Riki-Oh
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| Riki-Oh | |
|---|---|
| 力王 (Riki-Oh) |
|
| Genre | Action |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Masahiko Takajo and Saruwatari Tetsuya |
| Publisher | Business Jump and Comicsworld |
| Serialized in | |
| Original run | 1988 – 1990 |
| No. of volumes | 12 (Business Jump) / 9 (Comicsworld) |
| OVA: Riki-Oh: Wall of Hell / Riki-Oh: Child of Destruction | |
| Directed by | |
| Studio | |
| No. of episodes | 2 |
| Released | 1989 / 1990 |
| Runtime | |
| Movie: Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky / Lik Wong (King of Strength) | |
| Directed by | Ngai Kai Lam |
| Studio | Golden Harvest Company Ltd. |
| Released | 1991 |
| Runtime | 90 mins |
Riki-Oh (力王?) a.k.a. The Story of Ricky is a manga which later became an anime series and live-action film. Originally created by Masahiko Takajo and Saruwatari Tetsuya, about a young man who has learned the art of Chi Kung from one of Chiang Kai Shek's bodyguards and has become so strong that he can literally punch a hole through people and solid objects. It was serialized in Business Jump from 1988 to 1990 and later published in 12 volumes.
Outside Japan, it was translated and published only in Hong Kong by Comicsworld in 9 volumes. The only difference between the two editions, besides the different number of pages in each volume, is the absence of the short story "N.Y. Dust", which is unrelated to Riki-Oh, is missing in the Hong Kong edition.
Contents |
[edit] Plot overview
Saiga Riki-Oh, after taking revenge against a yakuza who was responsible for the death of his girlfriend, ends up in a maximum security prison owned by a private organization.
[edit] Characters
- Saiga Riki-Oh (雑賀力王) – The main character of the story, he was separated from his younger brother Nachi since childhood and was adopted by the Saiga family. He has a scar in the shape of the Star of David on his right hand which is the source of his great strength and skill. This scar is also a sign that he's destined to overthrow his real father.
- Nachi (那智) – Gifted with strong telekinetic powers, he's the younger brother of Riki-Oh from whom he was separated when he was still a child. He has a scar in the shape of a Swastika on his right hand since birth.
- Mizuguchi (水口)
- Bad King (悪王) – An android that resembles Riki-Oh in appearance constructed by Obinata. It was sent on a mission to kill Riki-Oh but, after a long fight in a wood, it is accidentally sucked into quicksand with Riki-Oh with the latter surviving after having carved a shelter in the abdomen of the android.
- Aneyama (姉山)
- Washizaki (鷲崎) A general with a sword. Is an extremely capable fighter. Easily dodged Riki-oh's punch once, and knocked him out.
- Kihydon (??) A cyborg who wasn't viewed by anyone other than Riki-oh as a real person. forced to fight Riki-oh in an arena and killed by Nachi.
- Obinata (小日向) – A genial scientist at the dependence of Aneyama.
- The Baron (男爵) – He's the chief charged with the accomplishment of a plan whose goal is to accelerate the coming of Judgement Day. In order to achieve this goal, he needs to give birth to the so called "chosen one", a being created from the union of Nachi's head with the body of Riki-Oh.
[edit] Animated version
Riki-oh was released as two OAVs. The first anime was called Riki-oh: The Wall of Hell (1990). The second one was titled Riki-oh: Child of Destruction (1990). The first one is a retelling of the first few mangas and the second is Riki's adventure to find his brother, and stop his devilish cult following. Media Blasters have acquired the rights to rerelease the two OAVs in the United States on DVD, April 11, 2006, but has since let go of the licences Source: ANN
[edit] Film version
The story was adapted into a Hong Kong live action film in 1991, directed by Lam Ngai Kai, starring Fan Siu-Wong as Riki and Yukari Oshima as Yomi. The English title given on screen is simply Story of Ricky but later releases were sold under the title Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. It had a limited theatrical release in the US around 1993.
The film was mentioned in the 1996 book Baked Potatoes: A Pot Smoker's Guide to Film & Video by John Hulme and Michael Wexler. The two authors appeared on an early episode of The Daily Show to promote their book and highly recommended The Story of Ricky, showing a clip of the film (see image on right). The clip soon became a fixture on the show accompanying the daily "Five Questions" segment which ran until 1999. This publicity allowed the film to develop a small cult following.
Note that due to the intentionally-bad dubbing (particularly the warden's infamous line "Alright Oscar! You've got a lot of guts!" when Oscar is strangling Ricky with his own intestines), along with its now-atrocious special-blood-effects, this film is more loved in the west as a black-comedy than a straight out horror or action movie.
[edit] Box Office
The film's Category III rating (the Hong Kong equivalent of an NC-17) pretty much destroyed its box office chances. It grossed $2,147,778 HKD in Hong Kong.
[edit] Trivia
- The Street Fighter II character M. Bison (Vega in Japan) bears a strong resemblance to the manga character Washizaki.
- The X-ray punch in the live action movie is a small tribute to Sonny Chiba's The Street Fighter movie.
- In the live action movie, it was one of the first Hong Kong movie that used Category 3 film rating system (equalivent to X-rated) for non pornographic media.
- In actual history, Chiang Kai Shek hired professional martial artist from China as his bodyguards notably from Shaolin to Chi Kung master. After the Chinese civil war most of these bodyguards fled from the Communist Party of China.[citation needed]
- In the film version, Japanese actress Yukari Oshima plays one of the masculine characters in the feared "Gang of Four." She is dubbed with a masculine voice-over.
- Riki-Oh followed on the success of Fist Of The North Star (Hokuto No Ken) and borrows many themes and plot devices almost literally.
In Hokuto No Ken, the hero, Kenshiro, faces a gang of four leaders, named after the colours of playing cards, in the first storyline. Riki faces The Gang Of Four in prison, each the boss of their own prison wing. Both gangs are later revealed to have a bigger boss behind the scenes. The extreme violence of punching through people as the result of a certain school of martial art, is also something taken from Hokuto No Ken. Riki-Oh also has a similar art style to that of Hokuto No Ken. Ironically Hokuto No Ken itself borrows many themes and visuals from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, so much so that Kenshiro's outfit is that same as Mad Max's.
