Riki-Oh - The Story of Ricky

Amazon.com

One of the most absurdly violent films ever made, this outrageous comic book of a movie is short on style but makes up for it in sheer audacity and excess. Brooding street kid Ricky Ho (Fan Siu Wang, playing the part of avenging angel with self-righteous earnestness) walks into the corrupt corporate prison system with superpowered martial arts skills and proceeds to punch his way through every bullying thug and sadistic guard who comes his way. Literally. His fist puts a gaping hole through the stomach of a giant sumo-wrestler-sized thug and the jaw of a pompadoured bully, and turns the skull of a pathetic guard into a bloody stump. As Ricky becomes a hero to the downtrodden prisoners, the assistant warden (who keeps breath mints in his removable glass eye) organizes the dreaded "gang of four," the cell block gang leaders, to take Ricky down. Fat chance!

There's nothing realistic about the bone-shattering, blood-splattering spectacle of crushed heads and snapped limbs, but the unrestrained display becomes so preposterously grotesque it hardly matters. You'll be convinced that the "Oh" in Riki-Oh stands for "Oh my God, did I really see that?" Yes, Ricky really does tie a sliced tendon with his teeth, a thug cuts open his gut and uses his own intestines to strangle Ricky, and the warden (for no apparent reason) puffs himself up into a giant rubber ogre. Ricky's curvy, feminine nemesis Rogan is played by Yukari Oshima, the butt-kicking, all-woman star of Angel and others. --Sean Axmaker

Description

When mild-mannered Ricky takes revenge on the drug pushing thugs who killed his girlfriend, he is sentenced to a maximum security prison. Within these walls lies a penitentiary like no other, run by a host of evil characters. A sadistic warden, his sniveling assistant, and the powerful Gang of Four all control the inmates through terror and brutal death!

Customer Reviews:

Everything you ever wanted out of a fighting movie.......2007-07-19

The title says it all. Besides the excellent fighting sequences, these guys take the violence to another level; people strangling each other with their intestines, heads exploding, dismemberment, anything you can think of. Its completely crazy.

In case you need things explicitly stated, this movie is full of violence, gore, blood, and everything that is neither kid-tested nor mother-approved.

I still don't know for sure if I watched this movie or if it was a really scary dream.......2007-06-03

Fan Siu Wong stars as Ricky Ho, a young man with superhuman strength. The movie starts out showing his first day in jail. Since Ricky doesn't take nothin from nobody, he is not liked by the tough guys and they decide to kill him. Ricky's special move is punching through people's body. Most of the movie is spent showing Ricky using this special move. In one scene Ricky punches a guy in his throat and his hand goes through the mouth while he rips the jaw off. That isn't even the highlight. Ricky also has to chew razor blades and gets strangled by intestines. There are no female characters except for 1. We get brief glimpses of Ricky's girlfriend to show why he went to jail. Yukari Oshima plays a man for some reason, but she is good in her role.

The story is not memorable, but the gore has a lot of detail put into it. There are not any martial arts fights, but the bloody fun makes for one heck of a viewing experience. I could have used 1 really good fight. Fan Siu Wong is truly on another level. He is like a mix between Bruce Lee and Yuen Biao. Awesoem fist forms, great kicks, and he is ripped out of of his mind. His long hair and young face makes him perfect for a Japanese magna character, but the focus of the movie is on the extreme violence, not on martial arts action or anything else. Only recommended to those who like extremely campy gore.

3.5/5

Tokyo Shock DVD has good picture quality and good 5.1 English, Cantonese and Mandarin tracks. The English dub is well done, and the Cantonese is easier on the ears, but the English dub is a much better translation than the English subtitles.

Look for Dragon Dynasty to release this in the next year or so.

wow.......2007-05-26

Hahaha this movie is hilarious. "Camp" does not do it justice. Describing scenes from it does not do it justice either, although the bit where a guy commits ritual suicide by slicing open his own gut, and then in a surprise move grabbing his own intestines and trying to strangle Riki with them is my personal favorite. Oh, also the scene with the meat grinder. And the random dog mutilation.

What you really need to know is that the box advertises the movie this way: "Includes the hilarious exploding head scene as seen in Comedy Central's The Daily Show!" That is ON THE BOX.

And really, when you've seen this movie, you won't even remember the exploding head, because so many styrofoam limbs, craniums, and other body parts have been mushed into ketchup pulp that such events--memorable in other movies--are naught but a drop in the bucket. No grindhouse b-movie has anything on this bloodbath, either in gore or in the low-quality special effects of said gore.

Other quality features of Riki-Oh! include hilarious and randomly timed flashbacks to Riki's girlfriend, who we find out was murdered by drug lords when she catches them in the act of doing drug-related things ("murdered" is relative, here: fleeing, she runs straight off a fifth-story balcony.): hilarious and randomly timed flashbacks to how Riki learned martial arts in one day. I'm not kidding. One. Day.: hilarious dubbing: hilarious "subtle" political metaphors, like how private prisons are corrupt and run by the "gang of four": hilarious... you get the idea. You need to see this movie.

Also I should mention that there's this other movie called "Fortress" which was made a few years later and is basically the same movie except with Americans, cyborgs, overt Christian metaphors, and 1000 times worse. This is the classic. Long live Riki-oh.

If you don't like this,there's something wrong with you! .......2007-05-22

Possibly the best super-hero/comedy/kung-fu/gore film ever made. One of my favorites by far, this movie is extremely enjoyable from start to finish.The goriest film next to "Dead Alive" and ten times funnier. GO BUY THIS NOW!!!

PURE ACTION INDULGENCE!!.......2007-05-13

This is the Holy Grail of action/gore movies! Sit down with a large pizza, a Coke, and a batch of brownies, and indulge in this masterpiece of violent mayhem!

Average customer rating:

Recommended for genre fans, all others need not apply.
Stop That Android!!
wiseless comments
This Is Nothing Original
JINZO NINGEN HAKAIDER IS A WRECKING BALL!!

Hakaider
Starring: Mai Hosho , Jim Taggert , Masaya Kato , Toshiyuki Kikuchi , and Richard Epcar
Director: Keita Amemiya
Manufacturer: Tokyo Shock
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005ALMX
Release Date: 2001-05-29

Description

Created to help control the population of Jesus Town, Hakaider was abandoned and left for dead once his uncontrollable nature became apparent. Now, his creator Gurjev has a new cyborg-enforcer, Michael. When treasure hunters accidentally awake Hakaider from his long slumber, he decides to bring his own justice to Jesus Town.

Customer Reviews:

Recommended for genre fans, all others need not apply........2007-05-12

I dug this flick.

For the uninitiated, this movie falls into the Japanese tokusatsu genre, which in this case means it's a sci-fi/fantasy special effects film.

As for the content, it's cliche, the acting is bad and half of the effects are downright laughable.

That said, I did enjoy the movie, mainly for these two reasons:

1) I totally dug the character designs. They rocked. Watching two bad-arse looking robots duke it out made the movie worthwhile. Fans of Japanese sci-fi and toku character design will dig these guys. (As has been said before, watch for the Kakaida "cameo" at the end.
2) Length. This movie is the perfect length. It clocks in at 77 minutes and that's all it needs. Quick and to the point!

You probably already know if you are interested in this flick or not, but if you can swing the steep price tag, are looking for some cheesy fun, and aren't turned off by the length, I dare say you'll enjoy this.

Recommended for genre fans, all others need not apply.

Stop That Android!!.......2004-07-16

Japanese use the term tokusatsu films for what we might call 'special effects' films. Our closest equivalent would be the unending Startrek series (with the addition of some robots in latex suits. The term covers a wide range of sins, from the complex ongoing Super Sentai series to pleasantly simplistic (and violent) films like the one under discussion here - Hakaider. Jinzo Nigen Hakaider (Mechanical Man Hakaider) is loosely based on a previous tokusatsu series about Kikaider - an android superhero. He was one of the villains in that series, but in this film his body is discovered by treasure hunters and is reanimated.

At the start of the film we find the camera following a dark figure wearing a menacing samurai mask as he rides a modernistic motorcycle into Jesus Town. In this post-apocalyptic world, the android finds itself siding with rebels. His opponents are Gurjev, a mad ruler and his android associate, Michael. This is one of those films where the good guy looks like a bad guy and the bad guys are all wearing white suits. The simple plot follows Kikaider as he enters Jesus town and comes in contact with the rebels. When Kaoru, a beautiful young raider, falls afoul of the regime, Hakaider builds a full head of steam and takes on the entire establishment in a series of ever more dramatic confrontations.

This is the second of Keita Amemiya's films, and while it is better made (and less silly) than Zeiram 2, this is the Amemiya film with the least amount of plot and character. Instead it's capital is special effects, costumes, and violence. All of which it does quite well for a low budget thriller. Once again Amemiya demonstrates a flair for scene setting and character design. The downside is his penchant for vacuous dialog but, in the light science fiction of its time, perfection was not an option.

There is a great deal of strong Christian symbolism in the film, which an American viewer may find misleading. As in Evangelion, one has to remember that the Christian framework is as mysterious as the Japanese mystical framework is to us. Amemiya uses Christianity to add mystery and a sense of the occult, not to advocate and religious position. The film is meant to be enjoyed, particularly with a good supply of popcorn, not to make an indelible mark on cinematic history.

wiseless comments.......2002-07-05

Well, just try to not be so lame ^_^ Hakaider (aka hakaida) is the evil guy from the early '70s kikaider (kikaida) live shows...so find a coment about terminator,mad max even alien (1979 If I remember it well) is a bit absurd :) Also note that power rangers are a poor (american)version of other oldie japanese "tokusatsu" heroes.
Japanese old character concepts are very imaginative.This is a '90s point of view of an old badass turned into anti-hero. It's big, It's bad, and it's gonna blow away anyone who cross it's path.Also the movie is spiced with some goth,ciberpunk and religion concepts,making goodie-scouts look as not too good boys (same to evil ones in this film)Film plays with black and white concepts.Amusing future action movie that is not a matrixspawn being :)

This Is Nothing Original.......2002-02-23

Hakaider is one strange film, but it also appears to be gleemed from several sources. I identified things from "Spawn", "The Road Warrior", "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", "Terminator 2", "Alien" (1 and 2); the list continues ad infinitum. The odd thing is that after a point, all these elements fuse together to be owned by this film in it's own right.
The sets are fantastic, some of the most engaging I've seen (even better than some movies with much larger budgets).
However, the one thing I had a problem getting around were the robot costumes. I kept getting the feeling I was watching the Sex Pistols version of "The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers".
This film is large on action and short on believability, not to mention the very bad job on the English subtitles. There were points where the translations made no sense what so ever, sentences were left unfinished and even a very few times when there weren't any.
I spent about [price] retail on this, which is a fair price for this film. Any more than that and I would have been pretty PO'd.
This more of a kids movie, but with some of the graphic violence, consider first what you want the kid exposed to. I won't let mine watch this till she turns 14 atleast.

JINZO NINGEN HAKAIDER IS A WRECKING BALL!!.......2002-01-24

Okay, I am a little biased because i'm a huge Kikaider and Hakaider fan, but i have to say this movie was actually pretty good for an early work. They revamped the suit to make it a little more sleek and well, more menacing. The atmosphere prett dark, which was actually a pleasant change for me. Hakaider, who gets awakened by robbers, sets out to jesus town where he fights police androids and meets up with a resistance group. Hakaider takes to a woman in the resistance group; when they are found and almost everyone is killed (except for the girl of course), Hakaider decides to take vengence and heads to the head quarters to fight Michael (or Mikhail or something) to the death.
I really don't call this a feature because it's surprisingly short, but the action is there and will have you slightly giggling through some parts of the movie because of it's wacky violence. There was really no character development in this movie, maybe due to the fact this movie was shorter than trip to the toilet. What was kind of funny was that they really didn't explain exactly who or what he is, except for that sketchy little story at the end. I still have no idea if that is Professor Gill's brain or not, since they revamped the whole origin, i guess not. Also, for those who have seen the series, you can see Kikaiders head in the final confrontation between the two machines, it was an incredible laugh, which makes me wonder, when is there going to be a cool Kikaider movie?

Average customer rating:

Bears all the hallmarks of a manga adaption
Happy Mistake
Quite possibly the worst film known to man, woman or child.

Dragonhead
Starring: Satoshi Tsumabuki , Sayaka , Takayuki Yamada , Naohito Fujiki , and Yoshimasa Kondo
Director: Jôji Iida
Manufacturer: Tokyo Shock
ProductGroup: DVD
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The Heirloom

ASIN: B000A2XA82
Release Date: 2005-09-27

Customer Reviews:

Bears all the hallmarks of a manga adaption.......2006-12-26

Something a previous reviewer missed, but which completely explains a big part of the film: This is a manga adaption. Most manga have several stories, one after another, and if you adapt that directly into a movie, you get a movie with several stories happening one after another. That's why the movie seems to be about unconnected events happening after each other; the source material was.

I knew as soon as I saw Nobuo left behind that he was never going to show up again, simply because I guessed that that was the end of his manga story. Likewise, any anime fan will tell you that it's common for something adapted from manga to have a bad ending--simply because it only adapted part of the manga and in the source material, the "ending" wasn't an ending at all.

It's much better if you keep all that in mind and don't expect it to have a continuing plot or an ending.

Happy Mistake.......2006-09-16

I bought what I thought was a DVD of the Korean film _Natural City_ at a science fiction convention. Several weeks later, I got around to watching it, and discovered that instead of a Korean film about cyborgs, I had a Japanese film about volcanic eruptions destroying civilization and annihilating most of humanity.

I wasn't sure I'd like the movie when I realized, about one minute into it (I can read hangul, but know hardly any kanji) that this wasn't the film I thought I'd bought. For the first 15 minutes or so I watched it with my finger hovering over the "stop" button on the remote, but after that amount of time I decided that I wanted to see the whole film.

The main characters of the film are Teru and Ako, two teenagers who were on a train going to Tokyo from Kyoto when something happened, causing the train to crash in a tunnel, killing almost everyone on it except for the above-mentioned two, and a boy named Nobuo, who has gone insane. For a while I wasn't sure if this was a general catastrophe, or just a train wreck; after a bit, it is revealed that there indeed has been a cataclysm, and not many are left alive.

The main theme of the film is that of the conflict between conforming to authority and individualism: this is shown early in the film when Nobuo screams at his badly-injured schoolteacher
"You're the adult here! You've got to help me!" The suggestion is that Nobuo in part loses his sanity because there's no one there to tell him what to do.

This theme is further developed through the course of the story (no spoilers here!). I'll go so far as to say that the film does not have a happy ending, but that the ending is satisfying (at least to me).

I liked this film better than I expected I would, and will probably watch it again sometime; I therefore recommend it.

Quite possibly the worst film known to man, woman or child........2005-11-26

I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic event films. I think it is because Planet of the Apes was the first film I remember having an impact on me in my formative years. I avoid most Hollywood pap, but find my pulse racing when titles like Deep Impact and The Day After Tomorrow appear. So when I went in the video shop and saw the front cover of Dragon Head, with the bullet train nose-cone sticking out of the earth a-la the Statue of Liberty in Apes, I immediately snapped it up.

What a waste of 400 yen. No story, no character development, poor effects, and a male lead who wanders about clueless from start to finish. Most bad films leave you bored or listless; with Dragon Head, I was shouting at the TV screen, it was so mind-numbingly stupid. Some kind of apocalyptic event has taken place while the protagonist was riding the train. What is this event? How did it come about? We are never told. How do the surviving male and female high school pupils come to terms with this event? They don't. How do they grow, mature and change through the film? They don't. They just wander from one bizarre scenario to the next (from a town where the youth have turned on their elders, to a bunker where everyone is eating drugged food) without any causal relationship between the stages of their journey or the events they encounter there. I suppose some kind of Lord of the Flies metaphor is implied by the boy-savage who menaces the leads in the first third, but without connecting this to WHY civilisation has ended and WHY people are reacting the way they are, the message goes nowhere.

A script as poor as this should never, ever have been made. What is going on in the Japanese cinema industry when rubbish like this gets an international DVD release while Swallowtail Butterfly can't be found? Sayaka is a good actress, but even she can't salvage this. This film has no saving graces. Not a single one one. It is over a year since I rented it, and I still feel like going back to the video store and asking for my money back.

It gets one star, because I am not allowed to give it zero.

Average customer rating:

Truly a great anime, especialy for history buffs
TIMESLIP TO MIDWAY

Zipang: Future Shock, Vol. 1
Starring: Zipang
Manufacturer: Geneon [Pioneer]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000GDH8MY
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Amazon.com

The broadcast series Zipang (2004) plays like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone: when The Mirai, the most advanced ship of the Japanese Self Defense Force, sails for routine training maneuvers, it is somehow transported back to June 5, 1942--the battle of Midway. Gunnery officer Masayuki Kikuchi warns the crew against doing anything that might change history. But executive officer Yosuke Kadomatsu saves the life of a Japanese officer whose plane crashes near the ship. Everyone aboard wants to keep The Mirai's presence a secret and return to the 21st century, but they may have already altered the course of history. Director Kazuhiru Furuhashi takes full advantage of the dramatic camera movements the CG models of the ships offer. He and co-screenwriter Yuichiro Takeda, working from the manga by Kaiji Kawaguchi, describe both the Japanese and Allied forces as men fighting to defend their homes, a dubious assertion at best. The battle of Midway was a turning point in the War in the Pacific, and a Japanese fantasy about changing its outcome may disturb some American viewers. (Rated 13 and older: violence, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

Truly a great anime, especialy for history buffs.......2007-04-16

A few things that I like about this anime:

The characters are very real, and some of the moral delemas they have are interesting. There is a sense of great confussion and a bit of anxiety among the crew also which fits well with the events of the story.

The military weapons and systems they use in the series are accuratly portrayed also. This series shows how powerfull a modern day destroyer truly is.

I would recommend this series strongly to anyone interested in ww2 history . Even if your not into history it's a great story that most will enjoy.

TIMESLIP TO MIDWAY.......2006-10-26

The newest cruiser in the Japanese Defense Force, the Mirai, is headed to Pearl Harbor, along with some escort ships, to engage in joint operations with American forces but on the way there, it gets caught in a strange electrical storm. After they come out of it, they surprisingly find themselves adrift in a sea with its escorts missing. That's not to say there are no ships around. In fact they find themselves in the midst of a fleet of 40, among them what looks like the legendary Japanese warship the Yamoto, which should be lying on the seafloor, sunk over 60 years ago! Incredibly it seems the Marai has travelled back in time to June 4th, 1942, the day before the Battle of Midway, which would see the destruction of the Japanese Navy and the beginning of a slow end to one half of World War II. Now the crew must decide whether they are going to stay out of the battle and find a way back to their own time, or try to aid their countrymen, even though doing so might wreck the time continuum.

Yes, this all might sound familiar to anyone who saw the old 1980s flick "The Final Countdown", but Zipang is fascinating none the less because the human mind will always be intrigued by "What Ifs?", especially when a war is viewed by the aggressor that lost the said war. Japan to me sometimes tries to ludicrously paint itself as the victim of World War II instead of the instigator it truly was. So the writer of this show steers dangerously close to idealizing those Japanese soldiers who died for a divine emperor who was pitifully human and a military that lusted for death. The crew of the Marai seem to be in the same quandary, not knowing whether to root for their own country, because who truly wishes Japan had won the war? They would have made the Nazis look tolerant! I liked the characters and it's cool that the show takes its time with each one and gives them a lot of personality. The animation too is great, combining more traditional animation techniques with CG to give the show a GONZO feel. Great first volume.

Average customer rating:

Technical Fault?
Please buy this!!!!
Disturbing, metaphoric, and entertaining
First film from visionary director a sneak peak to greatness

Hellevator: The Bottled Fools
Starring: Masato Tsujioka , and Luchino Fujisaki
Director: Hiroki Yamaguchi
Manufacturer: Tokyo Shock
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00076OMYM
Release Date: 2005-02-22

Product Description

The surprise hit of this year s Fantasia Festival! A unique and intense vision of abstract, psychologically charged sci-fi horror, set almost entirely in a transport elevator that shuttles citizens between towns which are stacked one on top of one another. The film s oppressive paranoia builds when two policemen board the elevator with a pair of convicted homicidal rapists in tow.

System Requirements:

Running Time 97 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Customer Reviews:

Technical Fault? .......2006-03-17

Film looks fascinating yet I cannot watch due to the fact the subtitles will not activate. Yes, they are offered. Yes, I toggle them to come on, yet... nothing.
Quickly switch to another subtitled DVD and no problem.
My Hellevator simply won't play nice.

Please buy this!!!!.......2005-06-28

Hellevator is honestly one of the best films I have ever seen. If you do buy it, don't get upset while you're watching it because it seems like such an indie film. That's what the director wanted. Just try to soak in the interesting scenery and twisted characters. Don't rationalize the film, enjoy it! This is the first time I figured out the ending half way through the movie and wasn't disappointed when it came to pass. You've got to see it!!!

Disturbing, metaphoric, and entertaining.......2005-04-19

"Gusher No Binds Me", called "Hellevator" in the US, is a great addition to the pantheon of Japanese horror films that blend intense gore and violence with dark psychological themes and social commentary. While not the visceral gore-fest that "Ichi The Killer" was, "Hellevator" is still far bloodier than what American moviegoers are used to. Hellevator would arguably find a place beside masterpieces like "One Missed Call" and "Audition".

This is a film that will appeal most to committed gore hounds and fans of art-school influenced terror films, but there is much here for connoisseurs of Asian cinema to appreciate. Hiroki Yamaguchi's use of design, color, and camera are integral to a vivid film-making style that often goes missing in American cinema.

Hellevator takes place in an oppressive metropolitan police-state of the near-future, somewhat reminescent of Terry Gilliam's excellent "Brazil". The setting is the inside of a massive arcology building with over 130 floors that houses corporate offices, hospitals, cemetaries, grocery stores, and a prison. Most of the film takes place in a "transport" - an room-sized elevator. The transport, serving as a visual metaphor for a commutor train or bus, comes complete with a machine-like leather-uniformed navigator who works from a console.

It may be the visual imagery of electronics in Hellavator that hits the viewer first. In Japan electronic devices are presented in sleek clean designs, emphasizing elegance as much as functionality. In Hellevator, a sharply contrasting presentation is made. Electronics devices from the transport's console to the surveillance office's television to the character's cell phones are a mess of exposed wires parts.

The story is about a typical 17 year-old student named Luchino. Luchino, when caught smoking in the work tunnels, escapes into a transport elevator where she is joined by the rest of the cast. When the transport is ordered to stop at the prison level, a young overly-confident constable and two violent prisoners slated for execution on another floor join the transport's passengers.

Luchino is a telepath. This adds a slightly disjunctive subplot to the story. Telepaths hide their mind-reading abilities from the rest of society, but there are hints to indicate that the government uses telepaths to monitor civilians. The initial tension in the film centers around the two prisoners tormenting the passengers after a sudden transport accident entraps everyone and frees the prisoners. The conflict ends fairly quickly - maybe even too quickly. The remainder of the film centers around Luchino and the interaction of the passengers while trapped in the transport.

Hellevator is an enjoyable, but disturbing, film. The acting does get mechanical in many places, but it seems intentional. The acting does fit well with the societal atmosphere Yamaguchi has established.

On the downside, Hellevator doesn't leave the viewer with any great insight on life. The story, whether intentionally or not, draws up comments on a highly compressed society that is burdened by duty to government, corporate conformity, and personal honor; and Yamaguchi does allow us to see the darkside of these themes through the characters. However, we don't get the opportunity to explore these themes further once the ride is over.

The DVD is has a gorgeous presentation. The transfer is clean. The box has a constructed well, and has high quality gloss detailing, something I would expect more from a special edition big Hollywood release.

First film from visionary director a sneak peak to greatness.......2005-03-27

Gusher No Binds Me (Hellevator's original title, still present at various places on the US DVD packaging in addition to it's new title) is far from being a perfect film. The special effects are usually terrific, but occasionally laughable, and some of the (entirely volunteer) cast leave something to be desired. But overall, it's an amazingly unique, tense, and entertaining piece of independent Japanese cinema in the veign of Brazil, Cube, or Alive.

The film takes place in a strange, underground world where civilization exists on different vertical levels. Elevators exist like subway cars, transporting people from their home to work, school, the hospital, or prison. The society is more advanced than we are, but it's an oddly organic type of technology. Everything is analog; some tools and toys even use what appear to be real organic eyeballs.

I won't dive too deeply into the specific plot of the film, as it's well paced intricicies are perhaps the most addictive quality of the film. Needless to say, however, it's much more complicated than the American title might have you believe. Yes, there is ample bloodshed in this confined space, but it's not nearly bloodshed for bloodshed's sake. It allows different characters' personalities and histories to be brought into the light (sometimes subtly, and sometimes quite blatently) and lifts the film from a mere sadistic joy-ride to a substantial psycological sci-fi film.

The Media Blasters DVD is excellent. The transfer is fine, though the movie's shot-on-video origins may be destracting, the subtitles are terrific and the special features are engaging and informative. Various cast and crew interviews and making of videos are included, along with other assorted special features and four trailers for other Media Blasters' releases.

This is not a mainstream film, but if you're looking at this page, that's probably not what you're looking for. If you simply want something to indulge your sadistic side, you'll definitely find it here. But anyone interested in independent film or inventive sci-fi should take a chance on the movie: it's quite an accomplishment.

Average customer rating:

UPW Future Shock

UPW: Future Shock, Vol. 1
Starring: Ultimate Pro Wrestling
Manufacturer: St Clair Vision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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UPW: Home of the Brave

ASIN: B0000CDLCE
Release Date: 2003-09-16

Customer Reviews:

UPW Future Shock.......2005-10-18

UPW is a small promotion run by Rick Bassman in California. Future Shock features UPW wrestlers taking on established wrestler's from around the world including from ECW.

Juventud Guerrera vs. Mikey Henderson.

Roadkill vs. Keiji Sakoda.

Ricky Reyes vs. Hoshikawa.

Blue Meanie vs. Navajo Warrior for the UPW Internet Title.

Tommy Dreamer vs. Samoa Joe for the UPW Title.

Grandmaster Sexay vs. Al Katrazz.

Christopher Daniels vs. Rob Van Dam.

Average customer rating:

UPW: Future Shock, Vol. 2
Starring: Ultimate Pro Wrestling
Manufacturer: St Clair Vision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Sports | Genres | DVD | Video

( U ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B0000CDLCF
Release Date: 2003-09-09

Average customer rating:

Zipang, Vol. 1: Future Shock
Starring: Zipang
Manufacturer: Geneon [Pioneer]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Anime & Manga | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Animation | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( Z ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Anime | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000GDH8N8
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Average customer rating:

GREAT!
MST3K without the funny robots.
So, umm, informative...

Future Shock (4pc)
Starring: Various
Manufacturer: Bci / Eclipse
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000068TOU
Release Date: 2002-06-25

Customer Reviews:

GREAT!.......2005-10-07

These are GREAT MOVIES! As for the actors in the movies putting out bad movies, Mark Hamill played LUKE SKYEWALKER in episodes 4, 5 and 6 of Star Wars, a trilogy (now a 6 movie series) that will forever be known as one of Hollywoods GREATEST achievements.
Furthermore, IF YOU LIKE CHEESY SCI FI MOVIES, you'll like this product.
I LOVE these movies and so do my step dad, mother, step mom, father, both of my brothers, my step sister, and her 3 kids. That's 10 people who enjoyed this product thoroughly.

GREAT PRODUCT FOR CHEESY SCI-FI AFFECTIONADOS, BAD PRODUCT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO PATIENCE FOR CHEESYNESS AND CLICHES.

MST3K without the funny robots........2003-02-10

If you're into cheezy low-budget SF movies, this is the collection for you, four movies for ten bucks. Here's a brief synopsis of the movies:

Slipstream: A post-apocalyptic movie about an android wanted for murder on the run from the law. Probably the strongest of the four movies. Mark Hamill plays a bounty hunter, and Ben Kingsly and F. Murray Abraham have cameo appearances.

Abraxas: Jesse Ventura plays galactic cop Abraxas trying to stop bad-guy Secundus from getting the anti-life equation and destroying the world, and at the same time save the life of an innocent woman and her child caught up in Secundus's scheme.

Creature: Reminiscent of Alien, a crew of NTI, an American company fight against an alien creature on Saturn's moon of Titan.

Laser Mission: Spy movie starring Brandon Lee as he tries to rescue a scientist from an evil Russian trying to create a super-laser weapon.

So, umm, informative..........2002-11-04

Wow. Four sci-fi movies. Great price. It's "almost" tempting accept the offer. You'd think that they'd bother to LIST THE TITLES! The actors listed on the poster/image for the four-pack have made an awful lot of, well, awful films. Who could guess "which" four awful films you can get for under ten bucks?

Customer Reviews:

entertaining, to say the least!!!!.......2006-10-28

Sure, there are no academy awards to be handed out, and the film quality leaves a little to be desired, but this movie has a strong concept, and was delivered pretty well with what they had available. The behind the scenes making of really made tied this film together, and gave it a special feel. It looked really like it was just a fun film for Bill Paxton and the rest of the crew to make, irreguardless of box office sales, and you can tell it by the way the actors appear in this film. It is a B level film, and it shows, but with a few tweaks, this could have been a big box office smash. Worth checking out. I bought a copy for 3 bucks, well worth it, cheaper than renting!!!!!

Lots of Fun!.......2005-11-16

Okay, so I'm biased. I worked on the film and we all had a lot of FUN. Even when our location burnt to a crisp in the Malibu fires, we had fun. Lots of amazing stuff on the DVD bonus feature that is likely to appeal to most viewers. Hey, this item has sold over 100,000 DVD's, so somebody other than me must be liking it!! Check it out!

only for die-hard Paxton fans.......2005-05-11

Are you the type of Bill Paxton fan (like myself) who admires the actor so much that you are driven to see movies like "Thunderbirds" and "Spy Kids 2" simply because he is in them? If so, then you will definitely want to check out this amateurish anthology flick, which features Paxton as a nutjob who preys on weak college students to find a place to live. It's not exactly Paxton at his finest, but then, he's got fairly terrible material to work with, so you can't fault him too much.

The premise is that customers at a Virtual Reality psychology clinic have nightmares while they are undergoing whatever procedure they are undergoing. Possibly this is based on a comic book, as someone is holding a comic named "Future Shock" during a short behind-the-scenes in the special features. Does it matter? No. This is a bad movie no matter where its sources lie.

Paxton fanatics, check it out. Everyone else, donate the money you were going to spend to charity.

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