According to his autobiography "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action" during the making of this film Jackie was kidnapped by Triad gangsters working on behalf of his former employer Wei Lo. They and Lo forced Chan into working on a new film for him which Jackie sarcastically called "Action Movie: A Feature Film". Eventually Jackie's manager Willie Chan learned of this and got the upper management of Golden Harvest Pictures involved. Golden Harvest shipped Jackie out of Hong Kong for nearly a year for his own protection. He couldn't attend this film's premiere and had to find out it's box office results from telegrams. As a result both Battle Creek Brawl (1980) and The Cannonball Run (1981) were made while Jackie was living in exile as the Triad backed negotiations over his contract between Golden Harvest and Lo took place.
The fan-fighting scene required three hundred twenty-nine takes to complete.
Chan was so impressed by the Hapkido skills of In-shik Hwang that he took up training in the Korean martial art soon after the film was finished. Chan eventually gained a black belt in the art and taught it several of his own stunt men.
According to his book I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, Chan nearly suffocated when he injured his throat while performing a stunt.