"Right, Wrong, and Rated 'R'"
"Is nudity a no-no? Also, what critics and readers are saying about A.I., Cats and Dogs, Kiss of the Dragon, and Scary Movie II."
Jeffrey Overstreet | posted 7/01/2001 12:00AM
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Do you agree? How and when are the bare essentials appropriate? How can we discern pornography from a mature and proper portrayal of the human body?
Next week, I will post the opinions of several critics in the religious media. I'll also include a sampling of some of the things I hear from you.
Hot from the Oven
Kiss of the Dragon
is another vehicle for Jet Li to demonstrate his martial arts prowess. Directed by French commercial filmmaker Chris Nahon, who has obviously learned a lot from Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita), the film is based on a story that Li himself concocted. Taking the familiar pose of a loner-hero, Li plays Liu Jiuan, a top-ranked Chinese agent sent to disrupt a gangster ring in Paris. Jiuan (the villains call him "Johnny") is immediately framed for a political assassination. He goes into hiding and gets sidetracked defending a persecuted prostitute named Jessica (a shrill and whiny Bridget Fonda) who works for the same criminal mastermind that committed the aforementioned killing. The Patriot's Tchéky Karyo plays this uncannily prolific crook, a French police chief who has so many criminal activities on the stove it's hard to believe he has any time to keep up appearances of civil services.
There's little or no character development to speak of. Jessica exists only give Jet Li a reason to look virtuous as he delivers bloody vengeance on the heads of those who enslave her and hold her daughter hostage. Paris makes a nice backdrop, but it's odd how many central characters, Chinese and French, prefer to speak English.
The film's only worthwhile aspect is its series of breathtakingly swift martial arts fight scenes. Let's face it: that's why people go to a Jet Li movie. And yet, when it comes to combat, Kiss of the Dragon is only a so-so contribution to the genre. Several fight scenes are edited with such wild, fast cutting that the viewer can't tell how much of the fight is actually being performed and how much is just clever camerawork. Only two set pieces deliver eyefuls of real-live, seemingly superhuman, hand-to-hand combat—one in which Li takes on an entire classroom of martial arts students (a running gag through most of Li's films), and another in which he fights Herculean twins who might just be his match. Just as we watch Michael Jordan to admire poetry in motion, there is definitely something admirable about Li's mastery of martial arts. He seems to anticipate every blow and have a parry ready and waiting.
Unfortunately, the film tarnishes what might have been a guilt-free, fun adventure by savoring the spectacularly gory deaths of the villains. It doesn't matter what the hero's motives; this guy seems to take genuine pleasure in concocting over-the-top ways to off the bad guys. Far more worrying is the large section of the audience that seems to revel in these grisly, overdone executions.
The U.S. Catholic Conference agrees. "Nahon's vicious, negligible narrative degenerates into non-stop bloodlust with the value of human life disregarded." But with only a mild warning about explicit violence, Movieguide argues that "Jet Li's character … is a man of honor, duty and morality. Li and Fonda breathe new life into this age-old story of saving a damsel in distress."
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