These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World

When a major Hollywood studio released Five Fingers of Death in 1973, only a handful of Black and Asian American audience members knew the difference between an Iron Fist and an Eagle’s Claw. That changed overnight as kung fu movies kicked off a craze that would earn millions at the box office, send TV ratings soaring, sell hundreds of thousands of video tapes, influence the birth of hip hop, reshape the style of action we see in movies today, and introduce America to some of the biggest non-white stars to ever hit motion picture screens. Here, for the first time, is the full uncensored story.