Kiss of the Dragon

Directed by Chris Nahon, Kiss of the Dragon follows a Chinese intelligence officer (Jet Li’s Liu Jian) as he and a prostitute (Bridget Fonda’s Jessica) find themselves pursued by a swarm of villainous figures (led by Tchéky Karyo’s Insp. Richard). Filmmaker Nahon, armed with a screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, delivers an erratic yet mostly satisfying endeavor that benefits from its plethora of exciting, visceral action sequences, and while the movie admittedly does kick off with a somewhat uninvolving opening stretch, Kiss of the Dragon quickly segues into its first high-octane set-piece revolving around Li’s character’s efforts at taking down dozens of goons within a French hotel. (It’s impossible not to get a kick out of, for example, the battle transpiring within said hotel’s laundry room, as Liu Jian eventually wields hot irons as weapons.) There’s subsequently little doubt that the picture is at its best when focused on the inventive and gleefully over-the-top fight interludes, with the perpetually watchable atmosphere heightened by the easygoing, charismatic efforts of both Li and Fonda – although it remains clear, certainly, that Karyo’s scene-stealing turn as the moustache-twirling villain remains an ongoing highlight. By the time the violent, engaging climax rolls around, Kiss of the Dragon has cemented its place as a better-than-average actioner that probably could’ve been shortened by about 20 minutes.

*** out of ****