The rain in Japan kept the climactic race scenes from being filmed there, so the crew moved to Malaysia to film them. However, a problem occurred when the Malaysian government became worried that people would get hurt during filming, so the race was filmed at regular speed and sped up during post-production.
Jackie Chan suffered a broken ankle while filming Rumble in the Bronx (1995), so stunt doubles were used for most of the fight scenes in this movie. This was a big thing for Chan, who was always known for doing all his own stunts.
The theme song, which is in Cantonese at the beginning and in Mandarin at the end, is sung by Jackie Chan.
According to the unauthorized Jackie Chan Sourcebook, New Line Cinema scheduled this movie for a 1997 U.S. release, but shelved it. It was released on DVD by New Line Cinema's home video division, New Line Home Entertainment, in an uncut version, then a re-scored, further edited version, with optional English dub or original Cantonese audio with optional English subtitles and original soundtrack of the movie.