Rating: 4/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2026 | 9/52 | CAT III
By 2001 AD, capitalistic countries have privatized all government organizations. Prisons, like carparks, have become franchised businesses...
A police bus goes through several security checkpoints to a remote prison. The bus drops off a group of seven men, all in handcuffs. Among them is Ricky, who the state sentenced to serve ten years for manslaughter and assault.
He immediately causes trouble because his chest sets off the metal detector. An x-ray shows bullets lodged in his skin — souvenirs, as Ricky calls them.
A group called Gang of Four — Hell, Tarzan, White God, and Roaring Sea — guards the four quadrants of the prison. Ricky witnesses their brutality, and it fills him with rage.
Someone is trying to take out Ricky. But he proves over and over that he can handle himself. We see a training flashback where he learns to channel the strength of his enemies and becomes stronger.
I’ve wanted to watch this for years, as Stuart Wellington of The Flop House loves it. But its description has scared me, too.
The film is brutally violent but also bizarrely comical. Everyone is getting hurt or killed in ridiculous ways.
Fan Siu-Wong, who plays Ricky, is obscenely muscular and handsome. His shirt is off a whole bunch
I lost interest in some of the slower parts. Every moment that isn’t outrageous violence isn’t that interesting.
Still, this movie is a landmark in live-action manga adaptation and a wild time. Watch with friends!
** Thoughts / Spoilers **
- Wood plane against the face — brutal
- Punching into a stomach and piercing a hole
- Uncle Nice Ghost
- The assistant warden has so many porno tapes
- Ricky ties off the severed tendons in his arm so he can punch
- Roaring Sea commits seppuku, rips his intestines out, and chokes Ricky with them.
- The warden offers Ricky a spot in the Gang of Four after he kills Roaring Sea
- The warden takes assorted candy as pills
- He kicked that dog in half :(
- A rebar cage, razors in the mouth, this is a fucking nightmare
- The warden gingerly pulled razors out of his face with his pocket hanky
- Punch the top of a guy’s head off
- Ricky’s gotta punch through one SWAT for them to give up
- Wait, why did the assistant warden explode? I guess it’s whatever the warden is shooting at them
- The warden taking a second form was unexpected
- Punching down the walls of the prison — fucking iconic