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	Jet Li Bridget Fonda Tchéky Karyo Ric Young Burt Kwouk Max Ryan
Cinematography	Thierry Arbogast
Edited by	Marco Cave
Music by	Craig Armstrong
Production companies	StudioCanal EuropaCorp
Distributed by	EuropaCorp Distribution (France)[1] 20th Century Fox (select territories)
Release dates	July 6, 2001 (2001-07-06) (United States) August 1, 2001 (2001-08-01) (France)
Running time	98 minutes
Countries	France United States
Languages	English French Mandarin
Budget	$25 million[2]
Box office	$64.4 million[2]

Kiss of the Dragon (Le Baiser mortel du dragon in French) is a 2001 French-American 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.^[3] 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.^[4]