I hadn’t watched Rage of Honor or Pray for Death for a good few years and I forgot just what awesome 80’s action pictures they are. I haven’t done a write up for either movie so I thought it would be fun to do a Versus as they are two of my favourite Sho Kosugi movies. So, dust off your nunchucks and let’s see which is the ultimate ninja flick.
Pray for Death (1985)
Plot: Hoping for a simple life, Japanese family man Akira Saito (Shô Kosugi) moves his wife and two sons from Tokyo to Houston to open a restaurant. But beneath Akira’s innocent exterior lies his secret identity as a masterfully trained ninja. When crime leader Limehouse Willie (James Booth) wrongfully accuses Akira of stealing a precious necklace, Willie’s gang murders Akira’s wife. With his mask and deadly weapons, Akira vows to destroy the syndicate responsible for his wife’s death.
Pray for Death clearly had a lower budget to Rage of Honor so the action is smaller in scale but that doesn’t make it any less engrossing. Sho Kosugi plays a ninja called Akira Saito who moves from Japan to the US with his wife and two boys (Kane and Shane Kosugi) to start a new life, but things do not go to plan. They end up moving to a bad neighbourhood where criminals have hidden a necklace worth a lot of money in the restaurant Akira just opened. When the necklace goes missing the bad guys blame Akira and attack him and his family.
This has almost exploitation aspects to it as it’s still a nasty little film with Limehouse (James Booth) one of the most underrated villains of the 80’s; he kills anyone in his way and enjoys it even raping Akira’s wife before murdering her in hospital. He’s an absolute scumbag but thankfully his lengthy final showdown with Akira at the end is thoroughly satisfying.
The film is brutally violent with regular fight scenes, and the film never lags for a second; the fact that the villains are so hateful really gets you emotionally involved in the story where you are literally shouting at the screen at several points.
Kosugi’s man of honour tries to leave the life of the ninja behind but after his wife is killed he picks up his weapons again and takes out the trash. He’s practically the same character in both of these movies but who cares? When he’s so badass throwing shurikens about like confetti I’m cheering him along all the way. I like how he isn’t invincible here and gets badly injured in the final fight so you feel like there is a genuine struggle.
Overall, Pray for Death is still an entertaining and super violent Sho Kosugi picture with a truly hateful villain and plenty of fight scenes. The action is smaller in scale that Rage of Honor but it’s still got an engaging story.
Rage of Honor (1987)
Plot: After his partner is brutally murdered, a Phoenix-based narcotics agent heads to Buenos Aires with vengeance on his mind.
I’d forgotten what a great time this movie is; right from the start it’s action packed with Sho Kosugi playing Shiro Tanaka, a cop who also happens to be a ninja out for revenge which is so wonderfully 80’s that it’s hard not to have a goofy grin on your face from beginning to end.
There are so many cool moments in this film, for example any time Tanaka uses exploding shurikens or his crossbow. There are awesome fight scenes every few minutes all choreographed by Kosugi and the bodycount is off the charts. He’s essentially a superhero in this movie where he somersaults over fences with ease and is the ultimate one-man army. He really should have been in an Expendables movie even in a small cameo role.
Lewis Van Bergen makes for a nasty villain in Havlock who is wonderfully hateful and we get a satisfying showdown at the end with Tanaka.
Everything about this movie is over the top 80s excess and I am here for it every time.
Admittedly some of the acting isn’t amazing but as I always say that’s part of the enjoyment factor. I used to think this was a Cannon movie as it has that kind of vibe but this and Pray for Death were both made by Trans World Entertainment who specialised in low to medium budget action pictures.
Overall, Rage of Honour delivers the action goods in spades with frequent fight scenes, exploding shurikens and a badass lead in Sho Kosugi.
Verdict
As much as I love both movies I think my preference is for Rage of Honor; the action is just bigger and better with exploding shurikens and some ridiculously over the top scenes that remind me why I love the genre so much. You can’t really go wrong with either picture and they make for an epic double bill of ninja goodness.
