Scene of the Week: Pray for Death
Bulletproof Action has paid tribute to Shô Kosugi on numerous occasions and rightfully so. And while this week’s Scene of the Week from 1985’s Pray for Death is another great display of Kosugi’s ninja awesomeness, I want to focus the attention of this post on Mr. James Booth… or as he was known in Pray for Death, Limehouse Willie.
The name James Booth is not a name that would be familiar to the layman, but if you are an action fanatic from the golden era, chances are you know James Booth.
Booth was a contributor to the action entertainment genre in front of the camera and behind it and more often than not he found himself pulling double duty. Booth would both act and write in American Ninja 4: The Annihilation, Avenging Force (was he the mysterious fifth member of The Pentangle?) and the subject of this week’s Scene of the Week, Pray for Death.
Booth’s Limehouse Willie is one of the most despicable villains in action movie history… if you’ve seen the film, you can question if Booth was the right man to physically square off with Kosugi’s Akira Saito. But there’s no question that you wanted to see ol’ Limehouse get his ultimate comeuppance by the end of Pray for Death, a testament to the writing/acting of Mr. James Booth…
