Shanghai Knights - Production

Production

• Director David Dobkin was personally chosen by Jackie Chan.
• Director David Dobkin had a difficult time choosing a suitable Asian actress who could do movement work, emote well and speak decent English. He then saw clips of Fann Wong's videos "Wo lai ye" (2001) and "Qing she yu bai she" (2001) and requested to audition her in London, which she did attend. She subsequently got the role and her number of scenes was increased by thirty percent.
• Shanghai Knights is the first Hollywood and English-language film of Singaporean actress Fann Wong.
• Fann Wong trained for her stunts despite not having a martial arts background. She has a background in ballet, which helped to a certain extent.
• The role of Wu Chow was originally offered to Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation star Robin Shou, but he had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts, and it eventually went to Donnie Yen.
• This film marks the first on-screen battle between Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen, who both have had success in Hong Kong but never fought each other on screen until again later in the Hong Kong film The Twins Effect II, which starred Chan and his son in semi-major roles.
• The man bouncing in the pillow fight scene is actually first assistant director Mirek Lux.