in March 1973 in the United States as Five Fingers of Death. Reception Box office In the United States and Canada, the film repeated its success in Europe. It earned in American and Canadian rentals, the second highest grossing film of the genre in the U.S. in 1973 after Enter the Dragon with rentals of . Five Fingers of Death exceeded in worldwide rentals by October 1973, and went on to earn in North American rentals. Critical reception In a contemporary review for The New York Times, Roger Greenspun wrote, "I don't know much about karate, but I know what I like. And the karate in 'Five Fingers of Death,' for all its slow-motion high leaps, its grunts, its whooshing fists, has the look of the bottom of the barrel. It is all too extravagant, too gratuitously wild—as if composed for show, rather than for attack, defense or any real purpose." Variety called it "a Chinese actioner glossed with all the explosive trappings that make for a hit in its intended market ... Exquisitely-filmed and packed with colorful production values, direction by Cheng Chang Ho is powerful and direct and he gets top performances from cast headed by Lo Lieh, as the student, and Wang Ping as his beloved." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and called it "a shoddy, poorly dubbed melodrama stuffed with insane dialog," though he acknowledged "the genuine excitement generated by the fight sequences, providing you can get excited at the sight of a karate chop that splits a forehead." Fredric Milstein wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "Director Chen Chang Ho, who has a definite sense of style, keeps the pace fast and the action spectacular ... Dubbing is awful, but you don't come to this one to hear people talk." In a review for the Monthly Film Bulletin, John Gillett found that the trick effect in which characters leap into the air to land either in a tree or on the opposite side of an opponent become "somewhat tedious as the film progresses." However, "...the sheer panache of the staging and apparent enjoyment of the participants keep the narrative moving swiftly". In a retrospective review, AllMovie gave the film three stars out of five, stating the film was "not the best Kung fu movie the Shaw Brothers put out, but as an early entry it holds