Jet Li was offered a role in the sequels to "The Matrix," but he turned the offer down. Bad move. The truth is, Jet Li needs "The Matrix" a lot more than "The Matrix" needs him. One report I read was that Jet Li turned it down because after the success of "Romeo Must Die" (a very disappointing movie), he deserved more than to be fourth in the list of credits (behind Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss). I don't know if that's true or not. In an interview with Jet Li that I read recently, he said that he turned it down because it was gonna take too much time to do the two sequels, preventing him from doing other projects. I'm a fan of Jet Li's work, and I want him to be a huge success in the United States. Sadly, he missed out on a big opportunity when he turned down what coulda been the role to make him the biggest Asian star in American history. Instead, he made "Kiss of the Dragon" and "The One." Well, "The One" isn't out yet, so it remains to be seen how good that movie will be. As for "Kiss of the Dragon," well, it's pretty good, but not great. It definitely isn't worth not being a part of "The Matrix" saga, though.
This movie seemed very promising to me because Luc Besson was one of the writers and producers. For those of you who don't know, Luc Besson wrote and directed one of my favorite movies of all-time, "The Professional" (the superior director's cut, or "Uncut International Edition," is available on DVD, but it's called "Léon the Professional"). He also directed and helped write "The Fifth Element." He didn't direct this movie, though. I'm not sure if it woulda helped, because the directing isn't the problem, the storyline is. Actually, the directing isn't perfect either. One of my biggest problems during kung fu sequences is how it's shot. Kung fu is very pretty, it's almost like a dance. Instead of capitalizing on that and just keeping the camera in a wide shot so we can see the guys do their thing, a lotta directors do close-ups and quick cuts, so a lot of what's being shown is confusing. That's how the fight sequences are shot in this movie. Actually, the best shot kung fu sequence I've ever seen is in "The Matrix."
Think of how awesome Jet Li's kung fu would look in those "Matrix" sequels, as directed by the Wachowski Brothers. Why, Jet, why?!?!
"Kiss of the Dragon" was based on a story by Jet Li, and the screenplay was by Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen (wrote "The Karate Kid," helped write "Lethal Weapon 3," helped Luc Besson write "The Fifth Element"). As for the directing, it was done by Chris Nahon (his debut). Despite what I said about how the kung fu sequences were shot, it's not a badly directed movie at all. This is an impressive directorial debut by Chris Nahon.
The only acting you need to care about is by three people. Jet Li (the hero), Bridget Fonda (the girl), and Tchéky Karyo (the villain... he was also the villain in "Bad Boys"... he got to be a good guy in "The Patriot," as the French soldier who helped out Mel Gibson). They were all very good, though Bridget Fonda seems miscast.
It's kinda cool that Bridget Fonda is in this movie. This movie is co-written and co-produced by Luc Besson. Luc Besson wrote and directed the French film, "La Femme Nikita." Bridget Fonda was in the American remake called "Point of No Return." Cool, right?
"Kiss if the Dragon" isn't a bad movie, I guess I was just expecting more. I want Jet Li to do well, I want him to be in an awesome flick. He was in "Lethal Weapon 4," and he was great in the scenes he was in, but he wasn't in it all that much. American audiences were impressed, but no one could really see how great he is based on that movie. I want him to blow away American audiences. "Kiss of the Dragon" isn't the movie to do it. Hopefully, "The One" will be, but I doubt it. If he was in the sequels to "The Matrix," he would.
Scale of 1-10: 6