Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

When you're a ninja, you can't escape destiny. 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. Unbeknownst to him, the man name Sam Green(Parely Baer) is also unaware that his store is being used as a hideout for a gang and a pair of crooked cops. They deliver a necklace in which the cops would give to someone else. The kind Sam Green helps out the family with a place to stay. It was a shame when the gang took him out and attack the Saitos. Akira Saito(Kosugi) is a skilled ninja who lived with the guilt of killing his brother when he tried to steal from the temple. His father tells him to wipe away the guilt from his mind before it kills him. So when the mob leader kills Akira's wife, he returned to ways of the ninja. His attacks are precise and lethal, and none of the mobsters could stand a chance against him. The fight scenes in the film are awesome. The art of ninjitsu is skill that is beyond compare. The movie title makes a whole lot of sense. It's a very good movie, highly recommended. Sho Kosugi choreograph the moves very well. This is a perfect ninja film. 4 out of 5 stars.

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.

From the unlikeliest of kung fu scriveners', James Booth, springs forth the second best outing from Cult Japanese pugilist, Sho Kosugi. The Kosugi clan moves to the US in order to construct a shiny, prosperous new life, only to find themselves inadvertently embroiled in nefarious gangster double-dealings; due to some illicit booty that was stashed under the floorboards in their recently purchased business premises. 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. No doubt there remain some who poo- poo the entertainment value of a mid-eighties, Kosugi opus; but one must never be swayed by the ill-considered protestations of the sober minority. 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.

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