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.

Sho Kosugi stars as closet ninja who becomes Ninja once again when mobsters (Searching for a priceless necklace) kill his wife and try to kill his kids, Kosugi warns the mobsters, tries cooperating and even giving clues to get the mobsters off his back but of course it just never ceases to be and because this is a ninja movie, Kosugi tries to dispatch the mobsters one by one. Pray For Death is of course a ninja movie that was better than average for the genre, reading various comments which vary in opinion, I tend to lean with the crowd who likes the movie since I myself was never bored with the movie. It certainly had a few slow moments and an action sequence which wasn't very impressive at all (Kosugi sneaking in a boat party) but there are some good action sequences (Especially the climax) and the movie moves quick enough to not concern the audience about how unlikely it all is. Still its a ninja movie and rarely do they even approach respectability. Pray For Death at least works as a guilty pleasure.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

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 ****

Pray for Death is awesome! It's certainly the best Sho movie we've seen to date.

Herein, the Sho-master plays Akira Saito, a man who has a nice, calm life in Japan working as an executive for Yokohama foods. He has a pretty wife, Aiko (Benz) and two cute kids, Takeshi and Tomoya (Shane and Kane, regulars in their dad's movies). Yep, the dude has a pretty sweet setup. Apparently bored by all the serenity, Aiko, whose father was American, convinces Akira to move to the U.S. Once there, they begin refurbishing an old, run-down eatery called the Sabine Street Restaurant. They later rename it Aiko's. They get the property from a kindly elderly man, Sam Green (Parley Baer). Even though the newly-transplanted Japanese family in the U.S. throws themselves into turning the restaurant around, a dark secret lurks...

It seems the local gangsters have been using an all-but-abandoned back room at the Sabine Street Restaurant as a drop off and pick up for various illegal goods. When the highly valuable Van Atta necklace goes missing, naturally these dumb-dumb gangsters think it is the new immigrant in town, Akira. So they start making his life a living hell, tormenting him in many ways. It eventually escalates to the point when half the family is in the hospital. The ringleader of all this awfulness happening to the Saito family is one Limehouse Willie (Booth). While his name seems more suited to hobo boxing matches in the railyards, the diabolical man uses every possible underhanded tactic at his disposal to try to eliminate Saito. He just didn't reckon with one thing - Saito is a secret Ninja! So when Aiko takes a turn for the worse, the mild-mannered man during the day goes on a no-holds-barred Ninja revenge mission against the evil bastards that have ruined his life! Radical! Sporting a fast pace, a high-quality look, top-notch action sequences (the boat scene is a standout), and great music, including the Pat Benatar-like theme song "Back to the Shadows" by Peggy Abernathy, Pray for Death doesn't disappoint. Director Gordon Hessler, a well-known drive-in guy, pulls all the correct elements together in just the right mix. He downplays the minor negatives, such as the fact that Sho's accent is so strong it's basically impossible to tell what he's saying, and accentuates the strengths, such as the Ninja-based action sequences and revenge plot. It truly is a recipe for success more directors would be wise to follow.

Of course, a great action movie needs a super-evil bad guy, and James Booth as Limehouse Willie fills the bill in spades. Yes, his name is silly, but that's just a distraction, as you will cheer for the moment when Sho exacts his revenge on one of the ultimate jerks in 80's filmdom. Add to that the elements of corrupt (and not-so-corrupt) cops involved in this gangster/ninja war, and the subplots of the temple setting where we learn why Akira knows what he knows. In the good guy department, Parley Baer does a good job as the kindly, sympathetic Sam Green, while Kane and Shane do some pint-sized karate moves of their own (and they have the best bike since Pee Wee Herman). They also like to watch something called "The Black Ninja" on TV.

This is an actual NINJA MOVIE, unlike the trowel-jobs of Godfrey Ho. This is a coherent, good production. Featuring yet another excellent opening credit sequence featuring Sho, and produced by TransWorld entertainment (the big-box VHS was released on USA video, how appropriate to the storyline), please don't hesitate to check out this "Sho"-stopper.

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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.