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Kiss of the Dragon

Reviewed by Justin Colburn & Keayn Dunya

Jet Li stars as officer, Liu Jian from Hong Kong who has been sent to Paris to aid in the apprehension of a major drug smuggler. Things go awry when the officer in charge of the operation, Richard (Tcheky Karyo, The Patriot), sets him up for the murder of the suspect. While trying to clear his name and bring the real killers to justice Liu accidentally puts the life of a young prostitute named Jessica (Bridget Fonda, Point of No Return) in danger. When Richard kidnaps Jessica's daughter, Liu must rescue her and stop Richard before he can harm anyone else.

Jet Li began studying wu shu around the age of 8, at the age of 11 he won his first gold medal and by the time he was 20 he had been the wu shu world champion several times over. The more we learn about Jet Li, the more interested we become in him. He is a very deep and thoughtful man who has worked hard to not only understand the physical aspects of martial arts, but also the philosophies behind it. You can see this in his movies. He puts a lot of thought into his characters and finds wu shu styles and philosophies to match their personalities. Kiss of the Dragon is no disappointment, Luc Besson (Leon the Professional, the Fifth Element) and Jet Li take a simple plot and give it depth.

Justin:

The thing that may have impressed me more than anything else about this movie was Bridget Fonda's character. I immediately expected not to like her, but by the end of the movie I really enjoyed her. Going into a Jet Li movie you expect the story to be very action oriented, but this one was much more plot driven than any of his previous movies. This helped Fonda's character to grow tremendously, and quite unexpectedly, throughout the course of the movie. Hollywood has a very irritating habit of trying to put romantic interest in every movie whether it fits or not. Thankfully this movie did not try to put the square peg of romance into the round hole of plot and just let the characters take their natural course. I was somewhat disappointed with Tcheky Karyo's character, Richard he seemed to be little more than a stereotypical action movie villain. Any problems I had with the characters were forgiven when by the time I reached the end of the film. As the movie builds toward the ending there is a short homage to Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury (Chinese Connection if you live in America) which was probably the most difficult fight to perform in the movie. During the final showdown we learn the significance of the movie's title and get to see one of the most original hero/villain confrontations.

My biggest problem with Kiss of the Dragon is the action sequences, which were edited in such a way that it makes them difficult to follow at times. Cory Yuen did an excellent job choreographing the fights and Jet Li did a great job performing them, but the editing makes the scenes seem choppy. When you have an actor who is known throughout the world as a great martial artist it would seem wise to focus on the action scenes with more clarity than this movie did, but fortunately the scenes seem to flow better as the film moves on. This movie is another good example of Jet Li trying to win over American audiences who liked the Matrix, but don't like wire stunts. If you don't typically like Jet Li films, this one may surprise you.

Keayn:

This is a movie about perceptions. The opening sequences present things in such a way in which you form ideas based on limited information. Kiss of the Dragon then goes on to show you that things are not always what they seem. I was surprised at how deeply the plot was woven around the action scenes instead of the action being the focus of the movie. Yet, I was glad there were none of the typical "Hollywood" aspects of the movie. As your perceptions of the characters' change they also evolve. Lui Jian comes to realize that there is more to life than the job. He also begins to care for Jessica, but thankfully not in an overly romantic way. Jessica also comes to realize that there is hope for the future. Richard comes across as the average high power villain. The only thing that allows him to get away with the things his does is the position he holds. Throughout the movie it seems as if Richard is doing his best just to hold onto what he has. I was expecting a more subtle, stronger villain. The final confrontation between the hero and the villain was one of the best scenes of the year.

I believe the action scenes also show the same evolution as the characters. In the opening fights we are show the chaos that Lui Jian walks into without knowing who is friend or foe, as he is double crossed by the very people he was sent to help. It also serves to show how much better Lui Jian is against low level thugs. As his level of opposition increases so does the smoothness of the action. The final fights before the hero/villain confrontation are smooth and flawless. They also serve to show that Lui Jian is not flawless. The one thing above all else that I respect about Jet Lui is that he acknowledges that people are flawed, but it's the striving to be better, that makes us better.

-You can learn more about Jet Li at his home page; www.jetli.com