susan-317
This is one of those guilty pleasure movies for me. Jet Li is a stranger in Paris, arriving to right some wrongs. The movie presents some wonderful fight scenes with Jet Li. I especially love the battles with the "twins", two look-alike bodyguards.The beautiful Bridget Fonda, a truly underrated actress, stars as a woman who has been victimized and forced into prostitution. And though this movie came out in 2001, US police forces are just now receiving training to identify similar victims of sex slavery.The movie's title is referenced in almost the final scene but is well worth the wait. Gosh, it is fun!
A_Different_Drummer
At the time of this writing, I can see that 242 IMDb users have already taken time off their busy schedules to review this film. That number is a significant multiple of the number of professional reviewers who opined on this production in first run! Which raises the question, why another review? Answers are as follows: 1. The IMDb averaged rating is not merely a little wrong, it is crazy wrong. This is one of the most coherent martial arts films ever done. It stars Jet Li. Legendary wildman Luc Besson is behind the typewriter. The under-utilized Bridget Fonda single-handedly carries the female portion of the film, and does a great job. Several of the fight scenes are as carefully conceived and choreographed as anything Bruce Lee ever attempted. (See the "twins" scene). 2. The script works, I mean it REALLY works. The idea of a lone agent from China seems a bit stretched, until you realize that, if China were to send a lone gun, it would likely be Jet Li. The double-cross works because, you figure, if anyone understands French cops, it would be Besson. The kidnapping works. The fight scene with the pool balls works. The bickering between Li and Fonda at the noodle shop works. The acupuncture angle works. The ending is fantastic. Do you see where this is going? The hallmark of a really good film is that you can watch it from beginning to end and remain engaged. This story delivers. 3. I have explained in my other reviews that I have seen too many martial films in my lifetime. I am no longer sure if I could pass an ink blot test, I would probably think the ink blots were trying to kill each other. This is especially true after my recent review of KILTRO (also done for IMDb). I think I lost brain cells watching that. But this I do know: KISS is my second-favorite martial arts film, ever, (The first is Forbidden Kingdom, also reviewed here). If this is not a near-perfect film within its class, nothing is.
Prismark10
Kiss of the Dragon is an action vehicle for Jet Li, a Chinese intelligence agent sent to Paris to help apprehend Chinese mob boss, Mr Big. He meets Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard (Tchéky Karyo), a corrupt French police detective and tricks Liu into believing he is simply providing reconnaissance of a meet involving Mr Big when he is planning to use two prostitutes as a rouse to kill Mr Big and frame Li for it. Li realises he has been set up escapes from the hotel with a surveillance tape showing Richard shooting Mr Big and tries to clear his name. Along the way he encounters an American prostitute little knowing that their paths have crossed before.The story for this film was from Jet Li and it was produced by Luc Besson. It is primarily a martial arts action fight film for Li without much CGI or wire work and Li really delivers. From Besson you get that what is now a trademark Besson style of an outsider entering France and getting involved in a mystery and action where bad guys need to be dispatched with assistance from usually a female. It is almost a prototype Taken film.The best fight sequence is in the police training room when Li is taken aback to discover they are doing karate training.However the film has too many lapses of logic. Karyo is a great bad guy but we see him shoot civilians out in the open, surely someone would twig he is corrupt. We also have scenes of someone shooting at Li from a hotel lobby with two machine guns and again no one at the French Police raises questions. Bridget Fonda looks miscast as the prostitute and it would had been better if her character was French.
rowmorg
Action scenes galore, and superbly executed by Jet Li, who kills, seriously injures or knocks unconscious some 100 policemen in this picture. Finally he kills Insp. Richard (Tchéky Karyo) with the horrible "Kiss of the Dragon" acupuncture method whereby the paralysed Richard bleeds from every orifice before crashing dead to the floor. However, none of these characters has a clue about acting: only Ms. Bridget Fonda is capable of it and she emotes plenty as the whore with a heart of gold. However, you wonder what on earth she was doing accepting a meaningless role in a plot less and drama-free movie such as this. Shortly afterwards, she drove her car off a cliff and then got married and quit show business. It's not surprising, is it...
AD
