Liu Jian, a police officer from China, comes to Paris to help the vice squad apprehend a Chinese drug lord and his unknown French connection. The French connection is Richard, the head of the vice squad, who intends to kill the drug lord then frame Jian. Jian ducks a bullet and escapes with a tape of what really happened. By chance, Jian turns to Jessica - a US farm girl who is one of Richard's hookers - for help. She has her own problems, including the fact that Richard has her daughter locked in an orphanage to keep Jessica on the streets and silent about his activities. Can Jian protect Jessica, rescue her daughter, and give Richard the kiss of the dragon?

It's not quite a s humorous as a Jack Chan film, but the stunt sequences are damn good.

Liu Jiuan, nicknamed Johnny, and played by Jet Li, is an agent for the Chinese government. He`s assigned to travel to Paris, a city he hasn`t been to before, to assist the French police in a drug bust involving a Chinese citizen. The confrontation takes place in a ritzy hotel, but Johnny soon realises that the French cop in charge, Jean-Pierre Richard, Tcheky Karyo, is corrupt; the drug courier is killed, and Johnny`s set up as the fall guy - but he`s fast on his feet and soon forms an unlikely alliance with an American prostitute, Bridget Fonda, who witnessed the murder - from then on it`s action all the way.

Kiss Of The Dragon is a majority French co-production, directed by first-timer Chris Nahon, but you suspect the guiding hand behind it is co-producer and co- Screenwriter, Luc Besson. There are several allusions to films Besson directed himself; Tcheky Karyo`s crazy killer-cop is very much like the character Gary Oldman played in The Professional. Karyo played a key role in Besson`s Nikita, and when Hollywood remade that film, Bridget Fonda played the lead in The Assassin. But this is mainly a vehicle for Jet Li, another of the film`s producers, and, though he lacks the humour and grace of Jackie Chan, he`s still a fine, brooding presence as the outsider in trouble. The script relies too much on coincidences, and the ultra-violence is depressing at times, but Paris makes a colourful backdrop to all the action and fans of martial arts films should enjoy this, even if the rest of us aren`t all that delighted.