History: Film / KissOfTheDragon

[[quoteright:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiss-of-the-dragon-cover-3_1839.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330: [[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou Jet Li Is About To Punch You!]]]]

'''''Kiss of the Dragon''''' is a 2001 [[MartialArtsMovie martial arts action film]] starring JetLi, written by LucBesson and directed by Chris Nahon.

Liu Jian (Li), a Chinese intelligence officer, comes to [[GayParee Paris]] to help the vice squad apprehend Chinese drug lord Mr. Big and his unknown French connection. He joins forces with French police official Jean-Pierre Richard (Tchéky Karyo) in order to do it. Alas, it turns out that Richard is Big's connection, and that Richard is planning to murder Big. When Jian discovers, tries and fails to stop this, Richard frames him for the murder. Jian is able to escape with a tape that proves his innocence, but he loses it soon after. Just when it seems he has nowhere to turn, he meets Jessica, a HookerWithAHeartOfGold whom Richard has forced into prostitution and heroin-addiction, and who was present at the site of Big's murder and thus can prove Jian's innocence. Alas, [[IHaveYourWife Richard also has Jessica's daughter under his thumb in an orphanage]], and she refuses to help until Jian gets her. Jian sets off to do it, evading Richard's mooks and seeking to slay him at the same time.

Li made the film as a result of fans requesting more realistic fight scenes following ''Film/RomeoMustDie''. Consequently, only two scenes required CGI enhancement and only one scene involved wire work. Critics considered it lukewarm (51% on RottenTomatoes), and it was a moderate box office success.

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!!This film provides examples of:

* BadAss: Liu Jian. He is the kind of guy who can clear out a whole room of black belts and make it look easy.
* BadBoss: Inspector Richard. No need to make a long list what he's done, so here's a short version: Other than being the head of local Interpol branch, and running a prostitution ring, he makes sure to keep them addicted and keeps the daughter of one in an orphanage to prevent her from leaving. He gets his own people killed to protect himself. And those he doesn't kill, he blackmails, and he sets up murders.
* BringIt: Played with, when a fight scene grinds to a halt as both fighters realize they're better off where they are. The result could be subtitled "Bring it!" "No, ''you'' bring it!" "No, you!"
* ClearMyName
* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Right there in the name...
* DirtyCop
* GayParee
* GiantMook: A ScaryBlackMan henchman tries to smush Jian after he attacks a pimp who was abusing Jessica. The larger of the two brothers at the police station also qualifies.
* GunsAkimbo
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Jessica
* HostageForMacGuffin: Defied by Jian. Richard tries to trade Jessica's daughter for the tapes of a murder. Jian has already turned the tapes in, and is now going to get the daughter.
* HostageSituation: Richard tries to play the card again face to face, and it's still defied. Jian points out that in the time it takes Richard to kill the girl, Jian will kill ''him''. Richard instead elects to shoot Jian, which goes even worse (if he had shot the girl, he'd at least have spite to his name, all he managed instead was a minor wound).
* IHaveYourWife: Richard holds the daughter hostage.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Among other things, Jian beats up mooks with a scooter, a broom, and with [[DualWielding dual]] ''irons''.
* InvincibleHero: Jian emerges from the film without a scratch on him, despite launching a head-on invasion of an entire police department.
* KickTheDog: Richard gets several of these, including having his thugs working some poor guy over when Jian walks in to do business with him, murdering Big and framing Jian for it, and forcibly injecting Jessica with her "fix" of heroin before throwing her back on the street when she asks him to free her daughter so she can get out of the business.
* ObviouslyEvil: Inspector Richard. When Jian first meets him, you knew he was the BigBad.
* OhCrap: "Now I know where you are. I'm coming up."
* OneManArmy: Jian plows through an entire police station, which happens to have a hand-to-hand combat course in session.
* OutWithABang: A killer prostitute (specifically [[spoiler:an assassin targeting a specific victim]]) asks her victim things like "Do you want to go to heaven?" and "Are you ready to go to heaven?" as she's riding him to (his) orgasm. He asks her to take him there, [[spoiler:in no frame of mind to notice just how long and sharp the hairpins she's holding are.]] Mortality ensues.
* RightHandCat: Richard has a pet turtle that he keeps in a drawer in his desk.
* SequentialSymptomSyndrome: Li's character uses Kung-Fu acupuncture to make a guy's head explode. Li describes the physical symptoms as the man stands paralyzed. 
* StealthPun: The BigBad, who basically goes out of his way to be an asshole at every opportunity, is named Inspector Richard. No one makes the obvious connection.
* TouchOfDeath / YouAreAlreadyDead: The [[TitleDrop film's title refers to]] a technique in which an acupuncture needle is stabbed into a PressurePoint in someone's neck, causing all the blood to flow to the head thus causing aneurysm. Jian does it to Richard in the climax.
* YouJustToldMe: In order to get Richard's location in the building, Jian asks him to look out the window. Richard thinks Jian already knows, thus betraying himself when he complies.
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