Donnie Yen and ex US Navy Seal Michael Woods have fought each other five times on film in total. The first time was in Tiger Cage (1988), In the Line of Duty 4 (1988), Tiger Cage 2 (1990), Crystal Hunt (1991) and Cheetah on Fire (1992). They remain great friend to this day.
In an old interview Donnie was asked how close to his vision the amazing samurai sword fight scene with regular on screen opponent and friend John Salvitti was. Even though it's considered by critics to be an almost perfect fight scene, ever the perfectionist, Donnie replied '85 perfect'.
Both Donnie Yen and Robin Shou have played "Bruce Lee proxies" at some point in their careers. Donnie Yen as the character Chen Zhen (originally played by Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury in 1972) in both the Fist of Fury TV series (1995) as well as Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010), while Robin Shou played Liu Kang (who the creators have been upfront about saying was inspired by Lee, down to using stills from Enter the Dragon for his original arcade ending) in Mortal Kombat (1995) and Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997).