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Released by: MGM Limited Edition Collection
Released on: March 21, 2012.
Director: Gordon Hessler
Cast: Sho Kosugi, James Booth, Donna K. Benz, Norman Burton
Year: 1985
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The Movie:
One of the last of the 'big ninja' movies that Sho Kosugi rose to superstardom for starring in during the eighties, Pray For Death was directed by Gordon Hessler who had worked with Kosugi on the TV series The Master (starring Lee Van Cleef!) and would work with him again two years later in Rage Of Honor.
The film begins in Japan where we're introduced to the 'Black Ninja' who is, of course, a complete and utter bad ass, taking out his foes left right and center. We meet him right as he's in the midst of a battle, but soon realize what we're seeing is a TV show being watched by two young Japanese kids, Takeshi Saito (Kane Kosugi) and his brother Tomoya Saito (Shane Kosugi), who both agree that the Black Ninja looks an awful lot like their dad, a peace loving business man named Akira Saito (Sho Kosugi). After discussing things with his lovely wife, Aiko (Donna K. Benz), they decide that it's time for Akira to be his own boss and so the family soon moves to America where they puzzlingly buy a home in a horrible neighborhood in Houston and almost instantly run into trouble with some local bad guys who proceed to shatter his American dream!
While Akira just wants to be left alone with his family to get his restaurant business on track, it turns out that a bunch of crooked cops are using the backroom of his joint to horde a bunch of stolen merchandise. One piece of said merchandise is the valuable Van Atta Necklace which a local mobster has got his eyes set on owning. When one of the cops swipes the jewels, the mobsters figure it was Akira and so they take out his wife and kids forcing him to put on his ninja suit and take deadly action against those who would harm his family.
This one is a little bit slower than Enter The Ninja, Revenge Of The Ninja or Ninja III: The Domination but it's still very much a worthy entry in Sho's filmography and a pretty decent B-grade action film in its own right. If it takes a little while to get going at least it pays off in the end and you can't fault the filmmakers for trying to build a decent revenge story and throw in some character development to give things more impact. They're not always completely successful, but hey, they tried and that counts for something. Kosugi, who must have made a bulk buy on bad eyeliner, sort of meanders through the movie with as much emotion as he's ever shown (which isn't much) but he's likeable enough in the lead and the fact that he does seem to care about his kids (played by his real life kids, which probably helps) and his wife makes his revenge in the later part of the movie all the more justified and righteous.
The fight scenes are decent and appropriately violent and Kosugi's fight choreography
is nothing to sneeze at - Kane and Shane even get a few good licks in here and there.
Some fun supporting performances from James Booth and Norman Burton round out '
the cast quite well and the end result, well, if it's not on the same level as what came
before it's, Pray For Death is still pretty bad ass - and if that's not enough, it's likely the
only movie ever made featuring a ninja fighting a guy with a chainsaw surrounded by
creepy mannequins.
A few notes about this cut of the movie - it's the same version that appeared on MGM HD, so it's missing some of the violence in the scene where Sho's wife is attacked at the hospital. A few other scenes are also trimmed including a crow bar attack. The only way to see the uncut version is by way of a long out of print Greek VHS (or a grey market copy thereof). Interested parties are advised to check out a great article detailing the differences between the R rated cut and the Greek VHS release by clicking here.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Pray For Death looks decent in 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are decent, black levels aren't perfect but are acceptable, and detail isn't half bad. Sometimes it looks a bit soft but otherwise, it's not a bad looking standard definition image. If nothing else it's quite clean, showing only very minor print damage here and there.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track sounds just fine, offering up clear dialogue without any noticeable background hiss or noise - dig that eighties score. The levels are well balanced, the score sounds good and there are no problems here to complain about.
There are no extras, just a static menu. The movie is divided into chapters in ten minute intervals.
The Final Word:
Pray For Death isn't Kosugi's finest moment but it is a pretty bad ass ninja movie straight from the boom years of eighties ninja movie mania. MGM's barebones DVD isn't going to blow you away but it's the best version of the movie out there, even if it would have been great to get it completely uncut, which sadly this version is not.
