Prière pour un tueur

It seems easy to forget that in the early days of Home Video, Sho Kosugi was very much a celebrity, making Ninja-themed movies like this. The plot is a revenge story, but the idea of Kosugi as a ninja who has hidden away his identity as such brings the film to a super-hero level as we have this man who is, along with his family harassed here in the Good Old U.S.A. because they bought a shop in an old building where some theives had hidden their loot. The action sequences are fascinating, a few interesting ninja techniques are shown and the fighting is fast and furious. Kosugi does not have the acting range, it seems, to handle heavier dramas, but he is ideally suited to the unique 80s genre of "Ninja Flick". Highly recommended. Not recommended to those fed a steady diet of computer generated "special effects" and cannot remember a time when athletic ability was required to nake a martial arts movie.

Pray for Death (1985)

** (out of 4)

A Japanese man (Shô Kosugi) moves his wife and two sons to America to start a new life but it's soon turned into chaos when a gangster starts terrorizing them believing that they have a priceless jewel. What we've got here is basically a DEATH WISH movie but instead of Charles Bronson we're given a ninja. This here certainly doesn't come close to the same level as one of the DEATH WISH films and I'd say it's no where near the level of REVENGE OF THE NINJA but fans of the genre will probably still have a good time with it. I think the biggest problem working against the film is that we've simply seen this type of story way too many times and outside the ninja stuff, there's really nothing new done with it here. We basically have a good-hearted man coming to America do to everything right but then he runs up against a ruthless gangster who just wants to kill and torture. It's pretty strange to see how much of the violence is towards the two young kids and when you see this you know you're watching something from the 1980s. The film certainly picks up some steam as it moves along and reaches the revenge aspect. The finale has Kosugi putting on the ninja suit, grabbing his sword and stars and going out for revenge. These scenes have a certain campy feel to them but there's no question that they're good enough to please fans of the genre. Kosugi certainly doesn't fit the profile of a "great actor" but I do think he did well enough for the part and there's no question that you're able to connect with him and feel for his situation. The rest of the performances are rather forgettable but they're good enough for this type of film. The violence in the film is all rather tame, although there's an uncut version out there that features a little bit more. Still, PRAY FOR DEATH is far from what one would consider a good movie but it has its own charm that makes it viewable entertainment.

I just watched Pray for Death on Showtime at 2:30 in the morning. This is a totally sweet movie about ninjas, in which Sho Kosugi is this bad ass super ninja who kills a whole bunch of people before moving to America, where he is framed for drug trafficking, and his wife is raped and murdered, and that is the point where he totally flips out and kills dozens and dozens of people. I did find it odd that while his family is from Japan, Sho's wife doesn't look terribly oriental. But otherwise this is a totally sweet eighties action movie with lots of killing and flipping out.

this is the 4th best ninja movie of all time. 4th behind >revenge of the ninja,ninja III,and american ninja. there >are some good fighting scenes in pray for death. all in >all not the best ninja movie ever,but the 4th best. i give pray for death **1/2 out of ****

Sho Kosugi dons particularly cool looking ninja togs in this fair martial arts actioner from 1985.

The plot (of sorts) more or less resembles exactly that of Kosugi's earlier, superior 'Revenge Of The Ninja'.

Similarly (and infuriatingly!!!) just as in the aforementioned film, Sho is yet again incredibly reluctant to get into his full ninja gear and whoop ass even after repeated attempts on his families life by the movies villains.

However, inevitably and true to that staple cliché in these types of films, at least one of his family MUST be killed off thus prompting our hero to swear the obligatory oath of revenge. The bad news is that it takes until well over the hour mark before our man Sho actually gets his full ninja act together to get stuck in proper.

Still, to be fair, the resulting action makes it worth the long wait and the villains invariably buy it in style at Sho's deadly hands and feet.

The climatic battle between Sho's character and the evil (but ridiculously named) Limehouse Willy (played by none other than James Booth!) proves to be surprisingly evenly matched (a chainsaw being ostensibly a weapon that ninja are not specifically trained to defend against) but of course, such a repulsive low down, low life miscreant can only meet a suitably grisly end here and Sho certainly makes sure that he does!

Whilst this isn't my personal favourite of Sho's movies, it's still a fairly enjoyable romp. If you're at all into the 80's ninja film craze then you could do a lot worse than to check this out.

After all, nobody embodies the ninja better on screen than Sho does.