong Legends dvd features original artwork from the Manga and how it was realized in the live action movie. |