In the film Sammo Kam-Bo Hung left the school after clashing with Master Yu at the end of a performance and came back later. In reality Sammo left after breaking his ankle whilst training at the school, which led to him comfort-eating, which in turn led to him putting on the kind of weight that would later become one of his most notable features. Once his ankle had healed enough, unfortunately Master Yu deemed him to be too fat to perform on stage with the other children and this, coupled with his view that Peking Opera was not as popular as it had been previously (which later turned out to be correct), led him to believe that there was no benefit to him staying at the school and that the movie industry was the way to go with his skills. Unlike in the film, he would never return to the school after leaving.
Although one of the students in this film is supposed to be a young Jackie Chan, the real Jackie is not a big fan of this film. His main gripe with it is that he does not feel that it depicts the school experience, nor the lives of him and his fellow students, to be as harsh as it actually was.
Sammo Hung, who plays Master Yu, was himself a student at the school under the tutelage of the master that he portrays in this film.
In reality Master Yu did not call the boy who would later become Sammo Kam-Bo Hung "Sammo". In fact, Sammo did not take on that name until sometime after he had left the school and that the name came from a heavy-set cartoon character that was popular in Hong Kong at the time.
During Sammo's time as a student he, like all of Master Yu's students, had to take a name that featured "Yuen" within it; his was Yuen Lung. Sammo and many of the others dropped their Yuen names, but some, such as Biao Yuen and Wah Yuen, actually did retain their opera names for their film careers.
During Sammo's time as a student he, like all of Master Yu's students, had to take a name that featured "Yuen" within it; his was Yuen Lung. Sammo and many of the others dropped their Yuen names, but some, such as Biao Yuen and Wah Yuen, actually did retain their opera names for their film careers.
This film makes it seem as if Jackie Chan was at the school right up until the very end. In reality he left of his own accord, just months before the school shut down for good.