Kiss of the Dragon

"Kiss Fear Goodbye"

2001 1h 38m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

★6.9TMDB · 1,425

ActionCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Liu Jian, an elite Chinese police officer, comes to Paris to arrest a Chinese drug lord. When Jian is betrayed by a French officer and framed for murder, he must go into hiding and find new allies.

“Kiss Fear Goodbye”

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Cast

Jet Li
Liu Jian
Bridget Fonda
Jessica
Tchéky Karyo
Richard
Ric Young
Mister Big
Burt Kwouk
Uncle Taï
Laurence Ashley
Aja
Cyril Raffaelli
Twin
Didier Azoulay
Twin

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Chris Nahon
Writers: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen, Jet Li
Languages: English, French, Mandarin
Countries: France, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

25 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Mandarin.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Chris Nahon, shot by Thierry Arbogast. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Craig Armstrong. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Marco Cavé shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jet Li and Bridget Fonda and Tchéky Karyo carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Kiss Fear Goodbye".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Chris Nahon directs. Thierry Arbogast behind the camera. Craig Armstrong scores. Marco Cavé cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in France, United States of America. Dialogue in English, French, Mandarin.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

125 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, Mandarin.
3International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.
4Directed by Chris Nahon, shot by Thierry Arbogast. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Craig Armstrong. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Marco Cavé shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Jet Li and Bridget Fonda and Tchéky Karyo carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Kiss Fear Goodbye".
9IMDB entry: tt0271027 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 10 themes, including "martial arts", "prostitute", "paris, france", "drug smuggling".

The technical file

Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast
Original score: Craig Armstrong
Editing: Marco Cavé
Production design: Jacques Bufnoir
Costume design: Annie Thiellement
Sound: Vincent Tulli
Stunt coordinator: Richard Yuen Tak
Runtime: 98 min · 1h 38m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $25,000,000
Box office: $64,437,847
Return: 258% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Kiss of the Dragon (2001)

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Chris Nahon

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2021-05-20
★ 6/10
Jet Li flick in Paris with Bridget Fonda An expert Chinese intelligence agent (Jet Li) is sent to Paris to help the head inspector (Tchéky Karyo) in apprehending a Chinese mob boss at a ritzy hotel, unaware that it’s a set-up. Bridget Fonda plays an American prostitute that “Johnny” (Li) develops a relationship with during the misadventure. "Kiss of the Dragon" (2001) is a big city crime thriller with the expected overdone martial arts action due to Li. It’s a modern mixing of “From Russia with Love” (1963) with the preposterous action of “The Gauntlet” (1977) and the martial arts of “Enter the Dragon” (1973). It was Bridget’s second to last theatrical movie before calling it a day (although she also did some TV work in 2001-2002, like her final piece “Snow Queen”). I like the fact that the protagonist, Liu Jian (Li), is confident and an expert fighter, but also very human, even meek, as a stranger in a strange land (being his first visit to Paris). The action is thrilling with a sense of style counterbalanced by some quality drama with Fonda’s character and her situation. If I were to nitpick, some eye-rolling elements bring down the film’s quality. For instance, Liu Jian storms a police building, opens a door and suddenly enters a dojo full of martial arts guys ready to take him down. Why Sure! Earlier, a British pilot grabs not one, but two Uzis to kill Liu Jian in the swank lobby, shooting up the entire place. Did he really need to cause mass devastation to kill one Chinese man? I'm sure the corrupt Inspector (Tchéky Karyo) wouldn't enjoy explaining the wholesale desolation to the mayor. Moreover, there are too many hip-hop songs on the soundtrack. I could see one or two (at the most), but they overdid it. It smacked of trying to be too ‘hip.’ The film runs 1 hour, 38 minutes and was shot entirely in Paris & nearby Seine-Saint-Denis, France. GRADE: B-
JPRetana2026-06-08
Kiss of the Dragon (2001) is set and was shot on location in Paris. It features Chinese and French characters, some of them played by Chinese and French actors. What are the odds that no one in the movie speaks either Chinese or French? Some of these characters are diplomats, yet they have apparently never heard of an interpreter. It’s like they all learned English just so they could talk to each other and, even more strangely, among themselves. This linguistic oddity is but the tip of the stupid iceberg. The film opens with Liu Jian (Jet Li) arriving in Paris, ostensibly for “pleasure.” Liu goes to a hotel lobby, where the concierge hands him a note that says “bar.” In the bar, an airplane pilot directs Liu to the men’s room. From there, Liu ends up in the kitchen, where he finally meets Jean-Pierre Richard (Tchéky Karyo), who is in the middle of beating some poor extra into a bloody pulp. Why? Because Luc Besson, who co-wrote and produced Kiss of the Dragon, also wrote and directed Leon, which featured Gary Oldman’s scenery-chewing, movie-stealing performance. Karyo got stuck with the thankless task of playing the Gary Oldman role without being Gary Oldman and playing it straight to boot. Both Liu and Richard are cops. Liu is on an official mission to help the local police bust a Chinese mobster. So, what’s with the cloak-and-dagger bullshit? It’s not like Liu has to go undercover or anything. Through events not worth recounting and for reasons that I don’t think are ever explained, Richard kills the Chinese gangster in cold blood and pins the murder on Liu. Liu escapes with a surveillance tape that incriminates Richard. Liu gets ahold of an “emergency cell phone” that was stored in a locker at a train station, presumably on the off chance that Liu were to be framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Liu calls a Chinese diplomat. They meet in a public place. Liu gives him the tape, but Richard’s men kill the guy and retrieve the tape. Why Liu couldn’t go straight to the embassy with the tape, I haven’t the foggiest. It’s certainly not because the Chinese mafia is also after him for allegedly killing their boss — they know better than to bother avenging a mere plot device. Jessica (Bridget Fonda), the hooker who witnessed the whole thing and can prove Liu’s innocence, just happens to turn tricks for her pimp (none other than Richard, of course) right outside the Chinese restaurant that doubles as the safe house where Liu is hiding. How convenient. Richard plies Jessica with intravenous drugs, although seemingly just enough for her to catch a buzz and avoid withdrawal altogether — which kind of defeats the purpose of getting someone hooked on drugs to make them do your bidding. Richard has also kidnapped Jessica’s daughter, whom he keeps in an orphanage. You’d think this alone would suffice to have Jessica at his beck and call. Does she really need the additional motivation of a fix? Liu turns out to be a master of “forbidden” acupuncture. It takes a single prick in the back of the head (the titular “kiss of the dragon”) to bring about a painful, gruesome death. It must have seemed clever that both the hero and the villain use needles to incapacitate and vanquish their foes — and it might have been, too, were it not that whereas drug paraphernalia can cause irreparable damage, acupuncture is, in one word, flim-flam. Insofar as it can be said to work, it does so by classical conditioning and other factors collectively known as the placebo effect. By definition, a placebo cannot kill you — but then I wouldn’t expect the guy who made a movie about the ten percent of the brain myth to know this.

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