Kiss of the Dragon
© James C. Hess
Time revealed Jet Li is the real thing.
But Hollywood has managed, with record speed, to make him what he isn't: A mock-up; a whore meant to capitalize shamelessly on the nobility of martial arts.
With the evidence of this assertion being "Kiss of the Dragon".
In theory, on paper, "Kiss of the Dragon" could have been the film that made Jet Li the definitive serious martial arts master. The premise, albeit contrived, is one that would have allowed Jet Li to be at once martial arts sui generis and serious dramatic actor: Jet Li is a Chinese cop. He is searched for weapons. Of course traditional weapons on not found on his person, instead a band around one of his wrists impaled with little needles. These are acupuncture needles, and in the proper hands (Jet Li's) they can cure or kill.
Of course they will be used for the wrong purpose (Hence the title): Altering and affecting the body's flow of blood in such a way that it flows to the head and bursts, explicitly, from every opening available for rupture.
Jet Li, of course, doesn't want them to be used incorrectly. Which is why every villain about wants him dead.
Now. As noted: This premise could have made Jet Li Somebody. Instead, thanks to the Hollywood machine, he comes across as a buffoon performing tricks for peanuts, aided by the obligatory blonde bimbo. (In this case, Bridget Fonda as Jessica, the farm girl from the States who has been shipped by an evil and immoral French police Inspector, Jean-Pierre Richard (Tcheky Karyo), to Paris to become a hooker; she does, of course, unexplainably willingly, where she gets hooked on drugs the good Frog peddles.)
Superficially the plot of "Kiss of the Dragon" is Hollywood fare typical: Here a hero, there a handful of stereotypical villains. Here an item that is either a tool or weapon (depending on who holds control of it), there a situation that hangs in the balance, depending on who has the aforemention item.
Under the surface, though, a plot that is intriguing and philosophically challenging.
That is, a plot that should be intriguing, that should be philosophically challenging, but isn't because Hollywood, in its haste to make a fast buck, has reduced it to almost nothing, choosing effects over common sense--reason and logic.
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