Jet Li was originally considered for the role of Eddie Chan. While this movie was still in pre-production, his agent Jim Choy was gunned down by the Triads. The incident caused Li to opt out of making a movie about organized crime, as he was afraid of attracting the wrong attention, so he chose to do Tai Chi Master (1993) instead.
Rumors that Director Kirk Wong and Jackie Chan did not get along during filming are just that: rumors. On the Dragon Dynasty DVD commentary, Kirk explains that he and Jackie got along just fine. He did, however, express disappointment over the fact that Jackie had made several cuts to the movie without his approval. He goes on to say that he and Jackie have never spoken since the movie's premiere.
Loosely based (as acknowledged in most versions) on the real story of millionaire Teddy Wang, who was kidnapped twice, first in 1983, and again in 1990. After the second kidnapping, he was never found (in most versions of the movie, he is thrown off the kidnappers' ship, which is allegedly what really happened), and in 1999 he was officially declared dead.
The climactic scene, in which a building is decimated by explosions, was filmed in the deserted Kowloon Walled City, which was scheduled for destruction at that time.
Inspector Eddie Chan was originally in a romantic relationship with his therapist, and a few scenes were filmed around this subplot, but cut from most versions of this movie. The Singapore version has these scenes, one of them constituting a slightly extended ending.