Kiss of the Dragon


Kiss of the Dragon is a 2001 French action thriller film directed by Chris Nahon, written and produced by French filmmaker Luc Besson, and starring an international cast of Jet Li, Bridget Fonda, and Tchéky Karyo.
Li purposefully wanted to take a realistic approach to the fight scenes, and forgo the CGI and wire work that had been popularized by films such as Charlie’s Angels and The Matrix. It is notable as most of the action sequences did not use CGI or wire work; only two scenes required CGI enhancement and only one scene involved wire work.

Plot

Liu Siu-jian, a Chinese intelligence agent, is sent to Paris to help apprehend Chinese mob boss Mr. Big, who is involved in heroin smuggling. He meets Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard, a corrupt and violent French police detective, at a hotel. Richard tricks Liu into believing he is simply providing reconnaissance of a meet involving Mr. Big. During the operation, Mr. Big is introduced to two female prostitutes, one being Jessica Kamen, an American woman, whom he takes him to his room for sex. While Liu and the rest are watching through the surveillance camera, Mr. Big kicks everyone out except for the two women. After pretending to seduce him, one of the women stabs Mr. Big. Overseeing the events from a surveillance room, Liu rushes in and subdues the prostitute, then he attempts to call for help to save Mr. Big's life. But Richard enters shortly after to shoot Mr. Big and the woman with Liu's police-issued handgun, framing Liu for the murders. Jessica hides in the bathroom during the commotion.
Realizing he has been set up, Liu manages to escape from the hotel with a surveillance tape showing Richard shooting Mr. Big. Chinese s are sent to France after the events to investigate the matter, as Richard makes Liu the primary suspect. However, the liaisons do not believe the story Richard provides. Liu meets with one of them on a ferry and passes on to him the tape that reveals the truth. However, Richard's men spot them, and the liaison is assassinated. Liu is then forced to flee from a horde of cops and even GIGN commandos. After Liu escapes, he is forced to maintain a low profile.
As he considers his situation, he meets Jessica, whose daughter was kidnapped by Richard to force her into prostitution. Liu recognizes that Jessica was the second prostitute at the hotel during the night of Mr. Big's murder. He realizes she can prove his innocence, but she refuses to go without retrieving her daughter, Isabel. Liu decides the tape would provide the best evidence, and sends Jessica to Richard's office to steal the tape. Jessica manages to get the tape, so Liu and Jessica head to an orphanage where Isabel is kept. However, Richard anticipates this move, and ambushes the couple at the orphanage. During their escape, Jessica is shot in the chest. Liu manages to get her to the hospital in time, and becomes driven to retrieve her daughter.
Liu arrives at the police station where Richard is holding Isabel hostage, and fights his way through another horde of Richard's police and personal henchmen to his office. Once he makes it to the office, Liu finds him holding Isabel as gunpoint. Even though Liu is unarmed, he tells Richard that he can kill him in the same amount of time that it would take for him to kill Isabel. Richard takes the bait: he shoots at Liu and manages to hit him in the shoulder. However, the bullet injury fails to prevent Liu from disarming Richard while sticking an acupuncture needle into the back of his neck - in a forbidden location known as the "kiss of the dragon," which stimulates all the body's blood to travel to the brain to cause a painful death by brain aneurysm. Richard ends up enduring this death just as Liu departs with Isabel. Upon surviving the gunshot wound, Liu returns Isabel to her mother.

Origin of title

The title "Kiss of the Dragon" is derived from one of the last scenes in the movie, in which Liu punctures Richard in the back of the neck with an acupuncture needle at a "very forbidden" point on the body. The puncture itself, called "kiss of the dragon", traps all the body's blood in the head and causes side effects of quadriplegia, bleeding from the head's orifices, and a painful death by brain aneurysm.

Cast

The director filmed most of the action sequences without CGI or wire work; only two scenes required CGI enhancement and only one scene involved wire work. Wire work was added to one of the last fight sequences between Li and Cyril Raffaelli, in order to add clarity to Raffaelli's kicks, as he was moving too fast for the camera. Nahon had to slow down this fight scene, as both Li and Raffaelli were moving too quickly to be captured clearly at normal recording speed.
The French version of the film is notably different from others; it contains a zoomed-out shot of Tcheky Karyo shooting one of his henchmen in the head, resulting in a fountain of blood erupting. This passage was cropped from most international versions of the movie.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics, who thought violence overwhelmed it at the expense of the story and even a true portrayal of martial arts.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 51% based on reviews from 107 critics. The site's consensus states "A formulaic actioner that's sure to please action fans. Those looking for plot, believability, or character development will have difficulty finding them."
On Metacritic it has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 26 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and wrote: "I like the movie on a simple physical level. There is no deeper meaning and no higher skill involved; just professional action, well-staged and filmed with a certain stylistic elegance." The film is based on a story by Li, and is one of Fonda's final on-screen appearances before her retirement from acting.
Due to its violence, Kiss of the Dragon was banned in China. Li spoke out about this censorship.

Box office

Kiss of the Dragon opened at 2,025 North American theaters on July 6, 2001 to an opening weekend gross of $13,304,027. It went on to a total North American gross of $36,845,124, making the film to be very profitable for 20th Century Fox.
Its total worldwide box office gross is $64,437,847.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on July 3, 2001 through Virgin Records, and consisted mainly of a blend of hip hop and electronic music.
  1. "Mystikal Fever" – 3:49
  2. "Lapdance" – 3:33
  3. "Aerodynamic" – 3:35
  4. "Fuck That" – 3:17
  5. "What You Got?" – 4:19
  6. "Sing" – 4:41
  7. "Cheatin'" – 3:46
  8. "Don't Blame It on I" – 4:05
  9. "Ghir Dini" – 3:59
  10. "As If You Said Nothing" – 4:38
  11. "Adore You" – 4:21