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| Kiss of the Dragon |
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  (5/10)
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Runtime: 95 M |
| Public Rating: 6.17 (12 votes) |
Director: Chris Nahon |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Action/Martial-Arts |
Year: 2001 |
| Writer(s): Jet Li, Luc Besson |
| Reviewed by: Timotei Centea |
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Kiss of the Dragon is a barebones martial arts flick: great action, a lot of fights, and plenty of one-liners. However, it also present the negative aspects of this formula: a bad plot, uneven acting, and terrible dialogue.
The film starts with Li arriving in Paris in order to cooperate with the said city's police force in a gangster bust. However, for some incomprehensible reason, the French investigator in charge of the action kills the quarry and frames Li for the murder. The kick (excuse the pun) is that there is one witness who can clear him: a prostitute who also happens to have ties with the investigator. However, you won't care about the plot very much, mostly because the characters are all stereotyped and unrealistic: Jet Li is the steely, confident spy who just wants to finish his mission and clear his name; Tchéki Karyo, the investigator, is totally evil, and no motive is ever given for his violence and bloodshed; Bridget Fonda is the victim prostitute, a lost girl who needs help and protection. None of the characters exhibits any personality or interesting traits of his own, and it's a pity, for a few touches of originality would have given life and character to the generic script. Moreso, some of the dialogue is extremely cheesy, especially the one-liners and a monologue Fonda's character gives around halfway through the film.
The acting is uneven: Li is great, as always, and plays his bland role with steely perfection. He's an actor I generally like, and I think that if a more fully fleshed-out role were given to him, he could become the next Jackie Chan. Karyo plays his character, Inspecteur Richard, with a bit too much gusto, rendering him unrealistic and unconvincing; a bit more subtlety would have helped. Fonda, an actress I usually like, is underwhelming as the hooker Jessica, and a few of her emotional scenes go overboard on sappiness. However, her rapid speech and the little touches of humor surrounding her redeem her in part.
The direction is also uneven, and can be divided into two categories: the good, meaning the action scenes, and the bad, meaning everything else. The action is great: it's all rapid-fire and exciting, and while it doesn't reach the poetry in motion that was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the camerawork is interesting and varied during those scenes, and it showcases Li very well. Moreso, some of the martial arts movies are fantastic, especially the billiard-ball scene seen in the trailer and a very brief car chase scene which has an excellent effect of speed. However, everything between the action sequences is sub-par, and sometimes reaches amateurish levels. Often, the camery tries to be steady but shakes; at other moments, the camera angles are annoying and seem strangely artificial, and not the good kind of artificial.
As you watch the film, you get a sense of a lack of ambition. It seems to me that the film-makers were just trying to tack a loose story around some great action sequences, and in this age of intelligent action movies, like The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it just isn't enough anymore. We need a plot. We need interesting characters. We need a sense of pacing, a sense of completion, and a sense of importance in a movie. Kiss of the Dragon doesn't have them...
When I walked out of the theater after seeing the Matrix, I remembered the excellent plot and interesting characters as well as the breathtaking action. When I walked out of the theater after seeing Kiss of the Dragon, about all I remembered was a billiard ball hitting a bad guy's head.
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