Granted that having been a preteen in the 1980s, then the wave of ninja movies was definitely something that I was watching on VHS. And then I decided to watch the 1985 "Pray For Death" in 2019. Somewhat of a mistake. This was better left in the past with the fond memories.

Watching "Pray For Death" today was somewhat of a slap to the face with an ice cold dead fish. The movie was downright ludicrous. The storyline was as simple as it could get; a Japanese family moves to the USA to start a fresh new life, setting up a business in a fairly rundown and bad neighborhood. Yeah, what could or would possibly go wrong there? Then when the father's son is hospitalized and his wife murdered, everything falls apart and he brings out his ancient ninja heritage to wreck vengeance on the perpetrators.

Sure, this was entertaining back in the mid 1980s, but today, no, not so much. The storyline was so stupid that it was almost bordering on being insulting to the intelligence of the audience.

And as for ninja action, well then there wasn't really all that much of it. It was in the beginning and end of the movie, so you could essentially skip the middle part of the movie and still be up to speed with the storyline. And as for the ninja, well Shô Kosugi wearing an abysmal fake metal helmet on his ninja outfit and a nylon sheet covering his mouth was just a bit too tacky - even for a mid 1980s ninja movie.

Sure Shô Kosugi might have been a great martial artist back in the day and won a heap of competitions, but that doesn't really mean that he has talent on the screen. Let's just say that I wasn't particularly impressed with what I saw in "Pray For Death".

Was this an entertaining ninja movie? No, not really. I will actually say that the likes of Michael Dudikoff's "American Ninja" movies were better than this. Is this a movie that I will return to watch again? No, definitely not. Is it worth the time, effort or money? No.

Words cannot express how important ninjas were in 1985. Every single day, American kids drew pictures of them during class, beat on one another with their weapons and watched their movies, which could nearly have an entire shelf of your local video store all to themselves.

Pray for Death is Sho Kosugi's vehicle and he makes the most of it. You may remember him as the villainous Hasegawa who fought Franco Nero in Enter the Ninja, but here he's graduated to become the hero. He plays salaryman Akira Saito, who has decides to follow his wife's dream and immigrate from Japan to the United States along with their two sons Takeshi and Tomoya (Sho's sons Kane and Shane).

What his family does not know is that Akira is a ninja and has kept the temple's secrets, even killing his own brother Shoji as he tried to steal from their adopted father Koga (Robert Ito, Sam Fujiyama on Quincy, M. D.). His master tells him to leave Japan behind and erase the guilt he's felt over what happened.

Purchasing an old store from a kindly man named Sam Green (Parley Baer, the mayor of Mayberry!) that will become Aiko's Japanese Restaurant. But before they can see any success, two crooked cops hide a necklace inside the floorboards, leading to Akira's children being attacked, Green being murdered and eventually, our hero's wife being injured and then killed inside the hospital while she recovers.

This all means that Akira must return to the ways of the ninja and literally force a man to pray for death before impaling his hands and sawing him in half. Yes, this form of ninjitsu is not quiet in any way.

Director Gordon Hessler has the kind of IMDB list that makes me excited about movies. It has it all, from Scream, Pretty Peggy and The Oblong Box to The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. He makes the kind of movies people like me want to watch.

Predictably, critics hated this movie. Please show me the ninja movie that they have enjoyed.

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 majestically 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, hot-footed Kosugi makes bloody chow mien out of a legion of bovine, uncoordinated villainy!