The movie's lead male star was Joe Lewis who had recently had won the title of World Heavyweight Karate Champion in 1979. He had once trained with Bruce Lee and during the 1960s fought several matches against Chuck Norris.
Then mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, declared a "Martial Arts Day" in recognition of the L.A. release of the picture according to an article published in the 29th July 1981 issue of show-business trade-paper 'Variety'. Mayor Brady's proclamation notated that most martial arts movies were actually filmed in the Los Angeles area of California, USA.
This martial arts movie is considered to be a loose remake of the blaxploitation action picture Hot Potato (1976) which had been first released about five years earlier.
The movie was often compared with Enter the Dragon (1973) of which it is considered a re-working. Crew who worked on both pictures included director Robert Clouse, producer Fred Weintraub, cinematographer Gil Hubbs and stunt coordinator Pat E. Johnson.
This action movie was said to have included two hundred fight sequences according to official publicity for the picture.