Pray for Death
Tags: cult, revenge, cruelty, murder, violence

Plot synopsis:
At the insistence of his American-born wife, Aiko (Donna Kei Benz), Yokohama salaryman Akira Saito (Sho Kosugi) decides to immigrate from Japan to the country of her birth to raise their two sons Takeshi (Kane Kosugi) and Tomoya (Shane Kosugi) and start their own business. Unbeknownst to his family, Akira is in fact a highly skilled ninja, who had faithfully protected the secrets of the temple minded by his adoptive father and sensei, Kaga. Years before, Akira's brother, Shoji - also raised and trained by Kaga - sought to steal from the temple in disguise, forcing Akira to engage him in battle and kill him. Akira's meditation on this matter is disrupted by an attack from Kaga to encourage him to wipe the guilt from his mind before it kills him. Akira announces his intentions to move to America to start a new life, and to put the shadows of the ninja behind him. Kaga makes him swear never to reveal the secrets of their sect, and gives him a ninja helmet as a parting gift, but reminds him he can never leave his shadows behind.
The Saitos land in Los Angeles and meet with Sam Green, the widowed owner of a closed restaurant and apartment that Akira and Aiko planned to buy. After the sale is completed and the family visits the local mall, the cigar store area of the building is broken into by police Sgt. Trumble (Charles Greuber), a corrupt cop along with his partner Sgt. Joe Daly (Matthew Faison) working for local mobster Mr. Newman (Michael Constantine). Daly removes loose floor boards and puts a large white box underneath, containing the Van Adda necklace. However, he reconsiders and double-crosses the mob by taking the necklace for himself. The next day Newman's enforcer, Limehouse Willie (James Booth), waits until the building is again deserted before entering himself only to discover the necklace is missing. Seeing Sam Green's packed luggage in his car, Willie incorrectly dedeuces that he's skipping town with the jewels and kills him even though he doesn't find them. Suspicion now falls on the Saitos.
The next day, as Akira and Aiko enjoy the first day of business - "Aiko's Japanese Restaurant" - Tomoya and Takeshi go out to the local store and are confronted by local bullies eyeing Takeshi's bike. Tomoya - who has a red belt in karate - defends his younger brother and bests the bullies. But during the fight, Willie abducts Tomoya and leaves Takeshi with a broken nose when he tries to stop him. Willie then phones Akira demanding he delivers the necklace (of which he knows nothing about) to Pier 25 in exchange for his son's life. Curious, he goes into the cigar store room and finds the broken lock on the door, the loose floor boards, as well as a grey thread from Daly's suit jacket, which also shows he is left- handed.
Akira arrives at the pier and boards one of the ships empty-handed and is then restrained by Willie and his men for interrogation. Willie doesn't believe Akira's claims that it was a left-handed man in a grey suit that took the necklace and cuts him with his knife across his chest. But when he threatens his son with a blow torch, Akira smashes the light above his head and uses his ninja skills to escape with Tomoya. He listens to Aiko's insistence and goes to the police the next day. Meanwhile, although Willie is convinced that the necklace isn't with the Saitos, Newman still wants them eliminated for what they know.
Akira leaves the house with instructions to his family to stay indoors. At the precinct, he speaks with Lt. Anderson (Norman Burton) with both Trumble and Daly present as he identifies Willie in the provided mug shots. Anderson can do nothing to keep him away from the Saitos without evidence, and Akira agrees to help him. Daly informs Newman, and is assured Willie will clean up his mess, but informs him they need to have "a little chat."
Back at the apartment, Takeshi accidentally kicks his soccer ball out the window and Tomoya goes out to recover it despite his mother's insistence. Aiko chases after him and both are run down by Newman's thugs stationed outside. Akira arrives seconds afterwards and - because they had been ordered to switch vehicles to confirm they killed Aiko and Tomoya - recognizes the thugs from the night before and gives chase in his car, then on foot. The resulting struggle while their truck is moving results in both men being killed. At the hospital, Tomoya's on life support, while Aiko is bruised and shaken but still being kept overnight for observation. Anderson arranges for police personnel to guard them.
Akira sneaks on board Willie's ship during a party and, after subduing his security, cuts the power and sneaks up behind him. With a knife to his throat he warns him to stay away from the Saitos or he will pray for death. Akira is gone by the time the lights go on. Instead of heeding his warning, Willie sneaks into the hospital and manages to snuff out Aiko, but is stopped by Anderson and his men before he can kill Tomoya and escapes. Akira returns to the hospital and has a moment alone with his wife's body. He swears he will make Willie and his men pay for destroying their dreams by returning to the shadows of the ninja (unaware that Takeshi hears this vow behind him). He takes Tomoya out of hospital care against Anderson's warnings that they can't guarantee police protection. Fed up with the incompetence of the police, Akira only warns him to stay out of his way.
Elsewhere, Daly and Trumble meet at a restaurant where Willie also shows up and murders them both for their treachery.
Akira relocates the boys to a warehouse. Behind closed doors, he performs rituals that signify his return to the ways of ninjitsu, and, with a makeshift forge, creates a new katana blade while Takeshi finds ninja weapons in Akira's belongings. In full ninja garb, Akira prays to Aiko before donning the helmet his father bequeathed to him before leaving Japan.

Review: 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".
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.
The action scenes are effective in that 80s ninja movie style, but they lack the intensity and brutality of Kosugi's 'Revenge of the Ninja'.
James Booth (who also wrote the screenplay) is quite good as the sadistic lead henchman Limehouse, and veteran character actors Parley Baer and Norman Burton help round out a cast that's much better than we've come to expect from films of this genre.With a few tweaks this could've been on the level with Kosugi classics such as 'Revenge of the Ninja' and 'Ninja III: The Domination'.
the second best outing from Cult Japanese pugilist, Sho Kosugi!.
From the unlikeliest of kung fu scriveners', James Booth, springs forth the second best outing from Cult Japanese pugilist, Sho Kosugi.
Leaving aside the clearly pedestrian plot, what remains is a mean- spirited, (bruised) balls to the wall revenge actioner; with the impoverished narrative fortified to the point of incredulity by a series of gonzoid Ninjitsu sequences, orchestrated with brutal efficiency by nimble vengeance enthusiast, Kosugi.
In the halcyon days of Betamax & Video 2000, Sho Kosugi reigned supreme; and it would seem that in this increasingly banal era when any Hollywood popinjay can wear the spurious crown of action hero, one could do a whole lot worse than hunker down, adjust one's beer goggles and marvel at such simple, roughhouse fare; where the fleet- fisted Kosugi makes bloody chow mien out of a legion of bovine, uncoordinated villainy..
Awesome movie for ninja fans..
I would recommend that if you are a Sho Kosugi fan that you watch this movie.
Sho Kosugi is an awesome actor and I can't wait for the new ninja movie Return of the Ninja to come out.
A man wants to leave his country behind and start a new life in America.Unfortunately, he runs into gangsters that thought he stole a necklace from them.
His family is in danger, and he reverts to his true calling - a ninja - to get justice.Shô Kosugi gives us a great martial arts/revenge flick.
His acting isn't the greatest, but his fists speak loudly.He warned them, and now, they will pray for death.Gangsters, crooked cops, and the most dangerous man in California are no match.
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..
4th best ninja movie ever.
this is the 4th best ninja movie of all time.
there >are some good fighting scenes in pray for death.
Sho Kosugi never made it big like Jackie Chan, and it's easy to see why: he has the same likable screen presence, the same problems with the English language, even the same haircut...but his martial-arts choreography is two or three notches below, two or three clicks slower than, Jackie's standards.
To put it simply, the fight scenes in "Pray For Death" are boring (though the climax does incorporate a wide variety of weapons).
I don't know if there even IS a "best ninja movie of all time", but this one definitely is not it.
Sho Kosugi stars as Akira a closet ninja who goes back to his shadows when a mobster Limehouse(James Boothe) kills Akira's wife and almost kills Akira's son.
Pray For Death is a cut above most "Ninja movies" the action is crisp and the movie is fast paced.
Pray For Death may make more noise then sense, but for action fans PFD delivers the goods..
not one of Shô Kosugi's best movies.
this is not one of Shô Kosugi's better movies.it's an action drama/revenge film.it takes awhile to get going and once it does,it's fairly slow throughout most of the running time.i wouldn't say ti was boring,but it was close.the fight scenes were OK,but not spectacular.the characters were your typical two dimensional stereotypes for the genre.there's nothing very memorable about the movie.once the end credits rolled,that was it.really stays with you about it.i wouldn't really recommend it unless you're really bored and have nothing else to do.i would recommend Revenge of the Ninja and Enter the Ninja,both superior films starring Shô Kosugi.for me,Pray for Death is a 5/10.
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..
When a businessman(Sho Kosugi) from Japan travels to America with his wife and children, he thought that he was go to live the American dream.
Akira Saito(Kosugi) is a skilled ninja who lived with the guilt of killing his brother when he tried to steal from the temple.
So when the mob leader kills Akira's wife, he returned to ways of the ninja.
Don't let the awful acting of his kids or the odd overdubbing of noises during the fight scenes distract you, this is top notch ninja schlock!.
After a peace loving Japanese immigrant (Sho Kosugi) and his family become victims of a crime syndicate, a master ninja emerges.Director Gordon Hessler had a great run going into the 1970s, working with Vincent Price, AIP and all those talented folks.
A Japanese ninja film, set in America and directed by a Brit.
Joe Bob Briggs praised star Sho Kosugi as "the best kung fu man since Bruce Lee" and ranked the film high on his 10-best list for 1986.
Kosugi really was the defining ninja of the 1980s (with all due respect to a certain group of turtles).Arrow Films has released the film on blu-ray, and have done a very fine job of it.
We have a brand new interview with Sho Kosugi, as well as an archive interview and Ninjitsu demonstration with Kosugi from the film's New York premiere.I would love to have seen a an audio commentary from Kosugi, or perhaps something from Hessler, but he likely passed before Arrow got the rights.
All in all, this is a great release and anyone who loves the days of renting action films based on their cover is going to appreciate what this gem has to offer..
A very well made flick, featuring Sho Kosugi and his real life sons, who even as an adult, I don't think you'd want to get into a fight with.
Kosugi too, is still on a guilt trip, when involved in a sword fight with a mate, a good guy who went bad, so America should do him good.
They stash it in this shop that so happens to be the new business, run by Sho and his wife.
The action keeps coming at you in this movie, my favorite pick out out of the so called four.
Apart from Booth, and only a couple of others, Pray For Death doesn't have the greatest acting in the world, but when you've go explosive action like this, acting takes a back seat.
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.
The finale has Kosugi putting on the ninja suit, grabbing his sword and stars and going out for revenge.
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..
One of the worst so-called ninja movies ever..
One example of why the action looks so ridiculous and the directing is so bad: there is a scene where Akira mysteriously escapes right in front of his enemies (terribly done, completely unbelievable).
It reminds me of so many rushed, cheap and ill-crafted scenes and cheesy acting in the movies my buddy and I made as a kid.
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).
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!
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.
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.
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.
Pray For Death is badly filmed, badly written, and horrifically acted by the Kosugi clan.
This movie came out some time in the 80's so for obvious reasons the fight scenes look crappy.
And then look at the awful Ninja costume Sho Kosugi wears at the end and if you don't agree that this movie sucks, you've got problems..
The main Villain in the film is Actor James Booth playing the tough evil Mafia Enforcer 'Limehouse Willie'.
Not all of the action scenes are great but there is a few well staged sequences that really are enjoyable to watch, especially the raid on Mr Newman's Mansion and the Saw Mill Confrontation with "Limehouse Willie".
The Wife of Sho Kosugi in the film was an OK sexy Asian Babe and this was worth a mention too.
The Quintessential Eighties Ninja Movie.
And of course, Sho Kosugi?
Made while the ninja craze was coming to a close, Pray for Death is arguably one of, if not the best entry in actor Sho Kosugi's long and illustrious filmography, one that contains, you guessed it, a lot of ninjas.
When mild-mannered Yokohama salaryman Akira Saito (Kosugi) moves to Houston with his wife (The lovely Donna Kei Benz) and sons (Lead Kosugi's real-life sons Kane and Shane) in order to run a restaurant, he ends up in a one-man war against an army of ruthless mobsters searching for a priceless necklace.
Veteran director Gordon Hessler shoots the elaborate and brutal fight scenes with style, and Kosugi's martial arts skills are on full display.
To me, Akira Saito (Sho Kosugi) made one of the best speeches in the history of martial arts movies, to wit: "Whoever destroyed your dreams, and our family, I will make them pay for it, I swear it.
After Saito and his son are kidnapped and threatened by a goon named Limehouse, the restaurateur reverts to his ninja ways and deals some medieval Japanese justice to the bad guys.
At the insistence of his American-born wife, Aiko (Donna Benz), Akira Saito (Sho Kosugi) decides to immigrate from Japan to the country of her birth to raise their two sons Takeshi (Kane Kosugi) and Tomoya (Shane Kosugi) and start their own business.
Unbeknownst to his family, Akira is in fact a highly skilled ninja, who had faithfully protected the secrets of the temple minded by his adoptive father and sensei, Kaga.
Akira announces his intentions to move to America to start a new life, and to put the shadows of the ninja behind him.
Kaga makes him swear never to reveal the secrets of their sect, and gives him a ninja helmet as a parting gift, but reminds him he can never leave his shadows behind.The Saitos land in Los Angeles and meet with Sam Green, the widowed owner of a closed restaurant and apartment that Akira and Aiko planned to buy.
awesome if you can see it in it's entirely but unless you have it on a old Australian VHS tape forget about it i first saw this at a drive in just before I turned 18 and I loved it that real evil bastard really gets his ass handed to him in the end but I think Sho Kosugi was actually hurt in at least one seen a seen that gets edited in so called DVD releases be warned I still love it hay!
A band of crooked cops store stolen goods in the back room of the restaurant and unknown to them, a priceless necklace is wanted by a local syndicate.
When one of the cops decides to take the necklace for himself, the syndicate goes after the previous owner of the restaurant, then after the Akiras family.
But when Aiko is killed, Akira finally decides to unleash his dark side....If you've seen Revenge of the Ninja, then you've seen this, it's basically the same movie, but with a more sadistic villain, and not very good fight scenes.Kosugi looks the part, all metal and eyeliner, but compared to other martial arts film from the eighties (especially from Cannon), it's pretty non eventful.The villain is hilarious though, spouting off threats,setting fire to old men, and holding his own to a ninja for a decent ten minutes.There are a few good scenes, but it's almost a carbon copy of Kosugis better movie.But it has a wonderful theme tune..
I know this happens in all action movies, but this guy's supposed to be a ninja.
None of them are citizens.The old geezer ninja dude's makeup looked like it was applied by a 10 year old.Besides that, it's a really crappy movie too.