Kiss of the Dragon [DVD]

Very good movie and Jet Li is always amazing.

Puré action from beginning to end.

Bridget Fonda played the part of the hooker to perfection. Good movie overall.

This is the very first time I have ever rented a movie without much of a positive expectation, viewed it, returned it early and immediately purchased the DVD of it. I have long been a fan of Jet Li, and have always regarded his "Fist of Legend" as his best film, but I can't help that this film seemed to be made specifically to satisfy every desire I have ever had for a Jet Li film.Well, it was just one simple desire really. I just badly wanted to see him extremely angry and go through an entire building of people, so given the climax of this movie, I was quite satisfied. The plot is generic, and Fonda in perticular has weak moments. I won't say she was competely terrible, because she does have her good moments as well, but I never really got the impression she could play off Jet Li that well throughout the whole movie. The fight scenes in this film are absolutely spectacular, and up to quality with the best Jet Li films. If I were to demonstrate how incredibly gifted and amazing Jet Li's abilities are, I would use this film. Tcheky Karyo, already an actor that I enjoyed, shines very bright as the villan in this film.The DVD is more loaded than you would probably think, and has various featurettes, trailers and a commentary track that Fonda absolutely dominates. You will be yearning throughout the entire thing for her to stop talking and Jet Li to perk up. However, there are behind the scenes fight-choreography footage feeaturettes that are an awesome added bonus. The DVD transfer and audio were excellent.Absolutely a must purchase, and would be a fantastic Jet Li introduction to anyone that hasn't seen him before.

I decided to see this movie when it came out expecting to see what I saw in the usual Jet Li movies, wire-works (some of you kung-fu movie watchers know what I am talking about, but if you don't, wire-works is when the actor or stunt man is suspended in air or swinging on a cable performing unusual fighting moves). Wire-works are cute, but I do not like them because they are slow and take me away from the action most of the time. This movie HAS NO WIRE WORKS in the action sequences. I was so happy, finally a martial arts movie for the new millennium not caught into the new-old trend to hit Hollywood. The martial arts scenes are fast, rough, brutal, and are simply what Bruce Lee fans want to see. There was a fight scene Jet Li had in a dojo that reminded me of Chinese Connection a.k.a. "Fist of Fury".The story was not bad; it was good for a martial arts action movie. Personally I would have made the movie a bit longer (like 10 or 20 minutes) to make sure people know exactly why things are going on. Its workable but would have been perfect with a little bit of information. The big one in the beginning such as the French investigator and the Chinese drug boss, the movie doesn't tell you their connection exactly but it's implied.Li is an overly devoted cop, so he doesn't have much to work with until he meets Fonda's character, there his character is not just doing the job but being a character. Fonda's character used to be addicted to drugs and is a forced-to-be prostitute. So her reactions were pretty not bad for Fonda's acting and I thought she did a good job for her given character.The score is done by Craig Armstrong (from Massive Attack), which is cool of techno/orchestra. Also there are some hip-hop songs thrown in two of the fight scenes. The one by Mystikal was bearable because of the drum beat (not a bass electronic beat) so it felt OK. Personally I don't like rap in fight scenes cause the talking (rapping) might take it away. I like rap in the background or to set a scene, not in a fight scene, unless it is instrumental.

Great movie !!

Great fighting and action scenes. Acting was subpar, but it was a fun movie.

The art of self defense and it's scary