pray for death

Ninjas might be an endangered species now, but in the '80s they were everywhere: movies, television, cartoons, action figures. The nerdy kid who bagged your groceries? A ninja. That ***hole who stood you up at prom? A ninja. You couldn't toss a Frisbee in the park without some ninja knocking it out of the air with a throwing star. They were a menace, I tell you!

Full disclosure, that might be completely accurate.

But that's the thing about ninjas; you just never know where they'll pop up. Like in Arrow Video's new blu-ray release of Pray for Death (1985) starring Sho Kosugi who kick started (see what I did there) the whole ninja craze co-starring with Franco Nero in Cannon Film's Enter the Ninja (1981). Although that would be overlooking the mask-clad warriors inserted rather clumsily into Sam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite (1974). But now we're just splitting ninjas.

Rising from the ranks of martial arts extra into an almost accidental starring role, Kosugi went on to star in a pair of sequels for Cannon (the enjoyable Revenge of the Ninja and the enjoyably ludicrous Ninja III: The Domination) along with a TV show (The Master), doing an admirable job of following in the footsteps of Bruce Lee's legacy. Pray for Death, however, feels like a more typical mid-80s action-revenge vehicle, a format that guys like Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris were on their way to perfecting.

Moving his family from Japan to the mean streets of Houston, Akira (Kosugi) has the misfortune of opening a restaurant in the same building where local gangsters have been hiding their stolen goods. And when a priceless necklace disappears from the drop, a hired thug named Limehouse Willie (James Booth, who also wrote the script) blames it on the new guy in town.

After his son is kidnapped, Akira realizes he must use the ninja skills he's been trying to keep secret to take down Limehouse and his hired muscle once and for all. It's guns versus swords, swords versus chainsaws, and a customized ninja bicycle you have to see to believe!

It takes a while for Pray for Death to deliver the goods. We begin with a confusing series of flashbacks and false starts, supposedly setting up Akira's reticence to break out the nunchucks and start cracking skulls. Kosugi's son, Kane, is elevated into an almost co-starring role, giving the film an almost 3 Ninjas vibe by taking on adults three times his size and generally causing trouble (he's the one who makes the aforementioned Huffy death machine). And that leads to an unusually strange mix of TV friendly action and - in the uncut version at least - some extreme violence and gore. The film is clearly indecisive about which marketing hook will work best, hoping that Kosugi's scenes alone with tie things up.

They don't. And Pray for Death is far from the performers best cinematic outing. But it is a slashing good time with all sorts of cool weaponry, impossible jumps and a paunchy, out-of-shape bad guy that is still somehow able to go 10 rounds with a trained Japanese master. I guess they just don't make ninjas like they used to.

Arrow's blu-ray presents the longer uncut version along with the original R-rated cut. You'll spot the additions as they have a slightly more contrasty look and only account for scenes where someone is spurting blood. Overall, the film looks fantastic without any of the typical 80s softness to the image. Bonus materials include a great interview with Kosugi who tells his own life story very well plus a vintage episode of show called Martial Art Forms with the actor demonstrating and speaking at length about his fighting philosophies (hilariously hosted by a turtle-neck sweater wearing NPR-type). The original theatrical trailer is accompanied by all the trailers from Kosugi's '80s career.