Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

力王

Director~ Ngai Choi Lam

1991, Hong Kong

Stars ~     Louis Fan, Fan Mei-Sheng, Ka-Kui Ho

Written by   Lam Nai-choi &Tetsuya Saruwatari

Based on ‘Riki-Oh’ by Masahiko Takajo and Tetsuya Saruwatari

Legendarily so-bad-it’s-superviolently-good slice of hilarious macho-posturing, seemingly powered by the energy of a thousand adolescent boys after their first work-out. And then Ricky plucks out a flute (?) - but he also plays the leaf (!). It’s probably criticism-proof in the manner of exploitation films that are so knowingly over-the-top and outrageous that calling it out is futile. All the WTF?! enjoyment comes not only from the outrageous gore but equally from its moments of silliness and dubbing, and this mostly lasts until the showdown as there isn’t much story to follow.

Based on a Manga by Masahiko Takajo and Tetsuya Saruwatari, the set-up is simple: in 2001, all prisons are privatised and the inmates exploited (!) and super-powered Ricky is incarcerated for manslaughter. Inside, it’s all ludicrous villainy, stark and bright smashable sets, and vulgar, childish gore (it’s the early shower scene where the film signals that hilarious gratuity is the name of the game). But somewhere between the flashback where a graveyard is desecrating for a training scene and the grown man representing a spoiled bratty child, the realisation is that this has been tilted at comedy from the get-go (did I detect a hint of corpsing by the actors a couple of times?). It is well-made and edited, thinly written and is more Troma in its ersatz trashiness than genuinely “bad” by failing in its earnestness. Maybe it’s Fan Mei-Sheng’s performance as Cyclops Dan that is the first glaring clue that the film is in on its own joke. It is a manifestation of “And then he ripped his guts out and punched his head off!”, with the same unthinking joy of the playground.

And yet, strangely, despite all the bullying and abuse, none of it feels troublingly cruel or disturbing. It’s pure comic book in the shallowest sense. So come the end, you might think, “Why didn’t he just do that in the first place?”, but then you wouldn’t have been entertained by an absurdist, mindless slab of violence-entertainment.

Barbarella

Barbarella

Director – Roger Vadim

Writers – Jean-Claude Forest, Terry Southern, Roger Vadim

1968, France-Italy

Stars – Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg

 

It’s intentionally silly because it is fully tongue-in-cheek: not quite a spoof in the same way as ‘Airplane!’ or ‘Austin Powers’, but there’s certainly a throughline to De Laurentis’ ‘Flash Gordon’. ‘Barbarella’ parodies the kind of sci-fi-epic-porn-lite that you could find in ‘Heavy Metal’ and ‘Metal Hurlant’ magazines -  well, actually it’s based upon Jean-Claude Forest’s comic. A comedy. Yes: laugh at the alien ray-sled thing. Many reactions are from the “you can’t do that anymore” as Barbarella goes on an adventure as a somewhat slightly oblivious sex-kitten, by which they seem to mean that they lament the days where it was just fine to objectify women on screen, which tells more about them than the film. Yes, it’s unrepentantly leery and a sexy romp in a Sixties style, but the film is also far trickier and it’s too self-aware to come across as malicious. It’s too playful and parodic.

Jane Fonda may have had reservations afterwards, but her natural intelligence always shines through; she’s never dumb or quite exploited in a ‘Carry On’ manner and crucially her performance is knowing, always in on the joke, so the sexism is more a punchline than just exploitative. For comparison, the men are nothing to write home about – although the child-catcher she first meets seems hairy and fair enough (Ugo Tognazzi) – being vapidly angelic (John Philip Law) or cackhanded or duplicitous. And then there are little subversive touches such as an orgy of women bonging of essence of man.

 

It's the sets and costumes and the outrageous décor and campness that is so enjoyable. The story itself goes off into the clouds and is quite expendable, but it’s the costumes and design, the set-pieces and goofiness that matter. There’s Barbarella’s fully furred-up spaceship; the children-and-biting-dolls is a nightmarish classic; the encounter with Dildano (David Hemmings) is perhaps the most accomplished comic sequence. And if you go with it, it’s fun and gleefully of its psychedelic era.

When I saw this now at the cinema, it had the right audience laughing with and not at it, to the full benefit of the screening. It was certainly a film I enjoyed more the second time around and treating as the kind of self-aware genre amusement that are everywhere now. And then afterwards, in the tiny bar, there was a DJ playing Sixties psychedelica, which was most pleasing. 

 

FrightFest online day #4: 'Boy #5', 'Claw', 'Gaia', 'When the Screaming Starts' & 'Shadow of the Cat'

Boy #5

 

Writer & Director - Eric Steele

Stars - Tosca BellLaura Montgomery BennettBrian Dunne

2021, UK

 

A traumatised social worker is assigned a boy who believes himself to be a vampire. He’s a sad sack vampire that brings out her maternal delusions. The low budget is forgivable, and the mutation is great, but there’s a fundamentally unconvincing quality that it can’t overcome.

 

 

Claw

 

Director- Gerald Rascionato

Writers - Gerald Rascionato & Joel Hogan

Stars - Chynna Walker, Richard Rennie & Mel Mede

USA, 2021

 

Raptor in a ghost town. This is one of those agreeably light-natured monster flicks where the writing transcends any budgetary constraints. The three lead performances and characters are convincing, likeable and above average; and even the CGI, augmented with model-work, is mostly convincing. The “one year later” overbalances things, but there’s enough goodwill here to make this an undemanding winner.

  

GAIA

 

Director - Jaco Bouwer

Writer - Tertius Kapp

Stars - Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Alex van Dyk

 

After a clumsy set-up to get or protagonist where she’s going – “Hey, a strange man just smashed my drone. I’m just going deep into the forest to get it back.” – forest Ranger Gabi (Rockson) ends up in the care of two survivalists when she is injured. What follows is a mixture of the body- and eco-horrors. And the terrors of fanaticism. It mixes criticism of the technological world, but also of unmoored home-made faiths against the creepiness and aggression of nature. However, its ambiguities trend towards garbled rather than abstract, so it’s intent and sense of striking visuals are what resonate the most.

 

When the Screaming Starts

 

Director - Conor Boru

Writers - Conor Boru & Ed Hartland

UK, 2021

 

Norman just wants to make a documentary about the growth of a serial killer, from aspiration to legend. But Aidan is somewhat a hapless subject, in love with idea of murder-as-fame but not quite killer material. Luckily he and his murder-obsessed girlfriend have the plan to start a cult, a’la Charles Manson (but without the racism). It’s a mockumentary style that owes a lot to ‘The Office’ and so on, but doesn’t convince as a documentary mock-up at all – editing, multiple angles, etc. – but this doesn’t matter so much as there are several good jokes and good ensemble acting (“We’re going to start a family!”; or the game where they have to eliminate candidates for serial killers on gender and race; and although Katherine Bennett-Fox dominates as the real deal, I had a soft spot for Ysen Atour as Jack whose cheeky-chappy London fishmonger exterior hides a repulsive murderer). Although it doesn’t quite say anything deep about the perversity of murder-as-fame, it covers most bases – the losers looking for agency; those looking just for the pose; the oddballs; the truly psychotic – and is always entertaining.

 

Shadow of the Cat

La Sombra Del Gato

Director - José María Cicala

With – Danny Trejo, Peter O'Brien, Mónica Antonópulos, Clara Kovacic, Guillermo Zapata.

Argentina 202

 

Starts out with the heightened reality typical of many bildungsroman with young Emma skipping everywhere around her family’s isolated farm and greeting everything with a perpetual smile of the joys of the quirks of her life. Very quickly, it’s obvious ‘Shadow of the Cat’ is going to be visually rich and full of tricks. Then Emma runs away to find the truth about her mother and straight into the clutches of a sect, whereupon we are more into horror-fantasy, the kind popularised more by Guillermo del Toro. It speeds along and its giddy nature is always in danger of incoherence, but it’s pretty, lively and its strangeness and carnivalesque essence are vibrant and entertaining.