The B-Boys that started out imitating their heroes on the big screen eventually got to be in movies themselves, performing their own footwork, kicks and flips in films like Flashdance, Wildstyle, and Beatstreet. Beatstreet features the rivalry between RSC and NYCB prominently in the story line. Kuriaki is doing footwork, and Powerful Pexter says, “You’re biters, all you’re homeboys are biters.” Kuriaki responds, “I ain’t never stole no moves from you, your moves ain’t’ worth to be bit, so what’s up with that, punk?” After this exchange of verbal confrontation, the two crews agree to battle each other at the Roxy.

Ken Swift talked about going to Japan to promote Wildstyle on the Wildstyle tour in 1982,”We took Japan by storm, I think they were shook, that movie Wildstyle, was like hard, rugged, rough Bronx. They show burnt buildings, the whole shit, and I think these people were just blown away by this shit that came from those conditions.”

Ken was amazed that in Japan , American culture had already impressed the Japanese in a big way. He saw 20 Japanese Elvis impersonators where they were previewing the movie. He saw Japanese rock groups including a Japanese Kiss. While the Japanese were emulating American culture,

American youth was appropriating from Asian culture, and showing the result to an Asian audience for the first time. Ken Swift, “We had to really show the influence of kung fu, martial arts, of kung fu movies in a dance piece, when we went to the Akasaka blitz, in Tokyo , and be in front of Asians, that was strange. We were like, ‘Yo, we’re inspired by these people.’ It was strange, we were concerned, we’re like, ‘how are they going to react to this. ’ I don’t know, the audiences are funny, they can be quiet as hell through the whole show and then at the end, just (claps), and you’re like ‘OK, OK’, you thought they hated it. Some of the audiences are very reserved, everybody really enjoyed it.

After Beatstreet B-Boying, or Breakdancing as it was known to the general public, became a nationwide phenomenon. Two West Coast movies were released, Breakin’, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo that featured popping and locking and some b-boying. These movies were produced by Golan Globus, who made movies like Ninja 3: The Domination and later Bloodsport with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme has a cameo in Breakin’ as a crowd member on the outside of the circle.

Breakin Movie 1.2 B-Boying’s popularity soared and “how to” books and records were released. The dance was exploited and mass marketed for two years, and became the “in” thing. Then in 1985, almost everyone stopped dancing. B-Boying was burnt out from overexposure. Diehard B-Boys kept dancing,

but to the rest of the country it was considered over. Co-incidentally, around the same time, production on traditional kung fu movies ceased in Hong Kong in favor of modern thrillers and comedies. One of the new films was a Breakdance comedy directed directed by Yuen Wo-ping, Mismatched Couples starring Donnie Yen. You can see the influence American culture had on HK at the time.

The moves that were inspired by HK cinema made their way back into the genre they came from in their American B-Boy form. B-Boying also shows up in Drunken Tai Chi and I Will Finally Knock You Down Dad, two of the last traditional kung fu films produced in the 80′s.

In the early 90s B-Boying and the traditional kung fu film both made a comeback. The movie that brought the kung fu film back was Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China starring Jet Li. The new wave of kung fu films following the success of this film featured different styles of camera angles and editing.

The choreography was enhanced with wirework, which allowed characters to fly. This style was previously seen mostly in swordplay films. Drunken Tai Chi / Once Upon a Time in China

While directors in HK were bringing the kung fu film back, RSC came together with the Rhythm Technicians and Magnificent Force to form Ghettoriginal. This unit produced and performed dance theater about their experiences in B-Boying. One production they performed was Shaolin Temple Hip-Hop that was part of the play Jam on the Groove in 1996.

Shaolin Temple Hip-Hop was a piece that Ghettoriginal put together not to educate people, but as Ken Swift said “It was a bug out skit, lets have fun with our inspiration, one of our favorite inspirations, as B-Boys, that meant so much to us coming up. ” 

They played with the themes in kung fu movies and recreated on stage what might happen in a kung fu film. The main character, Flo-Master (who is a Taekwondo stylist and has studied jiu-jitsu and kickboxing) wants to be like Jackie Chan. He falls asleep while watching a kung fu movie in a theater, and wakes up in his dream. In the dream he is a wanderer. Kung fu movies continued to directly inspire B-Boys in the 90s.