The film wasn't going to be part action film at first but that changed once Donnie Yen came on-board. As the film's action director, Donnie requested additional funds in order to shoot action scenes accordingly to the story. The result became the now famous alley fight and the last fight with Jing Wu and Sammo Kam-Bo Hung respectively.
Wilson Yip originally planned to shoot a lengthy intro sequence showing a close relationship between Wong Po and Jack. But the budget was limited so the idea was scrapped.
The film marked the first collaboration between Donnie Yen and Sammo Kam-Bo Hung. In actuality, the two had planned to make their first collaboration in the late 1980s which never came through due to schedule conflicts. Sammo was producing the action film Lie huo jie tou (1989) and Donnie was supposed to play one of the lead roles that was eventually played by Donnie's future co-star Collin Chou.