Pray for Death

Pray for Death

1985 "The Master Ninja is Back."
Pray for Death
Pray for Death

Pray for Death

5.7 | 1h32m | R | en | Action

Akira Saito, a Japanese businessman lives in Tokyo with his Japanese-American wife Aiko and their children, Takeshi and Tomoya. When the family has a chance to move to the United States so that Aiko can teach the children about their American heritage, they pack up and head for Houston, Texas and run a restaurant. This is where the trouble begins....

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5.7 | 1h32m | R | en | Action | More Info
Released: January. 11,1985 | Released Producted By: Trans World Entertainment (TWE) , Pray Films Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Akira Saito, a Japanese businessman lives in Tokyo with his Japanese-American wife Aiko and their children, Takeshi and Tomoya. When the family has a chance to move to the United States so that Aiko can teach the children about their American heritage, they pack up and head for Houston, Texas and run a restaurant. This is where the trouble begins....

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Cast

Sho Kosugi , James Booth , Donna Kei Benz

Director

Adrian Gorton

Producted By

Trans World Entertainment (TWE) , Pray Films

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Reviews

CameronDozier HORRIBLE acting, bad cinematography, bad choreography, fake blood, awkward action, terrible uninspired directing and editing. The antagonist is SO BAD, lol OMG. He's like a grouchy old man at a country club that has an enlarged prostate, not a crime boss. There are ultra wide shots with Akira sneaking around all by himself, followed by close ups of henchman drawing pistols, followed by a shot with the pistols right in Akira's face, like they moved faster than light to magically surround the hero. Akira then kicks the enemy one by one, while none of them shoot, with these close ups of the enemy awkwardly and passively waiting to be kicked. Once again, the editing is HORRENDOUS. 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). The crime boss and his cronies proceed to look for him, in the same poorly composed shot, and they begin to fire their weapons randomly in front of them as they run, no idea where the guy is. The old fart boss even points up some stairs to where they think Akira has gone, pointing with his GUN and FIRING it nonchalantly in that directing like he's using it as a signal. In so many of the action sequences, you can tell they rushed shots just to get the "gist" across (particularly the scene where these characters get hit by a car, HAHAHA). The child actors are SO bad, you can tell they're just trying not to smile, or that their bored or...something. There are SO many awkward smiles by the protagonist lol, these weird confused smiles you get from anxious tourists or something. 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. Thankfully we got all that crap out of us after a few years of practicing. I think this filmmaker and his crew liked the Hollywood parties more than actually learning the craft of cinema, and once they had sniffed enough asses to get a movie deal, they just kicked back and haphazardly put stuff in front of the camera. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE DIRECTING. Gordon Hessler sucked.
PeterMitchell-506-564364 I must admit it, I'm a sucker for the ninja films. They're bloody entertaining as well as unintentionally funny. This one is the top of the pics. 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. At the nagging request of his beautiful wife, Sho and his sons move to America and set up shop. 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. Right? Wrong. They should of stayed where they were. They become caught in the middle of feud between some crooked cops, and some really other bad guys, one in particular, merciless in his methods. These two crooked cops steal this necklace worth millions from the bad guys, planning to keep it for themselves. They stash it in this shop that so happens to be the new business, run by Sho and his wife. The old owner who's sold it to him, is mistaken for the thief, an obvious culprit in the sense of his departure. The crooked cops can't get to it, as a new lock has been replaced. The bad guys kill the owner, as what can he tell him. And that leaves Sho and his family as the suspects, so you know what's to ensue. The action keeps coming at you in this movie, my favorite pick out out of the so called four. There is some disturbing violence, some of it sexual. The title is fantastic. So is Booth as the bad guy. Another of my 1986 favorites, this flick only ran a week. 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. and his family
HaemovoreRex 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.
myers62084 The song isn't called back from the shadows it is called back to the shadows and it is sung by Peggy Abernathy. It clearly states that in the credits of the movie if you watch them. I thought the movie was good. Then again I am a ninja fanatic. Anyway has good fight scenes and I thought it had a good summary. I would recommend that if you are a Sho Kosugi fan that you watch this movie. I would also like to see this released on DVD along with enter the ninja and ninja 3. I would like to know where I can find the song back to the shadows. Sho Kosugi is an awesome actor and I can't wait for the new ninja movie Return of the Ninja to come out. Only a ninja can stop ninja.