Spoiler Alert! To me, Akira Saito (Sho Kosugi) made one of the best speeches in the history of martial arts movies, to wit: "Whoever destroyed your dreams, and our family, I will make them pay for it, I swear it. Yes, I swear it as a ninja. My body, my spirit, my soul will return to my shadows, to the shadows of the ninja." Short summary: a Japanese food technician leaves his corporate job in Yokohama to open a restaurant in Houston. He buys a closed restaurant and house from a man named Sam Green. Unknown to Saito, some hoods had been using a locked room in Green's place as a hiding spot for a valuable stolen necklace. After Saito and his son are kidnapped and threatened by a goon named Limehouse, the restaurateur reverts to his ninja ways and deals some medieval Japanese justice to the bad guys. The final fight between Saito and Limehouse is reminiscent of the climatic battle between Bruce Lee and Master Han in ENTER THE DRAGON."Gangland style killings save us a lot of police work."

Akira lives in Tokyo with his wife, Aiko and children. When the family has a chance to move to the United States so that Aiko can teach the children about their American heritage, they pack up and run a restaurant. A band of crooked cops store stolen goods in the back room of the restaurant and unknown to them, a priceless necklace is wanted by a local syndicate. When one of the cops decides to take the necklace for himself, the syndicate goes after the previous owner of the restaurant, then after the Akiras family. When one of the boys is kidnapped, Akira quietly rescues him. But when Aiko is killed, Akira finally decides to unleash his dark side....If you've seen Revenge of the Ninja, then you've seen this, it's basically the same movie, but with a more sadistic villain, and not very good fight scenes.Kosugi looks the part, all metal and eyeliner, but compared to other martial arts film from the eighties (especially from Cannon), it's pretty non eventful.The villain is hilarious though, spouting off threats,setting fire to old men, and holding his own to a ninja for a decent ten minutes.There are a few good scenes, but it's almost a carbon copy of Kosugis better movie.But it has a wonderful theme tune.

Pray for Death (1985) ** (out of 4) A Japanese man (Shô Kosugi) moves his wife and two sons to America to start a new life but it's soon turned into chaos when a gangster starts terrorizing them believing that they have a priceless jewel. What we've got here is basically a DEATH WISH movie but instead of Charles Bronson we're given a ninja. This here certainly doesn't come close to the same level as one of the DEATH WISH films and I'd say it's no where near the level of REVENGE OF THE NINJA but fans of the genre will probably still have a good time with it. I think the biggest problem working against the film is that we've simply seen this type of story way too many times and outside the ninja stuff, there's really nothing new done with it here. We basically have a good-hearted man coming to America do to everything right but then he runs up against a ruthless gangster who just wants to kill and torture. It's pretty strange to see how much of the violence is towards the two young kids and when you see this you know you're watching something from the 1980s. The film certainly picks up some steam as it moves along and reaches the revenge aspect. The finale has Kosugi putting on the ninja suit, grabbing his sword and stars and going out for revenge. These scenes have a certain campy feel to them but there's no question that they're good enough to please fans of the genre. Kosugi certainly doesn't fit the profile of a "great actor" but I do think he did well enough for the part and there's no question that you're able to connect with him and feel for his situation. The rest of the performances are rather forgettable but they're good enough for this type of film. The violence in the film is all rather tame, although there's an uncut version out there that features a little bit more. Still, PRAY FOR DEATH is far from what one would consider a good movie but it has its own charm that makes it viewable entertainment.

The song isn't called back from the shadows it is called back to the shadows and it is sung by Peggy Abernathy. It clearly states that in the credits of the movie if you watch them. I thought the movie was good. Then again I am a ninja fanatic. Anyway has good fight scenes and I thought it had a good summary. I would recommend that if you are a Sho Kosugi fan that you watch this movie. I would also like to see this released on DVD along with enter the ninja and ninja 3. I would like to know where I can find the song back to the shadows. Sho Kosugi is an awesome actor and I can't wait for the new ninja movie Return of the Ninja to come out. Only a ninja can stop ninja.