kiss of the dragon or ( 2001 ) ( out of four ) by blake french represent i admire kiss of the dragon because it a wake up call to the increasingly desperate genre of martial art action movie . after disaster like romeo must die and any recent jackie chan production and my expectation for kiss of the dragon be not exactly sky high . it seem a if every movie like this replace a story and character with silly special effect and high tech action sequence involve martial art fight . here and there be solid and visible character and an involve story . that a real accomplishment these day . jet li star in 25 successful asian film before make his debut in america a the villain in the lackluster lethal weapon 4. his last film and romeo must die and be a pitiful action extravaganza that borrow element from shakespeare romeo and juliet . before this film and i could not stand this martial artist turn actor . here and he make a strong name for himself . he co produce the film and star in it and and create the original story . accord the production note and li initially envision a dramatic film that combine his trademark martial art and action heroic with strong and recognizable character . i wasn not interested in make a movie about a big action hero who save the day and explain li . my character and liu jiuan and be one of china best agent and with tremendous ability in martial art and acupuncture . he determine and driven . but he not a superman while he human . when his mission go wrong and liu initially doesn not know how to handle thing . liu jiuan be the most skilled law enforcer in china bring to paris on a top secret mission where he must assist an unorthodox police official name richard ( tcheky karyo ) in dealing involve some off the record drug traffic . his mission go awry and he quickly learn that richard and who seemingly have a limitless supply of henchman and be the villainous mastermind behind most of the crime in france . liu becomes trap in a dangerous conspiracy richard frame him for a murder he try to stop . liu also become involve with a local american woman name jessica ( bridget fonda ) and who be force into prostitution when richard kidnap her child . the story feel real and instead of a clothesline for countless gratuitous action sequence . there be plenty of action sequence and however and and the fighting do not involve wire and phony stunt and or computer generate effect like in crouch tiger and hidden dragon and and the matrix . the fight be ground and real . we go back to the basic and explain jet li and keep the fighting simple and base more in reality . liu principle fight weapon be not gun or sword and but acupuncture needle and which play an important role in the mysterious kiss of the dragon reveal at the movie climax . kiss of the dragon be direct by french commercial director chris nohan in his feature film debut . he do a good job of involve the audience in the action and and distract u from some of the film weakness . but no director could conceal some of the bad writing and terrible dialogue and unanswered question and plausible motif and and stereotypical character trait . kiss of the dragon be not a great movie and but for jet li and this be good stuff nonetheless .