![]() ![]() In his first big martial arts role, Bruce Lee plays Cheng Chao-an, a worker at an ice factory that’s being used for drug smuggling. The Big Boss was just one of the victims of this confusing practice. Soon, dozens of kung fu movies were playing in American theaters, sometimes under alternate names or titles that were wildly different from the Chinese originals. For the American market, the movie’s name was retitled Deep Thrust, as a nod to the infamous Deep Throat. Lady Whirlwind 铁掌旋风腿, a revenge story starring hapkido expert Angelo Mao 茅复静, was released to similar success. It sparked a craze for kung fu, and American audiences just couldn’t get enough. It’s memorable enough that a single Hong Kong movie was able to top the American box office, but Five Fingers of Death wasn’t alone that year. A man has his eyes gouged out in one scene, for example, while the final fight shows the hero punching an evil samurai so hard with his glowing red fists that the impact breaks a stone wall: It was something new, something more exciting and violent than domestic features. While Lee is massively important in the history of kung fu film, Five Fingers of Death deserves credit for introducing the genre to a number of Western moviegoers. It wasn’t Lee and The Big Boss 唐山大兄 that dominated the American box office that March, but Indonesian-born actor Lo Lieh 罗烈 and his Five Fingers of Death 天下第一拳. Hearing this in 2019, you’d be forgiven if you thought I was referring to Bruce Lee and one of his classic kung-fu movies. His role would quickly launch him from an unknown actor to an international star. In a favorable review, Variety commended the movie for its “powerful” directing and “colorful production values.” The leading man, an actor born outside of China who was an actual martial artist, was also praised. It ended up staying on the charts for nearly three months, and during one week in April, managed to climb back up to the first spot. Despite its limited release, the movie was the highest performing draw that week on the box office charts. Most American critics weren’t impressed, but the Hong Kong import was a hit with audiences. The studio had great success the previous year with its TV show Kung Fu, and to capitalize on that, it began to import real kung fu flicks Its first movie featured all the staples we’ve come to associate with kung fu flicks: an underdog lead, criminals, revenge, melodrama, fast-paced, spectacular fights - and terrible English dubbing. In March 1973, Warner Brothers made the surprising choice to release a film from Hong Kong to American theaters. ![]()
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