These Fists Break Bricks (Revised and Expanded Edition): How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World

by Grady Hendrix, Chris Poggiali, RZA (foreword)

From New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix and film historian Chris Poggiali comes the full story of how kung fu movies came to—and conquered—America in this revised and expanded edition.

When a Hollywood studio released Five Fingers of Death to thrill-seeking Times Square moviegoers in 1973, only a handful of Black and Asian audience members knew the difference between an Iron Fist and an Eagle’s Claw. That changed overnight as Five Fingers kicked off a kung fu craze that would earn millions at the box office, send TV ratings soaring, influence the birth of hip hop, reshape the style of action we see in movies today, and introduce America to some of the biggest Asian stars to ever hit motion picture screens.

These Fists Break Bricks offers a lavishly illustrated exploration of how these high-kicking, brick-breaking movies came to America and raised hell until greed, infomercials, and racist fearmongering shut them down. For the first time, the full—and wild—story is told, including how CIA agents secretly funded karate movies and how The New York Times fabricated a fear campaign about Black “karate gangs,” as well as the history of Black martial arts in America and the onslaught of Bruce Lee imitators after his death.

With a foreword by RZA of the Wu Tang Clan and brand new material on superstars like Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, and Donnie Yen, plus spotlights on unsung performers, film poster artists, and money-laundering film distributors, this revised and expanded edition is a master class in kung fu cinema history.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, History, Audiobook, Martial Arts, Pop Culture, Action

383 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 15, 2021

About the author

Grady Hendrix is the author of the novels Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is like Beaches meets The Exorcist, only it's set in the Eighties. He's also the author of We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and the upcoming (July 13!) Final Girl Support Group!

He's also the jerk behind the Stoker award-winning Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the 70's and 80's horror paperback boom, which contains more information about Nazi leprechauns, killer babies, and evil cats than you probably need.

And he's the screenwriter behind Mohawk, which is probably the only horror movie about the War of 1812 and Satanic Panic.

You can listen to free, amazing, and did I mention free podcasts of his fiction on Pseudopod. He also does a podcast called Super Scary Haunted Homeschool.

If you're not already sick of him, you can learn all his secrets at his website.

Reviews

[Justin Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grady Hendrix is a national treasure. In this book he accomplishes the impossible—getting me interested in kung fu movies! With his signature tongue-in-cheek analysis of pop culture, we dive into a pool of cinematic history that most critics would gladly let die. Convincingly, however, Hendrix examines the sociological factors which contributed to the martial arts craze of the 1970s and beyond, proving the history both important and fascinating.

While many of these movies were clearly garbage, money-grabs, or the product of editing together footage from a collage of sources, they are described in this book with a joyous perspective that relishes the madness and delights in their flaws. This knack for appreciating low art is among Hendrix's finest talents and I could read him describe the terrible movies he watches all day long.

More than likely, his descriptions of these films are superior to the actual products. But he does manage to convince me to hunt down a few to see if I'll change my opinion of the genre. Prior to this book, a handful of Jackie Chan films were the only "kung fu" movies I could recall seeing. And admittedly my memories were fond of these. Perhaps I will also like the more obscure titles referenced in this book. I'm intrigued enough now to find out!

It is another joy to listen to Hendrix read the book. This is one situation where I feel the audiobook is really crucial to the experience. It would be difficult to fully capture the tone without his actual voice. Also, the book is heavily illustrated. While seeing the movie posters and other pictures bring the history to life, it's a large book that's awkward to hold and read "normally." I definitely recommend picking up a copy for checking out the loads of documents. But for convenience, you may want to listen instead of read.

Overall... I think it's very possible this book could do for vintage kung fu movies what Paperbacks from Hell did for out-of-print horror novels. I highly recommend it to anyone who finds pop culture fascinating, even if you're like me and have never held any particular interest in martial arts flicks. At the very least, it's informative, funny, and fascinating.

[Justin Decloux · Rating 5 out of 5]

STICK IT IN MY VEINS!

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fine, but it’s not as substantial as it could have been. The unfocused structure and stories about the huckster distributors start to blend together after a while and I wanted them to focus and get back to talking about the movies. I don’t know, maybe they could have used some of the 100+ pages dedicated to Brucesploitation movies to discuss other martial arts trends, or at least offer something more than “distributors wanted another Bruce Lee… but it was really hard to find one” over and over. Most of the interesting stuff is picked up in between the lines, basically.
The other big issue is that the prose is written like a late-era Cracked article, which makes this frequently annoying to read and undercuts any of the serious topics this tries to cover. It also doesn’t help that the descriptions of the movies are frequently condescending. Sure, I get that not every kung-fu movie out there is a winner, but something about the attitude feels a little standoffish. Also it feels really corny having two middle aged white guys go on at great lengths about the POC experience of watching martial arts movies in the 70s/80s. That’s an interesting subject for sure, but I don’t think these two guys were the right people to offer that perspective.
It’s better looked at as a coffee table book filled with slick graphic design layouts and reprints of lurid movie posters and large print blurbs you can skim through. Don’t get me wrong, I did learn some interesting things from this, this just wasn’t quite the presentation I was looking for.

[Brett Plaxton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty sweet look back at the rise and fall of Kung-Fu movies

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great summary of the martial arts movie explosion in the 70s and 80s. Wonderfully researched and written. A Must.

[Ruz El · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having enjoyed PAPERBACKS FROM HELL and being a Kung Fu movie fan I couldn't resist this. Format wise it's similar to HELL with bite sized chunks of info around reproduced art. This one might be even more packed with art than Hendrix's previous. Which is a good thing. It has an odd feel where it's packed with info but the genre cuts so wide in so many directions I can't help but think a second book wouldn't be a bunch of fun. Which isn't a slight on this one.

They do the right thing for North American readers: They base this around Bruce Lee as the "Big Bang" of martial arts films and how the genre splayed out from his center. Which is of course an accurate depiction of the history. This one has less plot summaries of the films than PAPERBACKS had of the books and that snarky-ness is back in some of them. I'm putting that on Hendrix as not being able to help himself, but it's not really necessary despite my finding it more outputting here than I did in PAPERBACKS. I think it's due to most of these films discussed only being available in total shit quality for most of us, making MST3K style fun of their plots doesn't help them regardless of how bonkers they get. That said, I still think it comes from a place of love so I'm not going to tank the review or anything.

It is after all a fun love letter to a kicked around genre of film that deals with people kicking other peoples heads in. I dug it. I'd buy a volume 2. I want to see every film mentioned. I WONT, but I WANT to. That's a success.

[Erin Bookishness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun, I was giggling and reading excerpts out loud to my husband through a lot of this book. These Fists Break Bricks makes excellent use of full color photos to underline the delightfully ridiculous kung fu movie story lines (which might just be the same film cut into hundreds of others and dubbed over with new lines). It’s amazing how many of the stories about various directors or distributors of kung fu films start with “formerly in the porn business…” and end with “eventually arrested for…” Additionally this book doesn’t shy away from confronting the racism that underlies martial arts movies in the US, which I appreciated about it. My only complaints would be that I wanted more of Jackie Chan’s story (sorry, I’m too young for Bruce Lee, Chan was the kung fu movie hero of my childhood) and breaking the book into seventies and eighties as chapters didn’t really work. In the chapter titled eighties the authors were still mostly talking about films from the seventies and they sprinkle in nineties movies as well. They could have just skipped that chapter break and it would have made no difference.

[Jack Davenport · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have been picking this up and putting it down for a few months. It's a fantastic chronicling of the rise of the Kung Fu film, with infectious passion and knowledge burnt into every page. A must for fans of martial arts cinema.

[Derek Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book that paints an interesting picture of the martial arts movie landscape and how the world at the time helped and hindered the popularity of the genre.

[Austin Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encyclopedic information dump.

[Brian Puerto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goes a little long but it covers the history of king fu films in the US paying respects to the marginalized groups that contributed to its success.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Running Press for an advance copy of this new book that tells the complicated story of martial arts films in America, from the grindhouse days, to days of fear about violence, the VCR revolution to mainstream movie acceptance.

In the early 1970's my father was working with troubled youths as they called them in New York City. My Dad saw a lot there, heard and a lot, but didn't talk about it much. One story he had was that there was a field trip by faculty, no students to a theater that showed martial arts movies almost all the time. My father couldn't remember the name of the movie, but everyone of the faculty all thought it was horrible, violent and wrong. My father was the lone exception. He said I grew up on westerns all the time, dressed as cowboys, played as cowboys and indians, and yet I didn't get violent. These movies are violent, by no different than James Bond. Needless to say this did not go well for him. Though it taught him a lesson,he learned that the arts can be turned into a weapon, especially if it is aimed at people with different skin colors. And that he enjoyed martial arts movies. These movies shaped my childhood, from watching martial arts hours channel 5, using the illegal cable box we had in the suburbs. To the VCR boom where my father would get very sketchy VCR tapes with movies I have no idea what they were titled or about, but had a lot of fighting, jumping and yelling. This book brought all this moments back to me. And I learned a heck of a lot, things I never even thought about These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World by Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali is a revised and expanded edition of their classic book, which tells the story of martial arts movies in America with a complete history, illustrations and lots and lots of titles to look for.

The book begins with a look at the film industry in Asia, especially the film studios of Hong Kong, but including Japan, Taiwan and other regions. The story moves to New York with small theaters showing movies familiar to immigrants, movies that were packing them, including people who were there more for the action than the stories from home. Word of mouth brought more and more people trying to see these films, and people seeing money began to look for more product. Independent producers began to travel to Hong Kong looking for anything that could play. Bruce Lee was the first big star, a star who became even more of a profit maker after his untimely death, with imitators and old footage of the Dragon added to anything just to make money. Ninjas began to appear, along with outrage about this kinds of films. Stories about Black Karate gangs taking over filled the papers of New York City, which was already dealing with a lot. As these films began to fade out, VCR's became popular, meaning more product was needed, and quality was not necessary. Though there were signs of a change, with heroes like Jackie Chan, and Jet Li, doing some of their best work. With bigger things yet to come.
This book was a labor of love, one can tell. The writing, the photos, the discussion, all come from fans, who want to add more people to their film army. The writing is really good. One doesn't need to know about the Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest in advance, the book covers all this really well. My favorite was how these films affected Hip-Hop culture, and of course since there were popular with an urban market, they were considered a threat. This is not a hagiography, they cover the darker aspects of the film industry, the bad deals, the criminal aspects with the Chinese Triads, and offer a version of Bruce Lee that is much more real and honest than most. The photos are beautiful, stills, posters, action shots, photos that really take me back. A book that I hated to see end.

I missed this the first time around, but I am glad I got a second chance. For movie fans there is quite a lot. The list of movies alone is worth the purchase. This book brought back a lot of great memories. And reminds me I have to start showing my nephews some classic martial arts movies soon.

[Stewart Home · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a picture book and work of popular journalism that contains some really solid information on American film production and distribution, as well as loads of great pictures. The actual films aren't treated in much depth and the authors often put them down - a strategy popular with conservative critics covering non-Hollywood product. Not conforming to Hollywood conventions is for those who aren't conservatives a plus point and not a reason to be condescending. Nonetheless the authors often opt for easy laughs and attempting to seduce readers they seem to assume are wearing blinkers with the idea that they are 'superior' to the celluloid product being described.

Some gags were clearly too good to resist although if they are taken too literally they might lead to misperceptions by those not familiar with the subject matter. I laughed when I read this joke in a section about Tiana Alexandra: "Unpredictably, in 1988, Alexander (sic) began working on a documentary about her Vietnamese roots.... Most incredibly she remained married to (Stirling) Silliphant (her much older Hollywood insider husband) until his death in 1996 at the age of 76 (sic - 78 according to my reckoning)." That the two were still married when Silliphant died is true but at the end of his life he and Alexandra mostly lived apart from each other.

Any book this big and covering so much ground is going to contain a few errors, so the fact that there are some small ones isn't any big deal, especially as it is a popular rather than academic work. None of these small errors are very undermining, especially as the book's central premise - in as far as it has one at all - seems to be that martial arts films and history are fun. It's a 5 star book if judged on what it sets out to be, and that isn't a specialist treatise but a popular work. If you're interested in martial arts culture in the USA in the 70s and 80s this is more than worth a look. And not just for the pictures, which are great!

[Tububa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard this as a Hendrix-read audiobook on Hoopla, which brought back warm memories of seeing Hendrix in his pink suit on the stage at the New York Asian Film Festival back circa 2010 or so. The man was responsible for writing some amazing blurbs for the featured films, of which very few were in the Kung Fu genre. But one cannot talk about Asian cinema without acknowledging that Kung Fu is a big chunk of it, and it seems that, being an obvious Gen X-er, Mr. Hendrix might have fallen into the clutches of that gateway drug of a genre as a child. I applaud him for that.

The book is somewhere between a sociological treatise and a film studies honors thesis, but way more readable and enjoyable. We get some history of pre-Giuliani West 42nd Street, the South Bronx, and the dojo craze of the 1970's. We also get some deep explorations of the Brucesploitation genre, and various martial arts + spinoffs that the craze spawned. I was pleased to recognize quite a few of the films described, even in passing--not that I am an expert in this. But Hendrix certainly is, and I am glad that he shared his knowledge with us, gleefully.

Audiobook notes: I enjoyed the remnants of a Southern accent, which I somehow never picked up on before. But every time he says "sense" or "rent", there's that pen/pin merger. Overall, everything was smooth except for some jarring later re-edits where he apparently mispronounced a last name and they went back and spliced in the correct pronunciations. It wasn't well done. But somehow it was also very apt, since so much of the book is about recutting old Bruce Lee footage, badly, into new and exciting films.

[wbforeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve read Grady Hendrix, other non-fiction, book Paperbacks from Hell this has a very similar tone. A mixture of interesting information with a bit of snarky funny tone.
You should know going into this book that this is covering martial arts is history in America so while the Shaw brothers and Golden Harvest do get mentioned, they are just a small piece of the story if you’re looking for more of the history about those companies and the scene in Hong Kong This is not the book for you. I think this book does an excellent job covering early examples of martial arts getting into America covering the first experiences of martial arts movies coming to America. The effect Bruce Lee had on the market and Bruceploitaion flicks. The book spends a good deal of time covering the after affects of Bruce Lee. The biggest problem with this book is after they cover the ninja craze in the early 80s what was the thing the book begins to lose narrative steam, as it seems to cover smaller topics and seems to ramble without a strong, cohesive narrative point to jump to and while the information is interesting, I begin to zone out at the end.
I loved all the artwork and newspaper clippings are put into the book. It reminds me just the importance of a poster and how that can be the biggest selling point of the movie and the lost Art of the painted cover.

If you are a martial arts cinema fan you enjoy this book, but don’t expect an in-depth history of certain people or companies. If you know that going in I think you have a good time.

[Downward · Rating 2 out of 5]

an at times fascinating account of martial arts movies in America and their rise in popularity throughout the 70s until their inevitable pure decline into almost complete absence in the 00s, with way too in depth focus on bruce lee and the aftermath of his death and the rise of "brucesploitation" - I know it was only one chapter (that bled heavily into other chapters) but it felt like fully half of this book was just talking about movies about bruce lee coming back from the dead to fight the yakuza in hell, with thousands of variations of actors using different forms of the name bruce lee. I think there's an interesting story here that goes more into the human details and the politics of the various circumstances of these films and not so much whatever is actually going on here, which feels kind of like a listicle in movie form. Grady Hendrix has become really prolific at exactly this thing and it hits to various degrees, with probably the top shelf version of it being paperbacks from hell.

[Robert Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Fists Break Bricks is a fascinating and informative perspective on a unique time in the history of American film entertainment. starting with the early glimpses of judo as performed by Jimmy Cagney up to the obsession of American audience with Ninjas, the largely untold history of not only how these films came to the US through Asia is covered in detail. What is surprising is the story of how the American market starving for martial arts films through several phases, including the Bruceploitation era, co-produced absolute schlock to fill seats in theaters. Audiences ate them up and stars were born and faded.

Frankly. this book could have gone on longer especially covering the influx of the inputs from Hong Kong especially. But I get what the authors were going for. they wanted to focus especially on how America embraced the genre and set out to capitalize on it. In that, the book excels in its purpose. A recommended read or listen too.

[The Geeky Viking · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Fists Break Bricks is a great piece of non-fiction for all the kung-fu film fans out there. Grady Hendrix weaves an informative and often times hilarious accounting of the rise of kung-fu cinema, from the grindhouses of New York to the VCR's that took over America, to it's eventual downfall and then it's inevitable rise again in the mid-to-late 90's. Honestly, this could have been double it's length and I would have still enjoyed it. I consider myself a kung-fu cinema expert and there's a good bit of info in here that I wasn't aware of. Highly recommended for martial arts movie fans.

[Xenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Uncle Bobby was addicted to these and I loved watching with him. I practiced June Fan Jeet Kun Do under Ted Wong and got to meet Linda Lee. This book is such a great mix of comedy, random trivia, IMDB, and sarcasm. I learned so much. I got to meet Grady Hendrix last week and he just seems like really fun guy to hang out with and pick his brain. I love his sense of humber and respect the research he does for his books. And I have to say that the whole time I was hoping he'd talk about my fav all time Brucespoitation movie The Last Dragon and HE DID!!

[Julien L · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not perfect but it's fun. It spends a large amount of time on Brucesploitation movies (I would've appreciated a deeper dive into the Shaw Bros. myself) and it completely ignores the 90s (yes there's a caveat to this - the book itself says it's not a complete history), but it made me reminisce my high school love of kung fu movies and fall in love with them all over again.

Also, all of the pictures and stuff

[Robert Freese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you ever wanted to know about Kung Fu movies but didn't know who to ask. Just like a great Kung Fu movie that will have you Kung Fu-ing all the way to the car, this book will have you busting up furniture and challenging the pets to "Games of Death." You will start talking in a dubbed voice and people will tell you your mouth doesn't match your words. It's that great. The illustrations are fabulous. Well worth it for anyone interested in the genre and its history.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visually stunning and wildly entertaining history of how kung fu movies took over American pop culture. Hendrix and Poggiali blend deep research with a fun, fast-paced tone, showing how martial arts films reshaped everything from grindhouse theaters to hip-hop and action cinema. Packed with vintage posters and behind-the-scenes stories, this is a must-read for film lovers and nostalgia fans alike.

[John Schorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors deserve credit for attempting to sift through the mind bending aspects of some of the personalities involved here, especially in trying to talk about all of the Bruce Lee imitators. Reading the book is more entertaining than watching most of these movies. Worth it for the search for actors named Marshall Art and Helios Bold. At times, this is laugh out loud funny.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth it just for the extensive archive of photos and movie posters. Amazing art in here.

The text itself is fine; various histories of production companies, actors, movies....but not every one is interesting. By the end, they all start blending together. However, the scattered stories that do get wild are worth digging/skimming through the text to find.

[Blair Hoyle]

Fantastic!

I expected These Fists Break Bricks to be, like many of these reference books, something I read over the course of months. Instead, I sped through this hilarious yet in-depth exploration of the influence martial arts cinema had on American culture in a few days.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun look at Kung Fu movies. The authors breeze through a lot of information without getting overly bogged down in details. Hendrix is an enthusiastic narrator, but I think the physical book would be just as fun in a different way with its illustrations.

[Kevin Thang · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chronological timeline of the martial arts genre boom in American cinema focusing more on the lesser known films & actors. A little too much on the bruceplotation section, got the point and then became repetitive.

[Mr Keith Malda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too bad, although at many times it felt like just a list of names and movies. It was great when it got more into details and went deeper. Anyone who grew up watching the old king fu movies will enjoy this

[angelofmine1974 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/iPxzNrY-3OI

Thanks!

[Matt Carton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-1/2 stars. Entertaining, informative, and, ultimately, a book about a lost way of life. Grindhouses, video stores, late night TV…