Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao are collectively known as the Three Brothers or the Three Dragons. This trio has made many of the all-time great kung fu movies together and have had independent solo careers as well. Biao had a lot of great lead roles, but Chan and Hung were the biggest stars and found themselves competing for the position of top martial arts movie star in the Hong Kong film industry.
At 71, Hung is two years older than Chan and was the first of the Three Brothers to establish a solid foothold in the film industry. He helped the other two as they all trained and grew up together in China Drama Academy. When Chan started to become more popular than Hung, a sense of competition was born. For a long time, the competitiveness between Chan and Hung was to the public’s benefit, as it drove them each to make better movies with faster fights, harder punches, and bigger stunts.
Eventually, their rivalry stopped being so friendly. The 1988 production of “Dragon’s Forever”, which featured the Three Dragons, marked the most contentious period between Chan and Hung. By the end of the decade, they largely broke up, though they eventually reconnected when Hung managed Chan in “Mr. Nice Guy” and “The Medallion,” and the two starred together in “Around the Globe.” world in 80 days”.