Chow Yun-Fat made a successful transition from Asian action cinema to the Hollywood scene with 1998’s The Replacement Killers, teaming him up with actress Mira Sorvino. Hot on the heels of a string of bloody hits, including the phenomenal Hard Boiled, Chow Yun-Fat was the perfect guy for the role.

The Replacement Killers has fallen a bit by the wayside over the years, so it’s high time we paid tribute to this iconic action movie classic by listing ten things you never knew about the making of the film. Are you locked and loaded? Safety off? Alright, let’s do this!

MIRA SORVINO TAUGHT CHOW YUN-FAT ENGLISH

You’d never know it, but Mira Sorvino speaks five – count ’em, five languages, including Mandarin Chinese. By contrast, Chow Yun-Fat’s native tongue is Cantonese, although he also speaks Mandarin to a lesser degree.

This dynamic helped Sorvino translate English for Chow Yun-Fat, allowing him to adapt to the script at a time when he was just beginning to pick up English as another language. Is that convenient, or what?

BLAME IT ON QUENTIN

At the time, Sorvino was dating Hollywood director extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino, and it was he who convinced her to take on the role of Meg Coburn. His reason? She had to work with an Asian action legend like Chow Yun-Fat.

Tarantino’s admiration of the actor, and Asian cinema as a whole was passionate enough to convince Sorvino to agree. We owe him one, there. Sorvino turned out one excellent performance.

THEY CUT OUT THE ROMANCE

Initially, John Lee and Meg Coburn were supposed to develop romantic feelings for one another, but early test screenings proved negative. This created friction between director Antoine Fuqua and the studio.

To compensate, Columbia Pictures hired editor Richard Francis Bruce (The Rock, Se7en, Air Force One) to trim the film of the romantic subplot. This might have been a good move, as both actors don’t share any chemistry beyond the purely platonic.

ENGLISH CREATED PROBLEMS

Chow Yun-Fat’s limited English created some issues during filming which necessitated the trimming of his lines. In hindsight, this might actually have worked in the film’s favor by giving his character a more intimidating screen presence.

It wasn’t any easier for Til Schweiger, either. The Replacement Killers was his first Hollywood starring role, but coming straight out of Germany, he was at a disadvantage. Danny Trejo would pick up any and all lines between the two killers, which actually makes Schweiger more menacing and psychotic.

CLIFTON COLLINS JR.

The character of Loco is one of the few comedic aspects of the film, and his portrayal by talented actor Clifton Collins Jr. is a highlight.

Just a year prior, the actor starred as notorious gang-banger Cesar Sanchez in the Samuel L. Jackson thriller 187. Both characters share remarkable symmetry and personalities, but it’s Collins Jr.’s excellent acting that sells both roles.

DISAPPEARING BULLET HOLES

The infamous carwash shootout scene is one of the best sequences of the film, but the editor got a little careless during the final cut. John and Meg end up commandeering a car that ends up sprinkled with bullet holes from pursuing bad guys, but as they drive off, the bullet holes are no longer there.

It’s just one of the many oversights that can happen when there’s so many elements in a scene to take into account. Still, quite amusing.

THERE’S AN EXTENDED CUT

The theatrical cut of The Replacement Killers is a solid offering, but many fans might not be aware that an Extended Cut is also available. This cut sprinkles in a few more seconds of footage into quite a few scenes, culminating in almost 8 minutes of extra material.

Some of this material might be unnecessary, but most of it helps to pad the scenes and flesh out the story a bit more, especially when it comes to Chow Yun-Fat’s character.

IT LAUNCHED CHOW YUN-FAT’S HOLLYWOOD CAREER

Although his big Hollywood run didn’t last long, The Replacement Killers was successful enough to bring Chow Yun-Fat into the American mainstream scene. Two years after starring in the film, he would go on to achieve international acclaim for his role as Master Li Mu Bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but not before starring alongside Jodie Foster in 1999’s Anna and the King.

He would float back and forth between American and Asian cinema from that moment on, starring in comedy vehicles like Bulletproof Monk, the romantic Postmodern Life of My Aunt, and adventure films like Pirates of the Carribbean: At World’s End.

MIRA SORVINO’S VOICE

Some might think that Mira Sorvino’s actual voice is the same as her performance in The Replacement Killers. The truth is far more amusing. The actress had just come off the set of Mimic, and had stripped her voice during a screaming scene involving the film’s monster.

On her first day of shooting, director Antoine Fuqua loved her voice so much that he requested she keep it, which meant Sorvino had to scream and yell every day in order to strip her vocal cords to maintain her delivery. For the next year and a half, Sorvino couldn’t banish the roughness in her voice, and she ended up speaking two registers lower than normal.

CHOW YUN-FAT HAD TO RE-LEARN GUNS

Action fans familiar with Chow Yun-Fat’s work (especially Hard Boiled) might be surprised to learn that the actor needed to re-acquaint himself with firearms for his role as John Lee.

He had to undergo rigorous, standardized training in a firing range to become accustomed to the different guns he uses in the film. In addition, he had to practice holding a gun with two hands, as opposed to many of his films where he dual-wields. In real life, Chow Yun-Fat is regarded as one of the nicest, most compassionate actors in the business, which may help explain why he had to familiarize himself with deadly weaponry all over again!