The Shaolin temple featured in the film was actually comprised of several legitimate Chinese temples. Though the production had access to the genuine Shaolin temple of Henan province, the filmmakers decided that it was too small and unimpressive to be the sole filming location. One other location was the Buddhist Tian Tung temple of Zhe Zhiang province.
Film debut of Daniel Dae Kim, who later gained fame for his role as Jin on "Lost" and Andrew Shue, who just after this film went on to play Billy Campbell on the original "Melrose Place" from 1992-1999.
Corey Yuen was working as action director on both this and Stephen Chow's 1991 film Xin jing wu men 1991 simultaneously. Both films have a similar set of fight moves used in both of their climatic finales between hero and villain.
The beach scenes at the beginning of the film were shot in Asbury Park, New Jersey.