Forgotten Film Fridays: Kiss of The Dragon
A review by Azzam Abdur-Rahman
Trying to get out of depression can take you down funny paths. I need to start here as my perspective is painted by my current feelings of failure, being unwanted, and wondering if every choice I have made has mattered. Times like that make you think back to childhood. They remind you of the moments that brought you the greatest joy. This past Sunday I was at a very low point as I lay staring off at my TV Screen, I hunted through my HBO Now account looking for a film that could bring me out of this feeling. That’s when I saw Kiss of The Dragon.
As a child my father would take me to the movies every weekend he could. You see my parents got divorced when I was young and my dad, even if he didn’t know it, turned me to the movie lover I am. My dad showed me kung fu films in subtitles at a young age. I grew up on a diet of Shaw Brothers film learning the language of the wuxia films from that production company. So when a star from those films crossed over to the American cinema market we always took notice. Jet Li stood out because his Chinese film work showed a very talented actor as well as martial artist. Black Mask was one of the best films I have ever seen in my life. So in my darkest moment seeing Jet Li’s face reminded me of those times.
Kiss of The Dragon is a weird film in Jet Li’s filmography. Unlike many of his American works he isn’t opposite a rapper or singer with a burgeoning film career. Kiss of The Dragon shows him sharing the screen with one of the best actresses of the 90’s Bridget Fonda. Which is the first thing that stuck out to me. Fonda and Li do have some chemistry. Often films like this you never feel any real emotion from either character for each other. Fonda and Li both play broken people leading sad lives. Li living the lonely life of a Chinese intelligence agent with only his work. Fonda playing an abused sex worker who just wants a better life from the hell she is living with in. Li’s character sees her as a person. Someone who is more than just her title, more than just sex worker, more than just an American. It does take time but his performance gives depth to a role that I am sure wasn’t there in the script. Fonda also brings a lot to the table. The “Hooker with a heart of gold” is a well worn character and to be honest a boring one. Fonda’s isn’t a one sentence character. She is a survivor in a world of abusers. Fonda’s character is smarter than she gives herself credit for. Often using dark humor to help her through this world that has done everything to destroy her. When we meet her she is doing everything to stay sober and be better. It’s a movie from the 2000’s, her character isn’t perfect, but for a role in an action film their are interesting ideas here.
Another factor that makes it weird is that Jet Li wrote the story with a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Karmon. Li doesn’t do this again in his american filmography but it shows he cared about showing more of himself as an actor to American audiences. The film is dark. The villains are pure evil. The city is an unforgiving hellscape of abuse. It feels unescapable. Besson’s works often show France as an awful place but it’s rare where a film like that stars two foreigners. France is shown as a trap, a place where people go to die or rot. This makes the visceral action stand out. Li’s other american works feature a ton of wirework. This film is boots on the ground violence. Every fight feels like Li is a few steps from death even with his skills compared to those around him. The final fight with the twins has incredible use of geography and its two very creepy villains that even adds some emotion to the end of the fight.
Kiss of The Dragon is a forgotten film and why I can’t exactly figure out. It’s awesome that Li’s Chinese work stands out to most people more. I love that I hear about Hero and Fearless more often than I do Romeo Must Die or Cradle to the Grave but Li’s work with Luc Besson really does deserve more love. Besson is a prolific writer who often gives roles to actors that wouldn’t normally get such interesting roles. Taken maybe a joke not but Liam Neeson got a brand new career out of Besson seeing something many other producers didn’t. On the same note, something about this story spoke to Li that made him feel he needed to tell it. An action film about people being trapped, forgotten and unwanted banding together to fight there way out of a place that wanted them dead speaks to a depressed young man wanting to go back to the days where he saw movies like this with his dad. Give it a shot.
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