Kiss of the Dragon

Liu Siu-jian (Jet Li), a Chinese intelligence agent, is sent to Paris to help apprehend Chinese mob boss Mr. Big (Ric Young), who is involved in heroin smuggling. He meets Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard (Tchéky Karyo), 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 (Bridget Fonda), 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 liaisons 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 (Isabelle Duhauvelle). 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 via a 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.

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 via a brain aneurysm.

• Jet Li as Liu Siu-jian
• Bridget Fonda as Jessica Kamen
• Tchéky Karyo as Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard
• Ric Young as Mister Big
• Burt Kwouk as Uncle Tai
• Max Ryan as Lupo
• Kentaro as Chen
• Laurence Ashley as Aja
• Cyril Raffaelli as Twin
• Didier Azoulay as Twin
• John Forgeham as Max
• Paul Barrett as Pilot
• Colin Prince as Lupo's Assistant
• Vincent Glo as Pluto
• Vincent Wong as Minister Tang

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.[3] 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.

The movie met with mixed reaction from critics,[5][6][7] who thought violence overwhelmed it at the expense of the story and even a true portrayal of martial arts. The fans generally rated it as better than Jet Li's other American films (Romeo Must Die, The One and Cradle 2 the Grave).

Due to its violence, Kiss of the Dragon was banned in China. Li spoke out about this censorship.[8]

Kiss of the Dragon opened at 2,025 North American theaters on July 6, 2001 to an opening weekend gross of $13,304,027 ($6,569 per screen).[9] It went on to a total North American gross of $36,845,124, making the film to be very profitable for 20th Century Fox (which only paid slightly more than $12.5 million to acquire the distribution rights in North America and some other foreign territories).[10]

Its total worldwide box office gross is $64,437,847.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[11]

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 (Mystikal)
2. "Lapdance" – 3:33 (N.E.R.D)
3. "Aerodynamic" – 3:35 (Daft Punk and Slum Village)
4. "Fuck That" – 3:17 (Bathgate)
5. "What You Got?" – 4:19 (Chino XL)
6. "Sing" – 4:41 (Mouse)
7. "Cheatin'" – 3:46 (Liberty City)
8. "Don't Blame It on I" – 4:05 (The Congos)
9. "Ghir Dini" – 3:59 (Assia)
10. "As If You Said Nothing" – 4:38 (Craig Armstrong)
11. "Adore You" – 4:21 (Lisa Barbuscia)

• Kiss of the Dragon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Kiss of the Dragon at AllMovie
• Kiss of the Dragon at Box Office Mojo
• Kiss of the Dragon on IMDb