Kiss of the Dragon
Country: America
Genre: Action
Release Year: 2001
Type: Movie
User Reviews
There are no user reviews for this title.
Kiss of the Dragon Review
Liu Jian is a Chinese agent who has come to Paris to find a notorious Chinese drug lord. Unfortunately the drug lord has a connection with Richard, who is the leader of Jian's squad. Richard backstabs the drug lord, and then frames Liu Jian. Luckily, Jian has a tape that is the only proof that he did not kill the drug lord. However, the tape gets taken and Jian must resort to seeking help from Jessica, one of Richard's hired prostitutes. Jessica is the only other person who can prove Liu Jian's innocence, as she was on sight when the incident happened. In return, Jian must help her find her daughter that was taken by Richard.
Kiss of the Dragon is definitely one of Jet Li's better Hollywood films. It has more objectionable content matter than most films in this genre, including quite a bit of profanity and sexual content. Yet I thought this movie was exciting because it felt more realistic than the usual martial arts movies; leaving out the special effects for some real hand-to-hand combat. Jet Li is an impressive fighter in all of his movies, and he's no different in Kiss of the Dragon.
Li's role of Liu Jian was actually the least dynamic, being somewhat shy and reserved. Liu didn't stand out until he beat the crap out of a black dude that was twice his size. He didn't really show much emotion throughout the film either. Bridget Fonda's portrayal of Jessica was quite good and her character was very deep. Although she's a prostitute, she also has a loving nature and is just a girl in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her character, on the other hand, was a flood of emotion, and she had several very good crying scenes and emotional outbursts. The main villain, played by Tchéky Karyo, was also pretty uninteresting. His character seemed pretty mindless, and since he doesn't actually know how to fight himself, his character felt very weak.
There were some very nice fight scenes in the movie, but many of them involved mobs that were ambushing Jet Li at once while Jet Li kicked the crap out of them easily. There weren't any really memorable fights that most martial arts movies have, like the equivalent to a boss battle in a video game. Still, each fight was carefully done and really got my pulse racing. There is no lack of action in this movie whatsoever.
With an interesting storyline and great action, Kiss of the Dragon is what Hollywood kung fu action should be about. Although there are some weaknesses in the plot, most kung fu fans should be pretty happy with this film. Fans of Jet Li definitely need to see this.
Written by Lance
|
|
Jet Li