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.