July 6, 2001 (United States)
August 1, 2001 (France)
Kiss of the Dragon (French: Le Baiser mortel du dragon) is a 2001 English-language French action film directed by Chris Nahon, written and produced by French filmmaker Luc Besson, and starring an international cast led by Jet Li, Bridget Fonda, and Tchéky Karyo. It follows a Chinese police officer who is sent to Paris to assist in the arrest of a Chinese mob boss. Framed for murder and hard pressed to prove his innocence, he teams up with a woman forced into prostitution.
Li wanted to take a realistic approach to the fight scenes, and forgo the CGI and wire work that had been popularized by films such as Charlie's Angels and The Matrix. Consequently, most of the action sequences did not use CGI or wire work; only two scenes required CGI enhancement and only one scene involved wire work.
Storyline
Liu Jian, a Chinese police officer, is sent to Paris to help the French authorities apprehend Chinese mob boss Mr. Big, who is involved in heroin smuggling. He meets Inspector Jean-Pierre Richard, a corrupt and violent police detective, at a hotel. Richard tricks Liu into believing he is simply providing reconnaissance of a meet involving Mr. Big. During the operation, Mr. Big is introduced to two female prostitutes, one being Jessica Kamen, an American woman, both of whom he takes up to his room for sex. While the French investigators and Liu are watching through multiple surveillance cameras, Mr. Big kicks everyone out except for the two women. As her colleague starts to pleasure Mr Big, Jessica nervously retires to the bathroom where she vomits in the toilet. The other prostitute then goes on to stab Mr. Big repeatedly. Liu rushes from the makeshift surveillance room to the scene, subdues the prostitute, and uses an acupuncture needle to put Mr Big in a coma. As he attempts to phone for an ambulance, Richard enters and shoots Mr. Big and the woman with Liu's police-issued handgun, framing Liu for both murders. Jessica has remained in the bathroom during the entire incident.
Realizing he has been set up, Liu manages to escape from the hotel with a surveillance tape showing Richard shooting Mr. Big. In the aftermath of the failed operation, a high-level Chinese delegation arrives in Paris to liaise with their ministerial counterparts. Richard presents evidence making Liu the primary suspect, but the Chinese officials secretly distrust him. Liu meets with one of them on a crowded sightseeing boat and passes him the tape, revealing the truth. However, Richard's men spot them, and the liaison is assassinated. Liu is then forced to flee from a horde of cops and GIGN commandos. After Liu escapes, he is forced to maintain a low profile.
While his situation worsens, he meets Jessica, whose daughter was kidnapped by Richard to force her into prostitution. Liu discovers that Jessica was the second prostitute at the hotel during the night of Mr. Big's murder. He realizes she can prove his innocence, but she refuses to go along without retrieving her daughter, Isabel. Liu decides the tape would provide the best evidence, and sends Jessica to Richard's office to steal the tape. Jessica manages to get the tape, then Liu and Jessica head to an orphanage where Isabel is kept. However, Richard anticipates this move, and has the duo ambushed by his thugs at the orphanage. During their escape, Jessica is shot in the chest. Liu manages to get her to the hospital in time and leaves for the police station, fiercely determined to retrieve her daughter.
Liu storms into the police station where Richard is holding Isabel hostage on one of the upper floors. He has to fight his way through several groups of policemen, including more than twenty officers attending a martial arts class. As a contingent of baton wielding riot police pour into the ground floor, Liu sabotages the controls of a steel fire door to block access to the upper floor. Having defeated Richard's personal henchmen, Liu enters his office and finds him holding Isabel at gunpoint. Even though Liu is unarmed, he tells Richard that if he kills Isabel, then he will have all the time he needs to kill him. Richard tries to kill Liu, but he only manages to shoot him in the shoulder. However, the bullet injury fails to prevent Liu from disarming Richard while sticking an acupuncture needle into the back of his neck, in a forbidden location known as the "kiss of the dragon," which stimulates all the body's blood to travel to the brain to cause a painful death by brain aneurysm. Richard suffers and dies from the "kiss of the dragon" just as Liu departs with Isabel. Returning to Jessica's hospital bedside, Liu removes an acupuncture needle from Jessica's neck, promptly waking her. Upon waking up, she happily finds Isabel peacefully sleeping by her side.