Kiss of the Dragon
| Kiss of the Dragon | |
|---|---|
Theatrical teaser poster | |
| Directed by | Chris Nahon |
| Screenplay by | Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen |
| Story by | Jet Li |
| Produced by | Luc Besson Jet Li Steve Chasman Happy Walters |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Thierry Arbogast |
| Edited by | Marco Cave |
| Music by | Craig Armstrong |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | EuropaCorp Distribution (France) 20th Century Fox (select territories) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Languages | English French Mandarin |
| Budget | $25 million |
| Box office | $64.4 million |
Kiss of the Dragon (Le Baiser mortel du dragon in French) 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.