Kiss of the Dragon
Directed by Chris Nahon
- action
- crime
- thriller
The story
Liu Jian, an elite Chinese police officer, comes to Paris to arrest a Chinese drug lord. When Jian is betrayed by a French officer and framed for murder, he must go into hiding and find new allies.
What it’s like
Hard, saturated Paris nights: sodium-orange streetlamps, wet asphalt reflecting neon signs, and the cool blue-grey of pre-dawn apartment blocks, shot with a restless, handheld energy that tightens during fights and drops back to smoky, shadowed interiors between them. Its look is glossy and late-2000s European action, with stylised colour grading, slow-motion impacts and a propulsive electronic-leaning score that thumps under the choreography. Vibe: grimy, kinetic, neon-lit noir with a sardonic edge. It suits a late-night watch alone, or an action-movie evening with friends who like their fights clean and their streets dirty. Pacing is brisk and escalating, built around set-piece combat and chase sequences, with a few quieter scenes of a stranded man cautiously forming an unlikely alliance. The emotional register is lean and stoic rather than sentimental. Violence is frequent and physical: punches, kicks, gunfire, knife fights and some bloody injuries, with little gore lingering on screen. There is nudity and sexual content in a brothel-set subplot, and it is treated bluntly. Not gentle. For viewers who want martial arts precision, gritty Paris atmosphere and a fugitive-hero story told at full throttle.
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