Kiss of the Dragon

Liu Jian, a Chinese police inspector, arrives in Paris for an operation and within hours realises a murder has been pinned on him. The man who arranged it is Richard, of the French police. Liu Jian is alone in the city with the evidence in his hand and nobody believing him. The only person who can help is Jessica, trying to get her daughter back. Chris Nahon directed. The idea came from Jet Li himself, who wanted a fight film close to the real thing rather than inflated with wires and computer effects. Luc Besson wrote and produced it, financing the whole thing before selling the international rights. The approach shows in the count: only two scenes were enhanced with computer effects and only one used wire work. Given the action cinema of the moment, that was a deliberate stance. The title comes from an acupuncture point; according to the film, a needle driven into a forbidden point at the base of the skull causes a fatal brain haemorrhage. Jet Li plays Liu Jian, Bridget Fonda plays Jessica and Tcheky Karyo plays Richard. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 53 percent, but the audience grade was a B plus and the box office was plain: 64.4 million dollars worldwide against a 25 million budget. It was banned in China over its violence, a decision Jet Li criticised publicly. Who it is for: viewers who like clean, uninterrupted fight scenes. Who it is not for: anyone who wants a story. The plot is thin and the Paris police are drawn as flat villainy.