I wasn't going to review Kiss of the Dragon but after recently re-watching I realized it's so zany that I have to dedicate a few lines to discussing this film. In Kiss Jet Li plays Lie Jian, a Chinese cop who has to fight his way out of being set up by a man only known as Richard [Tcheky Karyo] -a crooked French officer who has several million goons on his payroll. As Lie Jian, Jet Li plays an efficient, seemingly likeable enough guy who is really good at kicking people in the head. In other words, it's the character Jet Li plays in most every film he's in. The difference this time is that he noodles about with acupuncture needles which he uses to pin [poor word choice on my part] enemies into place with after he's finished fighting them. I doubt many of his opponents needed to be sedated since most of them don't seem too lively after having the whey kicked out of them by Jet Li but the whole pin-sticking thing is a fun novelty and gives him something to do besides wandering around Paris in stylishly black outfits.

Jet Li's opponent Richard is easily the busiest mofo in France. Not only is he the chief inspector in France's police force he's also seemingly running every illegal operation in Paris. While one would think either one of these activities would be more than enough to keep a person occupied Richard also finds time to seduce Jessica [Bridget Fonda] -a young woman from, of all places, North Dakota- trick her into coming to France, spirits her young daughter away from her, and then forces Jessica into a life of prostitution on the streets of Paris. No, I don't know how these two people met. Yes, I know it makes no sense. But since nothing else in the movie makes sense why should I expect the sub plot to be any different? When not attending meetings with international law enforcement units, running criminal activities out of his office in a police station, or smacking around both his underlings and Jessica, Richard even finds time to care for the pet turtle he keeps in a drawer in his desk. If there was ever an over-achieving bad guy it's Richard.

Not only is the movie nonsensical it's also highly derivative. Luc Besson -creator of such films as La Femme Nikita and Leon/The Professional- borrowed liberally from his previous efforts when he banged out the script for Kiss of the Dragon. I'm not sure whether to think of the script as Besson's attempt to re-interpret certain thematic ideas he is interested in or if it's just lazy writing but having bits from previous scripts tossed together willy-nilly and held together by kung-fu scenes makes for a muddled story. To make the film look even more like what has come before it, the no-name director [Chris Nahon] was teemed with Besson's frequent cinematographer Thierry Arbogast. I've come to the realization that I'm indifferent to Besson but I like his cinematographer. The movie has a gritty, saturated look that makes the colors vibrant, muted, and tacky all at the same time and makes the actors look exceptionally ugly. If you ever wanted the all-ugly kung-fu movie that takes place in France this is it. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

This review may make it sound like I didn't like Kiss of the Dragon but nothing could be further from the truth. I love the way the film looks, the plot barely qualifies as serviceable but it works well enough to move the movie along plus there's plenty of ass kicking action. Jet Li's acting style runs the gamut from high wire kung-fu to bone crunching fighting and for Kiss of the Dragon he's drawing out of the latter category. Opponents get clocked by steam irons, mops, the obligatory restaurant table and an occasional snooker ball. It's frantic, violent, subtle as a brick to the face, and satisfyingly entertaining. This is the key to Kiss of the Dragon's success. When Jet Li kung-fus it out with two identical gay European men while a hip-hop sound-track thumps away in the background you don't think about how ridiculous the whole thing is -or even how both Hong Kong and European movie styles have somehow been packaged together into a movie that is uniquely American- instead you sit back and groove on the whole thing.

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