Kurt Russell confessed on the DVD commentary that he was afraid of starring in the movie because he had made a string of movies that flopped at the box office. When he asked John Carpenter about it, he told Kurt that it didn't matter to him - he just wanted to make the movie with him.
The Chinese characters in the main title translate to "Evil Spirits Make a Big Scene in Little Spiritual State."
Kurt Russell suffered a bad case of the flu during the scene just after the brothel, so the sweat on his body is real, caused by the fever.
John Carpenter envisioned the film as an inverse of traditional scenarios in action films with a Caucasian protagonist helped by a minority sidekick. Jack Burton, despite his bravado, is constantly portrayed as rather bumbling; in one fight sequence he even knocks himself unconscious before the fight begins. Wang Chi, on the other hand, is constantly portrayed as highly skilled and competent.
The Three Storms were partly the inspiration for the popular character of lightning god Raiden from Mortal Kombat fighting video game series, while David Lo Pan was the inspiration for the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung.