Review of Kiss Of The Dragon

Introduction

Chinese cop Liu Jian (Li) is on a routine assignment in Paris to aid in the arrest of a notorious drug smuggler when he is framed for the man’s murder by shrieking demento-cop Tcheky Karyo, who proceeds to wipe out half of Paris in a misguided attempt to snare the leaping Commie midget. Li of course buzzes his way past countless guards whilst dispatching the other unfortunates with a variety of seemingly innocuous domestic accouterment (maybe a pool ball or two) put to unlikely deadly use. Meanwhile, down-on-her-luck and frankly useless prostitute Jessica (Bridget Fonda) bumbles around Paris, taking her mighty time to ingratiate herself within the film’s already rather tenuous narrative, instead being beaten up by her pimp, head-butting other, more garish and successful whores, and being injected with heroin by the somewhat mean-spirited Karyo. When the film does, eventually, find her something to do, she’s already been temporarily removed from the picture and so it’s up to Jet to employ some high-kicks and garbled pseudo-English to baffle and subdue the Parisian honchos in order to rescue Fonda’s estranged daughter. Of course, this being a Luc Besson production, the finale involves our seemingly invincible hero taking on the entire police department single-handedly.

Video

A lush transfer makes the most of Chris Nahon’s fairly pedestrian direction which, to its credit, avoids the usual postcard renditions of the Parisian landscape.

Audio

Dolby 5.1, so you can here a neck being snapped off in five channels.

Features

Unsurprisingly most of the featurettes focus on martial arts, with some interest to be derived from the words of experienced choreographer Corey Yuen. Elsewhere Jet Li talks about the evolution of his career and fighting style; there are a couple of early fight rehearsals; multi-angle and storyboard sequences and a couple of typically unenlightening ‘Making Ofs’. Slightly better is the hilarious trailer, and we can’t complain about value-for-money when Li, Fonda and Nahon turn up for a commentary, even if it is utter dross.

Conclusion

Four-hundred snapped vertebrae and at least as many sore shins later it’s really hard to remember much of anything about this. From the title down this is a pre-fabricated kick-em-up with the barest of rent-a-plots that still manages to be only occasionally coherent, squeezing out intermittent action sequences with some reluctance. The upshot is pretty obvious, there are no summary distractions from what is ostensibly a vehicle for Li, who isn’t exactly stretching his oeuvre in a narrative that requires a bare minimum of ‘acting’, with the focus on the kinds of dead-eyed glances, monosyllabic dialogue, macho-beatings and discomfort around women that Arnie built a career out of.

A particularly damp Fonda struggles valiantly with the thankless task of being loaded with the role of a typically meagre Besson woman, but still manages to bring the only flashes of humanity and depth to what is a sleekly sadistic and utterly cold exercise. Director Chris Nahon doesn’t shy away from graphic violence, exaggerating the gore and bone-crunching sound-effects that have been conspicuously absent from most American films of this genre, a fact that should please the hard-core fans. Also, Karyo’s hammy psycho act is always good value, and he’s on particularly rousing form here, acting every scene from within an inch of its life whilst still finding time to snivel slimily. Ultimately however, the film’s dedication to its grass-roots brutality fails to enliven what are a fairly stereotypical series of set-pieces.

Li’s lightning fast skills are evident throughout, although one can’t help but feel that his American vehicles are dragging him the way of Chow Yun-Fat, not managing to further any previously untapped artistic potential but also failing to deliver the excitement and novelty action fans expect. As a result, this feels like a clammy Western action film rather than a frenetic, firing-on-all-cylinders Hong Kong martial arts picture. Functional but as utterly unimaginative as the title suggests.