Enter the Dragon typically gets all the credit when it comes to the start of “the kung fu craze” of the 1970s, but the history of the trend is actually a bit more complex. In the early 1970s, the popularity of kung fu movies from Hong Kong’s film industry carried over to the West, resulting in an explosion of martial arts content.

The movies of Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, and multiple other studios ᴀssociated with the genre began to find an audience in places like the United States. As interest rose, kung fu movies were being pumped out constantly, and the quality admittedly varied. Multiple subgenres formed – including Bruceploitation.

Attempts to replicate Bruce Lee’s image perfectly represented the widespread impact he had on both pop culture and cinema. There’s no denying that the kung fu fever ᴀssociated with this period and a lot to do with Bruce Lee’s first and only Hollywood film, Enter the Dragon, but the 1973 classic wasn’t the true starting point. Another film set the stage for what Enter the Dragon made even bigger.

Five Fingers Of Death Was The First Kung Fu Movie To Become An International Hit

Kung fu movies were picking up steam in Hong Kong years before Bruce Lee first broke into that arena with The Big Boss in 1972. The genre transformed from sword-fighting movies to bonafide martial arts films when Shaw Brothers released The Chinese Boxer in 1970. Things took shape from there, with the next major boost in the genre’s popularity coming courtesy of the studio’s 1972 hit, King Boxer a.k.a. Five Fingers of Death.

The film saw one of Shaw Brothers’ top stars, Lo Lieh, step into the role of Chao Chi-hao, a kung fu student whose life is turned upside down when a martial arts tournament pits his school with a rival Japanese karate dojo. When his enemies go too far to win, Lo Lieh’s character embarks on a quest for vengeance and learns the тιтular martial arts technique.

As just one of many kung fu films Shaw Brothers was making at the time, it was strictly a Hong Kong production and otherwise wouldn’t have received the attention of Hollywood. But the timing was crucial, as ABC’s Kung Fu TV series with David Carradine was enjoying high ratings at the time.

Kung Fu exposed an interest from American audiences in Chinese martial arts, and prompted Warner Bros. to distribute a proper kung fu movie from the East in the United States. Given that it had performed well a year prior, King Boxer was chosen for this purpose, reтιтled as Five Fingers of Death, and released in the U.S. to become a huge box office hit.

Five Fingers Of Death Set The Stage For Enter The Dragon’s Success

Meanwhile, steps were already being taken to Bruce Lee’s latest venture to the West. Also as a response to the rising popularity of Kung Fu, Warner Bros. co-financed Enter the Dragon with the Hong Kong studio behind Bruce Lee’s kung fu movies, Golden Harvest, to release the film in both regions. Its plan to distribute Five Fingers of Death served as sort of a litmus test for Enter the Dragon.

According to Matthew Polly’s biography of Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee: A Life, Warner Bros. was very impressed with Five Fingers of Death’s performance, and optimistic about the calculated risks they had taken in making a kung fu movie for American audiences. After all, Five Fingers of Death had become the first Hong Kong movie in history to take the number one spot at the American box office.

Released in March of 1973 in the U.S, Five Fingers of Death offered what was then a unique, cultural experience for moviegoers and heightened an already-developing interest in kung fu, as well the desire to see it in theaters, rather than just on TV.

With its well-choreographed fight scenes, revenge plotline, and the excitement of the moment where Lo Lieh’s character unleashes his “Iron Fist” attack on the big screen, a new phenomenon was born in the West.

Due in no small part to Five Fingers of Death, there was an existing hunger for movies of its kind ahead of Enter the Dragon’s release, and this fed into the success it found when it debuted in the United States in August.

What Happened After Enter The Dragon

Enter the Dragon was the next – and unquestionably the biggest – step toward the “kung fu craze” of the 1970s. Cinema in both the East and the West was impacted, with more and more studios joining Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest in the production of martial arts movies. A large portion of these films allowed for continued American exposure to the films of Carter Wong, the Venom Mob, Gordon Liu, and Jackie Chan.

Enter the Dragon didn’t lead to an immediate wave of high-profile American-made martial arts movies, but naturally Hollywood did respond, trying – and failing – to make a profit on Jackie Chan’s popularity in the 1980s (before eventually succeeding in the 1990s). After several years, Hollywood developed its own stable of martial arts actors, including Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme.