Pray for Death
Director:
Gordon Hessler
Year: 1986
Rating: 6.0
A good rule to
follow in life is not to mess with the family of a Ninja. It is one rule
that I have followed with care. This gets fun when Sho Kosugi goes full Ninja
and kills everyone. Until then it was a bit lukewarm though that somersault
over a car coming at him was impressive and mystifying. Can people really
do that? The film begins with the Black Ninja taking on and beating a horde
of evil Ninjas until we realize that it is a TV show that his two young sons
are watching at home in Japan (though it is clear that Sho is playing the
Black Ninja). The two boys are played by his real sons (Kane and Shane).
Kane shows some pretty nifty moves for a ten year old while Shane does not
but they both went into the film industry as did their sister Ayeesha who
does not appear in this film. Still three paychecks for one movie is a good
deal.
The boys think Ninjas are super cool and
that boring dad is a salaryman. He is of course a super Ninja belonging to
a secret sect. His wife Aiko (Donna Kei Benz) is Japanese-American and wants
the family to move to America from Yokohama. But America is dangerous, he
tells her. That is only in the movies, she responds. So off they go and guess
who is right? This is an anti-immigration message to Japanese - stay
home. They bought a restaurant unseen from Japan and it is in a shithole
neighborhood. Kane has to beat up a pack of punks, but it is a gang run by
Michael Constantine who is the big problem. But getting back to rule one
- don't fuck with the family of a Ninja. It would have been better if any
of the bad guys could fight worth a damn - except for the gang enforcer (James
Booth) who rather unbelievably gives Sho a good fight - but then Booth also
wrote the script. Directed by Gordon Hessler (Oblong Box, Scream and Scream
Again, Cry of the Banshee).
